Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Hornady Interbonds

Interbonds were originally brought out to more or less perform similarly to Swift Scirocco's & they do perform well on game, but some rifles have trouble shooting them well.

I've had off & on luck with them in various guns; same as with the Scirocco's................both are great bullets if you can get them to shoot.

Hard to leave Partitions as they just generally shoot well enough to use in every rifle I've ever shot them in; same for Ballistic Tips which I use almost exclusively for testing 7 initial load development (if I have or can get them), as guns that won't shoot them well almost always turn out to be finicky.

This is a good article on construction & testing of several bullets with various constructions.

Bullets

MM

That's a good read. Thanks for posting that. Not sure I'd seen it before.

The Trophy Bonded Tipped bullet has been aces in about anything I have tried it in and they are great hunting bullets as well.

I use the factory 338 rcm 225 grain interbond ammo.

They out-penetrated 220 grain 30 caliber partitions, they expanded better, EXACTLY twice the diameter and retained more weight:

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/17852784/4

Sure is a lotta embellished bllsht on the 30 caliber 220 partition.

Though I've no experience with the smaller caliber interbonds, the .338 version was a home-run. And contrary to assumptions you'll read on 24hourcampfire, these interbonds did not expand too wide. I'm talking to you barsness........

Before I started handloading, I shot the factory 270 Win Hornady Superperformance ammo with 130 gr IB. It was very accurate in my Winchester 70 Classic. Shot a few deer with this load and it performed very well. I must note that the deer in area are typically not that big. I have not yet handloaded any of these bullets.

Thanks for the info everyone. Sounds like they are worth trying on deer!

Bought a bag of 250 seconds, 150 grain 308 bullets years ago from midway. Have been using them in one of my 308s for about 15 years. Have used them on moose, black bears, caribou, deer even at least one grizzly since then and they have worked really well. Seating depth going from 2.80 to 2.81 went from about 1 1/2 moa+ to about 3/4 moa, so were pretty sensitive to OAL in my rifle, but really consistent ever since. Same impact as 150 GMX as well, but really don't bother with the GMX anymore as the Interbonds have worked so well for me. More expansion/less penetration than the GMX, but dead is dead...

Also bought a bag of 165 grain seconds at the same time. Didn't work with them as much, but never quite got the same level of accuracy from them in the rifles where I've tried them. I guess the bottom line is if you can find a load your rifle likes, they'll do really well as far as reliably killing stuff.

Just landed a box of the 165's. Going to work up a load for the .30-06 when I get back in late April.

Thanks for the report, Thegman. Sounds like they're working great for you. I'd like to try 'em but there are so many great bullet choices and so few hunting seasons.

I have used the 139 interbond in my 7mm-08 with near max charge of varget. Shot a nice mule deer and an elk with them about 15 yrs ago. They were a little on the soft end from my limited pool of shots. On the same trip my friend shot an elk with 165 interbond from his 30-06. He thought more penetration would have been helpful also but we both got all the animals we shot at so cant complain to much.

Bought two boxes of 154 gr 7mm Interbonds. The bullets have cannelures and look like SST’s. Called Hornady and they said they were leftovers from a run of loaded ammo where the customer wanted the cannelures. Who knows?

Anyone use the 110 gr. Interbonds in .257 Roberts? I have a 1999 manufactured Ruger #1 in .257 Roberts. I haven’t hunted with it yet, but I have loaded up some Hornady 110 gr. Interbonds over 38 grains of Rel-15. It’s a good, accurate load in this rifle.

I just wrapped up load development for the 165 grain CX out of my .3-0-06. I'm going to start loading the 165 gr. Interbond tomorrow using the same recipe.

58 grains H4350, Norma brass both new and fired. Fed 210 primer. BTO of 3.70, OAL of 3.320 - 3.325.

See what happens...

The 154 Interbond is all I shoot in my 7STW after stocking up when Midway had 2nds for a steal about 10 years ago. Close to double digits on Roosevelt elk and have had excellent performance, mostly caught under the hide on the far side of the ribcage.


You need to turn the Interbonds 90 degrees clockwise when you load them, that will align the groups!

When Accubonds and Interboands came out, I tested 180grs with 30-06. The Accubonds were more accurate, the Interbonds were cheaper. I went with cheaper.

Have had mixed accuracy results with Interbonds--but the most accurate were 165-grain .30s in Hornady factory loads, shot in a Sauer semi-auto! Well under an inch. They also expanded and penetrated great.

Some 130 .270s weren't very accurate in in .270 Winchester handloads.

Have had such good luck with Interlock Spire Points haven't tried any more IBs.

45° works perfect 🤔

I used Interbonds in several rifles when they were first introduced around 20 years ago. In my rifles, they shot poorly with terrible accuracy. The Nosler Accubond which came out around the same time or maybe a year or two earlier than the Interbond is a far superior bullet in my rifles

Dingo,

Same here. I could never get the damn things to shoot and gave up on them

I gave up on 'em too.

Same experience here, on hogs & a bull elk.




Also, same here. Most of the cartridges I use don't have enough fps to overtax an Interlock. Plus, all the weights & bore diameters I've tried were very easy to find loads for - no need to look any further.


FC

Used the same recipe, but this time with the 165 gr. Interbond rather than 165 gr. CX.

Across 6 rounds average MV of 2889, with S-D just creeping into double digits. Great group.

I think I'm gonna go up 1/2 grain or so to reach 2,900+ and see if I can bring down the S-D some while maintaining the good group.