Hi Panielsen..... Truth of the matter the Hornady DGX does not have a good rep in the real world. When Hornady started with the "inter bond" in the big bores, and followed with the DGX, they worked the same. I tested several 458 500 Interbonds in the day, and to a bullet they wipe the nose off, leaving 400-425 gr in a cylinder to continue to penetrate. I have not tested the DGX, but have seen many recovered that did exactly the same thing. They penetrate actually more than if they expanded, but the problem is they do not transfer much trauma to tissue, one is not far from being better off just using a solid. There have been several issues with the DGX. I would never use one in the field.......
They are used a lot, BECAUSE THEY ARE LOADED AS "CHEAP" Factory ammo........... If they get a good review, 9 out of ten shot the buffalo, it ran 50 yards and died. But other than that, they don't know much about what the bullet actually did. Now you say, dead is dead, however, not all buff are created equal either, the next one might need a "little more killiing", so to speak...........
I always loved the plain old Interlock, the best non premium bullet ever made in my opinion....... The DGX ain't no interlock............
I shot a cow buffalo a couple of years ago with one of my 458 B&Ms. Using a 420 Raptor at 2250 fps. Shot was 30-40 yards, frontal chest. I am sure you are not familiar with how a Raptor works. Its a solid brass HP bullet. Once it enters any aqueous medium, in this case animal tissue, once inside the body 1.5-2 inches 6 "blades" shear simultaneously from the main bullet. This releases a tremendous amount of trauma at that point, as penetration continues for the next 3-4 inches the blades are traveling along with the main bullet. As this passes through tissue, the tissue expands, and the blades are slicing that tissue to burger. With conventional bullets, once it passes, the expanded tissue that is not torn, pulverized and destroyed by the bullet collapses back, not so with the Raptor and those blades ripping and tearing tissue for that 3-4 inches. As penetration continues the blades move away from center in a star pattern, at this point they become secondary projectiles, ripping and tearing at internal organs, vessels, and other vitals, while the remaining bullet continues to move forward in a straight line. The remaining bullet is like a broken bottle, sharp edges ripping and tearing tissue, it has now become a full caliber solid. This bullet produces more trauma, destroys more tissue and inflicts more trauma than any bullet I have ever witnessed. It is devastating. There is no upper end of velocity, that we as hunters can get to. There is a low end where the blades do not shear, on some of the bigger caliber safari raptors that is normally around 1600 fps. At that point it is just a solid basically. Penetration is everything when it comes to performance, this is about as close as you can come to a "Magic Bullet", as it really cannot fail. Even if your velocity drops below the shear threshold, it still does not loose penetration. Above shear threshold it is just wicked......
Back to the cow buffalo and frontal chest shot with .458 420 Raptor 2250 fps............. This is the heart of that buffalo, and clearly shows how the blades are working with the center bullet ripping a very large hole in the heart..........
We dug around for this bullet back in camp, we sifted and dug through the stomach contents, which I was sure it had to be caught up in this. We never found it in the stomach contents, and then found a hole in the back of the stomach. Within just a inch or so of exiting the stomach we recovered it......... The stomach contents of a buffalo are extremely dense and no conventional expanding bullet would even come close to exiting this material. Total penetration was between 4-4.5 feet........
This is another 420 Raptor recovered along with a couple of the blades in the chest cavity from another buffalo........
On that trip I shot 8 buffalo as I recall working with bullets from CEB and North Fork in .458 and .500 caliber.......... Below is another frontal shot on a buffalo from a 500 MDM and 460 Raptor, photo is not so good, but this heart is nearly cleaved completely in half.......
This is a .500 caliber Raptor recovered from another buffalo on that trip.............
This buffalo was utterly destroyed with that first shot. He had went down behind a fallen log, and backed up against thick brush. There was no way to approach from the rear, nor from the side because of the log. He was dead, but did not know it. On frontal approach, the only available, he popped up in front of me. At this point I gave him another Raptor in the noggin, gave him a very serious headache, followed by a 500 gr .500 solid next to it, and that was the morning excitement...... This Raptor was recovered back between the shoulders after going through the skull.... The solid actually had traveled the entire length of the buffalo from the nose and found sticking out Nose Forward, dead straight, in the right hip, nose sticking out... I can't find the photo of that bullet........
On that trip I shot a couple of buffalo with the .500 caliber 450 gr North Fork Expanding CPS. This is a tremendously good bullet, provides a great deal of penetration. All of those bullets exited, and put the buffalo in the dirt on the spot as well......... Most common CPS do not expand much, but John from North Fork and I worked close on this design and it is a fantastic bullet for buffalo, below are some test results in the .500s....... and what they look like. My son Matthew shot a huge huge brute of a bull with Paul in Australia with his 50 Super Short, and 375 gr North Fork Expanding CPS and results were incredible, those were recovered, after penetrating on an angle, found on the far side.......
I have not recovered one of the 450s from buffalo yet...........
As for the test work (Done BEFORE going to the field) with the .458 420 Raptor...... This is how it tested below........... Just FYI.........
Below is what I refer to as a "Witness Card" that is inserted into the test medium at 4 inches, it clearly shows how the blades shear and work......
and below some of the test work done with the 460 .500 caliber Raptor......
All bullets are tested rather vigorously before going to the field. Any bullet that did not or does not perform well in the tests, has no business going to the field......... What has proven itself in the test work before hand, has always, 100% of the time, proven itself in the field.............
In years past I myself did not always listen to the test work, and in every case I experienced failures in the field as well. Sometimes we can all be a little hardheaded, and sometimes have to learn the hard way. Fortunately I learned to listen and pay attention, so I no longer take a bullet to the field that does not perform well in the test work...................
Maybe some of this helps you guys, maybe some of you not, in all honesty, I hope for those that have less bias it helps, for those that are bias, I really don't care. Some folks you can help, some folks cannot be helped........... Either way........... I quit public forums about a year ago, I can't imagine what the hell I am doing back on one.............
Good Luck....... On all your endeavors........
Michael
