Always enjoy messing with new stuff. I never intended to even own the 30-06 we were at a benefit auction and the wife said buy something, between a fire pit and the CZ and a picknik table I came home with a new rifle lol. I have thoroughly enjoyed it though, no regrets.

Handloading Hornady Interlock #3515 200g bullets with 36.5g of IMR 4895 est. 2050 FPS out of a Remington 760 BDL in .35 Rem. this month in North TX. Both 100 yard neck shots. Smaller buck broadside fell like a stone. Larger buck neck shot straight on. Didn't find exit hole or bullet. Buckled and fell like a stone. Not sure how much these bullets are supposed to expand at my lower .35 Rem velocity but in my recent experience they are absolutely devastating.

The only reason I took the young buck is he had a bad back foot and wouldn't put any weight on it. Infected foot from something he stepped on in between his hooves. No kind of life for him. Exit hole the size of a quarter. Instant death when the Interlock hit home.

I really liked those 120 Interlock HPs. Was bummed when they were discontinued.

Maybe this one was a fluke? Maybe my cooler backstop is too tuff? Maybe 2365 FPS is slow enough? Maybe I missed both shoulders and the ribs didn’t mess it up? But collected this buck this weekend, 4 year old management/cull 8. Perfect behind the shoulder shot, bullet did exactly what you would hope for, left blood my 7 year old could follow easily. Deer was 180 lbs. same 220 gr interlock round nose out of a 30-06.

I’m a big fan of hornady bullets. Been shooting them since I was a junior in high school.

I typically use the 130 grain loads in my .270 and my recovered results are typical to the results you posted. Sometimes on a shoulder shot I won’t get an exit but on a lung shot I almost always too and they leave a pile of blood. Shot two animals with them in 140 grain 7mm-08 and both of them left good blood too.

I have killed dozens and dozens of heads of game over the years with them and I have not had any issues with them in terms of not killing an animal. All have went down without much fuss. Only one deer did I have to shoot twice and he was probably dead on his feet after the first shot.

I don’t use them in my faster calibers however, I use accubonds

I use the 180 gr .308, and they have done well for me.

Chevy,

Why are you loading such a heavy bullet in the 06’?

Did you just have leftover bullets or are you specifically wanting this caliber/combo for a specific purpose?

Always liked heavy for caliber bullets for hunting and I ust thought they looked neat and would work out ok. They always shot great but very explosive at weatherby speeds. Have had 30-40 of them left ever since just sitting in a box and finally have another 30 cal that will shoot them. With the availability of ammo and components these days I have tried to make the best use of everything I have and needed ammo to hunt with anyway.

whats the listed velocity out of a .300 wby? In my magnum calibers I use the accubonds....I think the interlocks may by a tad soft for magnum velocities....although people swear by them in the .257 wby mag.

Somewhere between 2800 and 2900 FPS I think, didn’t have a chronograph at the time.

Had a handful of 165 grain accubonds loaded for the wby. Some 700 FPS faster at the muzzle. I know one of these is a bonded core bullet and the other is not and I should t expect the same performance.

One is a 220 grain interlock started at 2365 FPS the other is a 165 grain accubond 3050 FPS. Both fired into the same backstop. The acubond was 100 grains on the dot or 60.6% weight retention. The hornady was 61 grains or 27.7%. The accubond penetrated 18 inches and the hornady 12.

Maybe Hornady isn't making them like they used to.

Bullet makers constantly tweak things. Maybe they need a bigger or deeper ring.

The accubond bullets I’ve recovered have all been pretty textbook performance. The interlocks are usually pretty mangled, some are prettier than others but what I would call consistent.

The only caliber i run both interlocks and accubonds thru are the 7mm-08, so that’s the only caliber I have for an apples to apples comparison, but bullet devastation is usually a bit more severe with the soft points. Bigger exits and more internal damage with the interlocks. I’ve been impressed with the accubonds as well although it’s really better suited for game larger than whitetail.

I give a thumbs up on both bullets, if you want a good reliable performer the interlock is a mainstay. If you want to shoot a premium and don’t mind paying a little more, an accubond will not disappoint.

The only other bullet I was really a fan of was/is the sierra game king.

I’ve never lost an animal using interlocks but I’ve had my share of odd performance and a lot of no exit wounds. Shooting moderate velocity 159 grain 270’s and 280 and 220 grain 30 cal I expect more than that. Seeing how many shed the jacket with a lot less penetration and retention thanexpected shows me there is a reason.

159gr 270 or 280??

Typo on the phone, the .277’s were 150’s and the 7mm in 280 rem were 153 I believe, that or 154 I don’t have any more but know it was an odd number.

Thanks for clarification

I remember the 154 gr 7mms. I have shot a few of those, never used them on game though.

The article in the Dallas Morning News this morning about a super scary confrontation with a 7' long & apprx 300 lb hog shot by a young man here in Anderson County, and can only pour gasoline on the Hornady reliability issues discussion. The article was written by the guy from Nacogdoches ?or Lufkin? who has taken over the DMN Outdoor Editors gig is well worth reading.

The 22 year old grandson of the property owner sez he has a kill record of 70+ some hogs and apparently is no rookie, but IMO he's super lucky to have only minor, non life threatening damage from being thrown ? 7'-10' in the air by the hog while trying to escape the close quarters confrontation. The news paper's pic confirms the size of the hog. The article says the 22 year old young man was shooting a 30'06, with Hornady 180ger's that did not penetrate the hog's "shield" exit, disable or immediately kill the hog from a 30'06's 180gr'ers direct hit taken from under 30' away. WOW

Makes me start rethink my caliber & bullet choices if I decide to start hunting the new Neches property. Always regretted sell my 9.3x62..and now I REALLY regret it. A 9.3 carbine length rifle is looking way mo bettah right now.
Ron

Some hogs are extremely hard to kill. Most are not that hard.

Could also make a case for a 45/70 lever gun too...Hmmm

Years ago a hunting pard & I drew Keechi Creek for a TPW hog hunt. Long story short, my pard found a monster Off Property trying to cool off in the sudden January warm spell, sleeping with his sounder on the bank of the Creek. Laying on his side, he was a little taller than the 3rd strand of the Property Line fence and mebbe +/- 6' long snout to tail. My pard wanted to put him down, and drag him out from under the fence with his truck & a chain...but we were a over a mile back from pavement. Long story short we almost got lost walking out in the dark...and then the rattlebugs ? or sumthin started making THAT kinda noise in the dark. I've wondered occasionally about... We coulda woulda shoulda had pork in the freezer for over a year or two or just go to Kroger and stay'd outta the hoosgow for trespassing & cutting the fence.
Ron

There isn't a hog alive that could throw a grown adult 7-10 feet in the air, nor be able to shake off a 180 grain bullet launched from a .30-06.


Folks from the South want to believe in the boogie man so badly, they have perpetuated the Hogzilla myth to the 9's.


I kill most of my pigs with a .22 LR. Killed a ton of them. Also shot alot of them with a rifle and some big ones at that. They are not the vicious blood thirsty creatures they have been made out to be and damn sure not indestructable. the whole specialty hunting segment gear around hog hunting is laughable..... they are not Cape Buffalo or Grizzly Bears no matter how bad you want them to be.

I'm inclined to agree with these statements.

My 1st and only experience with this bullet was a couple of weeks ago. Made my maiden voyage with my 7-08 and 139gr. First deer was 165yds and 2nd was 85yds. Both were behind the shoulder shot(for bullet research purposes), both got pass thru, both were found less than 30yds from POI, both had zero blood trail associated with the. This and the size of the exit hole were less than desirable and a bit concerning for me.

*Disclaimer before I get raked over the coals*
- shooter(me) did my part in shot placement
- bullet did its job(obviously) and killed
.
.
.but in the event of a less than ideally shot placement a wound channel and a greater exit hole would/could greatly increase the opportunity to track the animal resulting in a recovery. Can’t track(blood) what’s not there is my point and concern.


jrg