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What do you think works better on deer 200 yards or less?

A fast lite bullet built for deer hunting or a larger caliber with a 150 grain or bigger.

Which one do you think would drop a deer quicker its tracks?

Lung shots only, I will take velocity with enough penetration. .

High shoulder and they won't move with either. But here I'm stuck with heavy and slow.

Penetration is the key. Years ago when bullets sucked the only way to get penetration was to go heavier. Today you can go fast and still get penetration. No reason to have to choose.

I like complete penetration. You're going to need premium bullets at speed or big and slow. Either way, it's been my experience that they run 80 yards without a heart regardless of what you hit them with. Your other choice is high shoulder shots.

I think it's hard to generalize. I can say that 130 -165 gr bullets like a Nosler Partition in 270,7mm and 30 cal,driven 2800-3200 fps kills the biggest bucks very quickly;if not DRT with chest/shoulder hits, they sure aren't going anywhere very far. Ballistics of that level tends to overwhelm them.

You will also recover very few. They tend to exit even on short shots through shoulders.

Two last year,one DRT and the ether scrambled 20 yards.

170 gr 30/30, 180 gr 300 savage, 165 gr .308 are my choices for northeastern whitetails. Lots of drts, good blood trails for typically short tracking (75 yds or less).

its hard to beat either the 130 corelokt in 270 or the 165 corelokt in '06. they both drop them dead and are flat enough to shoot POA from 25 yards to 200. the 130 especially has been good for me.

Speed and a good bullet under 200. Two fasted kills were with a 85 gr Barnes X bullet. T'was like someone kicked their legs out from under them!

Second fasted were 308 130 TTSX. Five deer less than a dozen steps between them all together in 2015.

Both.

My wife has hit several with an assortment of projectiles from a Dodge mini van to a Honda Accord.

Her latest weapon of choice.



DRT!!

I've switched off between a .30-30 and a .243 every season for 20 years and can't see that it makes much difference. I've run 100, 95 and 85 gr. bullets at 2950, 3000 and 3200 fps in the .243 and 150 and 170 gr. at 2300 and 2100 in the .30-30. With lung shots most tend to run 20-60 yds. before they fall over with either. I prefer the .30-30 with 170's in thick areas because it almost always exits and leaves a good blood trail. If you want to drop deer instantly shot placement that disrupts the central nervous system is the only thing that can be relied on. I've busted deer through the lungs with a .308, .30-06 and 12 gauge slugs many times and had them run off. Every one I killed with a .22LR was shot in the head and dropped in it's tracks.

How about a meaningless math problem? A westbound F-350 with a pallet of bricks lumbers into a blind corner. At the same time, an eastbound crotch rocket heads into the same corner at full throttle, cutting the corner as he makes the turn. Because of the bike's high speed, both the bike and the truck carry the same kinetic energy. They meet headlight to license plate. Who wins the game? Because of it's much higher momentum, the truck will win in spite of the bike's equal KE.

Obviously, the only way this can be compared to the bullets is if the fast, light bullet and the slow heavy bullet meet head-on in which case the light one will probably be obliterated. It has no relation whatever to what happens when either hits a deer. I'm just showing that you can play math games all day long and not get even close to the right answer.

Depends, light fast favors a good mono bullet IMHO. And they kill well. Not heard of anything getting far with a 243 85 Barnes....or even 223 + Barnes.

Avoid frangible bullets at high vel close shots save neck or perhaps lung shots. Yes, I've dumped them with both using 6BR and 243 using 70gr TNTs. You MUST choose shot placement when using a bullet NOT made for big game, if you want to be humane, and successful.

Shot placement delivering a payload that will destroy vitals upon penetration is the key. Vitals vary, so do bullets and placement.

I like soft bullets in soft tissue, harder bullets in harder tissue. "Medium hardness bullets - sandwiched between say a TNT or varmint bullet, and a FMJ may well work best for all around, short and long distance, at various shot angles.

On Deer, MY 1st choice is typically an Accubond, though Ballistic tips in various configs have few peers i.e. the 95gr in 6mm/243. The Partition above is one that is often the benchmark, and the Accubond seems to act very similarly in deer.

Not sure there will be enough difference to really care. All will work fine but all will eventually have an instance where the deer somehow managed to go a distance that is hard to believe and could lead to a lost animal if conditions are right. In summary they are all capable deer rounds.

I've used both. Usually a 308 165 gr @ 2600 fps. With my 77/44, you can eat the meat all the way to the bullet hole. With the 7mm Mag, have to trim a good deal more. Big and slow for table fare (for me).

Aside from CNS hits...speaking of busting lungs/heart only:

Light bullets with thin jackets drop them fast.
Heavier, stouter cup and cores not as fast as above.
Light or heavy monolithic's not as fast as either of the above.

If not shooting bone, fast and frangible works quickest, but there are some demanding shots where it might not offer the penetration. I've found medium speeds with medium weight and moderate construction to be most reliable. A good mid-weight cup/core or bonded version at 2,600-2,800 fps seems to produce pretty dependable results on deer.

A fast bullet that's light for caliber and sturdy like a Barnes just plain works when it hits Bambi and because it's easier on the shooter, they usually shoot it better too.

As far as dropping them in their tracks...that will be whichever one you can most consistently put into the CNS. So, probably also a light fast bullet.

This I know for certain: I can destroy the contents of the chest and drop blood pressure to zero instantly. Doing so is no guarantee of dropping the deer where it stands though.

Given those facts, it really doesn't make a lot of difference Last year I did pretty much that with a bow. Three through the heart top to bottom one of which stayed with the 2 inch Rage in the heart. A fourth one severed the arteries and veins feeding the lungs, so 0 BP on that one instantly too. One went 6 feet. One went 60 yards. One went 100 yards. One went 200 yards. If you can't predict accurately what very consistent wounds will do to a given deer any better than that, the question is moot. I have seen a deer with all four lower legs broken and held only by skin do a remarkable job of running off. I have never seen a CNS hit deer run off though. Hit them way back in the spine near the pelvis and they go down right there. They might try to drag themselves by their front legs, but the back end goes down and stays down. I've shot a lot of deer in the head (usually just under the skull to clip the brain stem) and never seen one of them go anywhere but straight down and stay there.

I shot a fawn 6-8 years back with a 250 grain Barnes out of a muzzle loader. 1700 FPS right through both scapula at the base, just above the shoulder joint. When I gutted it there was a chunk of lung the size of my fist and the rest was red soup. The heart but for 1/4 of it was gone, and what was left was well shredded. There was a golf ball sized hole all the way through. That little deer not only didn't go down taking a hit like that, it had the nerve to run off. Made it 50-60 yards.

The good bullets we have now have changed the game but I still tend to favor heavier ones.

A rapid drop in blood pressure can cause an animal to go into shock. I once shot a smallish bull elk 4 times through the lungs with a 270 using 150 gr bullets. He didn't move but just stood there the whole time before he ran out of blood and flopped. Each shot was a killer and he was dead on his feet. His lungs were like jello, just a gooey mass. One shot broke the far shoulder. I don't know how long he would have stood there if the bone hadn't broke.