Hornady Bonded Bullet - 165 gr.

[Ian M]

Have the new 165 gr. bonded bullet to test and it looks good. I just placed the 150 and 165 grain Scirocco and new Interbonded bullets side by side, here are some eyeball opinions.

The Hornadys are slightly shorter in overall length. They have longer boat-tails. The Sciroccos have longer bearing surfaces because of the boat-tail angle, the ogive starts at about the same place on each type of bullet. The plastic tip is noticeably smaller in the Hornady bullet, red in color vs black for the Scirocco.

Actual measurements of the four bullets I picked out are:

Make Wt Overall Length
Hornady 150 1.234"
Swift 150 1.280"
Hornady 165 1.306"
Swift 165 1.338"

This is only a 4-bullet review, gives an idea of how they compare.

The 150's came to me in bulk but the 165's are in standard Hornady boxes, labeled
30 CAL .308
165 GR INTERBOND
Qty: 100 #30459

They are very uniform bullets, weight dispersion is neglible, est. -0.5 gr. for a twenty bullet sample.

Will put some Varget under them and see how they shoot. Loaded 43-46 grains at 2.830".

 

[Ian M]

Chronographed the 165's in three rifles today. Very cool shooting, as in minus 12 with a 7 mph full value wind.
Best group was four into 0.380" with the fifth shanked (and called out) to 0.900" with 43 gr. Varget at 2626 fps from my ROCK. I believe if I could have felt my fingers this would have been tighter

The 165's did not shoot as well in the other rifles, although we got lots of velocities and info. Accuracy today was just over an inch at 100 for most loads tested. We did not do a comprehensive test for the other guy's rifles, used 45 Varget as this shoots very well with 168's in all of our rifles.

Here is proof that an Oehler 35P will run for three hours at minus 12 - 15 (C).
165 gr. Interbond
43 gr. Varget 2626 Most accurate load
44 gr. Varget 2725
45 gr. Varget 2783
46 gr. Varget 2832 Extraction smooth, no marks or indications of pressure on the case head

At the end of our shoot one partner stuffed five 175 Black Hills Ammo factory loads into his Rem. M-700 (not factory - McMillan HTG, Mike Rock barrel, Nikon Tactical, Badgers) and cracked off five quick shots - went into 0.420" SD of 9. Wish I could load that consistently.

 

[kraky]

Ian--it's always great to hear your test reports. I thank you for your time in not only testing but reporting to boot!! don kraky

 

[Ian M]

Appreciate your kind words, Don. I am fortunate to have the opportunity to shoot some of the new products and enjoy sharing the info. Will have the Noslers shortly, plus Remington's new factory loaded bonded Coreloks, Federal Trophy Bonded and Norma Oryx. Am also shooting Sciroccos since they started this plastic pointed, bonded boat-tail interest.
Have to shoot them all into my mud, that will be interesting to see how they compare at longer distances (will have to warm up quite a bit before we do that tho).

 

[Ian M]

For you numbers crunchers;
Hornady 150 Interbond
47.0 gr. Varget
Win. Case, Win. Primers
Velocity - 2943 fps
Temp. -10 C

Drops - moa
400 5.5 450 7.0
500 9.0 550 11.0
600 12.5 650 14.0
700 15.75

Accuracy was sub minute all the way, despite temps that would have froze the balls off a brass monkey and winds 15mph partial value.

Also shot the new 165's out to 700 and they did very well, much more drop as my accuracy load is only 2625 fps. These bullets stay right in with my Scirocco loads for accuracy and drop.

 

[Ian M]

For those warm-weather fortunates (including Brent up there in the warmths of Alaska) who have been following my chronicles of shooting in Sask. cold temps - today we shot in shirt-sleeves. Temps were so warm that the entire landscape was mirage, great practice for LR wind reading. Shot Sciroccos out to 700 and they did really well, stayed well under one minute when we shot three shot groups. Mostly getting drops for some new drop-charts for a hunt we hope to do. Sure nice to get back at the big steel plates and into calling wind - without freezing. What a difference two days makes. Only two days ago I was walking on a foot+ of frozen crusted snow and today the exact same field is black.

 

[Brent]

WOW! Finally!

Thanks for the report there too Ian.

I'll have to try the 150's in my sons 308 here soon. I haven't had any luck with the Scirccos in it but with a top end load and a 150 XLC it stays right at or just under moa, 47.5gr Varget.
That's about the only tough bullet I can get to group well though. Ive been through the 150, 165, 180's in Barnes BT's and Sciroccos. I was going to try the flat base Barnes and see how they did, but I'll wait and try these 150's first.

We got cold for the last day and a half, down to -8, but it's back to +15 right now and rising. Suppose to be +40 again by Monday.

The wind was blowing so bad around the corner from me the last few days, they lost a roof off of a Junior High school in Palmer, four tractor trailers this side of Wasilla were flipped on their sides in the ditch, one motorhome on it's side in the Wally World parking lot... on top of two cars. Almost all the signs are gone around here, traffic lights are kissing the ground all over, roofs are partially or completely missing, had a forrest fire on the south edge of Palmer in the middle of it they mirraculousley got put out, on and on and on.... Meanwhile there is hardly been a breeze just around the corner in the valley I'm in.

The wind died down this afternoon thank God. If there was ice on the road this place would have been litterally shut down the whole time. My brother clocked the wind at over 90 mph with a Kestrel 4000 in Wasilla yesterday. He said when he was in Anchorage the night before last, four street signs almost went through his windshield as he was heading back out of town. He said the whole mountain side is literally covered in garbage all the way to treeline just before Eagle River! One hell of a time we been havin up here the last few days!

I hope your weather stay for a while! I'm sure you're taking advantage of it.