Hornady Bore Driver Field Report

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Justahunter

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Hello All,

New to this forum but have been around the internet forums for a long time now. I recognize a lot of the names here. Glad to be apart of it here.

Just thought I'd share my experience with the Hornady Bore Drivers from last year.

1.5 year old cow elk. 161 yards right square in the pump station. 100 gr. by volume of BH209, CVA Accura V2.

Ftx9sPmh.jpg


The bullet is very accurate in the 2 rifles I have tried it in. It worked well at 161 yards but do believe them to be a tad soft for elk work. I think they would be an ideal medium game bullet.
Bullet recovered in the off side hide.
rAdbXWsh.jpg


U1Jzdz9h.jpg


Thought I'd share my test sample of 1. I will be using them again this year in Co. for deer in a .50 caliber Hawken with a GM 1-28" twist barrel using Swiss 2ff.

Hope you all are doing well,

Todd
 
Positives:

It opened up well at a relatively long distance. I would be curious what it weighs if you have any way to check that.

Ending up under the far side hide is not a bad thing. I think that is a positive. Some like a complete pass thru but at that distance it def did it’s job

Possible negatives:

At 30 yards would it come apart?

If it hit bone, would it hold together.

Jury is still out. But I would hunt with that bullet before a powerbelt of the same size.
 
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Another positive note, when it first came out I questioned Hornady as to its composition and they told me it was a lead alloy, not just soft lead

If it’s all I could get, I would use it on and elk. But I prefer a minimum of 350 gr
 
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Both great bullets, but since he was shooting open sights and a conical I suspect he was hunting Colorado. In that case the sabot would not be legal.

I am using the 350 lead BOR lock for elk in CO this year.

That said if I get picked for elk in Utah I may very well use the Barnes
 
Both great bullets, but since he was shooting open sights and a conical I suspect he was hunting Colorado. In that case the sabot would not be legal.

I am using the 350 lead BOR lock for elk in CO this year.

That said if I get picked for elk in Utah I may very well use the Barnes
What about the 348 lead powerbelt? That is legal for CO.
 
Hello All,

New to this forum but have been around the internet forums for a long time now. I recognize a lot of the names here. Glad to be apart of it here.

Just thought I'd share my experience with the Hornady Bore Drivers from last year.

1.5 year old cow elk. 161 yards right square in the pump station. 100 gr. by volume of BH209, CVA Accura V2.

Ftx9sPmh.jpg


The bullet is very accurate in the 2 rifles I have tried it in. It worked well at 161 yards but do believe them to be a tad soft for elk work. I think they would be an ideal medium game bullet.
Bullet recovered in the off side hide.
rAdbXWsh.jpg


U1Jzdz9h.jpg


Thought I'd share my test sample of 1. I will be using them again this year in Co. for deer in a .50 caliber Hawken with a GM 1-28" twist barrel using Swiss 2ff.

Hope you all are doing well,

Todd
Thanks for sharing your findings. I've tried these bore driver bullets in three different rifles such as Hawken Flint, percussions, and inline TC Encore. Groups are very tight at 100 yards but have never hunted with them. This is the proof I needed most!
 
Hello All,

New to this forum but have been around the internet forums for a long time now. I recognize a lot of the names here. Glad to be apart of it here.

Just thought I'd share my experience with the Hornady Bore Drivers from last year.

1.5 year old cow elk. 161 yards right square in the pump station. 100 gr. by volume of BH209, CVA Accura V2.

Ftx9sPmh.jpg


The bullet is very accurate in the 2 rifles I have tried it in. It worked well at 161 yards but do believe them to be a tad soft for elk work. I think they would be an ideal medium game bullet.
Bullet recovered in the off side hide.
rAdbXWsh.jpg


U1Jzdz9h.jpg


Thought I'd share my test sample of 1. I will be using them again this year in Co. for deer in a .50 caliber Hawken with a GM 1-28" twist barrel using Swiss 2ff.

Hope you all are doing well,

Todd
Great information! Thank you for sharing and welcome to the forum!
 
A lot of elk have fallen to the 348 powerbelt. But as Diablo says, it is composed of soft lead. The thin copper covering does nothing to make the bullet tougher. The BOR driver (and the Hornady) are both lead alloys. They mushroom well but are tougher if you hit big muscle or bone. With the choices today, I won’t ever hunt an elk with a powerbelt again. The elk I did kill with them, I used the 444 gr
 
Nice kill. Seems it did the job. 161 yards ain’t too shabby! Good POI, too! Recovered bullet held together. That elk may be a bit smallish, but its much bigger than whitetails. Did you have to trail her any?
Good job all around! I shoot the Optima V2 with 2 White Hots with the same bullet. I like them. Only killed hogs thus far.

Again, NICE WORK!
 
BTW, that looks just like my recovered bullets which were shot into a soft wet berm. Thanks for showing!
 
I've used soft lead bullets like PRBullets 340 gr. Dead Centers on deer. Never had one take more than a step or two. I've used 400 gr. pure lead pointed bullets on elk, and they go in like a needle on the near side, expand to over an inch, and don't exit. No blood trail. A heart shot cow ran 75 or 80 yards, and after waiting 20 minutes (in case of a bad hit, so they will lie down and stiffen) I had a heck of a time finding the elk.

I now use jacketed 405 gr. .45-70 bullets for elk, with great results. If I were to hunt a state that didn't allow a jacketed bullet, I'd shoot heavy conicals with a big meplat and a bullet with a BHN number around 11. I shot a cow that was facing me with a hardcast bullet. It hit the front left shoulder and exited the right rear ham. It did not kill as fast as I'd have liked.
 

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