Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Interbond tough

Last year my son shot a younger buck, maybe 200 lb live weight.

It was his last day to hunt, 15 min of legal time left. We jumped a buck and doe and it ran straight away. He had time for one shot, a lucky shot, at...…….not exaggerating....probably close to 400 yards.

At the shot, the sound of the hit was very clear. We went up and found the deer, it had dropped in it's tracks. Entry was to slightly to the left of the tail and a bit lower than the base of the tail..

Spare me the ethics opinions.


Upon gutting and skinning that 165 gr Interbond bullet, had plowed through the meat, punched a hole completely through the pelvis, entered the chest, and dropped the deer where it stood. You could see form the snow there was not even a struggle.

I have shot a few animals with this load, but this re-inforced their effectiveness for me.

30/06?

Yes Bob, 30.06, chronied at 2878 fps.

I think the reason it penetrated so well, was the hug drop in velocity at that range.

I put one to the test last fall on a small buck. 2 miles from the truck. One of the most rewarding hunts of my life.

6.5-300 Wby. 129 Hornady Interbond at 3600 FPS. If there was ever a cartridge that will test bullets... I hit the buck right behind the shoulder. It was an instant kill. He was dead before his nose hit the ground. First time I have seen that when no CNS parts were hit. I was surprised at how little meat damage there was. It was the first animal I have killed with them. Won’t be the last.



Todd

That 6.5-300 surely put some stress on that Bullet! Great report.

Glad it worked out, good reports from the field. I have a 243, 270 Win, 308 and 30-06, I’ll keep these bullets in mind.

About 2110 fps at impact.

Now THAT says a lot!

Gringo, sounds about right. It impressed the hell outta me. Never seen a bullet do that from the 30.06, and I have seen LOTS get killed with it.

Am I getting this wrong, or is Hornady working the Interbond out of their line-up?

I think they plan to replace it with the GMX.

I thought Hornady stopped making them for awhile during the insane demand years and then resumed making them once normalcy returned.

There are interbond factory seconds available on Midway..

Todd

What makes you think this?

Correct

I tried them in factory loads that didn’t shoot for beans in a rifle that is otherwise a tack driver. Not doubting their effectiveness, but never bothered to try them again. I bought a box of .308 seconds from Midway some years back and the tips look like .25 cal tips that don’t fit the bullet nose.

They tend to shoot better now than when first introduced. My last experience was with 165-grain Hornady .30-06 factory loads in a Sauer 303 autoloader. Three-shot groups averaged under 3/4" at 100 yards.

They do hold together pretty well. The only one I recovered from several pigs shot on a Texas trip went through both shoulders and the spine of a big boar. It retained 86% of its original weight.

However, like many bonded bullets they don't penetrate as deeply as some other bullets, since they tend to expand pretty widely.

Hornady now only offers it in one factory load and it looks like they reduced the Interbond component bullet offerings.

I wonder if this is why Hornady toughened up the SST?

Could be, but I think that they toughened up the SST, because it was a frangible pos and needed improvement. Just my opinion.

Just about every rifle bullet manufacturer's line keeps evolving, due to all sorts of trends. Even Sierra is making plastic-tips, and Speer is now offering high-BC bullets!

I doubt Hornady is going to drop Interbonds, because there are still quite a few hunters who believe in the magic of bonding--which was sort of like how some hunters consider "monolithic" magic today. Monolithics also have the advantage of legality in "non-toxic" hunting areas, whether in the U.S. or elsewhere. Many U.S. bullet companies also sell bullets outside North America, especially Europe. The very first place I actually saw a box of Swift A-Frames oin a sporting goods store was in Bergen, Norway in the mid 1990's, but European companies also load them in factory ammo. When I purchased a 6.5x57R drilling from a friend about a decade ago, part of the deal was some factory ammo--among them several boxes of Hirtenberger brand loaded with 120-grain Sierra ProHunters.

The modern marketing theory among some major bullet-makers is apparently something for everyone, but if a company makes everything from monolithic hunting bullets to high-BC match bullets, some particular bullets are always going to be dropped--and those will be the models that don't sell much. And as hunters age (the average is now around 50) they're going to drop more of their "traditional" bullets, because the hunters who buy them are either disappearing (if not from life, at least from hunting). And even when they continue hunting, buy a box of 100-grain .25-caliber Interlock Spire Point every 3-4 years doesn't justify using machinery that could be making high-BC 6.5mm bullets that get used in far higher volumes.