Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Hornady Interbonds

I picked up a couple boxes of Interbonds for my 7mm Mashburn. I used the 130 Interbonds in my 270 WSM about 10 years back and they were excellent. Very accurate, fast and seemed to be as good as the Nosler Accubond. I've seen a few recovered Interbonds around the net and they've always retained a pretty large frontal area and good weight.

Now they are becoming available I figured I'd try them again. Was just wondering what you fellas have killed with them and if you had recovered many of them.

I had a 7mm-08 mountain rifle for a few years that fired the 139 Interbonds at iirc 2850 fps, it was a hell for stout bullet that shot well and penetrated even better, hit a few deer and pigs with them, only recovered one and it looked spot on perfect, also IIRC, it only lost about 15 grains of total weight, fine bullets that I wish were offered in heavier weights for the larger bores.

Hornady Interbonds are my favorite big game bullet. I rarely recover them but when I have they retain a significant amount of weight. I have not experienced any bullet failure. I have killed 60+ big game animals with them and recovered every single animal. In fact I killed a pretty large black bear on Monday of this week. The bear and story are posted on this Big Game Forum. It's the 3rd bear I have taken with Interbonds. All were pass throughs. The rest of the big game consist of antelope, mule deer, and whitetails. Plus a dozen coyotes, a couple foxes, and 3 badgers. Needless to say I've given the 165gr 30 caliber Interbond a full workout with my 30.06.

Great stuff, thank you for the heads up on them. Like I said, I used them in the 270 WSM and they were always excellent, but never recovered one and only used them on deer, nothing larger, yet. Loaded some of the 154's up in my 7mm Mashburn last night, so I will get some speeds and begin some accuracy work with them. Should be able to get them up over 3200 pretty easily, so if they are accurate, I will give them a whirl this year.

I've been using 165 grain Hornady Interbonds in my 30-06 for about 10 years now. JJHack on this forum perked my interest to try them. JJ has moved on to other bullets while these work so well on the stuff I shoot that I'm still using them. Have killed black bear, deer and caribou with them. They are accurate and consistent in terminal performance, creating a large wound channel and penetrating quite deeply.

I used the 150's to shoot a few whitetail bucks, a Dall Sheep, an Ibex and a couple of wolves with my .270 Wby. Ranges have been from 70 - 450 yards. Everything has died, but aside from the wolves I've only had one exit wound, which was on a deer at about 300 yards. It was the size of a baseball. With the mess they make out of things, I think they're completely fragmenting on impact - lots of bloodshot meat on the on-side and fragments in the chest cavity.

Were those factory loads or handloads? What sorta speeds were you getting out of your 270 Wby with them? I wouldn't have expected them to fragment like that.

Handloads at 3150 fps. But most of those shots were long; figure impact velocities of 2300-2600 fps. I was initially worried that they wouldn't expand at lower velocities. That was definitely not the case!

They're deadly killers. The Mid-Asian Ibex i shot was at 400 meters. The bullet hit and he tipped straight over. When we gutted him out, there was no exit wound but the chest cavity was completely scrambled. The heart and lungs were completely destroyed. All I found were a few bits of copper in the mush.

I use them in my 7.82 Lazzeroni Patriot to hunt Whitetails in the black hills of Wyoming. They are very efficient in their job.

I used the 150g in a 30-06 when they first came out. 1.5" was the best they would do, then again that is the best the rifle will do with any load. I shot one deer with it at ~400 yards. I hit it too far back, but it went down and died shortly after. The bullet did not exit and I could not find it. I hit the deer high and behind the ribs.

I haven't killed anything with them yet, but I started shooting some 129 2nds last fall. I had heard they might be difficult to shoot well, but these bullets are shooting very well in my 6.5.x55 M70 - consistent sub MOA 3-shot groups. Shooting water bottles produces some rather dramatic effects so I know they expand quickly.

Great info fellas, thank you for all of the input. I will put a couple of them into the water jugs once I get a decent load and see what happens there. Usually up close at 25 yards tears up most bullets pretty good if they aren't well bonded or locked. Can't wait to see what they do.

Once you've tested them, please post the results. I've had several different 7mm caliber rifles that did not like the 139 gr IBs, so I haven't messed with them in some time. Might want to give 'em another look.

I am doing a ladder test for velocity for my 7mm Mashburn. Well, I figured I might as well run one of them into the jugs. This bullet was shot into the jugs from 25 yards. It was recovered in the 5th jug. It hit the rear of the jug hard enough to tear it but it bounced back.

I'm pretty danged impressed with the bonding on this Bullet. 3200 FPS at point blank range is tough on stuff. It maintained a fairly large frontal area and penetrated real well. I'm looking forward to seeing how it shoots, accuracy wise.

Hornaday must have done some work with the Interbonds I tried 5 different calibers a couple of years ago and couldn't make any of them shoot.

For some reason bonded bullets have a reputation for being less accurate than standard swaged bullets. I can see this being true if there were voids in the core but otherwise the only thing I can think of is that the swaging creates more uniform contact but most bonded bullets are also swaged. But with only a few exceptions the ones I have shot would always go into an inch or so and sometimes way under. But I don't worry about hunting loads if there at or preferably under an inch.

I may have to try this bullet out of my .270 Win. using Hornady's Superformance ammo.

Thanks

Good work beretz, you could smash the last rib of the biggest bull and wreck the vitals with that combo too.

I'd say those appear to be pretty well bonded!

That's the plan Gunner!

This bullet held up really well in my opinion. Almost 3200 with a near muzzle speed impact. I think it'll work decent. Accuracy seems to be about like any other bullet I've tried.

I use 129 grain in my 264, and have great results.

10-4 B, hope you get that plan finalized this fall ;]

Thanks Gunner. Loaded some more of them up last night, so they are ready to hit the paper as soon as I can get back out again. If they respond to seating depth adjustments like every other bonded bullet does I am hoping for a quick load for this. Wanna get this sucker out at distance!

Same here. For me, I don't get any closer than .050" with the bonded bullets and usually end up working back from there to find accuracy. So far, it hasn't failed me.

Now you have me second guessing the 154 IB vs the 160 AB for my do all load in the Montana 280 AI once I get all the 175 NPT's shot up, decisions, decisions.

Tried them in my 270 a few years ago. Accurate load was easy to find, shot a couple deer with them and got pass throughs on slight angled shots. I decided deer weren't that hard to kill, so I just stuck with the 130 Interlock I'd been using for decades. I've got plenty 150 Partitions and 140 Accubonds if I go after anything bigger.

Man, any of those will crush most anything. I don't think we could take enough animals between us to tell the difference.

I wouldn't make fun of you if you tried them though!

LOL, got a pile of 160 AB's on the way, if they don't shoot in my 280 AI, the 154 IB's will be next, think I'll try H-4831 SC first.

I'd be blown away if 160 ABs didn't shoot.

10-4, Thanks for that vote of confidence Beretz, big three cell providers had a cable? line cut around here, cell phone is screwed blued and tattooed for awhile.

Well, let me know when you come back up on comms.

So far I haven't found the load for the Interbond in my MSM. Close, but not quite there yet...

Looking good, I'm thinking really hard on building a 7 Mashburn on an old pre-64 M-70 cloverleaf tang action I have sitting around here, it already has the mag bolt face.

That would be real cool. Mines a P64 and I love it.

I'm tempted to try some Sciroccos or Partitions next. I've got a pile of RWS brass ready to roll.

10-4, thinking 9 twist #2 at 26"s sitting in an old Rimrock or new Hightech Specialties stock, midnight blue cerakote all metal with a 3.5-10x40 with CDS or custom cap in a set of DD Leupold rings and bases.

Don't believe a man can go wrong with either one of those bullets if the accuracy is there, that RWS brass should make excellent 7Mash cases, and exactly what I'll order if I go ahead with this build.

I think you'd like that a lot. I'm loving my Mashburn. I used a Legend EDGE, but yours sounds great too.

Nice, hadn't considered the Legend/Edge or even Edge for that matter, guess if a man sent his completed barreled action to McMillan they could inlet for a cloverleaf tang, bed and float it and have her ready to rip.

Give Darcy a call Gunner. He will let you know right away if it's the way to go.

10-4, will do, this old action has had a hole welded up on the lower right rear side of the action and has/had no collector value, it'd be perfect for a custom build.

Sounds perfect for a build. This rifle is just about everything I'd hoped. Hope to get a load tweaked soon. Ready to take it long.

You bet, hope you get her dialed in on quarters ready to go long if needed.