Hornady DGS/DGX feedback

[Piet-Vis]

Good Afternoon, all.

I have used Hornady ammo these past few seasons and have collected a few heads which might interest the forum members.
A side note. Many Botswana citizen hunters use Hornady DGS for Ele's. It is what is available and affordable. I have yet to hear a poor review from a citizen hunter, some of whom are highly experienced.

1. Taken from an Ele scull, I can't remember the details. No deformation, like most I have seen dug out off elephants. A bit of the lead core protruding.
2. Another elephant scull. There was no deformation, but a bit of the lead core was lost.
3. I gave this Ele a coup de grace on the top of the skull. I only noticed something sticking out of the elephant's throat when we chopped the tusks out. The bullet must have tumbled and was in the process of exiting the neck skin, butt-end first. I don't understand why the 416 Rem round tumbled. Perhaps it was due to the very high velocity on impact when Ifiredthe relatively fast 400-grain 416 Rem round only inches away from the elephant's head? I would love to hear the opinions of more knowledgeable members.
5. (I can't seem to count well). This is 500-grain DGX from my soft 458 WM, which was recovered from the hind quarter of a buffalo from a backup shot. The bullet broke the femur. All of the petals remained, 70% of the weight was retained. How do you review the performance of the DGX round?
6. This bullet was recovered on the opposite side of a big hippo bull following a broadside shot from my .458 WM with a 500-grain DGS. The bullet broke the opposite humerus and was severely deformed. I find the deformation curious. A Hippo's femur must be much harder than an elephant's skull. What do you think about the deformation?

 

[Nhoro]

Generally bullets travel straight intil their velocity decreases to the point that they become unstable and then they tumble. I would guess that bullet lost energy as it penetrated the skull and then started tumbling towards the end.

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

I have no experience with using solids or hunting elephant. But if those solids were recovered from the skulls of elephants that were shot in the head, it would seem to me that penetration was poor.

 

[Hunter-Habib]

I’ve hunted bull elephants with a .375 Holland & Holland Magnum, employing Remington factory ammunition (which was loaded with the old 300Gr Hornady round nosed steel jacketed FMJ solids at the time). The bullets would always hold together extremely well, with minimal distortion. On a side brain shot, the bullet could not be recovered due to it completely passing through the animal. On the other bull, I recovered 6 Hornady solids from the heart-lung region. 2 of the recovered bullets looked like your #6 (severe riveting). But most looked as if they could be fired again (the only sign that they had ever even been fired being the rifling grooves on the bullets).

I’ve also used these 300Gr Hornady round nosed steel jacketed FMJ solids (in the form of Remington factory loads) for the follow up shots on Cape buffalo, as well as for hunting all of my hippopotamuses on land on my African safaris between 1982-1991.

My experience has shown me that the greatest challenges to bullet integrity are:
1) Elephant skulls which are fired at from the front (where the bullet has to overcome several inches of honeycombed bone filled with pockets of fluid in order to reach the brain)
2) Hippopotamus humerus bones
3) Cape buffalo humerus bones

 

[Rare Breed]

Good Afternoon, all.

I have used Hornady ammo these past few seasons and have collected a few heads which might interest the forum members.
A side note. Many Botswana citizen hunters use Hornady DGS for Ele's. It is what is available and affordable. I have yet to hear a poor review from a citizen hunter, some of whom are highly experienced.

View attachment 565045

1. Taken from an Ele scull, I can't remember the details. No deformation, like most I have seen dug out off elephants. A bit of the lead core protruding.
2. Another elephant scull. There was no deformation, but a bit of the lead core was lost.
3. I gave this Ele a coup de grace on the top of the skull. I only noticed something sticking out of the elephant's throat when we chopped the tusks out. The bullet must have tumbled and was in the process of exiting the neck skin, butt-end first. I don't understand why the 416 Rem round tumbled. Perhaps it was due to the very high velocity on impact when Ifiredthe relatively fast 400-grain 416 Rem round only inches away from the elephant's head? I would love to hear the opinions of more knowledgeable members.
5. (I can't seem to count well). This is 500-grain DGX from my soft 458 WM, which was recovered from the hind quarter of a buffalo from a backup shot. The bullet broke the femur. All of the petals remained, 70% of the weight was retained. How do you review the performance of the DGX round?
6. This bullet was recovered on the opposite side of a big hippo bull following a broadside shot from my .458 WM with a 500-grain DGS. The bullet broke the opposite humerus and was severely deformed. I find the deformation curious. A Hippo's femur must be much harder than an elephant's skull. What do you think about the deformation?

View attachment 565046

Good bullets. Before DGX bonded yes there were problems…no more though. I have plenty of both and confident although I prefer Barnes

 

[Pondoro]

An elephant skull can absorb bullets to a degree almost unbelievable.. Once I took a broadside brainshot on an ele previously shot by me...distance 3meters...475NE double rifle and (modern) Kynoch factory Woodleigh 480 grain solid.. The ammo was previously cronoed to an average of 2158fps.. Guess what...no bullet exit..

 

[Andrew Short]

This is great information given that Hornady is the major player in DG ammunition. I have 2 boxes of the DGX bonded to try.

Thanks for posting!

 

[colorado]

I'm glad Hornady solved their DGX issues. I still have no respect for those promoting them before they were bonded even though they were well aware of the issues.