Hunting with a Hornady A-MAX

bassassassin007

Hello All.

I have been thinking of reloading some A-MAX for hunting (7mm Rem Mag. and .308 Winchester) and wanted to know if anyone has used it on deer and what kind of results it has produced.

Thanks, Dave

HandgunHTR52

I WOULD NOT use the A-Max for hunting! They are made for match shooting. They have extremely thin jackets. At the normal deer hunting ranges 20-200 yards the bullet will hit the target at well over 2000 ft/sec with the 7mm and right around 2000 ft/sec with the 308. This will cause the bullet to violently expand (read blow up) when hitting the deer. You could expect virtually no penetration. You may kill the deer, but chances are you will end up with a seriously wounded deer that will not go down for about a mile, then die slowly. Unless you plan on taking head/neck shots, which are very low percentage shots, with the non-kill shots causing an even slower and crueler death.

JustC

We have taken deer on the crop permits from 100yds to 450yds over the last few years and they have all dropped the deer DRT. From 6.5mm up to 30cal. They do shed the jacket often, but have harvested everything cleanly thus far,..maybe 20 deer.

mrbruce

Any one that bad mouths the A-Max bullets on deer sized critters has not shot very many of them at deer sized critters. Even good sized Texas hogs meet there maker when one of those
plastic tipped bullets meets bacon. They may shed a jacket or two but dead RFN is still pretty dead......
I doubt I could get all the deer that have been killed with the light weight .22 caliber 75 grain A-Max in the bed of my truck...

sandwarrior

Bassassassin007,

While Hornady makes better bullets for hunting(Interlock and Interbond) the A-max will do the job. The gun writer stories that the bullet will blow up on impact and not penetrate at all is myth. For years I've taken deer(Mulies) with 85/87 gr. bullets (.243/.257) designed for varmints. Shot in the vitals is all it takes. In fact I think the explosiveness of the thinner jacketed bulles inside the rib cage does a lot more than what many will admit. It has certainly worked for me.

konamtbiker

NO! dont hunt medium to large game with that bullet. It will works fine on varmint and coyotes and fox though.

bassassassin007

With such opposite opinions I am totally confused. Especially since in the Hornady reloading manual they list the A-MAX as an appropriate round for deer size/type game.

Thanks for your opinions.

Dave

konamtbiker

They list it as an appropiate hunting bullet for deer. But it is not weight retention is not going to be what you want.

Tailgunner1954

WGAF about weight retention on a deer? You want weight retention shoot a Woodleigh solid (little hole in, little hole out, minimum damage in between, but it'll retain 100% of it's weight after going through a dozen deer)).
Personaly I like to be able to pour the contents of the chest cavity out. Deer don't go far with a bad case of "lung soup", and the plastic tip bullets make good LS bullets.

sandwarrior

bassassassin007,

Hunting bullets of today are(or should be) oriented more toward expansion than complete retention of weight. As Tailgunner1954 pointed out complete weight retention doesn't really mean much. Expansion, transfer of energy, explosive damage(hydroshock) are what will kill an animal. The two other bullets by Hornady I listed are designed to expand. The weight of the A-max will give plenty of penetration on a deer.
Other Hunting grade bullets are the Nosler Accubond, and Partion. The first expands much like the A-max except that the inner core is 'bonded' to the bullet jacket. The Partition is built to retain the weight in the rear of the bullet and the nose is designed to expand at most any speed. Thereby giving penetration and expansion. Sierra's Gameking bullets are pretty much just a thicker jacket. Although they may be using bonding technology in their bullets.

The whole point is, I guess, is that the general opinion in the hunting world(mostly the writers),right or wrong, is that the heaviest bullet hitting an animal and retaining it's weight while expanding properly is the best bullet to use. The only animal I ever had to chase was shot through both lungs with a Win power point that didn't expand. The A-max will expand just fine. It will also penetrate well due to it's weight. And at higher speeds it will provide explosiveness that will drop a deer in it's tracks. I was successful using this technique ever since I started hunting deer. And that was before I ever gave a hoot about bullet construction. Tailgunner has noted the he too was successful doing this. Anyhow, my biggest criteria when hunting is bullet placement, followed by speed, followed by bullet construction. If that helps unfog the fog of discussion.

-good luck

konamtbiker

yeha thats what i meant to say. good weight retention and good expansion

JustC

Tailgunner,....I love lung soup[;)]

Sig220_Ruger77

Should have no problem taking down deer with the A-Max in 7mm or .308. Remember, deer are thin-skinned game. People have been doing it with a 95 gr. Nosler ballistic tip in the .243 or a 100 gr. ballistic tip in the 25-06 for years with good results. Remember, when a bullet passes through the game you have "wasted energy". A Nosler partition in those calibers would barely mushroom on deer(unless you hit bone), and would pass through easily resulting in a lot of wasted energy. A ballistic tip in those calibers will fully expand before exitiing the deer, or in an ideal situation lodging in the opposite side of the deer, which results in maximum use of energy. This is my understanding at least. Sandwarrior and Tailgunner also have very good explanations.

Jon

veemax

Hi,
I recently bought a new Sauer 202 Forest in .308.
I had to sight in the rifle myself and a friend of mine gave me 100 A-max bullets to do the global job.
I loaded a rather mild target-load and startet shooting and was really surprized by the accuracy of that bullet in my rifle; 20mm/10 rounds on 100meters (Indoor range)seamed no problem at all.
I would like to use these A-max loads on foxes up to a distance of 250 meters, which should give no problem with accuracy, but Iam hesitating, because it is a target bullet, not designed to controlled expanding on live game, but just to deliver accuracy to a target and what happens with the bullet in the bullet-catch is of none interest.
Who has experience with this, and how does the bullet perform?
Regards,
Paul Tummers.

nononsense

veemax,

Welcome to the GB forums!

Congratulations on your choice of rifles, short and reasonably weighted.

I use the A-Max bullet for everything from prairie dogs to large deer as well as for target shooting. One of the varmints we shoot on the desert is the coyote and they are a fairly small target at 300 yards (274.3 meters), about the size of a medium household dog and only about 4 inches (10.2 cm.) in cross section. I'm using the 155 gr. A-Max in the .308 Win. running at 2500 - 2600 FPS (760 - 800 m/s) approximately. This not a pelt saving bullet/cartridge combination. The A-Max enters broadside at bullet diameter and exits leaving a 3/4" (1.9 cm.) hole. I've also had them penetrate from front to rear at some ranges. They should perform just fine at your ranges when loaded to a mild target velocity.

Best.

veemax

Hi,
Thank you for your help.
Pelt-saving is not important at all, over here, unlike in Germany, we do not use the pelts of our foxes, but only shoot them to protect the small amount of hares, rabbits and game birds we do have in this over-crowded country.
In my .222Rem.Steyr-Mannlicher I use the V-max 50 grain on foxes whith an"exploding" result, but because the Sauer has a very good Zeiss scope on top with an illuminated reticle I want to take advantage of that too, of course.
This Sauer however is not the standard issue with the light metal receiver,but has a steel one which adds some weight to the rifle because I do not like- and do not have confidence in alluminium receivers were it comes to fixing scope mounts for a heavy scope as my Zeiss 3-12x56 is.
I'll give it a try of course, because I have the feeling, this bullet is just the right thing for the job on hand!
Regards,
Paul Tummers.

veemax

Hi,
I went out early this morning and shot a male fox at 90 meters;
Impact hole is bullet-size, were the bullet left the body there is a 1 inch hole, which means it works just marvellous on a comparatively light target.
I will go looking for a couple of thousand of these bullets both in .224 and .308!
Regards,
Paul Tummers.[:D]