Being a professional hunter, I recently did a Lion hunt using my trusted favorite 375 H&H I have used for the last 30 years. I have heard a lot about the Hornady 375 GMX bullet and decided to try it. Bought several boxes, some good some bad. Had some where the case at the neck literally blew apart completely around the neck and disintegrated. Couldn't believe it. Damn sure didn't use the rest of the boxes. Glad I discovered it before I got in a dangerous situation. I discussed it at DSC with Steve Hornady at DSC. Thought he might want to know. He was amazingly indifferent, bit I persued it. He reluctantly took the lot number and a piece of the brass. He said he would get back with me. Finally at the show he did and they acknowledged the had a bad run of ammo, unaware of that caliber but he told me of two other large bores they were aware of. I thought they would be appreciative to find out. He simply said, I'll send you some ammo and I haven't heard from Steve Hornady since. I must state, they are not one of my sponsors and I don't have tv show. I have used Hornady all my life, but when my life depends on it, I don't want to wonder if the the damn shells are going to blow up. No more Hornady for me. Sorry for bad spelling and grammar, I'm just a PH.
BEWARE!

Interesting.

We have had some issues with the ammo as well. These include:

1- A substantial number of boxes of 500 NE ammo with the rims out of tolerance. They were too thick.

2- We had some simply not fire. I could move the primers with my fingernail.

3- Less than stellar performance by both solids and softs.

Hornady replaced all of the ammo referenced in item 1 above. They could give less than a damn about the others.

I will still shoot Hornady ammo on the range. It is cheap. IN the bush? Not a chance.

AMEN!

Guess which is the Hornady?

I see a lot of advertisements in the various hunting magazines I get, still for the life of me I don't understand why anyone would hunt anything but deer (not even elk!) with Hornady ammo. With excellent 375 H&H caliber ammo readily available with 300g A-Frames, TSX's and Woodleighs, and all of the bad reports on the DGX's I guess it's just beyond me.

I am sad to report that I've had the same kind of problems with Hornady 9,3x74R ammo; rims varied in thickness so much that some wouldn't chamber while others would not fire. The rifle was absolutely reliable with RWS or Norma ammo.

Sorry, I shoot Hornady bullets for everything in NA but, when it gets to Africa, I load different bullets. And factory loaded Hornady isn't shooting what their advertised velocity in Any of my rifles. Not my first choice.
I know of some sponsored guys that absolutely hate their stuff but they have to pimp for them.

I though Ivan Carter praised Hornady DG ammo!

I had problems with rim thickness in my 470 Nitro back in 2009.

The factory response was somewhat indifferent.

Unfortunately not much choice in 450 NE.

I had one box of Hornady 375H&H brass that was so soft that after seating a bullet I could pull it out with my fingers.

A very well known and respected double gun guy here in the states told us he would never hunt with Hornady factory ammo or bullets due to the following:

1- Inconsistent bullet speed. Normally well under the advertised speed.

2- Inconsistent hardness of the bullets.

I've had excellent results handloading Hornady bullets, and my .416 Rem Mag brass has been very good as well.

That said, I was in a deer camp were a hunter was using Hornady America Whitetail ammo and a whole series of troubles. Sighting in he had several hang fires, plus one case that cracked just in front of the case head and jammed in the chamber. And this all out of the same box of 20 rounds. I can't remember exactly but I want to say it was .25-06 ammo.

what about the hornady solids in 375 and 416 are these doing well.

Problems across all calibers. Check the pics above. Granted they are from a 500 NE. Do you want you solids to perform like that? Not me.

Ivan told me that Hornady loads Monometal solids for him.

I have had issues with Carter's lavish praise of all of his sponsor's products.

imho, he has crossed the line between product promoter and product prostitute....

Sponsors Pay the right price,give them handfuls of "freebee's", and they will tell you exactly what you want to hear...

For the above two posts, isn't that what has happened to Boddington? Is the product really that good or is he paid to say it?

I don't have any experience with their ammo, but Hornady dies are crap.
Cal

There is a Zim PH who I have hunted with 5 times. I respect his opinions very much. He has told me numerous stories of failures of Hornady bullets.

I specifically remember one. He had a client who wanted to kill a giraffe with his double which was a 450/400 as I recall.

They stalked close and the client shot the giraffe twice from pretty close range. The PH was not concerned at all as he had seen both bullets hit. Yet the giraffe ran so far they gave up. They had another problem with an apparently well placed shot. The client switched guns.

A few days later, they happened upon a big bull giraffe. The client shot and killed it. Upon inspection, they were surprised to find that this was the same bull they had originally shot. Both of the bullets had barely penetrated the skin. Both had shattered.

I am done with them except for target practice.

.450 NE DGX 1 of 6 shot into the same buffalo. Junk.

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Funny thing though, if someone wants to use Interlocks on deer to moose sized game and uses just a bit of sense in caliber and bullet weight they wont get any argument from me.

Hmmm, this is pretty scary stuff. Why is it only now surfacing, or have I missed something?
Peter

It is not new. I have reported all of this before.

Sorry Larry, I must have missed it! Any response from Hornady?
Peter.

I have recently shot Hornady brass in my 300 H&H and no problems, and Ive shot Hornady bullets for years in almost every caliber without any problems??? No I dont't get freebies nor do I even know them other than Ive seen them at SCI...

I use quite a bit of their brass and bullets because they are the only whore in town these days in Idaho, other than Norma who are high dollar whores.

I have not use Hornadys in any caliber larger than my 300 H&H and .338 Win. however, but have used the bullets on elk and deer and PG..The interlock has always worked for me.

quote:

Originally posted by larryshores:


I am done with them except for target practice.

+1

They make target ammo. That is it. I killed a moose with their 375 ruger ammo - but I would never take it to africa.

Mike

Also while confronting Steve Hornady and his council of experts at DSC, I told them I had a 375 250gr gmx come apart on a lung shot waterbuck. I repeated the facts several times during the lengthy discussion as I was stunned that they did not even respond. I could not believe this guy runs a business, he was lost.

Oh, I had the same response from Hornady when I told them about the Hornady DGX on Cape buffalo.

They were totally convinced that they have the best bullet for DG on the market, wouldn't even listen.
From .338 and down, I use Hornady almost exclusively with no complaints. But for African game, they are not an option.

I bought 40 brass cases for a .450 3 1/4" and .450 sizing dies from Hornady. Tried the cases as received in a .450 nitro 1902 Webley, ,450 Purdey and two .450 Hollands, one a hammerless and one a hammer double rifle. None of them would chamber. Resized them with the new Hornady dies and they still would not fit. Called Hornady and they sent another sizing die, still would not fit! Hornady needs to call Hollands and Purdeys to get their chambers to the right dimensions! Original factory ammo I have on hand fit perfectly!

What has been your experience with their brass reloading it. I just bought 100 cases to load for my 375 H&H because you can't get Rem. brass anymore.

quote:

Originally posted by Peter:
Sorry Larry, I must have missed it! Any response from Hornady?
Peter.

As I said earlier, they replaced all of the ammo with rims that were too thick. However, they could have cared less about the other issues which to me were far more serious. They did nothing.

On bullets I haven't used Hornady for game for thirty years. The bullets were rather soft and interlocks would lose a lot of weight.

However, I consider their BRASS to be FIRST CLASS. I am very happy with their 416 Rigby brass and consider it much better than the Norma 416Rigby that I have used. Norma brass was very inconsistent in weight, from 327 to 340 grains, while Hornady is much more consistent around 320 grains. I've used Hornady now in 375 Ruger, 338Win, and 243Win and I consider it excellent quality. It is strong, hard-headed, and precise.

I have not used Hornady ammo, but have used their brass in 416 Rigby and 450/400 NE. First class stuff!

Brass is the best thing to come out of hornady...shot my Livingston eland and a waterbuck with there crap DGX bullet, both came apart...shot the poor eland 4 times...the 5th was a swift and finished the deed.

Ed

I have been shooting some 375 H&H brass from Hornady, seemed to work good so far

Hornady also seems to have a problem with their memory as they sure seem to tell a lot of people they've never heard of the issue with DGX/DGX.

Dont know if it is bad design or bad quality control, but it is bad.

quote:

Originally posted by 505ED:
Brass is the best thing to come out of hornady...shot my Livingston eland and a waterbuck with there crap DGX bullet, both came apart...shot the poor eland 4 times...the 5th was a swift and finished the deed.

Ed

Agree their brass has always been good

Too bad they are assholes about it
Good to remember , I'll never buy their ammo again
I use their brass though and I love Barness

I've likely shot or watched 100 animals shot with a Hornady GMX in a variety of calibers without issue including a cape buffalo with a 250-grain GMX out of the 375 a couple weeks ago. It's the bullet I use 90% of the time. As for the bad factory ammo, with all companies running at maximum production these days there have been some horror stories from all.

I use Hornady ammo for target practice only.

I've had and seen too many problems with the quality of their bullets lately.

I understand quality control issues. Everybody has them from time to time.

But more than a few of Hornady's bullets - especially the DGX - seem to suffer from defective design problems, and that's another story altogether.

Particularly for a bullet that is, according to their advertising, specifically designed for use on DG!

Unlike others on this thread, however, I have never had any problems with Hornady brass.