The Hornady GMX means Game eXpanding. The bullet is all gilding copper and has a cavity that opens up on contact like the Nosler E-Tip.
The advantage is that it retains 95% of its original weight, has no lead in the GMX bullet and appears to expand and penetrate better than some lead core Hornady spitzers.
https://www.americanhunter.org/articles/2009/7/20/hornady-gmx-bullet/
I hand loaded the 180 grain GMX using RL 22 and got about a 1.5 inch bench rest group at 100 yards. The velocity should be close to 2800 fps, thus packing a real whallop. Great on Moose, Elk and Deer. Felt recoil is quite a bit more, rightly so, than my 6.5 Creedmoor but for Moose the 30-06 would be my choice of the two cartridges.
On big deer, I think that the 180 grain is a good choice for a 300 pound Northern Maine bruiser buck or a bull moose. it will drop them fast. You just got to make the first shot count with the T/C Encore!
Energy at 200 yards is a huge 2200 ft-lbs. Is it a brush bullet? I don’t really know, but if t hits vitals, that animal is going down. I do like the fact that if it hits bone, it stays together and there is no lead in the meat to cut out. The big difference is that the 180 grain fully loaded, has more recoil than the average hunter would be used to. A 150 grain would recoil less. When dealing with heavy recoiling rifles, be smart, get a new state-of-the-art recoil pad that reduces felt recoil by 50%, like the Pachmayr Decelerator. And don’t shoot a whole box of ammo at the range, get bruised, and complain about your rifles kick. It is the shooter that needs to get smart, not the rifle.
Good Hunting!
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