Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Hornady 220 gr RN in the 30-06, actual hunting experience??

Using the currently manufactured bullet, not the older one which expanded well and dug deep. Accuracy is very good, no problem there.

Came into three boxes, and interested in hearing actual experiences on really big game, such as bison, etc.

Thanks,
Ted

Have been impressed with the 220 grain Core-Lokt on Moose. Factory ammo at under 75 yards. Not a Hornady however

Sorry, all my hunting with 220's was using Partitions. Weldcore's in 240 gr. as well.

Not surprised that those bullets would be satisfactory. The older Interlock bullets were reliable as well. Thanks for that.

Have read several accounts of the newer bullet not holding together.

Plain vanilla cup and core 220s do well in the 30-40 at 2000 fps. Perhaps an extra 400 fps causes too much expansion to quickly to allow deep penetration.

Ted

I can't imagine that Hornady would make these into a frangible bullet.

Not many would want a 220gr 30cal for anything but the largest game where penetration is at a premium.

Nothing than bigger than elk, but I have been loading 220 gr RN for a lot of years. They are Sierras though. I used 4831 and 58.5 gr for about 2500 fps, but that is a hot load. Most kills, bullet was found under the hide on far side after double lung shots. I shot at least 20 elk with them. Further shot was 347 yards that my Lieca 1200 RF showed ,according to my notes. Most kills were in the 50 yard range in heavy blow down timber. I can't say anything about bone breaking ability as I don't take those shots.


Someone posted quite awhile back that they used 200 gr Partitions, but I never saw a need for them at those velocities

Okay, a few #3090 Hornady 220s ahead of 54 gr of H4350. Nickel-plated federal brass is for quick identification.



Went over the Oehler three days ago at a tad under 2500 fps, temp was minus 10F. We’ll see what happens in a water test next warmer day.

Ted

I cannot imagine anything shrugging off a solid hit from one of those. They look like they would absolutely penetrate through virtually anything.

Interested to hear or see some results on game.

Ive only ever seen them used on a couple whitetails...it killed them. Penetration was complete.

I saw one.

It was a good-sized white tail that had been facing the shooter. There was a hole in the front of the chest and one in the backside of the deer, just far enough to the side to not become a reverse Texas Heart Shot.

I was not there for the disassembly, but the guy that shot it said it was "Kind of a mess in the gut area", I'm assuming because that area had been, ahhh, compromised...

Them bullets penetrate.

I used the 220 Gr Interlock as loaded in the Hornady International line, in 2021

Shot a whiteail buck on the run, head shot (not intentional). worked.

Here is the better example. same year, shot a very large cow moose directly into the front of the chest at about 120 yards. She shuddered a bit, then turned to her left to walk away. Gave her another broadside and she dropped. Total time from 1st shot into her until second shot and her dropping was at most 2 seconds.

I was very very impressed.

Never shot them out of a 30-06 but I used them in a 30-40 Krag. Never recovered one, they go right on out the other side.

Ammo looks good Ted!

I was thinking of loading the same for my Husqvarna 4100 and the LGS has those bullets.

Hoping all is well in your neck-of-the-woods!

Yukoner;
Good morning to you Ted, I hope you're all well up in the north country and the year has been a good one for you folks thus far.

It's interesting to me when folks get varied results from the same bullets and I'll apologize for posting this photo and relating my experience with the 220gr RN from about 20 years ago. They were out of a .308 Norma with a velocity of under 2700fps, which is faster than an '06 but not super fast.

On a small Okanagan bull moose - Shiras or Canada - depending on whose map one chooses to use I guess, they came right apart on broadside body shots, neither of them hitting a scapula as far as I can recall. The bits and pieces weighed about half of what they'd started out at.



For sure the moose died, but I was less than enthralled about the lack of penetration, so I tried them again on a first rack whitetail. That shot was front on, into the chest where the neck and chest meet. It killed the buck for sure Ted, but again the bullet came right apart and I only found bits and pieces with about the same penetration as the broadside moose - not too, too much as in.

Again these were 20 year old bullets not current production and were slightly faster than '06 velocities.

Based on those two animals however, I began loading 200gr Partitions in that rifle for better penetration and based upon shooting a couple bucks nearly lengthwise, they did that. I've now gone to 168gr TSX in that rifle as a by the way as they seem to give about the same tissue damage and penetration as the Partitions were, but my tests so far have only been on deer to be clear.

I'd be interested to hear how the new ones work if you're using them on bison or the moose you've got up there some of which have to be close to double the carcass weight of ours.

All the best to you in 2023.

Dwayne

How far away was the moose? Can I assume that the higher velocity is what made the bullets fly apart? Trying to get an idea of impact velocity. Thanks.

That is disappointing performance from a bullet that I'd think was intended to penetrate well and hang together. I wonder if that was a batch that came out brittle due to some manufacturing problem?

Guy

It just wasn't a good bullet at the time. Maybe better now, maybe not. I'd not worry because a 168 or 180 TSX or TTSX will shoot flatter and penetrate much much deeper

Have used them on deer and moose. One moose took a frontal chest shot just off center and I later found a nickel sized hole through some heavy bone in shoulder area. Bullet not recovered. Core lomt by the way. They work now as they worked way back when.

hillbillyjake;
Top of the morning to you sir, at least it's still dark here, regardless I hope the weekend was a good one for you and this finds you well.

Thanks for the reply, I've read up on my reloading log book as well as my hunting notes before answering.

I should state before going further that we'd shot truckloads of local deer with Hornady Interlock bullets with .308, .30-06, .308 Norma and .300 Win Mag rifles and had been extremely satisfied with the results. The few we recovered were 60% of the original weight and mushroomed nicely.

The 220gr RN was, as mentioned, in a .308 Norma using RL 19 and the velocity was 2607fps.

The first shot hit the bull standing broadside at what I estimated to be about 125yds, entering behind the right scapula. breaking two ribs, then going through the lungs and stopping underneath the left scapula. The bull took off running and I followed trying to get another shot into it and as it veered slightly across me I hit it behind the ribs, the bullet tearing the liver up then coming to rest on the inside of the rib cage.

Again I'm cognizant the bullet did what was asked of it since the animal died, that's obvious. However in the section of BC where I hunt grizzly bears are not unheard of, though not common, so for a bullet to settle a social discussion gone sideways with a recalcitrant bruin, based upon the results from that batch there might be better choices.

We had interesting results with a 6.5x55 back in the early '80's being quite hard on bullets too and my working theory is that the fairly fast twist, deep groove barrels were the perfect storm to rip some jackets up faster than other barrels might. Again that's a theory.

Hopefully that answered your questions and was useful, again realizing that a whole lot of water under the bridge since then so it's an academic discussion for sure.

Best to you in 2023.

Dwayne

I remember a study done here on the campfire years ago.

.308 caliber shot into a beef knuckle bone.

Then penetration behind it measured.

The heavy cup and core bullets did not penetrate as well as the author expected.