Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Interbond vs Accubond

Has Hornady given up the bonded bullet market to Nosler?? Seems like they aren't pushing their bonded bullets very hard (they advertized their SST very heavily when they came out, but it seems there is much less advertizing for the Interbonds).

And the number of new Accubonds is increasing much faster than the new Interbonds.

I'm more of a Hornady fan than a Nosler fan, so I'd love to see some 6.5 and 257 Interbonds. But it looks like it may not be in the cards. Any thoughts?

For some reason, they are EXTREMELY slow in getting into the market. I too am waiting on some 6.5 interbonds. Don't know what the hold-up is. They finally got the .244 diam IB out.

I could have sworn I saw where they were coming out with a 129 gr Interbond in 6.5 but I don't see it on their website. I have never tried the Interbonds, but I have had great success both in accuracy and terminal performance with the Accubonds. I have not been able to get their SSTs to shoot well in any of my guns.

Nosler didn't exactly rush their 6.5 onto the market!!!

Midway USA has the 6.5 129 Interbond on their site... listed as "coming soon".

So I'd say it's on the way, but maybe too late for this fall if they stall rolling it out too long.

I'd like to see some new pointy and slippery bullets in 6.5 in the 140-160 grain range.

I'd rather see something in the 110 - 120g range that would allow me to run my 6.5x55 velocity up to 3000+, where a bonded bullet has advantages over Nosler BT and Hornady Interlock. Down below 2800 I don't need no stinkin' premium bullets - except my 125g Nosler Partition, of course...

Jaywalker

+1

A nice pointy bullet in 105 to 115 grain would be nice.

Thanks for the heads up! Your post prompted me to look at their 257 offerings, and they list a 110gr InterBond as "available". It's curious that they list the BC as .37, while the 110 Accubond has a BC of .418.

I picked up some 110g IB in .257 for my .25-06. So far so good. I havent shot them for groups yet, but shot them into dry phone books and the bullet test tube and was impressed with the performance. Holds up better than the AB in my testing. Penetrates just as far, sometimes farther.

Kyreloader, how fast and what powder? I just worked up a load for a new 3006 with a pac nor and the Interbonds out shot the Accubonds. I did identical loads and powders and the Interbonds were more accurate and faster.

I also shoot the 2506, have shot the 100 bt for years. Used mainly on deer and coyotes. I have had great luck with them, more bang flops than any other bullets I have tried. Hogs are in my future and I would like to try a tougher bullet.

I plan to shoot tomorrow for groups with IMR 4350, IMR 7828, H414, Varget and VVN160. Hopefully I can tell you more about my testing tomorrow. I hope they shoot well, because the AB just shoots ok for me.

kyr: thanks, several of us are interested in your results!

I guess my rifle doesnt like 110g bonded bullets. Today was a weird range day for me. The IB did not shoot well for me today. The velocities were what I expected, but did not group well for me.

I loaded 55 and 56g of 7828 for 3194fps and 3256 fps respectively. Both charges shot about 3-4" groups. 55g of 7828 in the 115, 120g bullets is my go to charge, so I am dissappointed.

I tried 47/48g of H414 for velocities of 3084/3133 fps. The 47g charge had one group about 1.5", but the other two were around 2". The 48g charge worked well for whatever reason averaging 0.769" with a 3 shot group of 0.574.

I shot 44/45g of Varget for 3145/3106 fps. Not sure why the 45g charge was slower. The 44g charge averaged 3-4" while the 45g charge was just under 1.5".

Lastly, I shot 53g VVN160 for velocity of close to 3300 fps for 3 shots which shot about 1.5" but I thought that was a little hot, so I didnt shoot anymore and will pull and try 51/52g.

I dont worry about extreme spread very much, but my ES with these bullets were really high, some >100 fps.

Just to make sure something wasnt wrong with me or my setup, I shot a known load with 100g Matchkings which shot right at 0.479" with ES of 8 fps. That is normal for this rifle.

I need to play with overall length or something to see if I can get some improvement. The 48g charge of H414 is promising however and may work more with that.

Didnt include in earlier post, the bullet test tube results. Penetration at 100 yards was 12.5" (14 with 100 TSX), expanded diameter was 0.698 (> 115g NBT) and bullet had 82.5% weight retention, so I would love to find a load that shoots well because I am impressed with the terminal ballistics in my test.

Sorry for the long reply.

Accubonds shoot better for me out of both of my 7mm RMs. The Interbonds I purchased had crooked plastic tips on them. Sent the remainder of the box back to Hornady and they cheerfully sent me a replacement box but they had crooked tips also. In fact the tip fell out of one of the bullets and were loose in several others, besides being set crooked. These were the 139 gr Hornady Interbonds .284". So I told two guys at work and they brought in some of their Interbonds in 30 caliber and theirs had crooked plastic tips also. No such problems for me with the 140 or 160 gr Accubonds, and the AB groups were about 1/2 the size of the IB groups. No reason for me to bother with the Hornady Interbonds any further. FWIW.

Love the terminal ballistics vs the accubond though.

When I first started to load the Interbond I thought what a accurate racey looking bullet.But that changed.That gun didn't like the bullet period.Through countless powder changes and seating depths I finally found a acceptable hunting load.But don't use them for much more than targets.
Still doesn't shoot as well as a partition in that rifle.

I have had such good luck with the Interlock and Vmax, I was giving serious thought to trying out the Interbond.
I think I will skip it...

.769" avergae groups don't cut the mustard for a hunting rifle/load?

I have used the Interbond in several rifles with very good results. Out of the five rifles I've loaded them for, only one didn't like them. The other were very accurate.

This is a 165gr @ 2930fps from my '06'. It was retrieved from a large boar shot @ ~ 140yds. It retained 94% of it's weight after penetrating 20" of pig.

Tim
You never know you could have a barrel that favors them.