Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Bullet selection

This stuff gets comical.

Yup.

[quote=antelope_sniper]150gr Nosler partition, and 57-58gr of H4831. [/quote

+1

Sounds to me like you do the same thing I (and I think a lot of others) do – It is pretty common for me to substitute loads with inexpensive cup-and-core bullets for my hunting loads when practicing at the range. So long as they shoot close to the same point of aim it isn’t a problem but I always take a few shots with the hunting loads just before going afield, mostly to verify scope adjustment with the hunting loads.

While there aren’t any benches out in the field, there are improvised shooting rests that can provide very stable shooting platforms. Over the years I have used my pack from a prone position, bipods attached to the rifle, stumps, rocks, hay bales, tree limbs, tree trunks, fence posts and pretty much anything I could find that would improve stability for the shot. You make a good point, though – most of the time the difference between a .5” and 1.5” load won’t make any difference in the field. At 300 yards the 1.5” load will have an error radius of 2-1/4”compared to .75” for the .5” load. While that can make a difference in the prairie dog villages a 1.5” difference is not very significant when shooting antelope or larger.

Still, given two loads with my preferred bullets, I’ll take the one that shoots to .5” rather than the one that shoots to 1.5”, for the same reason I prefer certain bullets – they don’t perform any worse in the field and while there is no guarantee they WILL make a difference the possibility exists that they MIGHT make a difference. The same reasoning goes into choosing a lot of the gear I take hunting, like chains for all four tires instead of just two, two rubber chain tensioners for each tire plus spares, a chain repair kit, a second rifle, a basic tool kit, a couple of tow chains, a come-along, jumper cables, extra batteries, an extra pair of boots and other stuff. While most of it is not needed in any particular year, all of it has been needed at one time or another and some multiple times. Last night I bought 4 new A/T tires with aggressive tread for this year’s elk hunts. While I could probably have made it through hunting season and the winter snow and ice with the ones I had, they were getting worn and deeper tread MIGHT keep me from getting stuck or going off the road. It is kind of like buying fire insurance for your home – while you hope you never need it, it can make a big difference in your situation if your house burns.

150 Partition is what I'd use.

Having been a Nosler(premium bullet) internet whore since having internet I have done an about face into reality.While the bullet is important,and it is I can only think years back when countless hunters and friends could not wait for the K-Mart hunting season specials where you could buy a box of ammo for $7-10 bucks and be on your way.

We found some worked better than others and Cor-Lokts was then and still today very effective as were the old bronze points and silver tips.Because of reloading laziness,I have been using 180 Core-lokts in my '06.I have not been disappointed.

Never been a fan of the Hornady bullets probably because i haven't used them much or seen them personally used as Hornady ammo wasn't a popular on the shelf choice in my region.Winchester and Remington were the bargains that worked.

After having shot my first big game with a 420 grain cast a while back, that you were supposed to be able to eat right up to the hole concept,my opinion has changed.That cast at a modest velocity out of my 45-70 did more meat damage than most bullets I have ever used.It hit a good bone and the inside looked like a grenade went off.

I have so many Noslers on hand to reload for a bunch of calibers and if I had it to do over, I would probably just buy over the shelf Core-lokts and forget it and save a bunch of money and time.They have always done there job in my case since I first started using them to many years ago..

Contrary to just about every thing I have ever posted on the internet previously about bullets,realistically the most game I have seen killed and killed msyself, has been with non-premium bullets.

Bullet failure when an animal is dead is non-existent,the bullet kilt the game so it did it's job!

JMO

Thanks, I needed a good laugh.

Did somebody get into your box again?

Were not taking questions at this time..

All control of this thread has been lost. TFF

They always expand uncontrollably.

Not exactly. Bullet failure when the animal is dead is luck. Far more often the animal be wounded. You might get a 2d shot but many escape to die somewhere else.

Huh? What does a wounded animal that escapes have to do with an animal that's dead? Plus, if the animal gets away, how do you know whether the bullet performed or didn't perform?

I think his point was, lots of guys talk a bout "bullet failure" with a one-shot kill. They use different criteria for "failure," like low retained weight, jacket separation, or even no exit wound. Which gets to the question, what is the bullet designed to do? Kill the animal, or look pretty?

Exactly!

Having used the .270 Win for the majority of my hunting days,I can say with certainty in my personal experiences that premium bullets can and do fail in smaller calibers due to there controlled expansion or not expanding at all such as some have seen with the Barnes and I have with the Fail Safe in the .270.

An old cheapy like a Core-Lokt would have worked much better than the so called super premium..One reason after using different premium bullets I chose the Nosler as a premium is the so called two bullet effect where it sometimes looses the front section in the animal, giving a better and more harmonious outcome!Probably the best elk kill'n bullet I have seen in my way to many years waking up, is the old Sierra bullet.Far from a premium in todays terms but what a job it did out of the .270 Win if you put it where it belonged.

Not knocking premium bullets, just saying that alot of the time the old cup and core bullets do a better job at kill'n.

Take the Berger..Please .....Premium or not?

Log smoker I see you are giving advice again.

Why don't you stick to thing you know and give us a blue tarp tutorial.

In the meantime, try to stay out of jail.

Belly rot I see your on topic again.

Why don't you stick to posting those awesome outdoor photos of your personal experiences.

In the meantime, try to get an apartment out of your mom's basement.

How childish is this chit..... Grow up....

yep

here is a failed bullet from a dead animal.

the elk was wounded by a hunter with the Core-Loss, then killed by his guide (me) with the Partition.

Never fell for the old saw that "the animal was dead, therefore the bullet didn't fail".

Better to think in terms of it performing as well as it needed to.....that time.

But that doesn't mean it was great performance, either.Never saw the point in seeking the lowest levels in terminal performance and calling it "good".

13" of penetration in a soft tissue is nothing to write home about. But it does work on small stuff and rib shots.There's better ways to fly when it comes to shooting animals.

Toad's photo speaks volumes, and it has nothing to do with "pretty" and photo ops. It's all mechanics.

To my way of thinking, many a bullet has failed and the animal graciously died anyway.

I never fell for the old saw that you need "premium" bullets to kill stuff. Every bullet fails at one time or another, and a photo of a sample of one isn't something to necessarily hang your hat on.