Discover How the Hornady CX Bullet Transformed My Hunting Season

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The Toyota Hilux had just crested the steep hill when we spotted him—a monster of a roan antelope standing in the clear. The PH stopped and let the truck roll backward down the hill, both of us cringing as the brakes squeaked us to a stop at the bottom. We jumped out as quietly as possible and snuck forward hoping that the bull hadn’t spooked. He didn’t and he dropped to a single shot through the shoulder. Roan are big, tough animals and the PH said that he’d never seen one succumb so quickly.

At 60 yards, the roan was my closest shot of the trip and my furthest, a cagey zebra mare, was right at 375. Achieving both penetration and expansion at a variety of distances while breaking bones on heavy animals is a lot to ask of a bullet but Hornady’s monolithic GMX was up to the task. I used the bullet on seven animals that trip and, all-told, our group used them on more than 50. All of us experienced the same excellent performance.

A Good Bullet Made Even Better

The GMX bullet was made from a hard copper alloy with a hollow nose cavity and a polymer tip to facilitate expansion and help with aerodynamics. I came home a huge fan of the bullet so imagine my surprise when I learned that Hornady was going to discontinue the GMX. Seriously? I was told by the folks at Hornady the GMX was being replaced with the slicker CX that boasts a higher BC and a heat-shield tip. I couldn’t imagine walking away from a design that boasted such excellent performance regardless of how well the replacement would fly. As I learned more about the CX, though, I was able to back off the ledge.

The CX was not a complete redesign of the GMX—the bullet shapes, weights and materials are the same. Terminal performance should be identical. So, what’s different? It started with the cannelure. The cannelure is a key design component of a monolithic bullet that allows bullet material to displace as the bearing surface engages with the rifling. This displacement aids accuracy and helps minimize fouling in the bore. It also provides a location for the cartridge case to crimp onto the bullet.

“It started with asking why we make square cannelure grooves and there not being a good answer to that question,” Hornady senior ballistician Jayden Quinlan told me on a recent hunt. He was also with me in Africa when we put the GMX to the test. “Every time you put a cannelure on there you have a shockwave that comes off of that which increases the drag.”

Hornady landed on a radiused groove that struck a good balance between drag reduction, pressure and fouling benefits. Interestingly, the cannelure changed the external ballistics so radically that the tip also needed to be addressed. In very basic terms, Hornady’s Doppler radar testing has established that a bullet with a G1 BC above .500, and a velocity north of 2,600 fps, can fly fast enough that friction-induced heat can deform the tip during flight. The decreased drag of the new cannelure pushed many of the GMX loads past that velocity and BC threshold which meant that adding a heat shield tip was warranted.

Design Improvements

With the radiused cannelure and the heat shield tip, the bullet was significantly different to justify a rebranding and the CX was born. Basically, it has all of the benefits of the GMX but in a package with less drag so that it will maintain velocity longer. This has the added benefit of increasing the effective range. The CX bullet requires a minimum impact velocity of roughly 2,000 fps to achieve adequate expansion. By improving the drag, the distance at which a given cartridge hits that velocity floor is extended.

I’ll give you a few practical examples. The 180-gr. GMX .30-06 load that I used in Africa fell below 2,000 fps at around 425 yards. With the CX, that distance is pushed back to 475. Hornady’s Outfitter 6.5 PRC factory load with the 130-gr. CX will expand out to 625 yards while the 160-gr. CX used on the 7mm PRC will work out to 825.

There are lots of great bullets out there that will fly great at long distances but will come apart if used on an animal at close range—my experience with both the GMX and CX tells me that this won’t be a problem. Having a bullet capable of taking cross-canyon shots on an elk that is also capable of deep penetration if you catch a bull in the timber is a special thing, indeed. Run into a grizzly while packing out said bull? Not a problem.

All-Season Performance

Knowing that I would be joining Quinlan on a Wyoming deer hunt this fall, I made the decision that my family and I would hunt the entire season with CX bullets to create as large a sample size as possible. It started on a youth whitetail hunt on a friend’s property in northeast Florida. I took my first deer on this ranch decades ago and I feel privileged to be able to share this very special hunt with my ten-year-old son, James. He would be using the Hornady Outfitter 6.5 Creedmoor load using 130-gr. CXs.

First, he shot a decent-sized feral hog at just over 200 yards. Next, he took an ancient Florida whitetail buck at 75 yards. The bullet smashed through both shoulders and exited, leaving a healthy blood trail as it ran 50 yards before expiring. We were off to a good start.

Next it was my turn. I was headed to Wyoming to hunt whitetail deer outside of Casper with Heart Spear Outfitters. I carried a 7mm PRC I built myself, loaded with 160-gr. CX Hornady Outfitter ammunition. It was mid-November and the bucks were just beginning to show rut activity. The weather was unseasonably warm as we glassed one buck after another looking for the right one. Late one afternoon we spotted a shooter buck bedded under a tree on the far side of a cut hayfield.

We hiked across the ridge opposite the field to cut the distance and eventually crawled into position above him. He was bedded 275 yards away and, with his vitals covered by high grass, we waited patiently for him to stand up. I dialed for the elevation and was prepared to hold around 1.3 MOA in the Nightforce 4-16x42mm scope for the 15 mile-per-hour wind gusts. The antelope was content until a smaller buck walked by and he couldn’t help himself, he had to challenge him.

Another One Bites the Dust

He stood up and walked a few yards in our direction before finally turning quartering-on and offering me his shoulder. The 160-gr. CX broke through the onside bone, cartilage and muscle, transected his vitals and exited behind his ribs. He ran about 25 yards into the cottonwoods and dropped dead into a creek bed. The blood trail looked like it was poured from a bucket.

Over the past few years, I have struggled with finding the ideal youth rifle for my children. My son seems to be able to shoot just about anything that I hand him but the girls shoot less often and I wanted to set them up for success. I ended up building a bolt-action 6mm ARC with an adjustable length-of-pull in my own shop. I designed the rifle as one that can be adapted to grow along with them using a series of spacers in the stock.

Using handload data from Hornady’s manual designed for bolt-action rifles, I settled on a load that pushes a 90-gr. CX at just under 3,000 fps out of the 18-inch barrel. My oldest daughter carried the rifle during Alabama’s youth season, but we couldn’t get a doe to stand still long enough for her to take a comfortable shot. The next afternoon James was back behind the trigger when a non-typical buck snuck his way into the soybean field where we sat. He shot the buck at 130 yards, hitting it right on the shoulder as directed. The buck gave a heart-shot leap and disappeared into the woods. Like the Wyoming buck, this deer ran 25 yards or so before piling up. The shot had taken him on the shoulder and exited a few ribs back on the offhand side. A doe fell to his 6.5 the next evening.

A week later, it was Victoria’s turn. The sun was setting when a big-bodied buck entered the field along with a spike. The buck fed closer and closer as dusk came on and he finally offered us a broadside shot at 70 yards. She put a 6mm CX through his shoulder, causing the deer to stumble hard at the impact. He made it to his feet before crashing again and jumping up once more before collapsing to the ground just yards away from where James’ buck had fallen. That made five deer and one hog for the season, all with the CX.

The CX is a Workhorse

As I write these words, we have two full months until Alabama’s deer season comes to a close. If all goes as planned, we will get to use the CX on at least one more big buck during our January rut. I am confident that, when that opportunity comes, we will observe the same excellent performance that we’ve seen throughout the season. If you’re looking for a bullet that retains weight, smashes through bone and penetrates deeply while giving up little in terms of its external ballistics, the Hornady CX should be at the top of your shopping list.

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