Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Bullet selection

I can't speak for anyone else but I don't worry about just how accurate a bullet is for particular hunting rifle. You can have a rifle that shoots a premium bullet into .50" all day long from the bench. Guess what? There ain't any benches out in the boonies. nYou'd probably do just as good with a rifle that shoots 1.50" consistently off the bench to at least 300 yards and more. As far as practice goes, find a bullet that shoots as close as possible to your premium hunting bullet and practice with that. AS the .270 is the cartridge in question I'll use that. One of my pet deer and antelope loads shoots the 150 gr. Sierra Game King from a 24" Winchester M70 XTR into .50 to .75" groups. I use it for deer and antelope. I can use the exact same charge of powder, brass and primer and shoot the 150 gr. Nobler Partition into literally the same group. Doing a mix and match, the Sierra vs the Nosler the composite groups was one inch. I did the practice with the Sierras and did the hunt with the Nosler.
Want another? I shoot the 180 gr. Sierra Pro-Hunter spitzer for practice and the 180 gr. Nobler Partition as my hunting load. Shooting three rounds each at the same target gave a group about one inch or a hair larger. (1.10") I do a short practice session with the premium bullet just before the hunt just to be sure everything is working as it should and one test group in the area of the hunt just in case colder temps might make a change.
Paul B.