Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Has Hornady changed the Interlock?

FIL shot a nice doe whitetail last night at around 400 yards with one of my hand loaded 130gr Interlocks out of his 270. Bullet entered last rib and exited through the front rib on opposite side. Both holes were about the size of a quarter on the inside. Deer dropped in her tracks. Bullets were bought this fall in the new style box.

Apparantly you need reading lessons. I have stated an opinion and clearly so. There is no conclusion here at all.....

"IT'S ME AGAIN MARGARET" I got lucky again today! My 300WM and 180 H.ils harvested a NICE 8pt. 17 1/4" inside spread, 174 lbs. buck at 145 yds. lasered. This body size is average of the decent bucks killed on our lease. Few heavier, some less.

The bullet struck left side rib cage CENTER MASS. It went between ribs on entrance discombooberated the lungs and hit one rib on exit. The exit in rib cage and hide is about 2" dia. There was blood on ground between footprints and an easy blood trail to follow. He traveled about 40 yds. sliding the last 12'. All of it DOWNHILL.

IF I KNEW HOW, I have some nice pics of deer and terminal damage, I could post here. They can be posted later if someone would give me instructions how.

Well, now my wife will have to do the shooting. I'm buck tagged out. I still have 2 doe tags and till 12-19 to hunt whitetail with modern gun.

I don't know if I'm just lucky or NOT. I've been using Hornady bullets since BEFORE they were interlocked and I have NOT HAD ONE bullet failure. I've used 6mm 100 gr, 270 130 & 140, 7mm 139, 30 cal. 150 & 165. This bullet today would have done well on elk at least with a rib shot and I CAN NOT say what it would have done on a shoulder or 1/4ering shot.

I just know I'm HAVING FUN! I hope all of you do too! I hope you will continue to post SUCCESS or FAILURE with interlocks. JWALL

My son took a few whitetails with the 165 gr Interlock in a 30-06 this year. He had nothing but good to say. He said he has never seen a deer hit the deck so fast.
whelennut

Sorry, nothing new to report. I haven't quit hunting. I hunted ALL DAY Sat. Mon. & Tue. this week w/o seeing ONE deer. Our weather warmed into the 70's a few days before Thanksgiving then we had storms and winds. It was the second week after Thksg. before we cooled down.

Our deer have gone NOCTURNAL. I talked with a friend today who has property, feeds corn, and uses trail cams. They can't keep corn in the feeders & ALL pics are from 7:00p.m-3:00 a.m. It's kinda hard to kill a deer in daylight under these circumstances. I have been seeing deer REGULARLY at night when traveling.

RE: Hornady interlocks, I was going to order more 180 s.p.ils. last week and INTERESTINGlY, Midway has SOLD OUT of em and are back ordered.

Do ya think this thread has had any influence? Don't know, but obviously people still USE them. If you've read all of this thread, most have reported good success w/interlocks.

I had planned to hunt my Tikka T 3 270 win. this year but I committed to using these 30 cal 180 gr. ils. in my 300 w.mag. This is my 3rd year to hunt it exclusively. The previous two years I used a different brand of 180s. Deer were killed but the bullets did NOT perform satisfactorily.

Even IF I don't get another deer this year, I have no reservations about the H.30cal.180gr.ils. Hopefully, things will change. We have 1 week, Saturday before and aft, before our modern gun season ends. Then we have 3 days after Christmas. I will be hunting A M A P, I would like to get 1 or 2 more. Good luck to all of you.

JWALL
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An Old Handloader with all his fingers and both eyes,

Just Deaf in Left Ear.

Glad I stumbled onto this thread - I was scratching my head recently...3 medium size Pennsylvania deer 100-120 lbs with a .375 Ruger Alaskan using factory 270 gr SP-RP interlocks...not one exit wound and not one DRT, even though the shots were spot on...what gives?

I know my experience is anecdotal, but with that much bullet weight I was shocked to not get better penetration nor a single exit wound.

Additionally, for a bullet promoted as recoil-proof, the tips get smashed to bits in the magazine and get set back slightly for subsequent rounds. To be fair, they still shoot accurately at 100 yds, but they sure look like hell.

Anyway, just my $.02 to add to the discussion. -Joe

JOE: Am not sure, but isn't SP - RP REMINGTON core lokt?

If they are Hornady ils, there must be something different in differnt claibers. Very interesting ANYHOW .

JWALL

These are to which I refer:

http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct/?productNumber=741546

-Joe

JOE: WOW, that's disturbing! DANGEROUS GAME huh? I have seen one hunt on "Under Wild Skies" where that bullet, caliber?, went THRU a 2" tree and still killed the animal. Tony Makris was impressed.


Obviously the lot you have is suspect! ! (to say the least).

I'm disappointed. Maybe someone on the fire knows who you could contact at Hornady.

JWALL

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

I posted on what I thought to be a retooling of the 7mm 139 Interlock a year or so back. The ogive was slightly different and the interface between the top of the copper jacket and the lead core was noticeably neater and more even. The newer bullets are easily more accurate. I have several hundred of them stockpiled and no I won't sell them. :p

On game? This year my deer was maybe 175 or so at about 30 to 40 yards. Muzzle velocity for the load is almost exactly 2800 fps. I got a neat entrance wound on a broken rib, a quarter sized exit through a broken off shoulder, and a big mess in between. Also one very dead deer.

Last season this same load and bullet pulled my bacon out of the fire when I screwed up an easy 100 yard shot. Still no idea how that one went so wrong. Anyway suffice it to say the bullet had to do far more than I should have asked it to do. And it came through perfectly.

I would not hesitate to shoot this load into anything south of a big bear. I have heard some very knowledgeable folks say the Interlock 139 is a bullet that punches way above its weight and I believe it.

Will

Ordinary Joe: Check out Hornady.com/bullets They say "DGS bullets have tough copper clad steel jackets deliver deep penetration and will not deform"

It doesn't sound like these are "interlocks".

I suggest that you contact Hornady and report your results hunting deer NOT DANGEROUS GAME. Obviously you are not getting satisfactory bullet performance.

Just trying to help. I don't have a 375 Ruger and DG ammo so this is news to me, disappointing to say the least.

I have ALWAYS had very good results w/Hornday interlocks and WOULD NOT say so if it were not true.

JWALL
________________

An Old Handloader with all his fingers and both eyes

Just Deaf in Left Ear

That's ridiculous right there!

Not all bullets were created equal. Proper bullet selection will have a bigger effect on results that you give credit to. You could use the wrong bullet at very high velocity with good shot placement and still have bullet failure (rapid fragnentation w/o good penetration).

.

For the record, this cartridge, same lot #, blew clean through an 8" tree stump, pine, one year since cut, and was dug out of the tree behind it w/ 70% weight retention. Shooting through wood is not the same as flesh and bone, I had high hopes for this load after that tree observation, and again, my sample size, scientifically, is not definitive...but I sure was expecting something closer to 'bang flop.'

On paper, the .375 Ruger Alaskan is a lot of gun for whitetails - I expected more dramatic results.

-Joe

Hello
I'm one of the guys on CGN who had problems with the Hornady 180gr Interlock. I was informed that this discussion was occuring on this site by a friend, and I thought it prudent to chime in. First some history; about 18 years ago I had been using the Speer Grand slam with good success, but it was mentioned to me that the hornady interlock was just as good of a bullet for a fraction of the price. I decided to look into this. Both bullets shot well in my then current 30-06, but when I sectioned both bullets, I found that the speer grand slam core didn't even stay in the jacket until both halves where seperated, yet the interlocknot only stuck to the jacket, but I broke a screwdriver trying to get the core out of the jacket. The jacket itself wasvery thick and robust, with what Hornady called the interlock. deep expansion grooves in the tip, and a ring on it that they called the ID ring. I used this bullet to good effect up until this year, when on my elk, I took a broadside chest shot in the ribs, then a frontal shot to finish the bull off. neither one of these bullets exited (something that I had come to ecpect), and upon skinning the animal found two jackets under the skin.......with no cores. I thought to myself that this must have just been a fluke until a friend of mine said that the same bullet totally came apart on a whitetail buck at about 80 yards (this was witnessed by abother friend of ours). About 4-5 years ago (I think in the same phone conversation) when Hornady had just brought out the interbond, I noticed that with the current lot of hornady 180gr interlocks that there was no longer the ID ring, so I called hornady up and was assured that they had changed nothing else on the bullet; I also asked if it was worth it to change to the interbond, and the guy on the phone asked why I would do so if the interlock was working. On his word, I bought at the time over 2000 bullets, and figured that I was set for a long time. When I noticed that these bullets where no longer working the way that they used to, I first called Hornady, and asked what was happening. The guy on the phone swore up and down that they had not changed the bullet, and that if I was having a problem, to send some bullets in for evaluation. There was a lot of dead air, and tension on that phone conversation. I had an old interlock kicking around, so I sectioned it, and it acted the same way that I remembered it. upon sectioning the new bullet, the first thing that I noticed was that the core no longer stuck to the jacket. The jacket was thinner; to the point that the expansion grooves seemed in the new bullet to only be superficial scores in the jacket. The cannuler appered to be more shallow in the new bullet, and if I remember correctly, the interlock seemed less robust. I sent one of the failed bullets, both sectioned bullets, and a few new unfired bullets off to Hornady about early October........I have not heard back from them.
Mike

Mike,

If Hornady is lying about whether they have changed the bullet, you won't hear from them next week, next month, or next year, as I'm sure you've concluded, as well.

Hmmmmm.......

Thanks for sharing your story. Very interesting.

Welcome to the fire!

Steve

Joe, I'm curious - what did the bullets look like?

MIKE: Welcome to the fire. I believe your account and yet I have used a new lot of 30 cal.180 ils. this deer season to drop 3 deer so far with complete satisfaction, expansion & exit, with destruction of innards to boot, ranges from 145-260yds.

I don't understand the diff in your exp. and mine. ??Diff.lots??
I wouldn't worry about using my 300WM and THIS LOT on elk.

I too think it's unlikely you'll hear anything of importance from Hornady.

Have you read most of this thread? MANY are reporting of good success. That's NOT to discredit you!! I'm GUESSING and hoping it's lot to lot variation. That's not good either. What's the next lot I buy going to do?

SCRATCHING MY HEAD

JWALL

Not sure if this helps but I just examined the two different lots (lot numbers on each side) that I had in my cupboard.

As a note, I actually bought the plain box on the right from Mike because it didn't match his other 12 boxes of single lot #... I bought the fancy 4-color printed box on the left from my local gun shop this past summer.

Clearly the tips are quite different in design. There is vertical cyping (spelling?) on the smaller tip but none externally seen on the larger tipped one.

Small external differences mean nothing. They have been common in Interlocks for a long time.

You've got to section the bullets to find out if the jacket actually varies, then test the core for relative hardness.