Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 100gr 257 Hornady: super bullet?

No doubt the Hornady interlock is a great c&c bullet. And it's "design window" is probably wider than some of it's competition.

But it seems that everyone loves this bullet and the way it performs, from the 250 Savage to the 257 Roy. Don't ever remember reading any negative comments on it...which is pretty dang rare around here!

I've always been of the opinion, that once velocity gets much over 3K, you are probably better served with a premium bullet of some sort. And IIRC, JB has stated that around 2800 fps is optimal for C&C's.

So my question is this: Is this bullet the exception that proves the rule? Does it really perform well from say, 2500fps to 3500+fps?

Would appreciate your thoughts/comments.

My dad runs them about 3150, I have seen him whack stuff from about 60 yards to way out, and has never had one fail to penetrate on a broadside shot. Course, on deer and antelope, we hit them behind the shoulder, so I cant speak for hitting major bones.

That bullet worked very well for my friend on a nice 10pt buck. I forget the range but it wasn't very far for a 257 Weatherby, maybe 125 yards.

The deer was coming at him pretty much head on and my friend shot just as the buck started turning to go into the thick stuff. It was at a downward angle, being fired from an elevated stand. The bullet crushed the onside shoulder, tore up the low part of the chest cavity and exited the bottom of the deer.

BTW, as a ex-mathematician I must tell you exceptions don't prove rules.

I only shot one Mule Deer with this bullet (100 gr Hornady) out of my 257 Weatherby.
The buck jumped out of a bed about 20 yards in front of me and started running broadside to me. I swung through him from back to front, shotgun-style and fired as I swung through the front of his chest. Impact velocity would have been c. 3500 fps (muzzle velocity in my rifle: 3573, factory load). The bullet hit the base of the neck and blew a complete section of the neck out, all the way through, about the size of a volley ball. Instant pile-up, with a broken neck and the head stretched back along his back. The major arteries were blown away and he was completely bled out within a couple minutes.

This result prompted me to go to heavier bullets on deer with this rifle. Not because it didn't work, but it sort of worked a little too well.

The previous deer I had taken in the same spot a year before was at 360 yards. I wasn't expecting a 30 yard shot, but as has been said many times on the Campfire, deer often don't cooperate.

I am curious to hear others' experience with this bullet on deer from the Weatherby at these velocities.

Carnage doesn't bother me as long as it doesn't involve the guts.

+ 1 Rather ruin 5# of meat and recover deer than ruin 2# and lose said deer.

As an ex-engineer, I agree. Just an expression

When folks say "I could care less!" I say "So you do care then?" to gig 'em too.

Don't have any complaints with the bullet shot in my twin Ruger TS M77s. It has accounted for 7 Wisconsin Whitetails and one Brahama bull.

On deer the shots ranged from 50 yds to 200 yds. No follow up shots were needed. The bull was just about point blank range and required a second shot.

Velocity for both rifles averaged about 2900 fps. I have pushed it further, but accuracy was not there.

Hornady Interlocks in general can take a little more impact velicity than standard cup-and-cores. Whether this is due to the Interlock ring or core hardness (they do use a higher-antimony core than some other C&C's) I dunno.

But I have seen them penetrate and hold together very well in a number of diameters from .25 on up to the the middle .30's. In fact sometimes they have held together a little too well, not doing quite as much damage as some C&C's with softer cores, but that has only been with larger-diameter models.

I have the most experience with the 100-grain .25 in a cartridge smaller than the .257 Weatherby, started at about 3300 fps. (I won't mention the cartridge, since this was back when I was real hotrodder.) It shot real flat, and knocked the snot out of everything from rockchucks to mule deer, and never failed to penetrate, even at close range.

It also normally shoots VERY accurately, often more so than some bullets better known for accuracy. In fact, in the .257 Weatherby I am working with now, a NULA Model 28, it shoots into an inch or less--at 200 meters.

I shot two does wtih the 100g Hornady with a 257 Weatherby. At 320 yards, one doe walks out into the powerline, I shot her straight through the shoulders on a broadside shot, DRT.

Couple of minutes later, a second doe comes over and starts pawing at the first doe, then starts licking her. I shot her through the shoulders also. I love doe burgers.

I have a muzzle break on my 257 Roy, I saw the bullet impact and the water vapor fly off the deer's hide. Also, on the second doe, I saw the bullet bounce off the ground after the bullet passed through both shoulders.

I shoot the flat base version of the Hornady 100g Sp.

That sounds like a whole lot of fun!!! I sure hope you have a pronghorn tag or dozen to use that one this year. I'd probably lean towards the 264 Win, but wouldn't turn down a 257 Roy.

Has anyone recovered one of these bullets?

I wonder if they have a really heavy base, the front blows off, and then the base penetrates through almost like a wadcutter.

If so, that would explain how they work at such a wide velocity range.

All bullets are "super bullets", if you hit the game in the right place.

Perhaps the work of a "Bob" launched from an old(er) 24" Remington 722.

Jeff

Perhaps....

Not if they don't penetrate

Nothing over 3050 fps with them here, but never recovered one either. Most shots have been between 50 and 200 yards with the 250 Savage and a little tamer load in the .257 Roberts. Did have one antelope at 375 lazered yards though. That one kept going as well.

Stex-we started using the 100 Horn about 1986 or so in 25/06's and my 257 Wby for all that moves. Deer/elk/lopes/bruins/yotes you get the pic.

We use 7828 in both rounds and the few bullets we've recovered have looked text book.

My best friend and his 2 sons use a 25/06 for all that move, they have a 22/250 but rarely use it as it's not legal in Wyo.

4 them the 25/06 with 100 Horns is their big gun...grin

IME it's as good as one gets for a 25 cal bullet.

Dober

I recovered the one and only one I have shot a deer with.
I shot a doe at about 125yds in the chest facing me, the bullet traveled to just in front of the back leg. She dropped like a stone, the bullet didn't look good. It almost looked like ya set it on a rail and had a train run over it. It was smashed down paper thin and stretched out to about a 1" long, It is very accurate in my 25-06 and I will shoot a few more with it before I decided how I like em on deer.