Hornady Interlocks

Dirtysteve · Mar 1, 2004

First I must say I am a hard core Partition fan but was recently given a box of .338 225gr Hornady Interlocks to reload. Does any buddy have any performance experience with these bullets?
One more question. I have always reloaded "premium bullets" but in a .338 win mag with this heavy of a bullet are my partitions needed?
Thanks

AZBuckSnort · Mar 1, 2004

I have found the Interlocks to be extremely accurate in the two rifles I've worked up loads for with this bullet. One of those loads utilized the same .338 cal Interlock you're asking about. The load has been used to take several elk ( not by me, but by a friend of mine, and all of the elk have been cows) with quick kills. I also use and rely on the fine Nosler Partition bullet for a good portion of my hunting. The Interlock has been good bullet in the limited applications we've used it in.

joebuck · Mar 3, 2004

I shoot 225 interlocks or 210 nosler partitions out of my .338. I killed three deer and a moose with the interlocks and one black bear with the partitions this past season. Two of the deer were spine shots so bullet preformance wasn't really a factor. The moose took 3 hits to the boiler room and ran about 100 yards before dropping dead. The last deer I hit in the ribs and lungs, it bounced off about 50 yards and tipped over. I never recovered any of my bullets so I couldn't weigh them after but the interlocks did very little tissue or residual shock damage. I barely lost any meat off all four animals. I will use this load again for deer hunting.

The bear I shot with the Nosler Partition went down like I had dropped a piano on him. He was a pretty big boar and all jazzed up in mating season. It was the first bear I've shot with this load out of many that I have shot. The wound channel was big enough to drive a car into and the bullet performed exactly as the folks at Nosler say it's supposed to. The front end expanded and came apart while the base stayed intact and penetated. I removed it from under the hide on the far shoulder. I will use this load for bear again this spring.

Both these loads perform similarly off the bench for me with the Nosler shooting slightly tighter groups.