I have long not been a fan of Hornady Interlock bullets. Had several in 270’s a 280, 300wby, and now 30-06 exhibit less than desirable results. They don’t hold together well at all and jacket core separation is more the rule than the exception. I fired 9 of them through my 30-06 220 grainers with mv’s from low 2300’s to high 2400’s FPS into an old igloo ice chest with a 2x10 against the side and filled with sand. Shot from 100 yards. Of the 9 I shot I recovered 8. Of the 8, 5 had shed the core and the remaining 3 were only marginally better. The heaviest was 132 grains the lightest 56 and an average of 83 grains. The least penetration was 6 inches the best about 14 the best I could tell and it was the one that retained the greatest weight. I was sure hoping that slowing these down from the 300wby speeds was going to help but I’m not sure how much it did.

I believe in the ELDX line they moved the interlock ring towards the center of the bullet more than the shank and it has been a good improvement in my experience. I have shot several deer and hogs with a 7mm eldx and been pleased with the damage, kills, and to not have recover an empty jacket yet.

I'm not sure about igloo coolers but the last 3 animals I killed were with Interlock flat base bullets. I'm not pushing them fast. 2 deer this year killed with a 6.8 SPC using 130s at 2550 fps. They exited so don't know what they weighed.

I shot at oryx with a 180 last year. Muzzle velocity was 2650 and oryx was about 150 yards. The oryx was drilled right in the front shoulder and it dropped immediately. Bullet went through both shoulders and was a lump under the offside hide. It weighed 103 grains.





Here is the oryx. If you look a few inches up and left from the tip of the ear, you can see the lump where the bullet is resting.

I cannot say I have lost an animal to one either, but I have had to shoot at least 2 of them more than once while using them.

I don't have much of a track record with them. So far, they seem extremely easy to work up an accurate load. I was more worried about the 130 being too tough for the 6.8 but I read they have the "inter-grooves " to promote expansion. Seem to work fine. I have more experience with Nosler Ballistic Tips the last 10 years.

Not sure sand is the best medium to test bullet expansion.

Yeah I don’t know how sand is for comparing bullet expansion. I think ballistic gel seems to make more fragile bullets look better than I feel they are. The backstop was just to stop the bullets, looking at them was after thought. I’ve dug a lot of better performing bullets out of a gravel pit wall though.

Well if I were hunting sand filled Igloo coolers I might pick another bullet..........

I killed the hell out of this one… you’d probably think it was dead before I shot it even. I’ve had more negative experiences hunting with them than positive is the only reason I looked for any of them anyway.

The SST is similarly designed with the interlock ring towards the base of the bullet. I recovered one from a pig I shot last year. The bullet and the jacket were right next to each other in the offside hide. Yes, it separated, but did it's job nicely. Core separation isn't the end of the world. If you want to guarantee that the core won't separate, go with a bonded bullet or monocore.

Whether sand is or is not a good medium, these test results would seem more meaningful if you shot other bullets into the same set up. If there is a bullet you believe holds up really well then it should do relatively better.

I have no experience killing coolers with the Hornady interlocks, but I use the 150 flat base to kill deer, pigs, elk, and maybe some other stuff but I can't remember for sure all with good results. Those 150s were all shot out of a 308 or 30 ought 6, so no idea how that would work in a magnum, but my 06 has a 24 inch barrel and was pushing them pretty fast for an 06

When I was younger and continuously seeking the Holy Grail of big game bullets, my local gun dealer used to ask me every time I purchased the latest and greatest big game bullet “just how dead do you want to kill those critters anyway?” Whenever I visited the Hornady factory and saw their literal museum of mounted critters many of which were shot by the company founder Joyce Hornady that would’ve shot them with interlocks. Guess I’ll never know the answer to that question. But it does make me chuckle. So, as a general hunting bullet, I agree the interlock has stood the test of time. Just like other general purpose bullets from the other manufacturers. Still fun to experiment with today’s specialized bullets to see if the critters noticed how much deader they are than yesteryear. 😊

Had great luck with the 120gr Interloc back in the day with a 25-06

While not into a cooler full or sand, but I have target shot off and on for the past 10-15 years in a buddies sand/gravel pit. I can tell you that nosler partitions, accubonds, hornady interbonds, Barnes x and TSX, Hornady ELDx, sierra pro hunters, whatever weatherby uses as their 180 grain factory soft point ammo, and rem core locks have all done better on game and on sand/gravel.

Ive had some pretty crudy performance out of the hornady intoerlocks in the field like I said. Also I have never lost one of them so I know I didnt gut shoot them etc. because I found them and saw. I load for my brother and dad as well, after 2 years they told me if I didnt go back to loading them something else than the hornady interlocks they would buy factory ammo to hunt again. All have been heavy for caliber moderate velocity loads. Just my observations, in the world of cup and core bullets from my experience they are bottom of the barrel. Im also not an anti hornady guy either.

Im pretty confident the holy grail of hunting bullets has been around for quite some time, in my mind its easily a nosler partition. I like to mess with stuff and I had a partial box of these laying around,

This makes me curious, were they not getting pass-throughs? Also what caliber were they shooting? Like I said I've had good luck with them so far, but when I run out there is a solid chance I'm going to go to Sierra's, but it may be awhile before I run out of the hornadys.

The ones I have shot deer/hogs with have been out of two 270 Winchesters shooting a 150 grain Hornady at about 2600-2700 fps (pre chronograph) 280 Rem shooting a 153 or 4 I can't remember which in the same velocity window, and these 220's out of a 300 wby at 2800-2900 fps.

Biggest complaints are no exit wound, excessive fragmentation, have had several that change direction upon impact, ie they go through the on-side body cavity and take a 90 degree turn along the off side into the guts. I shot a hill country buck in the neck with a 150 out of the 270, the bullet stayed in the neck, yes, the deer fell dead on the spot, but you don't have to be an engineer designing bullets to know something went wrong there.

That said I have also seen ok results with them as well, just for me the bad has outweighed the good and I can't say I have experienced the same level of it with any other ammo I have ever hunted with. I also loaded some 100 grain BTSP's in my 243, I will say they were the best shooters out of the sierrras and noslers I shot in it, I never did shoot any game with them.

He's a big Partition fan. I can't believe some of those weren't fired into the same media.

I also like Partitions enough that I don't shoot coolers full of sand with them. So if it were up to me to pick a bullet to shoot coolers full of sand Harnady's would get the nod.

The bullets fired were my load development, wasn’t just shooting them for the purpose of recovery it was an afterthought.

For what it’s worth I’ve hunted with the 175eldx out of my 7mm 08 for several years now and they have proved so far to be much to my liking. Don’t know if it’s all from relocating the ring or something else in the construction but so far for me they have behaved similarly to the partitions. I haven’t recovered one yet though, maybe next week I’ll shoot one into the ole igloo.

Killed plenty of stuff with em.

I've killed lots of things with the 162 ELD-X out of 7mm-08 A.I. and loaded them in lots of customer's ammo of various cartridges. Lots of pics of good bullet performance. Dead deer, elk, and moose.

I do the same thing substituting gallon milk jugs full of water. Usually as soon as I get the load sighted in I set a line of jugs up in front of my backstop at 100 yards. With the average cup and core if it makes it into the fourth jug it is doing about average. Partitions often get through six jugs. Yes I generally hunt with Partitions.

Red, I read through this and couldnt wait to get to the end and ask why are you even messing with them if you dislike them so much. I was also gonna ask why change from partition since I know you are a fan. You finally pretty much answered all that so I could of just not posted, but I never pass up a chance to tout THE Holy Grail of hunting bullets.