Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Hornady Interlock vs Nosler Ballistic Tip Hunting?

Man, that sucks big time. A few years ago, I sent some 225gr interlocks for beretzs to test in some milk jugs. They did not perform nearly as well as I had hoped. A lot of fragments and bullet weight was low. I don't believe penetration was great either. Since the bullet shot so well, I decided I'd take them elk hunting to see how these newer interlocks would do. That year I shot a pretty nice bull:


That bullet penetrated clean through the elk broadside through the heart lung area. DRT. Shot was just shy of 200 yards. Maybe if it had been 60 yards like the bull I shot in 2021, it may have been a different story??

Some Hornady boxes, older to new from left to right. i don't know the dates of the packaging changes.

I can tell you the best shooting .308" in 150 and 165 grain Interlocks for me came out of the old style boxes.

If you don't have confidence in the Hornady, have you tried a Speer hot core? Or a nosler accubond? They will penetrate for sure. A partition is cool and all but I don't see the use for them on deer unless your shooting a 243 or 6 rem. I went the game king route and I found those to be pretty explosive. The interlock has held together real good for me, especially the new production batches.

The only bullet I’ve ever had fail was a 130 gr .308” Interlock fired at reduced velocity from a .308 Win. Around 2600 fps. Put it right behind the shoulder and it was like I’d set a grenade off on the surface. Never have had that problem with any ballistic tip.

I don't think you'll find that listed as an Interlock.

That is what I wonder myself. Sometimes if that initial speed sluffs off enough it goes back into its happy place. I tested them up close at full speed, so that is about as torturous as it gets.

Rifle does double duty deer and elk.

General observation on game, and digging bullets out of my earthen backstop is (at least when it comes to 30cal's), the Ballistic Tip is slightly tougher than the Interlock. Having said that, I'd not hesitate to use either (and have) on elk.

If I was shooting big elk like you guys I’d go partition or Bear claw. I shot nothing else until the Obama years, couldn’t get Partitions.

You got me. I was going off of memory. I still have the box of the remaining 130s downstairs because we never shot them again. They’re simply 130 gr Spire Point. This is the new thing I learned today. That experience caused me to swear off of Hornady bullets for hunting until I was doing load development in a pair of .260 Remingtons. They both highly favor the 129 Interlock and terminal performance has been fantastic with them on deer

I've been loading 260 hunting ammunition for years from old stock 129 grain Interlocks. They're from my father's 264 mag loading stash of 30+ years ago. They have been truly excellent on deer and hogs.

I laid in a stash of the 6.5mm 129 gr. Interlocks for a lifetime worth of hunting. I have other bullets that I play around with for target shooting and such, but these shoot so well and terminal performance is better than the 120 gr. Nosler BT or 130 gr. Nosler AB I've used. The 140 gr. Partition will run a mule deer from brisket out the hindquarter, but doesn't shoot as accurately for me as the 129 gr. and I've had nothing but stellar performance with the 129 gr. Interlock. I've only recovered one from a deer shot at 385 yards and I had 60% weight retention. Can't argue with that. Nowhere near the bloodshot damage that the 120 gr. Ballistic Tip and 130 AB gave me, though the two deer I shot with the 130 AB were both less than 100 yards away.

I've been loading my 260 Rem with 100 TTSXs, but have a few hundred 129 Interlocks that I'd like to give a go. Care to share your load info?

With the 129 I loaded 46 grains of Re19 or 47.8 grains of H4831. The Re19 worked very well in a Remington M7 and a Browning Low Wall. The H4831 worked very well in the Low Wall but I don't recall if my friend tried it in the M7.

Remington cases, CCI 200 or Federal 210 primers

Good point. In my somewhat limited experience, I’d say there’s not much difference in performance but if you can’t find BTs to buy there’s not much debate on which one to use

The deer that I’ve lung shot with Interlocks ran 60 yards after the shot. The deer that I’ve lung shot with BT’s have been drt. I’ve been giving the BT deer away these last few years, so I’ve not done the necropsy on the more recent ones. The exits don’t look extreme from my 7mm-08 and drt has seemed more humane.

BTs are tougher than ILs.

I agree. Plus the interlocks are much easier to find (THANKS Hornady!!) and they are cheaper: No brainer. Next question please.

Old biases are hard to break...I vowed to never shoot big game with ballistic tips after two experiences back in my high school/college days. One buddy shot a nice whitetail solidly up front (I didn't see the shot personally) and didn't recover it after a lot of searching. Another buddy shot a big whitetail (I was with him when he did it) in the shoulder. The result was a massive entrance wound and a very alive deer. Luckily he ran into a small patch of brush and after some manuevering we were able to get a follow up after I pushed him out to my buddy. Both were ballistic tips out of .300 win mags inside 200 yards. I don't know which weight or which vintage of ballistic tip...I just "knew" ballistic tips were junk for anything bigger than prairie dogs.

When I put together some loads for my .30 Gibbs the 180 Ballistic tips showed excellent accuracy but I was convinced I needed an Accubond because of my previous experiences. I have been using the Accubonds and they have performed great but honestly the ballistic tips are a smidge more accurate in my rifle and being cheaper would lend to more frequent practice. Sounds like I need to pull my head out and give the .308 ballistic tips another shot.

The last several years, partly due to glowing reports on this forum, I have been loading 120 ballistic tips in a 7-08 and am extremely impressed with those on deer and antelope at 7-08 velocities. I would not hesitate to shoot elk with them in any reasonable shot presentation that offered a direct path to the vitals.

The 7mm 120gr Nosler Ballistic tips have been very accurate in my 280 Remington. Haven't had a chance to try them out on game yet..