Cannot tell you much about Hornady FMJ. Should be a good bullet. The company has been around forever. Can tell you about Federal in 375 H & H. I used the sledgehammer for a cape buffalo at 100 yards and broke his shoulder, his neck, and went thru the base of his horn width one shot. Went down like a ton of bricks. Used a Barnes X bullet for a leopard at 30 feet. Bullet passed thru his chest, broke his back, and an instant kill.. Both were recommended by my outfitter. Federal rep said the same thing. Federal did recommend the bear claw for buffalo if a two buffalo shot is possible. Don't want to wound a second buffalo with a passthru shot using the sledgehammer. Federal also recommended the trophy bonded bullet for the leopard. I stayed with the Barnes X bullet. It mushroomed perfectly and was retrieved under the leopards hide above the backbone. When poised to leap, a leopards chest is just like steel and can absorb an amazing amount of a bullet's energy. I hope I have been of some help.

Absolutely brilliant, thanks for the reply.

Nathan.

i have only shot my hornady solids at paper targets, as i bought them after my last trip. i have heard that they work as advertised, on another forum. i have heard that the hornady round nose did not do so well.

They're aren't worth their own weight for DG hunting. The old Hornady solids of years back were good but not now. Though they remain good for punching holes in paper and practice! practice! practice!!!

Hi, thanks for the feedback. I actually emailed Hornady a while back as the Hornady solid issue was confusing me with regards to design changes. Below is a response which I am sure some hunters will find useful. In summary- the old style was good, the new style was bad, so we changed back to the old reliable style. The brass Interbonds are still only good for paper punching.

Cheers, Nathan.

Hi Nathan,

Your email was forwarded on to me & I have been out of the office for the last two weeks, so I apologize for the delay in responding to your inquiry. I'm the engineer that made the design changes to our large caliber solids.

In February of 2007 the .375 solid bullet design was changed from a round nose style made from alloy 260 brass to the new DGS (Dangerous Game Solid) style solid that is easily identifiable by the large flat meplat design and the jacket material was changed to a copper clad steel.
Our .416 solid was redesigned in March of 2007 from the 260 alloy round nose style jacket and now incorporates the large flat meplat design and it also utilizes the copper clad steel jacket material.
The .458 solid was redesigned in May of 2007 from the 260 alloy round nose jacket and it also incorporates the same large flat meplat design as well as the copper clad steel jacket material.

The .375, .416 & .458 caliber Interbond bullets currently maintain the original 260 alloy brass jacket material.

Thanks for your inquiry.

Ron Bond

Hornady bullets are notoriously bad performers on tough skinned game because they are entirely too soft. Only barnes tsx are worse in my mind. I think you'll find that not many, if any at all, ph's use Hornady bullets... it's a shame because that is what My two heym doubles are regulated for. Fortunately I've found handloads with better bullets that regulate.

I only have one experience with Cape Buffalo and Barnes TSX bullets. I hunted Cape Buffalo in the Matetsi area of Zimbabwe in June, 2005. My shot came as the herd crossed a small opening in the mopane brush. I was using my custom Remington 700 in .375 Rem Ultra Mag with 300 gr Barnes TSX bullets handloaded to 2800+ fps. The bullet entered the bull's near shoulder, passed through the lungs, and stopped in the off shoulder. He ran 50-70 yds, and was dead when we got to him. The bullet retained all of its weight and was the classic Barnes mushroom. I have used this rifle and 270 gr and 300 gr Barnes TSX bullets successfully on 18 African animals.

Again, thanks for the feedback guys. It is certainly interesting how, if a bullet gains a bad reputation, the reputation can stick for a long time. A few years ago I was shown some pics of Barnes X Bullets with the petals ripped off after being used on Cape Buffalo. The PH who used them was none too happy and moved to the A-Frame. Since the X bullet came out, a lot of work has been done to improve the Barnes bullets. Using the TSX on wild cattle, I have had no problems and as buffybr stated, perfect mushrooms. I did however want to get a discussion started, especially regarding the Hornady solid because I have written articles about these bullets but would like to give others a chance to share their views to make sure that mine are not biased.
Thanks again, Nathan.

When I booked my Zimbabwe Cape Buffalo hunt, my PH advised me not to use the (now old style) Hornady solid bullets. I then bought a box of 300 gr Barnes X bullets for my .375 Rem Ultra Mag. I eventually settled on the Barnes 300 gr TSX bullets for that hunt.

I have only used Barnes TSX bullets on African game animals, and in most hits, the bullet completely passed through the animal. For North American game, I've had very good results with standard bullets, and have only used premium bullets for elk and moose. My favorite elk and moose load has been the 180 gr Nosler Partition at 2990 fps from my .30 Gibbs.

I have only recovered 3 TSX bullets from game animals. They were all the Barnes advertized mushroom, however one did have a petal broken off, like Nathan mentioned in his post. That bullet was from a Kudu that I shot last year in the Eastern Cape region of South Africa. I shot the Kudu bull just before sunset at 165 yds. The bullet broke the upper leg bone in the left shoulder, passed almost completely through the bull, and stopped just under the skin in the front of the right hip. The bull didn't drop at the first shot and because it was late in the day, I put a second 270 gr TSX in him, killing him instantly.

Here is a photo of a 300 gr TSX from my Cape Buffalo, and the two 270 gr TSX bullets from the Kudu mentioned above. Both loads shoot MOA or less in my .375 Rem Ultra Mag, and as far as I'm concerned, they do what they are designed to do.

Thanks for the pic and detailed explanations. Very much appreciated.
Nathan.