CARTRIDGES AND BULLETS
FOR WHITETAILS by John Barsness
AS EVERY AMERICAN HUNTER KNOWS, white-tailed deer are by far the most popular big game animal in North America. There are several reasons for this, but the
big one is numbers. Except for humans, there are far more whitetails in more places than any other large mammal on the continent.
Plus, the take of many other big game animals is usually restricted. While a lot of states and provinces sell non-resident, over-the-counter black bear tags,
there's probably one black bear taken for every 1000 whitetails. The annual elk take on the entire continent doesn't match the number of whitetails killed in
New York, a state nowhere near the top in whitetail numbers.
In a lot of places whitetails are considered a pest. This is particularly true east of the Mississippi River and south of the Mason-Dixon Line, where in
many states a hunter can take dozens of whitetails a year. This super-abundance, however, isn't restricted to the Southeast. In one part of my home
state of Montana there was a 7-doe "limit" this year.
This super-abundance means a lot of hunters can become experts on cartridges and bullets for whitetails. Some hunters in the Southeast, for instance, have
literally taken hundreds if not thousands of deer, and so have developed pretty firm opinions on what works. Some are also not shy about telling other hunters
their opinions, as any lurker on the Campfire knows.
There is nothing like vast local knowledge, except where it isn't local. For many decades the outdoor magazines told us that the "average" whitetail buck
weighed X pounds "on the hoof." The number varied a little, but was usually somewhere between 150 and 180. The same magazines also told us that
whitetails were normally shot in thick cover, at relatively short ranges.
The reason for these generalizations was that most articles about whitetail hunting were written by hunters from the Northeast. This was because whitetails
were relatively scarce in other parts of the country, especially after the Great Depression of the 1930's, when a lot of hungry people ate anything they could
shoot. In fact in some places whitetails were essentially extinct.
Whitetails reproduce rapidly, however, and by the 1970's were pretty much all over the place. This was when some traveling hunters discovered that
whitetails don't all come in New York sizes, and not all are hunted in the Catskills. I am one of those traveling whitetail hunters, and have hunted them
in 12 states and provinces from Alabama to Alberta, from West Virginia to Old Mexico.
The first thing that becomes obvious to a traveling whitetail hunter is that the terrain varies considerably. Montana whitetails are found in sagebrush
desert and riverbottom farmland, from elk country to pronghorn country. In other places whitetails exist in scrub-oak hills, dead-level thorn brush thickets,
cornfields, moose marshes, high prairie wheatfields and mosquito-infested alligator swamps.
Their size varies considerably as well. I am addicted to measuring the bodies of game animals, especially the depth of the chest from sternum to
withers. The biggest mature whitetail bucks come from the north country, on average, whether big woods in Maine or Montana, or the farm country of southern
Canada and the upper Midwest. These will often weigh 300 pounds or more, and measure at least 18 inches from back to brisket.
A thousand or more miles further south, mature bucks will be much smaller, weighing not much more than 100 pounds, with chests measuring 13 inches top to
bottom. I have measured bucks like this in places as varied as the uplands of Mississippi, the southern tip of Texas, and the hills of Sonora.
In my travels I have personally taken whitetails with 26 different rifles, ranging from traditional open-sighted lever-actions to bolt-actions with big variable
scopes. The cartridges have run from various 6mm's to the .338 Winchester Magnum. In addition I've seen whitetails taken with a number of other
rifles and cartridges, including .22 centerfires and several of the newer alphabet magnums.
While centerfire .22's are far more effective on deer than most hunters who have never used one can imagine, they are a little light for the sort of really big deer
many of us dream about. This doesn't mean they won't kill a big northern buck, and quite well. On average they just won't do it as quickly as
something bigger.
But from 6mm up I just can't say that various cartridges have a vastly different effect on whitetail bucks. It would seem logical that a
180-grain .30 caliber bullet would kill deer "better" than a 90-grain 6mm - and that's probably true. But one of the longest trails I've followed what would
have to be considered a "perfectly" chest-shot whitetail came after my wife Eileen shot a rut-hot Montana buck at around 80 yards with a .30-06, using a 180-grain
"premium" bullet handloaded to about 2800 fps. This should have dropped that basic 180-pound buck very quickly. Instead the buck went over 150
yards before falling.
I've seen the same thing quite a few times with other "big" whitetail cartridges. In the long run the biggest difference in "killing power" hasn't been
the cartridges but the bullet: The long blood trails have all come with "harder" bullets, designed for very deep penetration. These are normally used by
hunters who consider the Nosler Partition a little on the "soft" side.
Even a 300-pound whitetail isn't a large big game animal. There's no real reason to use an elk bullet, even if you plan on shooting a deer up the
wazoo. On a rear-end shot, a bullet at the base of the tail will stop a buck right there, while one meant to traverse the entire deer and find its heart
usually won't. Almost any bullet is suitable for the tail shot, which breaks the pelvis and/or spine.
If shooting whitetails broadside with hard bullets, a buck will drop far more quickly with shoulder shots. Particularly deadly is the shoulder-spine shot,
placed about 2/3 of the way up the deer's chest, directly in line with the front leg. Like the tail shot it puts the deer down right there, though
(as with the tail shot) the deer may require a finisher.
In fact, this is the shot my outfitter friend Scott Sundheim now suggests to his clients, because over the last decade he's grown weary of blood-trailing big Montana
bucks shot through the lungs with magnum cartridges and elk bullets. The last buck my wife or I took with Scott was a decent 5x5 Eileen killed with
a .240 Weatherby and 100-grain Nosler Partitions. One shot at 180 yards through both shoulders and spine did the job. (For exit-hole advocates,
yes, the "little" bullet exited.)
When hunting whitetails I generally prefer a bullet that loses some weight. These make bigger holes in lungs and hearts. The Nosler Partition
in lighter weights does just that, as does the AccuBond. The Ballistic Tip is also a great whitetail bullet, but when hunting larger deer I prefer
heavier-jacketed models such as the 120-grain and 150-grain 7mms or 180-grain .30. While they still make a big hole, the heavy-based jacket will keep
penetrating.
Other good "premium" whitetail bullets include the Federal Fusion, Hornady Interbond, Remington Ultra Core-Lokt and Swift Scirocco II. These provide wide
initial expansion, along with adequate penetration.
Conventional bullets also work quite well, whether spitzer or round-nose, within their limits. The old Remington Core-Lokt has a great reputation, and I
have used it with fine results in cartridges varying as widely as the .243 Winchester, .30-06 Springfield and .35 Remington. The Winchester Power-Point does
just about the same things, as do the Hornady Interlock, Sierra GameKing and ProHunter, and Speer Hot-Cor.
The big factor with any of these bullets is impact velocity. If that isn't above about 2700-2800 fps, they generally work very well - one reason older
rounds such as the 7x57 Mauser and .300 Savage have such a fine reputation. In general their muzzle velocities with 140- or 150-grain bullets aren't over
2700 fps with factory loads, so even at the very short ranges woods whitetails are often taken, conventional bullets work very well. They also work fine from
hotter rounds at longer ranges. I have used the 140-grain Speer Hot-Cor on several deer when started at 3200 fps from the .264 Winchester
Magnum. All the deer were shot at ranges from 200 yards out, and in each case the Speer expanded perfectly and killed quickly, exiting the deer.
If hunting only at shorter ranges, out to 150-200 yards, the round-nose Remington Core-Lokts are a very good choice. These are the only Core-Lokts that
still have the heavy jacket side-walls of the original, so hold together at close range very well.
For longer shooting another good whitetail bullet is the Berger VLD. This is the only bullet I know of which will not expand until it gets around
2 inches inside the animal. All other start expanding immediately when hitting skin, but the VLD gets inside and THEN expands, quite violently. On
smaller deer it can make a really big hole on the offside, but on bigger bucks often there is only a pencil-thin entrance wound, and what remains of the bullet
splattered against the ribs on the far side. It kills quicker, on average, than any other bullet I've ever used.
As far as cartridges go I don't think it matters nearly as much as most hunters believe. Many hunters take .300 or even .338 magnums when hunting the huge
whitetails of central Canada. I have hunted up there a few times, and most local guides (who are expert whitetail hunters) express some wonder at these
choices. Most use rounds like the .243, .25-06 and .270. They are usually guiding and thus only hunt a few days here and there, so they don't pass
up any reasonable shot. As one of them asked me, after another hunter in camp missed a buck with a big .300 magnum wildcat: "What does he think he's hunting,
elephants?"
In general magnums of any sort aren't needed, even at long range. If the deer might be out there a ways, a 3000 fps load from something like
the .25-06 or .270 or .30-06 helps, but past 250 yards the main thing is knowing the trajectory, and using turrets or dots to make sure the bullet lands where it's
aimed. If forced to pick one whitetail round, for all use everywhere, it would probably be something around the .270 Winchester. This could be a
6.5x55 with 120-grain bullets or a .308 with 150's, but the ballistics would hover right there.
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