I shoot a Tikka T3 Lite and my gun only likes HAW cartridges. I have always shot 90 grain hollow point hand loads, but I can't find anyone who loads much any more. Anyway, I have killed a few deer with this round and have not lost one but given that the shot placement was good, I had to look a lot harder for the deer than I used too. I know shot placement is everything and I am not a precision shooter by any means. How many of you hunt with HAW bullets and really like them? I need to develop more confidence in this round. Thanks for your input.

I have zero confidence in them. They’re garbage. I’ve killed 30+ deer with them BUT the blood leading to most of them was minimal at best. Few dropped, and that’s fine. I’m not worried about that. What is concerning is the dozens of deer double lunged that we had to crawl around and search for, some of them hours. Some were not recovered for days after they’d rotted. There’s no excuse for an animal with a hole in both sides not to be bleeding well. Out of the 30+ we’ve killed, I can think of 2 that had a good blood trail. I had several run well over 100 yards, which as you know, in AL thickets, is not a good combo with little blood. I’ve never had deer suck up another round thru both lungs and tote it that far. I’ve killed hundreds of deer and have plenty of experiences to base this judgement on.

Well I've only shot a couple of boxes of them and they seem to shoot accurately. I only use them in my doe gun (243) and have killed a handful with them, but mostly head shots and some necks. The couple I've shot in the body didn't go more than 30 yards so for what its worth that is my experience. They seem to drop them good if you hit right between the eye and ear. Though this year I missed one cause I forgot I re-sighted the gun to be 2 inches high at 100. I didn't charge her for the haircut.

Now I will add that a lot of guns seem to like them. They shoot well.

I've shot a bunch with the Interlock, not HAW but the same bullet in handloads, and Custom line factory loads. Its a good bullet. They are a bit slow to expand so you probably will get few dramatic DRT shots, but a reliable killer for shots at any angle.

I’ve been shooting the 130grn out of my .270. I haven’t lost a deer yet but will agree that the blood trail is lacking. The two I shot this year dropped within 75 yards but no exit on either. Both slightly quartering away and double lung. I wish they were still making the 140 BTSP. Those would put them down and leave a trail you could follow.

What caliber are you guys shooting? Mine have all been from a .308.

I echo the blood trail issue. I simply don't trust them...but they do shoot well.

I will use fusion or something else even if the groups are not as tight.

mbrock. Mostly 30-06.I had good results, Short good blood trails. But I like to try different bullets. Shot The SST for a long time, which is basically the same bullet but it expands faster due to the plastic tip. 85% DRT. The ones that did run did not go far. They can blow up especially on bigger deer. I'm now shooting Accubonds for that reason, but I have only shot one deer with that. It ran 100 yards with no blood.

Shot 3 with a .270 before switching to Noslar Partition (Should have stuck with the Interlock). First one was a bad shot on my part 150 yards trotting, gut shot it, but still only ran 50 yards and had a good blood trail. second was shoulder shot DRT, and one lung shot ran 80 yards decent blood. After switching to Partitions I shot a dozen or more, they all ran and with no blood. I'm done with that combo.

I shoot them in 130 gr 270. I've shot this gun since 1981. Around 350 deer and same on hogs. I shot the old Frontier loaded with the 130gr Hornady before that... Lights out. Never come close to losing a deer or hog. Hog might even be a better barometer. On hogs over 150 the usually don't pass through but lodge in the offside skin and make a perfect mushroom.

My Browning A-Bolt in .270 loved the 130 grains. Only used them for 1 season before I bought a new rifle that I use now, but the deer I shot with it was DRT, it turned his heart and lungs to jello.

Also shoot them out of .25/06 with the 117gr and it absolutely destroys their innards...

In the HAW it is 243 (95 grain) but I shoot the Hornady SST in my black powder. 300 grain 50 Cal. and I haven't been happy at all with the blood trails. Switching to the Barnes expanders next season.

Buddy of mine shoots these in 7-08 Model 7 and its been lights out.

^^^Same gun, same caliber, same awesome results

I use the 117gr out of my 25-06 as well. I have zero complaints and they are very accurate. Never had a deer go over 40 yards. Blood trails (though not needed) were fine. But hell I could track a gnat bleeding out a paper cut 40 yards. LOL!

Nice group

Aww there aint nuttin wrong with them bullets. I aint had no problems out of them, I don't shoot anything but Hornady, the best in my opinion.
Shoot them in the neck and you don't have to worry about a blood trail.

Switched from Hornady Superformance to the American Whitetail and got lots better blood trail, daughters .243. Have not really had blood trail troubles with them yet. Now with the Superformance we would find deer before any blood.

I switched to the Hornady American Whitetail .243 100 grains in my 15 year old son's deer rifle probably 5 years ago. I found that they leave real good blood trails for the most part. There is usually lungs laying in the spot where the deer was standing. My 11 year old daughter is shooting them as well with good results.

I've heard other people say that they didn't leave blood. I don't know what to say. The seem to work for us.