Hornady A max bullets for hunting

[sangdigger]

I know these are for target, but has anyone tried them for hunting. At the Midway website, in the product reviews, some of the people there have been using them for hunting, and they cliam very little diffrence between them and the SST, what do ya'll think?

[Don Fischer]

What are you thinking of gaining? If they group .250" better than the SST or even the inter lock, will that make it a better hunting bullet? .250" at even 500 yds is only 1 1/4" at a target about 8" to 10" and from a field position, I doubt many of us can hold thet well.

[Lone Star]

Gotta go with DF here, any accuracy difference will not be noticed in the field.  This reminds me of the guys years ago who shot Sierra MatchKings on game, thinking that the slightly better accuracy would be an advantage.  IMO those guys spent a lot more time at the range than in the field.      Sierra had to issue statement after statement discouraging the practice, citing examples of the bullets not opening up on game reliably. 

We have a huge number of great, proven choices in game bullets today - don't use bullets designed for a different application.   


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[hunter5325]

I pretty much agree with the above statements.  I don't see much gain with the matchkings or a-max's.  One match bullet that could be considered for biggame hunting is the Berger VLD.  The BC is so high that they retain a flatter trajectory for those long shots.  The Best of the West uses mainly all Bergers for their hunts.  I saw a quote where they said that it was the only bullet that would expand on an antelope at 900yds and not blow up on a bull elk at 30yds.  They are supposed to be much more accurate when the distance is long.  I will say though that us normal guys won't notice the difference.(at least me-I don't shoot past 400ish)   Brett

[41 mag]

AS has been mentioned there are a number of good bullets out there to use for hunting which might be better. However, this said, I have and do use the A-Max in a couple of loads for hunting. The loads are used in short barrels where I cannot get the velocities up. I also use the 140gr in my daughters 6.5x55 where the velocity at 10' is only running 2450fps.

THey have worked out great in all cases on game and I would not try to change the loads. This is not to say that something else would not work, but in these cases I am getting the best accuracy even at 100yds from the A Max. The differences are notable and yes where we hunt 1/2" does make all the difference sometimes. If impact velocities are kept under 2800 FPS in most cases I would bet that you would have a hard time telling the difference in this bullet over a ballistic tip or other similar bullet, even when a substantial bone is hit.