Jack the cut up,
Some time ago I ran terminal ballistic on the 150gr Hornady Interbond bullet.
Penetration and weight retention test were made at 20 yards, 40 yards, 75 yards and 100 yards. To make a long story short, the 20 yard target had the deepest penetration at 15". The 100 yard penetrated 11 3/4". The retained weight test was over 90% except for the 20 yard test which retained 88% of original weight.. Weight fresh out of the box ran between 149.7gr and 150.1gr.
I, by nature, am a nit-picker but until I tested these bullets, I don't remember ever testing bullets that were as consistent or as accurate as these bullets. And to top it all off. I'm not getting paid by Hornady to say this. My rifle is a stock Remington M-700 BDL. I've had the action and chamber area of the barrel glass bedded and the rest of the barrel is free floated. My load was 61.0gr of H-4350, CCI#BR2 primers and Winchester cases. I used .280 Rem cases that were formed and prepped. The flash hole were burred and the primer pockets uniformed and cases trimmed to 2.507". My chamber has a long neck which made it necessary for me to use the longer .280 case. My neck measured 2.510". Using the cases I did also meant I had to trim them with each firing. Five shot group measured C/C went .3874" but only if I did my job right.
I know that this opens the old sore of is it worth it. For the man who only wants to hunt game, it may vary may not be. For some of us, it's everything.
I have a friend who lives in Phoenix Who, when we first met, thought reloading was a stupid thing done by fools and idiots. I worked with his son-in-law, and I started him into it while Russ was getting ready for a Kibab hunt. I told Russ not to hold over any deer, just hold to the top of his back. Well Jim got his buck and Russ was waiting to get one. While Jim was dressing out his buck, Russ looked over a draw. Russ spotted a buck that the Kibab is famous for, Jim was telling Russ to hold over the buck by 2', Russ held at the top of his back and that was where he hit him. On the way back to Phoenix Jim was giving Russ a hard time about holding where he told him to and getting his deer. Some where Russ told him about shooting hand loads. I guess Jim got as quiet as a church mouse for a long was. As they dropped their deer off Jim told Russ to give me a call to see if I was home. Ten O'clock on a Wednesday night they end up with ma in my loading room. About 6 weeks later, between the two of them they got everything they needed to load the the two '06s they both shoot. At my suggestion they made it a hunting Christmas. One gift as Russ house told them the next gift at another friend house. Before It was all over that hunt went from Glendale to Chandler. The last gift was at my house. When they finally got there, I told them paybacks were h***! They didn't even get mad. After that Russ took over their loading once I helped them to get set up.
Back to nit pickers. Jim's '06 was a 1917 Enfield that had only the top hand guards removed. On one hunt he lost the screw for his sling swivel. As a temporary fix I tied the sling to the barrel with a loop of parachute cord. Jim never took that crusty old piece of cord off. His "good time" was to go out to the Phoenix range the that ratty looking rifle that would shoot well under an inch, and look for an empty spot near a guy having a real bad time with his new rifle and break that thing out and start shooting groups into a 1" black spot. Jim swears that he would buy several rifles a year. Ya' have to give Jim a break. When I was a child going to school, during WW II, Jim was a crew chief on a DC-3 flying the hump between Burma and China. I think he's paid his dues.
The 27th edition of Hodgdon list 62.0gr of h-4350 as a max load for 3068 at 48,400 CUP for a150gr bullet.
