Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Hornady Interbonds

Has anyone used them? Lucked out and got a few at the right price. Going through my gun magazines, can't find much on them.

I have been using the .284 139gr IBs in my 7mm-08 since they were introduced. They have killed a lot of deer for me and 2 elk. I have only caught one in an animal and that was a buck I was finishing him off with shot that was from behind and above, through its neck, spine and ended up in its hide of its chest. It weighs 120ish grains.

They were a bit tough to find an accurate load but are consistent. I even heard one of Hornady’s ballisticians say the same.

Thanks for the info. They shoot great for me, but haven't yet tried them on game. Same groups as Interlocks, but poi is one inch left of the Interlocks .

What powder and charge are you using for the 7mm08?

I use the 154 grain IB in a Browning A-bolt II 280. Very accurate. 53gr H4831SC.

The GMX and the Interbonds shot the worst in my rifles. I can never work up a decent load. This is coming from a hornady fan too.

I bought some 154gr Interbonds to try in my 280AckImp. I haven't gotten around to trying them yet though.

43.2gr of IMR4895 and the 139gr Interbond. The 139gr Interlock is 1”lower out to 150yds with that powder load. Remington 140gr PSPCL factory ammo has the same POI as the Interbond also out to 150. I recently bought some Hornady Precision Hunter ammo with the ELDX to see how it shoots.

You will not be disappointed with the results on game. They open up easily and stay together driving deep enough to kill anything on this continent.

A bit off point but, what the hell....

Talked to a Hornady rep one time and asked him why there was no bonded, and/or mono expanding bullet offered for the 9.3mm for dangerous game hunting?

Now, if he'd simply said something like "we'd looked at the 9.3mm market and it didn't justify our offering bonded and/or mono expanding bullets for dangerous game hunting.", I'd have thought fine, that's a business decision.

But no, he had to toe the company line and instead said to the effect "we think our cup-n-core bullet we offer in the 9.3mm Dangerous Game product is just dandy on dangerous game".


Yea, uh-huh. Right.

Thanks for the info. Looking forward to trying them on mule deer this fall! I had no trouble finding a good load, they shoot as well as Interlocks in my 6.5, using the same lead of H4350. And that's pretty good.

They are pricey and Probly a good performing bullet on game but i tried the 150gr Interbond in three different 308 Win rifles and never could get them to shoot like many other bullets....Good luck...Hb

I've used Interbonds in my old 338 win mag. Shot Sub MOA at 100 yards. Velocity was around 2750 fps. Shot a few deer with it and recovered one on a buck around 130 yards, i pulled a really bad shot, hit the rear left hind quarter, and somehow the bullet made a full 90 Deg turn and traveled through the mid-section stopping in the front right quarter. Bullets do weird things sometimes.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/Jlqppxe.jpg?1[/img]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/oBHYqh2.jpg?1[/img]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/yjDvZXn.jpg?1[/img]

Thanks for the info

I tried the 130 gr. in a .270 and the 165 gr. in a .308 and a .30-06. Poor accuracy in the .270, mostly poor accuracy in the .308, but did find one accurate load using H4895 powder and the 165 gr. IB. No accurate IB .30-06 loads. I've used Barnes pretty much exclusively since then; accurate bullets that don't require near the load workup or wasted effort of the InterBond loads.

I use 165 grain Interbonds in my 7.82 Patriot. Its a deadly load and shoots well. I have taken a handful of whitetail with them, although the most recent was a decade ago. They perform really well. I shot a nice Antelope buck head on in the chest, slightly above him, at about 100 yards and the blood trail was impressive, it was like a red carpet. Excellent on game performance.

I had a Winchester Ultimate Shadow 300WSM that loved them @ 3,300 ft/s. At one time I had killed 13 deer with that rifle/bullet combo and none moved a step...perfect mushroom on the couple I caught. Sorry pics are blurry

I have used the 130 Interbond at 3300 from my 270 WSM on a few deer back 10+ years ago, that rifle shot those amazing over a bunch of MagPro. I have tried the 150 Interbonds in a few 270 Wins and a 270 WSM and haven't gotten anything that close to good as far as accuracy. I have a decent load for my 7mm Mashburn Super with the 154 Interbond that shoots around MOA, and I shot a few deer with it and I put a finisher through the front legs of a decent sized bull this past year my buddy had already shot but I got scared when he started making his way to the timber. I have the recovered bullet I'll get up on this thread once I get back home.

I also tried the 165 Interbonds in an old 300 Win but again, never got anything near good accuracy. The ones that I have gotten to shoot were the best .075+ back from the lands if that helps anyone out. Anything close to kidding has been completely garbage. While they work excellent on animals, they have to be the worst bullet's I've used to date to get to shoot.

Can't beat their terminal performance at all. Too bad they barely make them anymore.

180 gr Interbond is my favorite in my 300 H&H. They perform about like the Acubond but make smaller groups in that rifle. Thank God, I have a "stash" of them that will last me till I can't shoot no more. I say that because I asked the Hornady rep in Nashville about them and he told me that they are pushing their new solid copper bullets and wouldn't be making another run of Interbonds in the foreseeable future.

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.

My final 165 grain Interbond recipe tweak for the .30-06 that I'm gonna stick with:

58.5 grains H4350, Fed 210 primer, OAL of 3.305", BTO (sinclair) of 3.560".

Average MV (6 rounds): 2,893 fps, S-D: 14.1, average group size (2- 6 round groups): just over 0.63" @ 100 yards.

Happy Camper

I started using them over 15 years ago, but have used others in the meantime as well.


I have 165 grain that I use in the 30.06. Shot a moose and and elk with them, and a few deer.

My accurcay in handloads is around 1" at 100, using H4350. MV 2878fps.

Very, very good performing bullet. I recovered one from a large cow moose I shot AT 225-250 YARDS.

Based on the recovered bullet, I would sy 180 grainers at 30.06 velcities would be a bit too tough. Very happy with them.

I used the 165s in 30-06. They shot ok. However, I only hunt white tail and hogs. They offered no performance advantage over the Interlock or Sierra HPBT I use. So after shooting a dozen or so animals - I put them away. My courisity was satisfied.

Can't comment on how they would work on large boned animals.

I was in the local SW today for my weekly visit. They just so happened to get in some 165 grain .308 Partitions. The price out the door was just pennies shy of $80 for 50. Ouch!

Since I now have a decent hunting load for the 165 grain Interbond I've been buying up all I can find.

I have a KREIGER barreled Win 70 FWT and a Tikka T3x that both love the Hornady 150 Interbond and IMR-4064.

Sounds like some rifles like IBs and some don't . Mine shoots 129s well, have to try them this fall.

I've killed a few bucks with the 165g from a 300 wsm. They open wide and stay together. They really seemed to hit hard and kill quickly.

Bb