Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Your deer bullet preference?

I plan to use between four and seven rifles and shoot between eight and twelve whitetails during the 2015/16 Nebraska deer seasons.

22-250 - Nosler 60 grain Partition

243 - Nosler 95 grain Partition

25-06 - Hornady American Whitetail factory load with 117 grain SpirePoint

6.5 Creedmoor - 130 grain Nosler Accu-Bond

243 - Hornady & Sierra 100gr SP's in 60's early '70's

257Rbts - Old style WW 100gr SilverTips factory ammo for everything from Speedgoats to WTails & 100gr Hornady SP's handloads

25-06 - Hornady 120gr SP's eh? OK not great in 1st run mfg'd Ruger 77 tanger.

6.5x55 - Handloads 120gr SPH's, 130gr NAB',luv'em in T3 & hope the T3 260 is as good

270 - factory ammo: FedPrem 150gr SGK's,WW 150grPP's
- Fed Blue Box 150gr SP's: all 3 shot out of 5-6 guns to same POI with sub 1.5MOA's reliably.
- handloads: 130gr Nosler "Redbox" FBSP blems's & I'd buy all I could get if they ever make another run of them, best General use 270 bullet I ever shot.
- *150gr Speer HotCor's & 140gr BTSP's for 15+ years & never had a bullet failure, w/ +/- moa's
- 1st Gen 130gr Nosler BT's & never bought 'em again, very accurate & terrible on game.

300WMg - 180gr SGK's great bullet & some Fed Blue Box 180's very reliable

9.3x62 - Speer 270gr SP's one hole 4 shot group accuracy and great on game.

*I bought out a Lousiana dealers entire stock of Speer rifle bullets at $2 & $3 a box in 1986, and came home with about 3-4k mixed 270's of the 8-10+K of bullets or enough to make my suburban squat on it's overload helper springs, along with all my other samples and cases of dealer brochures.

Killed more game with Speer bullets than anything else in my 45+ years of hunting. Currently shooting Nosler, Sierra, Hornady, Speer & Remmy in that order out of a 260, 270 & 300WSM.
Ron

That's just me friends.

I have NO preference at all. I shoot everything. I didn't say ALL, just anything.

All of the bullet manufacturers hype is just so much mumbo jumbo, bamboozle, razzle dazzle, sales spiel. I don't want to dis-respect anyone's opinions.

The bullet itself, stand alone, is only a small component of the overall assembly of elements, factors pertaining to the effectiveness of firing projectiles into animals.

I have all sorts of firearms, shotguns, handguns, muzzle loaders, center fire rifles and a variety of calibers. They all work for me with just about any kind of projectile. *( Given the varying distances and conditions ).

Lets go back to the late 1,800's on the Plains - Bison hunters shooting relatively primitive rifles by comparison to modern firearms and wiping out almost 43 million Bison in just a few decades. Shooting multiples in a day and up to 600 yards using black powder and lead bullets.

I think Steve Redgwell's response pretty much summed things up. What I can add is that in 30-some years of deer hunting and almost that long in online hunting forums pre-dating the rise of the Internet, I have seen more discussions on this topic than I care to remember.

As previously mentioned, most people fail to realize the basic truth that deer are fairly easy to kill. When they lose a deer, they are fairly quick to assume it was the bullet. However, it colors a whole lot more of folks' thinking. I think we want to elevate the deer to a much higher level. We imagine them tougher to make our achievements seem greater. The more elaborate the pill, the bigger the success. T

I prefer Hornady Interlock SP's whenever I can use them. However, they are my favorites for a bunch of reasons rather unrelated to what they do to a deer.

1) They are inexpensive. I grew out of that idea that
I needed the best, and I had to make the shot count and all that. Truth is, at the ranges I shoot, just about anything I lob at a whitetail is going to make them die.

2) They are nearly ubiquitous. My second favorite is Remington Core-lokts, but the supply of those come and go. Hornady SP's are nearly always there. I can always find Hornady online, and I can usually find them locally.

3) Plausible Deniability. I realized that bullets that come out of the red box have more of this than just about any other bullet:

In the Shamanic Reloading Cave

Not a Gunwriter but here's my list. I think it depends on how much meat you're willing to waste.
30-30 - 170 Core Lokt. This year I have some vintage 170 Winchester Silver Tips loaded up.
308 - 150 Core Lokt but they're gone so now I'm shooting 150 Nosler Solid Base, time will tell how they work.
30-06 - 165 Hornady SP. I used to use 165 SST's. Great deer killer but they tear up a lot of meat. The SP seems to kill just as well without all the meat damage.
338 Federal - I only killed one deer with it but the 180 Nosler Accubond did a nice job on a lousy angle.
45-70 - I used to use 300 Hornady HP. Kills very quickly but don't expect to eat any from the exit wound area. What a mess!

I will add another vote for the Accubond. Shoots very well in the rifles we use and very effective on deer.

Ballistic tip. Violent expansion and thick base so it penetrates even with core separation.

I'm pretty sure I could kill a deer with about anything.

I suspect that Winchester's new bullet is simply their attempt to enter the tipped bullet market and take some gravy from Nosler and Hornady. Tipped lead bullets work very well on deer. I think they kill MARGINALLY faster on lung shots than the old standbys....probably because they do more damage. They are going to be a lot more destructive up close than what you are used to using so you may not like them.

I like them because I prefer lung shots (bigger target) but also like short tracking jobs. Hornady SSTs have given me a lot of drop on the spot kills with lung shots and if they run I seem to get a Ray Charles blood trail more often than not.

If you are cool enough and a good enough shot, you can bust the shoulders with anything and get a DRT.

I'm pretty sure I HAVE killed deer with about everything short of really big stuff. Any more though, I only use monometals. Mostly, my deer stands have the shooting rail right on 20 feet off the ground and sometimes the deer wearing the "I am tasty - shoot me" sign walks right under you. I have yet to see a mono come undone at very high velocity and very short range. They still work great at long range. I have seen too many cup and core bullets do a poor job at very high velocity and very short range though.

I too live in a shotgun/muzzle loader only for deer region in Maryland. When hunting locally I use a .45 patched round ball out of a half-stock percussion gun. When hunting in Western Maryland (where I mostly go anymore) the bullet of choice is a 190 grain soft cast lead bullet at 1800fps, in everything from .30-30 to .30-06. You don't need the latest high tech anything for something as prosaic as killing a whitetail at woods ranges. Best not to over think it- spend that time practicing or scouting instead.

Proof is in the pudding (.303 Savage, 190 flat nose cast bullet @1800 fps, 110 yards):

Nice buck, similiar rack to one I shot in Michigan two years ago. I used a 300 Savage with 150 grain Sierra Pro Hunter over 41 grains of Reloder 15. Bullet entered the chest went through the deer and broke the right rear femur. Found the bullet nestled right next to the femur and in the curve of sirloin tip roast where it wraps around the femur. I have only used simple cup and core Sierras, Hornadys, Core Locks with great results. I don't see the need for premium bullets on white tails.

Certainly not at 300Sav velocities.

You can still see through a peep sight at your age..LOL.

Doc

I don't think there's any doubt about that......

but some bullets do a better job than others from 'hard angles'.

I've never shot a deer in the butt and I don't intend to. Some bullets don't perform well from hard angles and I believe in being prepared, just in case.

Hornady Interlock - it's all about placement on the target.

All bullets have a 100% failure rate when you azz shootem.

As many have said, it's not that big a deal. I have killed deer very handily with:

.22 WRM 40 grain HP
65 grain .224 SGK
50 grain Norma factory load in .222
100 grain Barnes TSX in .25-06 AI
130 grain NAB in 6.5X55
150 Grain Barnes X in 7 MM RM
140 grain NBT in 7mm RM
150 grain NBT in 7 mm RM
150 grain NBT in .308
165 grain NBT in .308
165 grain SGK in .308
190 grain Silvertip in .303 Savage
400 grain Speer fP in .45-70
210 grain XTP in .41 mag
240 grain XTP in .44 mag
240 grain WW factory HP in .44 mag
16 gauge slug
12 gauge slug
tire iron
Swiss Army knife
I'm sure this is an incomplete list, but I have no complaints about bullet performance with any of them.

the only thing that will "knock a deer down" DRT with a good blood trail and without over penetration is the 700 Nitro Express at $73.00 a cartridge. The 22 hornet kills them too but real men don't use a 22 hornet.

THE deer bullet preference for me is the 130NP out of my 270. It is one killing son of a gun.
Old Nosler Solid Bases work well and so do Hornady SPs.
Trying out some ABs and they seem to work fine also.
Not a fan of the monos.
jmho
Tim

Depends on the type of hunting...for drives where the deer are moving and the speed of the deer plus distance/angle could be whatever, I like a TSX/TTSX or a GMX. Two years ago I had a young 8-point pass 20 ft in front of me moving broadside right to left and at 2X all I saw was deer. I quickly fired, the bullet hit just aft of center, a tad high, and busted the spine. Cartridge was a .308 & 150 gr TTSX. For this type of hunting/shooting, I prefer something that will stay together.

For stand hunting, I've used most makes and all have done the job admirably when properly placed.