I have just returned from two months of hunting with clients in Zimbabwe. Just prior to my leaving I purchased a .375 Ruger Hawkeye. I have not shot factory ammo in any rifle for over twenty years but did not have time to get dies, bullets etc. so purhcased some DGX .300 gr. solids from Hornady. I let a client use this rifle on buffalo, kudu, and giraffe with flawless results. Penetration on the buff and giraffe was great. Now the problem. One of my clients showed up to hunt buffalo, sable plains game etc. with a new .375 Ruger Hawkeye. He had reloads with .300 grain Hornady DGX Softs and solids. I do not know his reload recipe other than he used Winchester powder. His first trophy was a 40 inch buffalo. His first two shots were broadside at forty to fifty yards. Both shots were softs and hit squarely on the shoulder. The buffalo headed away and his third shot was with a solid up the arse. This last shot planted the buffalo. Upon skinning it we found both softs had failed to penetrated the shoulder, completely disintegrating upon hitting the bone. The bullets did shatter the bone but never penetrated into the chest at all. The third shot being a solid travelled through the buffalo nicking the spine before exiting and putting the buff down. Without this last shot I doubt we would have found this buff. I cannot explain total bullet failure twice in a row but is raises concerns to say the least. The solids used worked perfectly and the one recovered was completely intact and undamaged. Simply wanted to throw this out there for discussion.

In Hornady's 8th edition reloading manual they're 300grn bullets max out at 2500fps. Don't think thats pushing the envelope of a healthy copper clad steel jacketed bullet.

Historically, Hornady softs have a bad reputation for coming unglued when pushed at high speeds. On a rib-lung shot they might be fine, but come apart on a shoulder or spine. I was hoping that their new DGX would improve upon this, but apparently not.

I have found their DGS solids to be quite good. They feed great and have great penetration.

At Ruger velocities, I would use TSX's.

quote:

Originally posted by tim416:
He had reloads with .300 grain Hornady DGX Softs and solids. I do not know his reload recipe other than he used Winchester powder. .

I think that this is the crux of the issue. If he loaded them "hot" then higher speed than hornady specs them for could have caused the failure. Those rounds in factory loads have worked great for me. Lets be careful not to slam Hornady when we have no clue what recipe he was using.

I am convinced it was something related to the load used in this case. I am curious to see if others have experienced this problem and, if so, what the cause was found to be. Another client used my .375 Ruger with the same ammo except in solids. They grouped fantastic and performed flawlessly. I simply did not have the opportunity to use the softs on any game.

There have probably been 100 threads debating KE and its effects on animals. That debate will go on forever but it is very tangible to discuss its effects on a projectile. i.e. ;Going from 4000 lb ft of energy to 5000 lb ft of energy being absorbed on a hard impact would give very different results on the projectile and we know it does not take that much velocity to realize those gains in KE.
Something else of note that I read on these threads about a soft staying within a animals body relaying all the KE of the round; Not true, the deformation of the soft itself (plastic deformation and fracture) uses up a lot of the KE. The only way to transmit all the KE to a target at impact is for the projectile to NOT deform and stay within the carcass of the animal. A non deformed solid that did not pass through would meet that criteria. That energy would have been 100% displaced by heat/friction, elastic deformation, plastic deformation and fracture of bone, hide and tissue within the animal.

Loaded hot or not, I don't want a bullet that comes apart under even the most adverse conditions..With todays bullets there are just too many good ones out there that won't fail or rather lets say 99% of the time they work..

I know the North Forks always work and my favorite all time buffalo bullets are the North Fork Cup Points, and softs, the Woodleighs including the great 350 gr. .375 bullet, the GS Customs flat nose solid or HVs and the Swift and Noslers have always worked for me on buffalo..These bullets simply work..However, any bullet can be flawed in the process and get past the checkers.

I have sectioned the Hornadys and I am very surprised that they do not hold up, as they appear to be quite stoutly built..If enough complaints come in then I'm sure they will correct that situation.

Todays bullet makers are just top notch, I remember the "good old days" when all bullets were a crap shoot on all game..As I recall only the Remington Corelokt always worked as advertised. In fact it still does.

Are you sure he was using the dgx softs and not the older interbonds? I have not heard anything bad about the performance of the dgx's but anything is possible.

He indicated they were the DGX and he had just recently bought them.

Hi Tim,

Glad to see you are back safely. For some reason thought you were gone till October. Hello to Mrs. and will look forward to getting a trip together for next year.

Jeff

On two seperate occasions and both times I was using my Sako 375 with 300gn Hornady round nose reloads. Hunting Sambar deer, first animal was a hind. Hit in the shoulder twice, about 2 inches apart, failed to adequately penetrate.

Second animal was a young stag, again hit squarely in the shoulder, and had to hit it twice more on the run and killing it.

No such carry on with Accubonds or even Core-lokts.

tasso

Hornady discontinued the Interbond and replaced it with the DGX. I have run a lot of Interbonds and Interlocks through my .375 H&H, but only on paper. I have some DGX .458 Win loads I built for a buff hunt that didn't come off. I was going to use them on buff. After hearing this, if the hunt gets restarted, I'll load up some North Forks or A Frames instead.

Strange, In the last 60 years of hunting big game I have never witnessed 300 grs. of failure on animals the size of up to Kudu or Elk and Moose..I have seen failure on buffalo and elephant. I have those big bullets come apart but they killed the animals in every case and very quickly, in fact quicker that the tougher bullets. I don't like them to come apart, but real failures have always been with lighter calibers than the .375 in my case.

I did an early post on Hornady DGX bullets in .404 Jef, I found they over expand when I shot Impala, was going to test them on Kudu this past weekend, unlucky I did not found a Kudu, in my limeted experiece, I think they are to soft, vel in .404 was +/- 2300fps.

Hornady's factory ammo gives a velocity of 2660 fps for 375 Ruger 300 gr of all flavors. I can verify this on my own chrono where I got 2650 in 50 degree weather.

I have seen only 1 300 gr DGX which was recovered from a zebra and held together with the PHs arguing as to whether it would hold up on buff.

I have switched to 350 gr. TSX at 2400 fps.

With the failure described I was wondering too if somehow these weren't DGXs but instead standard 300 gr softs. It would be a simple mistake as they look identical with the exposed lead tip.

For plains game you might try the 250 grain TTSX in .375. It will give guaranteed penetration and shoot very flat with its .424 BC at 2800-2950 fps.

I don't have much experience with 375 but I remember finding some old Sierra 300 grainers with separated cup and core. Today's bullets for Africa are better than that.

For buffalo, I would recommend the 300 grain TSX. It will fly flatter than the 350 grain TSX. What is more important, is that the 300 grain Flat-nose solid may give more reliably straight penetration because of being a shorter-length bullet. Shorter projectiles are more stable than longer ones. By all means, get 'flatnose' direct from Barnes (or Northfork, CuttingEdge, al) and then make sure that it feeds well. You will probably not recover a solid, nor would you find a 300 gr. TSX on a broadside shot.