Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting 30 caliber deer bullet

150g Hornady BTSP, 150g & 165g NBT's out of .308 and .30-06.
170g Hornady FP and 160g FTX out of .30-30

150gr NBT or 150gr Accubond for .308W and .30-06.

Killed my biggest buck with a 180gr. Hornady RN in .308 back in 1974, have since switched to 165gr. bullets in .308 & .30-06.

30 cal for deer?

For a number of years now I've been off the magnum train, mostly using or loading for others using 300 Savage bolt gun handloads, 308 Winchester and 30-06. A lot of bullets have worked quite well.

165 Ballistic Tips (old "soft" ones, kind of miss these)
150 Ballistic Tips (newer ones)
150 Interlocks, boat tail and flat based
165 SST and Interlock
150 Core Lokt
150 Speer Hot Cor and Boat Tail
168 Berger VLD

I'm probably forgetting others too.

I'm partial to 165 Ballistic tips in both 308 and 06.
Killed a bunch of deer with them over the years.
165 Hornady Interlocks work pretty well too.

I am a big fan of 165 grain Sierra a Game Kings, and so is my .30-06.

Add Sierra 165 GK hollow point.

125 gr Nos Bal Tip 300WinMag running away at 250 yards.

Where's you find the bullet? I'd have never thought it would get past the rump, but it sure did a job there!

That buck's reaction to the bullet was to stand up on the hind legs like the Lone Ranger's horse. Then he fell over backwards. I could see through the scope that he was stopped.

I did not find the bullet. In 20 some animals, I have never found the Nosler Ballistic tip, but I am usually aiming for lungs.

In 2007 with a 270 130 gr Nos Bal Tip 2875 fps wimpy load short barrel, I hit a mule buck going away an inch above the anus. The entire animal was gut shot from back bone fragments. It blew the whole nose off the animal. At 400 yards, I thought I hit him in the nose. I could see the nose shot off through the scope. That is terminal ballistics ~ 2000 fps and went the length of the buck.

I don't know how guys find bullets. But this year we had some animals turned into snack sticks at the butcher's. My friend bit into a bullet in his snack sticks. That was not his kind of bullet. It was solid Copper.

We found a bullet. But it was not ours.


Here is a buck I shot in the back when he was running away in 2014.
I try to keep the bullet above the backbone after that 2007 gut shot mess.

This has been my go-to round out of an '06 Mauser for over 20 years. Never had a bit of trouble. Our member MILES58 put me onto the Barnes 130 gr. TTSX out of my 300 Savage Model 99. I haven't stuck one in a deer yet, but they are scary accurate out of my old lever gun.

I had my last deer cut at a butcher shop in 2011. Our rifle season begins Thanksgiving week, and I was always too busy trying to hunt for a couple of days, get back home, get unpacked and help with the houswork and cooking for the holiday to do my own. Now, with a different domestic situation, I've got the time to cut up my deer myself. I get it cut the way I want it, and the taste of the meat is much better. I don't even want to think about what the "professional" cutter might have been doing to my food.

A couple of years ago, my son had a deer processed, and what he ended up with was the equivalent processed weight of his deer, not his deer. Basically, they threw it all together and handed out the end result willy-nilly. They also sold venison sausage. Hmmm.....

On the other hand, the big deer I shot down in Raleigh County in 1996 was processed by a guy working out of his garage with his daughter and another guy helping, and they did a great job, for $40.

As to bullets, I've generally just picked one in the 150-165gr range, worked up a load, and gone hunting. Never had a serious issue, and seldom recovered one. These days, I usually buy Nosler over-runs and blems from SPS, although I keep an eye out for sales at Midway and Graf's.

I thought I was the only one. Try PRVI bullets from Graf's too. Inexpensive, reliable old fashioned cup and core. They're not as accurate as Matchkings or Bergers mind you but, they behave like Corelokts or Interlocks on game. Good for imitating Partitions for practice.

308 150 grain flat base interlock at about 2600.