hornady interbond .338 225gn

[7mmAI]

I have drawn a Utah early rifle elk tag this year and am working on stretching the effective range of my 338 win mag. The 225 gr interbond shoots well {1 moa out to 400 yards so far] but I have a friend who shot an elk with the 165 gr 30 cal out of his 30-06 at less than 100 yards and he felt that it mushroomed to quick and failed to penetrate deeply. The shot was quartering to on the point of the shoulder and bullet deflected enough that it angled back shattering some ribs. A second shot closed the deal.
Does anyone have any experience with the 225 interbond on elk? My other choice is the barnes ttsx that has always worked well for me and shoots good also but am wondering about how well it will open when it gets down to that 2000 fps range. Dean

 

[Franklin]

I have shot 2 bears and 1 300 class elk with the 30 cal 165 interbond and they work awesome. I never recovered the bullets out of them because they went through, but digging them out of the ground at the range, I haven't found one that didn't hold together. If they shoot good, I wouldn't worry for one second about using them! If you don't mind me asking, what unit did you draw in utah?

 

[7mmAI]

Mt Dutton early!! Will be trying to hold out for a 350 bull or better. Since that unit burned in 2002 it has a lot of open country that should be good for spotting and long range setup. Dean

 

[Fiftydriver]

I am sure the Interbond would work fine but personally I would rather use the 225 gr Accubond because of its MUCH heaiver jacket and solid base which will insure more penetration even on heavy bone impact locations compared to the interbond. Just my personal preference.

If your looking for a heavy mature bull, I would take a bullet that will leave no questions to proper penetration and I would bet on the Accubond far over the interbond.

Kirby Allen(50)

 

[Franklin]

I am sure the Interbond would work fine but personally I would rather use the 225 gr Accubond because of its MUCH heaiver jacket and solid base which will insure more penetration even on heavy bone impact locations compared to the interbond. Just my personal preference.

If your looking for a heavy mature bull, I would take a bullet that will leave no questions to proper penetration and I would bet on the Accubond far over the interbond.

Kirby Allen(50)

Interesting, the accubonds I've shot didn't have the weight retention the interbonds did. There both great choices, I'd use the one that shoots the best.

 

[Fiftydriver]

which accubonds were you shooting and what were they being shot out of as far as chambering?

My tests were with my larger wildcats and I have only shot the interbond in two of them, my 7mm and 300 but in both cases the interbond tuned into a mangled mess of copper jacket with a bit of lead smear on the inside surface of the jacket.

I have found that with the standard interlock that if the bullet stops expanding before it reached the innerlock ring it will retain very good bullet weight, if it breaks the interlock ring, the bullets fail nearly every time, by that I mean penetration simply stops.

Same tests on the Accuonds did not show this effect with more velocity at impact. Certainly they lost more weight the faster they impacted but I could not push them fast enough to get a bullet to retain less then 50% original bullet weight. That was not the case with the Interbond or Partition in my testing.

Again, at more comfortable velocity levels I could see how you got your test results.

 

[Franklin]

That's a good point. I'm not shooting near the velocity that your wildcats are. My tests were both 30. cal 165 gr @3100fps mv. At 100yrds, the interbonds were retaining roughly 120gr. and the accubonds were around 80-90gr. With higher velocity they might start trading places. That being said, I think alot of people shoot to solid of a bullet for the game there after.