What are your experiences with Hornady new DGS and DGX ammo?

I have some of the old DGX, and after putting one into a buff I promoted them to the rank of Plinking Rounds. Totally inadequate for any type of big, thick skinned animal. Unbonded core, too thin a jacket, piss-poor weight retention.

I've seen a couple of the new DGX in action, and am not really impressed. Better than the old ones, but still not a five stars bullet.

I have no experience with the DGS.

What do you gentlemen say, especially those who have used them in many occasions and may have spotted shortcomings?

The DGX SUCK. Pay your life insurance if you are after DG.

I shot a few elephants with the new DGS. They seemed fine to me.

By the way, all in 500 NE.

quote:

Originally posted by larryshores:
The DGX SUCK. Pay your life insurance if you are after DG.

I shot a few elephants with the new DGS. They seemed fine to me.

By the way, all in 500 NE.

Sorry to hear that Larry.

My experience to this point with the Hornady ammo is limited, but heading to Mozambique today for a 2 buffalo / 1 lion safari. Will be taking both a .375 Ruger and a .416 Ruger, using Hornady DG series ammo. Then in June heading to Australia for a couple of buffalo with Matt Graham, using the same loads/guns. Will get a better "feel" for the gun/load combo by then.

I did however shoot the Asiatic water buffalo last week in Argentina with the .416 Ruger, and a 400 gr DGX round. The bull was facing us head-on at 80 plus yards, I shot him low in the chest. Although I did give a follow-up shot with a DGS as he turned (in the left rump) the bull was on the ground in less than 10 seconds from the initial shot. He was down as fast as I could have hoped for, and they are every bit as big as a cape buffalo.

More follow-up to come.

There are several threads here about the DGX performance. Some are happy with the results, as in it killed the animal they shot but, a lot of negative comments concerning jacket/core separation.
My personal experience was, It killed the Cape Buffalo. Shot it 5 times at 20 yards with a .458 Lott. First shot through the top of the heart took him off his feet which gave me a chance to keep putting lead into him cause he was still moving. Recovered 3 of the bullets and wasn't happy with the bullet performance I saw. All 3 of them had the jacket come apart, 2 of them all the way down to the cannelure. One of them had lost it's core. I have put them in my plinking ammo pile. I think the jacket is too hard and brittle. Weight retention isn't what a premium bullet would give you. Just my .02

Pagosawingnut, that's exactly my impression.

It's a pity, because Hornady is loading many "African" calibers at reasonable prices. If they were using premium bullets, like Federal does, they'd get good mileage out of it - not so much in terms of sales (after all, the numbers on big bore ammos are just a drop compared to varmint calibers), but in terms of image and brand awareness.

Federal loads good bullets, but on a restricted number of calibers... A pity, too!

My limited experiance the Hornady solids work as they should. I have not been able to recover one as they went completely thru the ele and the buff. The DGX seperated on a cow buff shot thru the shoulders although it only took the one shot to do the job.
I would take Swift A frames or some other highly rated "soft" rather than the DGX for anything that might want to turn around and question your conduct

I have killed two very good cape buffalo with the Hornady DGX bullets and both death bellowed within 30 seconds. One was a single shot broadside with my 450-400 double at 120 yards and the bull went 30 yards before piling up, and the other bull was a single frontal shot at about the same distance from the very same double rifle. That one went 40 yards and dropped. One was shot in the Zambezi Valley in 2011; the other in the Bubye Conservancy in 2012. Ivan Carter and many others use Hornady and they seem to work for them. They have worked for me. Hand loaded by Lisa at Butch Searcy's, I might add.

I am trying to find an e mail from a PH that describes ridiculous with the DGX. One of the failures was in a 450/400 on a giraffe at close range. The DGX shattered and penetrated less than 4 inches.

The story always seems to be the same.

I might use a DGX in my 500 NE in Africa. For a duiker! LOL

No chance in hell will I ever use them on dangerous game.

UEG
Don't you imagine that Ivan uses them because Hornady sponsors him? Not trying to be argumentative, just asking. While I honestly have never shot a DGS at anything other than paper, the DGX's performance didn't do it for me. My own personal feelings are that a Dangerous Game bullet should hold together and have adequate weight retention so penetration and damage is at it's best. Upon recovery, the first bullet I shot at the buffalo started to mushroom and then the entire mushroom sheared off, leaving 4/5ths of the bullet to act as a solid but out of a Lott at a chronographed 2260, and at 20 yards, it veered off course and stayed in the body. I believe they will kill but I think the bullet needs to hold together better.

I've killed four elephants with DGS bullets. All were with Hornady factory ammo. I've never shot any animal with a DGX.

1. Successful side brained bull, .416 Ruger, shoot through. When elephant hit ground, heart shot (through sternum) was a shoot through exiting at spine.

2. Tuskless cow heart, .450 N.E., Elephant fell immediately, second barrel again to the heart when she stood up again and elephant never took another step. Both bullets recovered with one with slight deformation when it hit the far leg before falling loose on the when the cow was rolled... after 99.999% penetration, I guess. Second bullet had a wee bit of lead squirted out of the bottom hole (as I've had happen with Woodleighs) and it was found lodged in far skin.

3. Successful tuskless cow brain shot, shoot through. Two needless heart shot follow ups were shoot throughs. .458 Winchester Magnum.

4. Tuskless cow, .404 Jeffery, side brain, shoot through, two follow ups to heart (she fell upright with legs tucked under her), shoot throughs.

I've shot one buffalo with a DGS from .458 Winchester Magnum. First shot was frontal through the top of the heart which turned the bull (15 yards ), second and third were quartering frontal at 10 and 5 yards. He never got closer than 5 yards, so I'm happy (and here). We never looked for the bullets, but I saw no exit holes and I assume they were in the guts or hips or something??

Would I use DGS's again on elephant and if I had too on a buffalo?... Yes, sir, I would! Are there better bullets? Maybe, but DGS's worked for me everytime. I think that's ten bullets, most all shoot throughs, that all performed just fine.

As to DGX's, since I've never shoot anything with them but paper, I can't comment. I'll look forward to reading Neilson's reports, though.

pagosawingnut: With all due respect and not to be argumentative either, but it's not just Ivan; there are others on his show that also use them and others who use them regularly on other shows as well-like Tony Makris on Under Wild Skies who regularly uses Hornady as do others on his show too, but really that's irrelevant to the issue at hand. Look, I stated my real life experience with them; others have stated theirs. Don't you think that as close up and as personal as Ivan, Tony and others get that they would not be fools in putting their own lives and the lives of others in jeopardy with bullets that allegedly are ineffective and only "good for plinking"? And just for the sake of advertising? I think not. I believe that it might be time for someone to ask Ivan. Any takers?

quote:

Originally posted by Use Enough Gun:
pagosawingnut: With all due respect and not to be argumentative either, but it's not just Ivan; there are others on his show that also use them and others who use them regularly on other shows as well-like Tony Makris on Under Wild Skies who regularly uses Hornady as do others on his show too, but really that's irrelevant to the issue at hand. Look, I stated my real life experience with them; others have stated theirs. Don't you think that as close up and as personal as Ivan, Tony and others get that they would not be fools in putting their own lives and the lives of others in jeopardy with bullets that allegedly are ineffective and only "good for plinking"? And just for the sake of advertising? I think not. I believe that it might be time for someone to ask Ivan. Any takers?

I think for the exact same reason many use those TC single shots. Sponsorship revenues!

Do you really thing that many of the TV people choose the exact same product? I don't.

My summary so far is DGS is fine and I will use it for elephant and I simply forget about the DGX , why worry?

UEG
I'm afraid we're just going to have to agree to disagree, sir. I also stated my personal experience with them and, while I killed my buffalo up close and personal, the bullet performance is just not what I (personally) was looking for. If I had to take a guess, Ivan pretty much shoots the DGS and not so many of the DGX. And for Tony Makris, I don't know if he is a sponsored shooter or not. I am not pushing any other brand of bullet or trying to say bad about the Hornady line of DG bullets. Hornady is my go to bullet here in the states but, I look at cup and core bullet separation as a failure. When the jacket shears off all the way down to the cannelure and there isn't much weight left in just the jacket material to cause much damage, I look at it as a failure. Did I kill the buff, yes, sir I did and dead is dead but I wasn't impressed. I ran into some PH's that looked my ammo over and muttered their dis-satisfaction, they obviously had more exposure to the DGX than I did. I even had one PH say that he could pull the bullets and replace them with a dependable bullet. I have no doubt that the DGS works as advertised but I can't testify to that because I never shot anything with it.
Truce?

A few non biased observations in this dialog.
The Hornady DGX looses it's front 1/2 or 1/3 in some period after impact but retains a straight shank to continue penetration so it is a failed projectile.
The hollow point non cons do exactly the same thing but they are considered a premium projectile.
Nosler figure the same thing out back in the 60's and are considerd a upscale but not a premium projectile any longer.

3 projectile that do about the same thing but are catergorized from being failures to perfection.

Lets blow off the front section for fragmentation and terminal effect and leave the slender shank intact for further penetration.

How many times can we re invent the wheel?

EZ

I think it boils down to bullet preference in any case. I believe if the Hornady or the Nosler are your bullet of choice, they are just fine. As long as you have confidence in them, use them. I caught grief from several PH's when I took a .375 H&H and only took 250 Sierra Game Kings for Plains game. I was told that they would blow up and not do their job, which was incorrect.
they also didn't like the .235 gr Barnes TSX in a .375H&H until everything either dropped at the shot or went very little distance at all. Most of the PH's have been taught that a heavy bullet moving slowly does a better job than a bullet out of a Weatherby or an Ultra Mag cartridge. Hunted plains game in '08 with 180 gr Barnes TSX in a .300 RUM. PH was totally convinced that it wouldn't kill anything. He was still arguing when I left even though all shots were pass throughs and only one animal took a second shot.
It's just preference.
EZ
I would not have considered the DGX a failure if the bullet had stayed together and retained at least some of the weight that a bonded core bullet would.
And I haven't taken anything with a CEB, hopefully I will one day soon. And if it doesn't work as advertised, I will move on to another bullet but it is designed to lose the hollow point. What's left is designed for penetration according to some that have much more real time experience with them on game.
And I have never shot a Nosler Partition so I can't hazard a guess.

quote:

Originally posted by larryshores:

quote:

Originally posted by Use Enough Gun:
pagosawingnut: With all due respect and not to be argumentative either, but it's not just Ivan; there are others on his show that also use them and others who use them regularly on other shows as well-like Tony Makris on Under Wild Skies who regularly uses Hornady as do others on his show too, but really that's irrelevant to the issue at hand. Look, I stated my real life experience with them; others have stated theirs. Don't you think that as close up and as personal as Ivan, Tony and others get that they would not be fools in putting their own lives and the lives of others in jeopardy with bullets that allegedly are ineffective and only "good for plinking"? And just for the sake of advertising? I think not. I believe that it might be time for someone to ask Ivan. Any takers?

I think for the exact same reason many use those TC single shots. Sponsorship revenues!

Do you really thing that many of the TV people choose the exact same product? I don't.

+1 We know they advertise these Hornady bullets because they are getting paid to do so. I personally would like to see what loads they are actually putting in their doubles when they hunt DG.

OK - correct me if I am wrong... DGX has a lead alloy core that has been known to separate from the jacket, just like the one in the image below.

Matt,
I did have a bullet out of my buff that looked empty like that with the exception of most of the jacket had also sheared off.

pagosawingnut: Hey man, we weren't in a war over this in the first place! LOL! We will civilly agree to disagree and remain friends. My experience with Hornady is just what I stated, killing two very good buff with no problem, and the bullets remained intact. The first being a nice 40" buff in the Zambezi Valley and the last being a 42"+ buff in the Bubye Conservancy. That's what Butch Searcy loads for me and recommends for my double, and I have had absolutely no problem. Your experience was apparently different. As an aside, I certainly shoot and use other ammo in my dangerous game rifles as well-Barnes, Federal, Nosler, and others. However, with that said, I still want someone to directly ask Ivan, Tony and/or others just what they actually do shoot-as we now have a following stating that they don't believe that Ivan or Tony or others actually shoot Hornady, but shoot other ammo in some sort of cover-up regarding their Hornady sponsorships. So please, you that believe this new line of conjecture, it's now your time to step forward and prove it to the rest of us.

Gentlemen:

Individual experiences with bullets vary.

For example, many LOVE the TSX. They swear by its stellar performance. While they shoot well in my guns, they seem to perform like solids for me and my kids. I don't use them any longer. Others think they are fantastic.

It doesn't mean that one is right and the other is wrong.

Maybe Ivan will be in camp when I get there, he was the last time I went and if he is, I certainly will ask him what ammo he shoots. You "know" that publicly, he most likely answer "Hornady"
Butch says you are a nice guy and I believe that but you didn't read me my rights before all the questioning
No harm, no foul? I also killed my buff with the DGX, just wasn't happy that "my particular bullets" didn't hold together better because I am a dyed in the wool Hornady fan.
By the way, Butch asked me to keep him abreast of the CEB performance, he's interested. Hell, I have used the Woodleighs, Barnes, Hornady's and am now going to take CEB's on this trip. I doubt if I'll be disappointed because of all the hard data Michael and Sam have put into the research but we'll see.

PS: is this the part where we get angry and cuss and stuff like some of the other posts?
Just kidding sir!

With A-Frames, North Fork Soft Points and TSX's for tough game around, it's hard for me to shoot something else in an expanding bullet. I'm kinda retro, so I still use 150g Partitions in our 270s, A-Frames and North Forks in the 375, but am using TSX's in my 500 Jeffery. I do wish the hollow point in my 570 TSX was twice the size though, don't really need the ballistic coefficient.

I've used DGX on lion, Buffalo, roan and other antelope.
My experience was good as all animals went down pretty quick.
I think they do have the tendency to seperate core and jacket but i recovered bullets that performed ok.

Two dgx recovered from a Buffalo

Here is the bullet recovered from a roan. The roan was shot in the chest and the bullet traveled through half the body.

Does anyone have practical experience with the older Hornady Interlocked RN? I would be very keen to read how they performed compared to the DGX. The cost differnce is not much, so wht is the tech & performance differnce?

I have 4 pkts of 416 400 gr for practice and am really keen to know how they will perform on large game.

This bullet was recovered from a 50" bull moose, I shot at ~ 250 yds.
First shot was a complete pass-through, so that bullet was not recovered.

The smaller bullet is a 250 gr Nosler Part, that my buddy fired into the stomach of the moose.

My handload was chrony'd at ~2375fps MV. At 250 yds I'm guessing it mighta been doing 2100fps, for the impact velocity of this bullet?




Shot this bull with ~5 minutes of daylight left.


The next day...

sometimes I get confused by all the "initials" for the bullets,, dgx,dgs,tsx,sst, etc.so I think some of us can get sidetracked on what we are talking about. I shoot a Hornady tsx in my 7 mag for light skinned deer out of a 7mag,, so far, everything is dead right there but the bullets have all come apart,, sure left a heck of a mess on the inside but not what I would want hunting Dangerous game. I have shot the Barnes TSX tripple shock in a 400gn 416 Rigby with great performance and penetration and retention of almost 100% of weight on the bullets I could recover on buffalo I shot, most shots were pass throughs. 15 buffalo shot at,, 15 dead. I will stick with the single mono-metal bullets for DG untill you guys educate me better.

For Subsailor, Ivan shoots Hornady, every time, on camera or not. He is on safari now, in Bots hunting , I am sure he will chime in as time allows. Either I am not telling the truth when I say he, we, shoot Hornady ( and yes, they are a sponsor) or Ivan is an idiot with a death wish shooting, and trusting ammo he has no confidence in. Matt Grahm will tell you how my DGX worked on two of his big water buff last year. Same on my brown bear, Cape and so forth. The DGX had some initial problems when it first came out. They got fixed fast, and the result is a hell of a bullet in my opinion. But, please, lay off the sponsor nonsense. It is insulting in the extreme.

Gents,
I believe that there has never been a problem with the Hornady DGS. I side-brained a tuskless ele cow last year in Zim with my .470 double. She dropped to the shot, and the bullet mey still be in orbit somewhere. An 8" piece of the zygomatic arch was broken loose on the exit side. Just one example, but still relevant. One other observation: Hornady's claim that the DGS and DGX regulate to the same spot was absolutely true in my case, which is always a consideration with doubles.
Cheers,
Tim

quote:

Originally posted by drwes:
sometimes I get confused by all the "initials" for the bullets,, dgx,dgs,tsx,sst, etc.so I think some of us can get sidetracked on what we are talking about. I shoot a Hornady tsx in my 7 mag for light skinned deer out of a 7mag,, so far, everything is dead right there but the bullets have all come apart,, sure left a heck of a mess on the inside but not what I would want hunting Dangerous game. I have shot the Barnes TSX tripple shock in a 400gn 416 Rigby with great performance and penetration and retention of almost 100% of weight on the bullets I could recover on buffalo I shot, most shots were pass throughs. 15 buffalo shot at,, 15 dead. I will stick with the single mono-metal bullets for DG untill you guys educate me better.

What is a Hornady tsx Dr Wes?

My experience from an earlier thread:

http://forums.accuratereloadin...461058361#3461058361

quote:

Originally posted by Dave Fulson:
For Subsailor, Ivan shoots Hornady, every time, on camera or not. He is on safari now, in Bots hunting , I am sure he will chime in as time allows. Either I am not telling the truth when I say he, we, shoot Hornady ( and yes, they are a sponsor) or Ivan is an idiot with a death wish shooting, and trusting ammo he has no confidence in. Matt Grahm will tell you how my DGX worked on two of his big water buff last year. Same on my brown bear, Cape and so forth. The DGX had some initial problems when it first came out. They got fixed fast, and the result is a hell of a bullet in my opinion. But, please, lay off the sponsor nonsense. It is insulting in the extreme.

Dave - I take you at your word that you and Ivan shoot Hornady Dangerous Game bullets - that is your choice. I have shot them in all my doubles, and I find them accurate and consistent. When I hunt dangerous game (5 hunts in Zimbabwe), I choose to use less "controversial" bullets like Woodleighs and Barnes X triple shocks. That is my choice. I really do not understand your comment about being insulted in the extreme, especially given the number of comments and photos of DGX perfromance.....and none of those photos or comments came from me.

I prefer not to shoot a steel jacketed bullet. The DGS and DGX are both steel jacketed.

Also, too many reports of failure on the DGX for me to try them in Africa. I view the big bore caliber DGX bullet like the Partition, an OK bullet but there is much better out there.

When was the last time you heard anybody complain about a Swift A-Frame or North Fork soft point?

I will always take a good Monolithic (North Fork or Cutting Edge) solid over a Hornady DGS.

quote:

Originally posted by Mike70560:
I prefer not to shoot a steel jacketed bullet. The DGS and DGX are both steel jacketed.

Also, too many reports of failure on the DGX for me to try them in Africa. I view the big bore caliber DGX bullet like the Partition, an OK bullet but there is much better out there.

When was the last time you heard anybody complain about a Swift A-Frame or North Fork soft point?

I will always take a good Monolithic (North Fork or Cutting Edge) solid over a Hornady DGS.

Especially when they (Hornady) have been shown to produce some of the highest barrel strains of any bullet made and driving banded monometal solids the lowest.

To each his own on bullets. No problem, but to say " I wonder what they really shoot?" Yes, that casts doubt on our honesty 52 weeks a year and that made me bristle. Always will.

Matt,, there isn't a hornady TSX,, but a Barnes,, that was my point,, sometimes hunters get all the abbreviations confused,, and manufacturers...add in other descripters as cape shock, etc... the Hornady DGS I like, and apparently others do as well. Almost need a score card on all the bullets we have options on, then throw in a A-frame, sledgehammer,, etc,, Plenty of good bullets out there now

Ah gotcha... I'm easily confused!!