Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Tell me about the Hornady Interlock SP

Those of you who have experience with this bullet how were your results. Thanks



Trystan

In my experience they tend to expand and kill things.

The 129 grain Hornady is one of the best 6.5mm bullets ever made. Even the reasonably priced Hornady American Whitetail factory ammo with this bullet in the 6.5 Creedmoor is MOA capable.

I have shot the Interlocks for many years. I have yet to find a rifle that does not shoot them well. The 129 shoots 1/2 moa in my .260 out to 550 yards and I have similar results with my .308 and 150s and 139s in my 7 Mags. The 175s also shot real well in my 7 mags, when I used them.

Good bullets but a lot of old standbys in that lineup have been discontinued. The 100gr 25cal SP has been a regular for ever. Now gone with others.

I'm switching to Sierra for C&C bullets.

Never had an issue with them, from .243 to .308. They just do the job.

I used them exclusively for several years out of my .264 Win. 1" groups were the norm. Good expansion and penetration on deer and antelope.

My .375 H&H hated the 270g though. 3" were the best groups.

The last 3 shot group from my son's Ruger American Predator with 129 soft points measured .418. I was amazed. I bought the ammo on sale from Midway for under $20 per box

The 165 grain .308 Hornady IL SP is my goto deer bullet for the past 16 seasons in 308 WIN, 30-06. On whitetail deer, I could not ask for better performance. It either drops them on the spot or I can stand in the animal's tracks and see the carcass. My closest shot has been under 10 yards. My furthest was about 175 yards. I have never recovered a bullet.

The one I have most experience with is the 180 grain .308. We had a lot of problems with them disintegrating. On small animals they still killed, just made a mess. On larger animals it usually took a number of shots to put them on the ground unless we were taking head shots. Despite those problems, we continued to use them because .. I don't know, that was my father's choice, when you're 10-15, you generally shoot what you're handed.

I'm pretty happy with the flat point and round nose interlocks for lever action use. Their handgun bullets are pretty good. I don't use hornadys for any high velocity use other than varmint shooting .. they're very good for that.

Tom

best cup and core bullet, IMHO

The last time somebody asked this question it generated about 7 to 9 pages of which almost all was praise!

Not a writer.... I bought about a case (or twenty boxes) of 180 interlocks in Hornaday's Light Magnums for the .30-06, rated at 2880 fps. I used these exclusively in a .24" custom stocked FN for the last 25 years for hunting, mostly WT and Mule Deer. Good ammo with a good bullet. I did have one that came apart on heavy bone, requiring a follow up shot. I'm down to the last partial box. Accuracy has been plenty good with the annual three shot group going around 1.25-1.33". Good enough that I have not hand loaded for this rifle. I hope the Superformance ammo does as well. I will likely go Interbond this time. It was not yet invented back when.

EDIT: Why 180s for deer? We have lots of wind and 180s seem to drift a little less. Jt
Best,

Jack

Too bad the morons at Hornady dropped many of them. I've switched and won't be back.

Tom,

I strongly suspect the Hornady .30 180's you and your dad had trouble with were before Interlock days, but dunno. I know the first Hornady bullets I handloaded were 150-grain .270's in the mid-1970's, and they were pre-Interlock. Don't recall exactly when the Interlock ring was added (which helped considerably as far as bullets staying together) but believe it was sometime in the early 1980's.

The very first cartridge I reloaded with my Dad in the early 1970's was the .30 cal. 150gr. Spire Point for his Sako L579 in 308 WCF and I used the very same bullet when I got my 30-06 a few years later.
Over the years I have used lots of bullets that came out of red boxes in everything from a 222 Rem. to 458 Lott and even with all of the choices we have today I still use lots of them.
I as well hate to see some of the classics be discontinued but I get it, the shooting world has changed a great deal since the late 1960's when I learned to shoot and hunt.
If your rifle likes them and then placed properly you won't be disappointed in the them.

StarchedCover

I agree with those who say they are tops among CnC bullets. But I'm reluctant to commit to them these days for fear that a bullet I have worked up a load for will suddenly be discontinued.

My experience has all been excellent. I used Hornady Spire Point Interlocks’s in my .30-06 exclusively for years, 165 grainers for deer and 180’s for elk, also used 130’s in a .270. They always expanded and almost all were pass throughs. I had a 165 grain come apart on a deer’s spine when hit from sharply above at about 75 yards, but not before taking out 4” of spine and making total hamburger of both lungs so I’ve no complaints about that – that dear was extremely DRT. A very big cow elk hit quartering through the chest at about 220 yards from the 180 was also DRT and just dropped straight down dead. The farthest any deer or elk ever ran was maybe 40 yards from a good chest hit and most dropped a lot sooner.

A couple of the 130 grainers hit a deer’s chest broadside at impact velocities of 3100-3200 fps and even though they expanded down almost to the base they stayed together. They were little perfectly mushroomed nubs found under the far side skin but they stayed together and pulverized the lungs.

I would not be the least bit concerned to use them for hunting any cervidae on the planet and most any other non-dangerous game as well.


They are my practice bullet of choice and my storage shelves show about 90% red boxes with a few green ones here and there. Hopefully Hornady will not totally discontinue the style but if they do the Obama shortages have learned me to stockpile a bunch of each of my favorite calibers and weights.

Count me as a Hornady Interlocked lover.

I've never had one fail to perform perfectly. In fact, I've even used the Interlocked .308" 180-grain BTSP in my .30-06 in Africa ... 20-something head of plains game (including eland) with precisely that many shots fired.

Hey, the Interlocked works.

kd

You could very well be right. This would have been mid to late 70s maybe up to '82. Maybe a year or two more using what we had on hand. I shot Speer flat bases when I had any say in the purchase, never had any problems with them. When I got out of college and started buying my own, I "discovered" Nosler, first with solid bases, then partitions.

Sounds like it might be worth another try .. now that I have some understanding of WHY it's worth another try.

Thanks much!

Tom

i've been using interlock in the 130gr 270 win load (american whitetail) with no problems. accurate and effective. eliminates the need to reload for my 270win.