What do you think of Hornady Interbond Bullets?

Caligater

New member
After going through all my .300 Win Mag ammo today, I found 4 different loads; some for deer (ballistic tips), some for elk (partitions), and two different basic lead bullets for plinking.

It's time to come up with one load. This rifle is in my inventory for hunting animals bigger than I want to hunt with my .243; big whitetails, elk and other big bodied N. American game. I want a quality bullet (bonded or copper preferred) but I don't want to spend an arm and leg either. The barnes bullets I have shoot REALLY good in my .243, but I don't want to pay that much for loading the .300.

I'm going to shoot 180s, and I'm thinking about the Hornady Interbonds. If you have experience with them, let me know what you think.
 
I have used the interbonds in my 270 for several years now and have taken several animals. Both elk and deer. They are a quality bullet and have performed well. I shoot a 140gr out of my 270. I have not had any complaints.
 
Check out the Hornady 180 SST. I shoot them out of my 300. They are as accuarate as a match bullet, expand and retain. Good bullet.

But remember this, it's all about shot placement.
 
Originally Posted By: Shakey YankeeCheck out the Hornady 180 SST. I shoot them out of my 300. They are as accuarate as a match bullet, expand and retain. Good bullet.

But remember this, it's all about shot placement.

The interlocks are a lot cheaper than the bonded bullets, and I'm sure they work just fine, especially on deer and elk. Heck they probably work fine on all N. American game. Since I have no plans to hunt anything bigger than elk any time soon, the interlock SSTs probably would be a good choice when all factors (including price) are considered.
 
My wife shot the SST 1 year. The bullet made a mess, the deer died, but we lost a bunch of meat and found fragment everywhere. I am not sure why, but it was a good rib cage hit. The entery hole was the size of my fist, and it never exited. LikeI mention we foung bullet every where. Off a 130 gr bullet the largest piece was around 35 gr if I remember correct.
 
I took an antelope with a ribcage, broadside shot this year and same thing as elks' wife: a mess. Total jacket core seperation, a couple exit wounds and big piece of jacket that did not exit, lots of wasted meat. Will be my last balistic tip-type on game. Shot about 150 yards with 7-08.
My brother had similar results with same type bullet in 270 on 2 different shots. Just too destructive to often for my taste.
 
Originally Posted By: 1happyshooterI took an antelope with a ribcage, broadside shot this year and same thing as elks' wife: a mess. Total jacket core seperation, a couple exit wounds and big piece of jacket that did not exit, lots of wasted meat. Will be my last balistic tip-type on game. Shot about 150 yards with 7-08.
My brother had similar results with same type bullet in 270 on 2 different shots. Just too destructive to often for my taste.

That's interesting to hear.

I've shot a lot of deer with 165gr Nosler Ballistic Tips and have had nothing but good luck with them, so I know that ballistic tip-type bullets work. The reason I want a plastic tip bullet is because the recoil of the 300 flattens lead tips pretty bad for the rounds in the magazine.
 
Come to think of it. Between my Dad and I, we've killed a lot of deer with Nosler Ballistic Tips out of his 25-06 too. We've never had a problem like what you guys are talking about with the SST.

Maybe I'll keep looking and just spend the money on a bonded bullet like I was originally looking at.
 
When I first played with SSTs several years ago, I used them in a .308 (150 grainers). That batch behaved just like big V-maxes. I quit using them until just a couple years ago, when I started reading that Hornady had thickened the jacket. Now I use them exclusively in my 6.5X55 (129 grainers). I have to wonder if the secret to their success is moderate velocity.

I've also used Interbonds in my .338. They performed admirably on four animals in South Africa. Only the black wildebeest stopped one, and that was a tight quartering to shot at 200 yards. I'm considering a switch from Barnes to Interbonds in my .300 WSM in the near future, though I like to have one rifle that's "lead free" just in case.
 
I use the 117 SST in my 25-06 for deer and have had great preformace. I don't load them as fast as some would, in the 2800 fps range. This has given me .65" groups out of my Browning A-Bolt.
 
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I have been using the interlock for years
they are my go to bullet kinda a work horse
nothing fancy just results ,.and isn't that what we all want ???
sorry I thought you were referring to the plain jane Hornady bullets
 
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We've taken a bunch with the plastic tip bullets, but failure has been too frequent. Like DesertRam said, "overgrown vmax". If I remember right, Nosler had to rework some of their ballistic tip hunting bullets because of this problem. Yes, you get some dramatic bang-flop type kills, but the meat losses are intolerable to me. If a fellow did not want to use the meat, then it wouldn't be an issue. I am of the penetration-over-explosiveness school. My preference in basic bullets that I will go back to are hornady interlock and sierra gamekings. If I want more, I will use barnes x-bullets.
As far as dead right there, last year I had the accidental shooting of two deer with the same bullet, a doe and a small buck. Complete penetration of both of them and both basically dropped on the spot. This was a plain-vanilla 139 grain hornady interlock at about 60 or so yards.
 
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My own experieince with Ballistic Tips has been unfavorable with way too much damage and not enough penetration. Partner used 150 SST in his '06 one year and had the same results.

I suppose they may have been improved, but with the quality of Nosler Partition and Barnes X I can't find a reason to try them again.

Might give the interbon a try though.
 
I think they work pretty good. Hand loads in 300 Win Mag. Only been able to take a couple of shots. One was at a 5x6, big bodied Colo. Elk. Frontal shot, 120 yards, DRT. The other was a 6X6 running(away)shot, 175 yards. Caught him in the shoulder, ran up the neck, stopped the the skull. It was kind of amazing to watch, all four feet came of the ground and he landed on his back! Made for kinda ugly picture, but he was also DRT.
 
I wasn't going to chime in here, but it seems you are getting a lot of answers from guys that haven't shot Interbonds, but have shot Interlocks, SST's and Ballistic Tips. I've shot all those as well, but I quit hunting for a new bullet once I discovered the 165gr 30 cal. Interbond. I have killed 30+ (actually probably closer to 40) big game animals with this bullet including black bear, antelope, mule deer and whitetailed deer. It is an outstanding bullet and I have shot critters from about every angle with it. Rarely do I need to add a second bullet. It truly delivers a punch. It's probably not the bullet for guys that like to eat up to the bullet wound, but for guys like me that don't like tracking stuff it works very well. It penetrates really well, makes a good size wound channel, and most critters are DRT. The few that do run off do not go far and usually leave an impressive blood trail. With any luck I will add a couple more deer to the list by this week's end. It is a great bullet, try it, you'll like it!
 
...add another muley to the list of big game taken with the 165gr Hornady Interbond. One shot at 250 yards. Steep uphill and quartering towards me. Hit him in the front of the chest. It caused him to do a complete back flip. It was one of the most spectacular kill shots I've seen! The bullet passed all the way through him diagnally exiting just in front of the opposite side hip. Killed him deader than dead. Can't really ask for much more than that. Like I said, once I started using 165gr Hornady Interbonds I quit looking at other bullets.
MuleDeerGun2.jpg
 
I love the 180 IB's in my 300 Weatherby for elk. Great penetration on a big animal like elk. My loads are pushing the 180 IB at 3280 and shoot a .625 group at 100 yards. By far the best bullet I've shot in this gun.
 
Brother shoots a load of 72-73g of R#25, Rem brass, WRRM primers witrh the 7 Mag at 3200+ fps, throw the brass away after the shot, but deadly accurate with the 154g Interbond no extraction problems.
 
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