Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Hornady Interlocks vs. Sierra SP

These seem to be neck and neck in accuracy.

Which do you have the best accuracy in your deer loads?

Hornady or Sierra?

While I’ve been more than satisfied with Hornady’s......the slight edge may go to Sierra! From my past (yes, years ago) experiences with hunting with Sierra’s......hands down, the win goes to Hornady! memtb

Depends on the rifle, As far as accuracy goes, I have a couple that shoot the sierra's better. And I have a few more that shoot Hornady's better. For hunting results I like the Hornady's hands down.

Ive killed a good many with both. Ive not had any issues with either bullet. However, I shoot and use Hornady SST's because I found a bunch of SST's a couple years and couldn't pass them up.

Ive gotten better accuracy with interlocks than Sierra Pro-hunters. They are also cheaper and offer better terminal performance on game. The only thing that irks me, is that they change them from time to time.

I have shot Sierras, but from my experience, the Hornady Interlock will perform better on penetration and retention. Sierra bullets are accurate, though, for sure. Both will work, especially on deer.

I really like the Sierra Gameking 7mm 160 grain bullet. It has been a quick killer and accurate in every rifle I have tried it in. I also have had few sketchy performances with Hornady bullets, one in particular a 130 grain 270 bullet that blew a huge hole through an antelope on both entrance and exit, the heart falling out of it's chest. This said both companies make plenty good enough bullets for most medium game hunting.

laffin. Don’t you just hate when you killum’ that dead?! Stinkin’ bullet should’ve “penciled thru” without such a mess.

Lmao!....Hb

Well I didn't expect varmint bullet performance either. Odd that antelope ran 80 yards but he was definitely dead!

Exactly. I'd also suggest to Always load heavy for cartridge when going with a bullet like the sierra gameking. Hornady interlocks are not as frangible as the sierra's, but sierra usually wins in the accuracy department. With that being said, I've take my furthest shots on game with the BTSP interlocks.. 600-700 yards respectively.. One shot kills..

Another vote for the Hornady Interlock. I've had excellent performance on deer with them, ranging anywhere from 50-250 yards.

On deer size animals I doubt very seriously that you'd notice any difference between the two. I've used Sierra bullets for most of my deer hunting loads over the years, with the various name changes they've gone through. The Sierra Game King bullets always did what they were supposed to do...........as long as I did my part. I do have a bunch of 129 grain Hornady Interlocks that I got in a trade that I want to try in one of my 6.5 CM's. I also have some 140's in 270, as well as some 100 grain 243 Interlocks that have been sitting on the shelf for a number of years. For some reason, I just keep using the Sierra bullets................probably because I know they work.

I've shot alot of both and i think they are both fine deer bullets and are equal when it comes to on game performance. I tend to lean more to Sierra for accuracy and I prefer the Pro Hunters over the Gamekings because my rifle likes the flat base better.

You will like the 129s. They are very accurate in my .260s and Creeds. It is my go-to bullet in both of my .260s. I have shot probably 200+ deer with them in the 6.5s and 6. I load them to 2950 fps in my .260 and have killed deer past 400 yards with them. I have some loaded for my Creed that are not loaded as hot, but are very accurate.

I like the Interlock flat base and have found it very accurate in several rifles with good on game performance. I really like the 257 100gn, 264 129gn, 284 139gn and 308 150/165gn.

Yeah as soon as i can find some i will give the Interlock .308 165gr a try...My Salvage Lightweight 308 Win loves a Sierra Gameking 165 gr but i called the bullet smith last week to ask him why no Gameking bullets or Pro-Hunters and he said they are concentrating on match bullets right now and for the foreseeable future, he said they probly wont make a run of Pro-Hunters in 2022!...Sooo If Sierra has no more interest in their hunting market than that I am going find me another bullet brand to support, Hornady or Speer maybe.....Hb

The hornady 165 flat base has become unobtainable, been looking for some time. I broke down this year and tried the Speer Hot Cor 165 and have been very pleased with the accuracy. Past experience with the hot cor line tells me it should be good to go at the .308 velocities I’m using them at.

Good info Tom. It looks like trying to find a simple 165gr cup/core hunting bullet is harder than it should be...Hb

Grew up shooting Speers & Hornady in mostly 270, 308, 30-06 & 300 WM but also 6mm & a rare 7mm but not mine. Cattle ranching in central CA offered us year round hogs and deer during season. There were roughly 8 neighbors who all hunted together & compared notes. Great crew. Killed a bunch of stuff over 25 or more years.

Our conclusions were the Sierras available then and aside from the 85gr 6mm bthp, they seemed softer than either of their competitors was the opinion based only on meat damage/loss at similar ranges & velocities out of same cartridges. Sierras seemed to create the most damage & were quick killers followed by the Speer (which we all loved & still do) then with Hornady interlock is that it’s the toughest of the old school, Nearly always exiting where the Sierra & Speer sometimes wouldn’t. I guess it was easy to compare things because there weren’t as many options outside of factory core locks & silver tips of the day (which are soft too) didn’t like them. I guess to boil it down if you had to send a Sierra thru a shoulder it was pretty much a loss unless you were shooting heavy for caliber options. The worst if I remember was a 140gr Sierra BTSP from
A buddies 7rm. Massive destruction if impacts were inside about 250yds which for us about everything was. If a Hornady found the shoulder there was a good chance that you could trim off some bloodshot meat & still have something left besides red jello.

They were all accurate enough for us but back in those days 1” at 100 was all we were looking for. We weren’t range guys - we were ranchers.

Sorry for the wordy response - those are my thoughts for whatever they are worth.