Hornady Dangerous Game Series

[CBeck]

I love Hornady ammo and used it for decades. I did shy away from their DG ammo initially, because of too many adverse critiques from PHs. The DGX critiques favorably and I'll use it on my next DG hunt.

Have used Hornady ammunition for many years…. I’m confident it will serve you well.

I’m still interested in from hearing from those that may have used the 270 grain interlock on PG.

 

[UpNorthMI]

I've had great luck with the newer Hornady DGX bonded bullets and will continue to use them for DG, a number of retrieved bullets are shown below in .416 400 Grain along with TSX in .375 300 grain. These were all recovered from Australian Buffalo. My son and I shot 32 buffalo over a week, it allowed us to get a sense of bullet effectiveness and performance in a real world scenario.

The DGX Bonded were shot through a .416/500 NE double, I will certainly use them again and can only say good things about them. I also use Barnes TSX and Swift A Frames, they are all good bullets.

My personal preference on PG such as Kudu and smaller is to use a soft point bullet, a Hornady 270 grain interlock type bullet would provide ideal expansion for most PG in .375. For larger PG I would select a bullet with a little more structure, we have lots to choose from.

 

[dgr416]

I wouldnt trust hornady on a chipmonk hunt .I have nothing but problems with everything hornady brass, bullets ,dies .They got too big for their britches and cant be trusted .I trust Swift bullets , Nosler partitions , woodleigh and a few more .I had many friends had problems with barnes x bullets on big bears .

 

[MS 9x56]

I have become quite fond of the Norma selection of bullets. I won’t ever give up my Noslers but I find myself loading Norma’s more and more frequently.

 

[Longwalker]

To answer the original question, I have used Hornady 270 gr. .375 Interlock bullets to shoot one elk and one bear. Both animals were shot through the shoulder blades and spine, a severe test of any bullet. Both bullets killed instantly, broke a lot of bone, lost about half their weight, and were found mangled and expanded under the far side skin. A limited sample but I was satisfied. I think the Hornady 270 gr. Interlock .375 is a reasonable choice for hunting plains game in a non-dangerous game area.

 

[CBeck]

My son and I shot 32 buffalo over a week, it allowed us to get a sense of bullet effectiveness and performance in a real world scenario.

Great post and thanks for sharing….but I want to hear more about this (and do it too)!

 

[UpNorthMI]

Great post and thanks for sharing….but I want to hear more about this (and do it too)!

There is a long story posted here:

Thread 'AUSTRALIA: Northern Territory Cull Hunting With BIG COUNTRY SAFARIS AUSTRALIA - May 2025'

May 17, 2025

I've been looking at planning an Australian cull hunt for several years now, I've talked to a number of outfitters at the SCI & DSC Expos and through this forum. My goal was to be able to hunt a reasonable number of animals of several different types to fill a long enough trip to make the trek to Australia worthwhile.

I was planning the trip to hint with my son who is in his early 20's and as a way to celebrate my early retirement. We finally decided to plan a hunt with Alex Jagers of @BIG COUNTRY SAFARIS AUSTRALIA in the Australian Northern Territory. We planned to hunt water...

• UpNorthMI
• Replies: 70
• Forum: Hunting reports Australia & New Zealand

• 
• 

It was a great trip to share with my son, I would definitely recommend getting out to Australia.

 

[Bandera]

Bullet on the left is a Barnes 300 grain TSX, loaded to 2550 fps which is what my 375 African shoots the Hornady DGX.
The bullet on the right is a factory loaded Hornady 300 grain DGX out of a 375 Guide Gun. Not sure of the velocity but it would be slower with the shorter barrel.
Only 1 of 6 DGX’s fired was recovered. I know one is in the skull. The one recovered was heart shot. The other 4 where body shots and may have been in the stomach.

Personally I prefer the performance of the Barnes.

 

[CBeck]

There is a long story posted here:

Thread 'AUSTRALIA: Northern Territory Cull Hunting With BIG COUNTRY SAFARIS AUSTRALIA - May 2025'

May 17, 2025

I've been looking at planning an Australian cull hunt for several years now, I've talked to a number of outfitters at the SCI & DSC Expos and through this forum. My goal was to be able to hunt a reasonable number of animals of several different types to fill a long enough trip to make the trek to Australia worthwhile.

I was planning the trip to hint with my son who is in his early 20's and as a way to celebrate my early retirement. We finally decided to plan a hunt with Alex Jagers of @BIG COUNTRY SAFARIS AUSTRALIA in the Australian Northern Territory. We planned to hunt water...

• UpNorthMI
• Replies: 70
• Forum: Hunting reports Australia & New Zealand

• 
• 

It was a great trip to share with my son, I would definitely recommend getting out to Australia.

Great hunt and great read….sounds like the interlock would have worked well on the donkey

 

[Andrew62]

While I have taken most of my buffalo with Barnes TSX, I have taken 3 with Hornady DGX, they worked wonderfully well out of my .375H&H.

 

[Daryl S]

I wouldnt trust hornady on a chipmonk hunt .I have nothing but problems with everything hornady brass, bullets ,dies .They got too big for their britches and cant be trusted .I trust Swift bullets , Nosler partitions , woodleigh and a few more .I had many friends had problems with barnes x bullets on big bears .

I've used lots of Hornady bullets on gophers, slightly bigger than you chipmonks(chipmunks?). Nothing but good things to say about Hornady's 40gr. Vmax and SP's in 45gr., both .223's and .224's. Wonderful bullets. I also found the Hornady brass to be very good. Not as good as premium Nosler, but 1/2 the price. For that, I can ream primer pockets, the only difference I found.
The .17's are even better, right out to 540yards on gophers with both the 20gr. and 25gr. Vmaxes.
What are you saying?????????????????
(did I note that I(& several others from Jim Saubier's small bore forum) was/were instrumental in the 25gr. Vmax being brought out? INCREDIBLE long range gopher bullet. less than 1/2 the wind/drift of the 20gr.
You did mention chipmunks!!!!!

 

[dgr416]

In my 338 win mag that shoots clover leafs with winchester bullets the hornady of any grain shoot shotgun patterns 30 inches at 100 yards .My BAR 300 win same thing 1/2 inch groups with winchester bullets then put in hornady it sprays a 30 inch pattern .I bought a bunch of hornady dies new improved you had to hammer out with a hammer each primer they wouldnt hold thr decappimg rod tight .I called hornady they wouldnt tale them back or replace these on 18 sets of dies crappy customer service .I have a few 5 gsllon buckets of 308 hornady brass that is not reliadable what you do .I had some expensive 405 win hornady brass thst buckled when you tried to relosd it .The same with a bunch of hornsdy 375 jdj brass total junk .The recycling center is the best place for hornady brass and bullets junk ! I guess they got big because remington went out a while .I wont buy a 416 ruger rifle till someone besides hornady makes brass and ammo !

 

[Daryl S]

Interesting. I've never heard anything like this before. I really like my Hornady dies. I've 6 or 7 sets of them. Their bullets have always performed for me. I've shot a lot of their .375" bullets and the 500, 300 and 350s in .458 as well as .308", 6.5mm, 7mm, .224, .223 and .172's. Their HMR 17gr. Vmax shoots 3/8" in my Martini at 100 meters.

 

[Bandera]

In my 338 win mag that shoots clover leafs with winchester bullets the hornady of any grain shoot shotgun patterns 30 inches at 100 yards .My BAR 300 win same thing 1/2 inch groups with winchester bullets then put in hornady it sprays a 30 inch pattern .I bought a bunch of hornady dies new improved you had to hammer out with a hammer each primer they wouldnt hold thr decappimg rod tight .I called hornady they wouldnt tale them back or replace these on 18 sets of dies crappy customer service .I have a few 5 gsllon buckets of 308 hornady brass that is not reliadable what you do .I had some expensive 405 win hornady brass thst buckled when you tried to relosd it .The same with a bunch of hornsdy 375 jdj brass total junk .The recycling center is the best place for hornady brass and bullets junk ! I guess they got big because remington went out a while .I wont buy a 416 ruger rifle till someone besides hornady makes brass and ammo !

Quality Cartridge is now making 416 Ruger Brass. At least that is what they told me at the SHOT show. You may have to give them a call.

What do you do with Hornady 308 Brass sell it. Plenty of folks will buy it.

405 Winchester is a pretty thin wall cartridge. The buckling was most likely caused by your die adjustment. Plenty of us have 10’s of thousands of reloaded rounds under our belts, but we still make mistakes reloading.

I have seen Lee and RCBS dies do the same thing with the decapper backing out.
Little extra grunt on the tightening nut fixed that.

 

[Daryl S]

I was mistaken - just counted = 9 sets of Hornady dies. Never had a problem with any of them, setting them up or whatever. I use a pair of crescent wrenches for locking the collet on the de-cap stem, or simply clamp the stem in the bench vice and one crescent wrench on the die body.

 

[dgr416]

Hornady even said these new improved dies didnt work right .They made a replacenent kit to fix it and it was as much as a set of new dies .I stick with redding dies no problems ever with them.