Hornady Interlock

M

MSdeerhunter

New member
Had a bad experience Saturday evening with a Hornady Interlock. My son's Model 7 in 7mm/08 shoots the flat based Hornady Interlocks pretty well, and he has shot a handful of deer with them and we've always been happy with the performance of these bullets. He just recently started shooting an A Bolt in 270 WIN that I've had for years, and I bought a box of the Hornady Custom 140 grain BTSP to try in the A Bolt. It shot a very tight group with them, so I figured that would be a great bullet for him for the 270. We made a hunt Saturday evening (deer season goes to Feb 15th in this part of MS), and right before dark we see a coyote at 110-120 yards. My son shoots and the coyote drops. Upon getting to the animal, I noticed a larger than normal entrance hole but didn't think much of it. We drug the yote out to the truck, and apparently it was drug with the entrance side down to the ground for part of the walk out, because the entrance wound had opened up some more. I looked a little closer, and realized there was no exit wound. The entrance was so big after the drag out that I could now get my hand in it, and I dug all around in there looking for the bullet, with no bullet to be found. I'm guessing the bullet could have fell out while dragging him out, but the lack of an exit and the fact that the bullet pretty much blew up on impact has me pretty puzzled. The bullet did clip the back of the shoulder blade, but again, we're talking about a dog here. Has anyone else ever had an experience like this with the Hornady Interlock? What I've always regarded as a pretty reliable deer bullet, now has me second guessing having him shoot them next deer season. Thanks in advance for any feedback.
 
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Strange, I consider it one of the tougher bullets. Is there any possible way the bullet could have contacted any sticks or limbs laying on the ground?

We have killed a lot of deer with that bullet loaded pretty hot with IMR 7828.

I don't think that I would jump to any conclusions, bullets can and will do some strange things.

Some years ago, we were hunting in Alabama. We jumped a buck in a place that was so thick it was like a jungle. We hopped in the truck and raced around at warp speed to a to a farm road that had a heavily used deer trail/crossing that we thought where the Monster buck would cross. We heard him coming like a freight train through the woods! He stopped at the clearing with only his head and shoulder showing. I had screwed the 3-10 leupold down to 3x, and just held on hair since he was 10 yards away with steam rolling out of his nose in the 6* temps. At the shot, he hit the ground and started plowing the brush and briars for 30 yards. My brother was shooting from the hip and I shot twice more, hitting him only in the ham on a shot. I was shooting a browning 270 with 130g NOsler ballistic tips, the old ones that are supposed to be so explosive. On my first shot, That 130g broke his left shoulder and exited his left hip, traveling the entire length of the body. Bullets do some strange things, buck weighted 268 lbs...freek luck.

I had been hunting that buck all week, we had spotted him twice. He was bedding down 40 yards from my stand. ON the last day of the hunt, brother jumped the buck when he drove up to my ladder stand to pick it and me up. 12 point, mature buck, but that 130g ballistic tip should NOT have gone all the way though that buck...never even heard of one doing that.

Now you on the other hand, had a tough 140g possibly blow up...bullets can do some strange things.

About 10 years ago, I was deer hunting with a BAR in 30/06, unreal accurate rifle with a boss on it.
A buck was trailing a doe, and he stopped on a frontal quartering shot. I had the 150g Nosler ballistic tips loaded with 59g of IMR 4350. I shot the buck on what I thought was the inside of the shoulder blade, and the bullet deflected on the shoulder blade and went right down the side of the buck taking out ribs and EXITED!!. That deer was jumping like a kangroo on hot asphalt! Left front leg and guts were flopping, and had a hole in him that looked like he had been shot with a Cannon! I finally connected again on the third shot and killed him outright.

You never know what a bullet is going to do.

In your shot, I wonder if the coyote was actually standing on a quartering shot, which ended up being a grazing shot? Coyotes will often move just as the gun goes off, also.
140g has a solid lead core which should penetrate, in the very least...hummm....
I would go and kill another one, just to see. Also, when I have had a coyote killed with what looks like some strange things going on, I will hang him up on a fence post and shoot him again at that same approximate yardage. This usually either confirms your suspicion or will chalk it up to "strange stuff happens".
 
Great idea shooting them again. But he shot him right at last light and I didn't realize what had happened until an hour after dark. I wasn't staying at my camp that night so we headed home after that evening hunt. If we were staying I could have shot him again the next morning. If he was quartering to us at all, it would have been very very slight. He was crossing an old pipeline on a game trail that crosses perdindicular to our shooting position, so he was broadside. He did look our way right before the shot, but he appeared to just turn his head. I guess I will write this off as a freak occurrence and try to shoot a yote or pig with it now that deer season is coming to a close. The gun shot a very tight group with them off the bench so I would like to stick with them. Thanks.
 
I've killed a lot of deer with the Interlock 100 gr. .243, 130 gr. .270, 165 gr. .308 & .30-06 hand loads. Never had any trouble with them. Nearly always got exits and on the off chance I didn't I'd find a mashed up bullet that retained 50% - 65% of its initial weight. My dads .308 loved the 165 gr. Interlock and that's all he ever used. I knew an older feller that used a .243 for his winters meat and the 100 gr. Interlock was the only bullet used. He never once complained about it. I've always liked the Interlock bullets.
 
I've used the interlock a lot also, mostly 165 grain in a 308. Most of the time I had an exit with deer. I consider it to be a fairly firm bullet.

You/he could try to shoot a few into some type of medium that sorta duplicates a flesh shot? I'd kinda think it's a fluke of some sort, though I don't have a simple explanation.
 
I called Hornady today and explained it to them. They were obviously surprised to hear it too. They just said strange things can happen, but to not expect that to be the norm. Like I said, we have had good experiences with the Interlock in the past. Time to go bait up some pigs and test them again.
 
Shoot the 180 gr Interlock out of my 300 WM and have always had great accuracy and the bullet always held together. Longest shot on a deer was 314 yds. 1st shot knocked him down and as he got back up I put him down again. 1 bullet exited the other was found under the hide on the opposite shoulder. Pretty mushroom too. Shot a deer looking straight at me at 304 yds. and hit it in the brisket and found a piece of the bullet in the pelvis area. I've always thought they were tough bullets but stuff happens. Now you have to shoot another one or more and see what happens . Good Luck to you.
 
Yeah, hopefully we have some luck with the pigs. They get pretty nocturnal during hunting season but they usually relax a little in early spring. The Interlocks that we have had good results with in the past have been the flat base ones. The problem one the other day was the 140 grain boat tail version. Have you guys also shot the boat tail ones on game? Again, I think highly of Hornady and think this was a fluke. Were any of the good experiences noted so far in this thread with the BTSP Interlocks?
 
I have had excellent results from Hornady Interlock FB bullets, they are my "go to" bullets for every caliber I own.
Only one that didn't perform exactly as expected was when I shot a buck in the neck with a 6.5 Rem. Mag. loaded W/a 129HSP, looked like a darn grenade went off and there were little pieces of that bullet everywhere. Needless to say, that buck went nowhere but straight down!
 
I have used 139 BTSP in my 280 for years. Can honestly say I have never had a deer get away from one out the 280. Just the right speed and wt. combo for our PA deer. Hornady is always my go to hunting bullet. As far as penetration, I would guess 75% of my shots were pass through on deer. As the consensus goes, never really know how a bullet will react to impact.
 
Good to know, 10ring1. We will do some more field testing with the btsp and I'm sure this occurrence will prove to be an anomoly. This is pretty funny, but my 10 YO son came home from school yesterday and said he wrote a letter to Hornady during some free time in one of his classes. He said he wanted to mail it to the guys who actually make the bullets. His letter explains all about how much he likes the interlock bullet, and the six deer he has killed with it. He says how accurate it is. He even drew a cut away showing the copper jacket and lead core. He then explains the coyote he recently shot that did not yield an exit wound, and how his dad thinks that was just a fluke deal, etc. This kid has obviously spent a little bit of time around the reloading bench. I told him I didn't know the guy's names who make the bullets, but that I knew who Steve Hornady is. It went in the mail today addressed "ATTN: Steve Hornady". Kids are funny.
 
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Is it possible that the bullet impacted a limb, twig, or heavy weeds before hitting the coyote? That could have caused the bullet to mushroom before impact?
 
Anything can happen. You have to realize that bullets are a high production item also.

If you have hunted long enough, you can see some strange things happen. In your mind's eye, you can see that wound and you just do not know how to sort it out. Just let it go.

Some years ago on a hunt in Mexico, I carried a box of 50 22/250's loaded with a Speer 52g HP. We had a lucky weather front move through and temps dropped like an anvil. Animals were moving everywhere. ON one stand, we had 7 coyotes on the ground. I had to shoot 3 of them twice as they were getting up and hobbling off. The bullet was blowing up on the surface shot at 3550 fps. That whole trip, we had animals with surface explosions. We ended up with 32 tails, but lost a few.

Gerry Blair had recommended that bullet to me as the best bullet on the planet for killing coyotes, so I know he knew what he was talking about. The screw ball at speer that had set up the machine for making jackets had adjusted the jacket thickness too thin on the lot that I had. I shot up the remaining 2000 that I had on p. dogs and jack rabbits.

These types of employee errors can explain some of the strange things that may happen with a bullet in a manufacturing process. Manufacturers are at the mercy of the Mill when they order lead. The lead comes in a spool, and is referred to as lead wire. This wire is made to certain specifications as to how much antimony and tin are in the lead. If the mix gets off during manufacture or a spool of pure lead is shipped and labeled wrong, this can explain how a bullet would blow up prematurely and not penetrate. Life happens.

A more common thing that happens as has been suggested was that the bullet encountered a twig, limb, or other object, but was not deflected enough to miss the animal.
 
Didn't take long to put the 140 grain btsp to the test. We have a shooting bench on the porch of our camp. I shot a group with 130 grain nosler partitions yesterday morning and my son was having fun shooting the 30 30. The 270 was in the lead sled with the bolt out and we were sitting there talking, and I told him to stick with the interlock since his gun shoots them the best. I had just shot an interlock at the target to resight the gun for it, and it hit dead in the bulls eye. I made the adjustment to raise it up 1.25", and was about to push a dry patch down the barrel. I happen to look up and a large boar is crossing the camp lawn 40 yards away. Had to hurry but I got a round and the bolt in and hammered him quartering slightly to me on a fast walk at 40-50 yards. I literally shot him from the lead sled on our shooting bench. The bullet went in the front portion of the shoulder, breaking bone and lodged in the off shoulder, breaking bone on the off side too. He never took another step. That is the toughest animal we have down here and it performed great. It must have hit some high grass in that field before hitting the coyote last weekend. I will try to post some pics of the hog if I can figure out how to. Craziest thing I've ever seen.
 
LOL... Good deal, glad you had another chance. At 40 yards on a big hogs shoulder that's a pretty good test of the bullets abilities. Shoot another dozen critters or thereabouts and you'll be relaxed and at ease when you squeeze the trigger and send one down range.
 
I used the 130 gr. Interlocks in a 6.5 CM on a muley & pronghorn hunt in Wyoming last fall with similar results. The muley buck was at 100 yds quartering towards me. Shot went inside the shoulder striking a rib. Entrance hole was 3" with a 1/2" exit hole behind the last rib on the other side, Found the metal jacket inside the hide at the exit hole. The pronghorn was a 150+ yard shot quartering towards me. There again the bullet struck a rib going in with a 4" entrance hole and 1/2" exit hole. No bullet found, but a lot of very fine lead and brass fragments on the inside of the hide at the exit hole.

Wrote a letter to Hornady. Haven't gotten a reply.

Going to try the ELD-X 143 gr. on Texas hogs next month. Hope they do better.
 
I have used the 150 btsp in my 308 in PA for 2 decades in addition to my 280. It is my go to 30 cal bullet for pa deer as well. Never had any complaints.
 


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