Best Hornady hunting bullet?

[Lennyjoe]

Not the .300 or Hornady but in my -06 my go to bullet for elk is the 180 grain Nosler Partition. I haven’t had an elk (cow or bull) go more than 20 yards with that bullet.

 

[Laphroaig]

For the 300 wm speeds I'd only consider the gmx and the interbond.

I agree. For sure I wouldn't consider the SST in 300WM. 165 Amax, probably not for elk either. Which brings us to the Interlock. I recovered this 165 Interlock from a black bear a couple of years ago. It passed diagonally through the bear and lodged in a ham. Shot was about 100 yds. from an -06. I found it interesting since it shows the internal workings of that bullet. 71% weight retention BTW. Please excuse the crappy cell phone images.




The interlock ring is supposed to keep the core within the jacket but this one popped out, but still stayed with the jacket. If anything, the ring keeps the jacket together at the back of the bullet. You can see the ring in the shots where the core is taken apart. I think the Interlocks are a step above the traditional cup and core bullets, and wouldn't hesitate to use 180's for elk.

 

[n2omike]

For velocities of 2800 ft/sec and below, standard 'interlock' style bullets are just fine. At Magnum velocities on Deer+ sized animals, bonded and monolithic cores become necessary for RELIABLE, deep penetration.

 

[kalielkslayer]

Personally, I would stick with the Barnes. The GMX would be basically the same, from a different manufacturer.

My experience with the SST is like a little grenade. I only use those in my wife’s 7-08 for deer/antelope. But shoot extremely well but too fragile for a .280 or 7 mag so I wouldn’t suggest them for the 300 WM.

I don’t have any experience with the inter bond although I have several boxes I never got around to loading because I found something else that worked first.

You didn’t ask, but I believe a great bullet for both expansion and penetration is the Nosler Accubond.

Extremely accurate in my 7 mag.

Great penetration on elk.

Good expansion on deer.

I use the 160 gr in .284. I’d recommend the 180 gr in .308.

 

[Orcon]

I used the A-max and SST in a number of rifles, they always performed well, though I've since switched to the ELD-X line for my "do-all" loadings. I highly recommend a 180gr minimum for magnum velocities as they tend to shed weight quite rapidly.

Here's a 200 gr ELD-X I recovered from a mule deer a few years back. It was a straight on chest shot from a 300 WSM, found the bullet under the hide of a rear leg near the pelvis.