Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 257 100gr Interlock

This bullet shoots very well in my 257R at around 3050fps.

Where I hunt, a deer is usually within a step or 2 of thick, thorny, snake-infested brush. Consequently, I tend to go for high shoulder shots to drop them in place. Concerned that the 100gr IL might not be up to the task, especially at short range, but IL's seem to have a very good reputation (poor man's partition? :))


Thinking perhaps I should just stay with heavier bullets. Anyone have field experience here that would reinforce or negate my concerns? Thanks for your input!

The 100gn Interlock is my favourite all round bullet in the .250 Sav and the .257 Roberts. I have shot pigs up close with the Roberts at over 3100fps and they have died. I didn't do post mortems. A medium size pig will have a chest the size of a deer. I'd be confident of that bullet to take a deer at close range. I;ve shot that bullet for over 20 years.

Saying that, if you want to try something different the 100gn Scirocco is a great bullet in the Roberts. I shot a fallow buck at 20 metres and the Scirocco stopped under the skin on the offside after penetrating through the chest. It retained 79% weight.

My Favorite as well for the 250 Savage and 257 Roberts. I've taken a lot of deer with them without a single problem. Well, the main problem is that they're discontinued.

Guy needs to hit gunshows with both eyes open never know when some will show up...mb

I, fortunately, have five boxes of them, which will feed my .250s and .257s for years to come. In fact, I use Interlocks for all my rifles. They just plain work.

Yeah they sure do...mb

I have 11 or 12 boxes. I scrounged around when they were discontinued and got a box or two all over the place. I'm not actually loading them in my 257 Roberts' at the moment. One's loaded with the Scirocco and the other is loaded with the old 100gn Nosler Solid Base which are also a very good bullet. I'm down to 16 left I think and then I'll go back to the Hornady in that rifle. I missed three boxes (300) of the Solid Bases last year as someone beat me to them. Grrr.

I have only 3 boxes of them here for my 257R. They shoot very well and have had no troubles killing deer with them, albeit mostly lung shot.

I need to scrounge more.

They were a great bullet back in the day and I used them in my 2506 and 257 weatherby with great success, but they did nothing special that any other hundred grain bullet in 25 calibre would do
When the ballistic tip came out I started using them and never looked back

I don't have any experience with the Interlock in 257. I have used it in 243. It does fine, but when I want to anchor deer, I go with the Partition. The 115 Partition out of a 257 Roberts has been my DRT recipe for quite a while. It is certainly up to the task of holding together at short range when smashing bone.

My only concern would possible be loss of Chili Meat with the High Shoulder shot. I don’t care for it being “ground” before field dressing….
Kevin

Those things are unobtainium here in Canada as is pretty much everything except Hornady and they dropped the 100gr 25cal.

Hornady definitely seem to own the market in the Southern Hemisphere but Nosler seem to be the second most available bullets

I used this bullet for many years in my .257R. I was just thinking yesterday about how effective that combo was for dropping deer where they stand with a shot in the lungs. It was by far my favorite deer round of all the calibers I've tried, for efficiency and very little damage to the meat. Use it with confidence!

I guess I’ll be the dissenting vote.

Have had core separation on them from a 25-06, even out at 300 yards or so on antelope.

I still bought several boxes when they were discontinued, but I don’t take high shoulder shots as routine, either. If I did, I’d use a little tougher bullet.

That’s all I used in my 257 Wby for over 20 years, love the bullet. 👊🏻

So you understand that Hornady has discontinued those, right? Unless you have 'em on hand or can find some, there's no point in trying to go down that path.

I've had real good luck with the 100 grain partition. Otherwise, I prefer heavier cup 'n' core bullets. One bullet which has failed miserably for me is the 110 grain Accubond. I had 2 grenade inside deer, nothing but TINY fragments left, the same day. The deer died but the fragmenting bullets wrecked a whole lotta meat .. completely jelly-ized the off-shoulder on both of them. I mean soup.

Tom

Likewise. That little bullet definitively punches FAR above it's weight class..

Yes, I have a good supply of them. Thanks!

Be sure to report your after action results here!