Hornady DGX bonded honest opinions?

[ftrovato]

The Hornady softs regulate wonderfully in my 470 & 500 NE. I use them for target practice.

 

[UpNorthMI]

Sorry, but the bullet is garbage.
Here is a picture of three bullets pulled from a 2025 Cape Buffalo on brand new 2025 Hornady DGX bullets (2 dgx & 1 dgs) as you can see the performance is miserable. Thank God I had my 500 Jeffrey with Swift A-frame to put the buff out of its misery.View attachment 705561

Wow, those 2 DGX Bonded bullets are garbage, what caliber, what do you think they hit on the buffalo, range? The center bullet in the photo looks real strange.

 

[IvW]

Sorry, but the bullet is garbage.
Here is a picture of three bullets pulled from a 2025 Cape Buffalo on brand new 2025 Hornady DGX bullets (2 dgx & 1 dgs) as you can see the performance is miserable. Thank God I had my 500 Jeffrey with Swift A-frame to put the buff out of its misery.View attachment 705561

Exactly.....they are shit for dg......
If someone prefers to use this crap on dg go for it I wont.....

 

[ftrovato]

Exactly.....they are shit for dg......
If someone prefers to use this crap on dg go for it I wont.....

I keep hearing stories of failures of these softs and solids.

I like them for target shooting but thats it after talking to several PH's that have seen them fail on dangerous game.

 

[Russ16]

Sorry, but the bullet is garbage.
Here is a picture of three bullets pulled from a 2025 Cape Buffalo on brand new 2025 Hornady DGX bullets (2 dgx & 1 dgs) as you can see the performance is miserable. Thank God I had my 500 Jeffrey with Swift A-frame to put the buff out of its misery.View attachment 705561

The solid looks like it did just fine. But solids should be the subject of a different thread.

 

[Nevada Mike]

I give great credit to Hornady and Norma for 'resurrecting' several classic African cartridges. especially the 404 Jeffery.

But IMO, the Swift A Frame is the king of DG bullets, the TBBC is the crown prince. The Woosleigh is very good if used within its velocity constraints. I cannot comment on the NorthFork bullets or any of the more scarce African products, since availability is limited here in North America.

I have only used the A Frame in my 404J and my 7mm RM, but they were accurate and retained plenty of weight while sponsoring a high percentage of quick kills.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

I know this is probably going to open a giant can of worms and hunters out there are are once again going to vent their frustrations about the old DGX that was not bonded. And I am also aware there are other threads about this topic but from what I have read these topics date back to when the DGX bonded was just released and no one had any real world experience with them.

Please if we can lets look past the old DGX and genuinely look at what the new DGX bonded is. From the reading I have done not only is the DGX now bonded it also says on the Hornady website it now has a thicker jacket at 0.098" which is 2.5mm in our metric terms over here in Aussie land. I am actually surprised at this, this is a very thick jacket but I am assuming this is the jacket thickness at the base of the bullet only to maybe half way up the projectile before it tapers down to a thinner jacket for expansion? Having said this I looked at Woodleigh's website and the Woodleigh weldcore only has a 1.6mm jacket which is nearly 1mm thinner jacket thickness of the new DGX bonded (again as I said though I believe the 2.5mm jacket would be at the base of the bullet to maybe halfway up before it starts to taper off to a thinner jacket)

Also I have watched the YouTube promotional video with Dr Kevin Robertson on the new bonded DGX a few times now, I believe the 416 diameter bullet was being tested and also It appears to be a paid presentation by Hornady. Even so, in my humble opinion the bullet seemed to perform very well, whats other peoples thoughts? Link to the video below.

I have also already mentioned I have used the new Honrady DGX loaded ammunition in my 375H&H on scrub bulls and the ammo performed flawlessly from what I can see, I haven't actually spent the time recovering a DGX bonded bullet yet from an animal.

So where are we really at with the Hornady bonded DGX? Is it as good as a TBBC now? Is it not quite as good as a TBBC? Is it better than a Woodleigh weldcore? I'm looking for honest genuine opinions on the new bonded DGX and not another thread of bashing the old DGX.

Whats peoples thoughts and or real world experience with the bonded DGX?

@Aussie_Hunter
Woodleigh also makes a couple of heavy duty .375 cal projectiles with thicker jackets.
Bob

 

[deewayne2003]

@Aussie_Hunter
Woodleigh also makes a couple of heavy duty .375 cal projectiles with thicker jackets.
Bob

True, I just got some .375 350gr HD RNSN in from @RAVEN ROCKS PRECISION

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

Aussie Hunter, this is a very fair question. I'm very interested in seeing what current users have to say about the matter. I have no doubt but what some "old stock" of components and or loaded ammo still exists and that there might be some failures reported. As time goes by the possibility / probability of using the older design will diminish. If all Hornady users started punching a little more paper, the supply of "older" stocks would be depleted quicker, thereby giving better results in the field.

@Shootist43
Art that's a good idea.
Would make for a better shooter but in some calibres it would empty the wallet pretty quickly.
To me to find out the make up of a projectile you just cut it in half lengthwise. That way you get to see the construction and only waste one bullet per box. Far easier in the wallet
Bob

 

[Rubberhead]

Take this with a grain of salt because it's coming from a Nosler fanboy but...Hornady is better at marketing than they are at making bullets...

 

[Aussie_Hunter]

@Aussie_Hunter
Woodleigh also makes a couple of heavy duty .375 cal projectiles with thicker jackets.
Bob

Yeah I've used the heavy duty 350 grainers, they are really good.