Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting your deer bullets?

Been a good number of years since I've hunted deer but getting ready to do it again. I have shot three deer with the 243, all one shot kills but I'm not comfortable with it. Two with 100 gr Hornady's and one with 75 gr V-Max, that is not a good deer bullet but it does show placement goes a long way.

In my 25-06 I only use the 117gr Hornady. Tried the 100 gr bullet. Killed like lighting but to distructive for my taste.

In my 6.5x06 I've only used the 140gr Hornady, leaves nothing to be desired!

My 6.5x55 All I'm gonna use in it will be the 129gr Hornady

My 308 is dedicated to a 180gr Lee cast bullet! Same with my 30-06!

I dedicate different cartridge's to certain bullet's. for big game it's generally mid to light heavy bullet's. Under 6.5 it's generally heavy for cal bullet's. The 243 I'll never use on big game again. I think the 25-06 is much better suited with a heavy bullet.

125 BT @ 3K+

For the last ten years or so, I have been switching to AccuBonds as whatever I had been using was shot up. I still try a few other things each year when I am lining out my rifles, but most everything that I have taken lately has been taken with AccuBonds. I will be trying Berger Hunting VLDs this year in the '06 for both deer and elk.

Old style X bullet 130gr propelled by IMR 4350..

Recent years of hunting:
.260......129gr Hornady FB
6.5x55....120gr Speer HC
.270 Win..130gr Accubond
7mm-08....139gr Hornady BT
7x57......140gr Accubond

.50 muzzle loader
250gr .45 cal Hornady with Harvester sabot
200gr .40 cal TC (Hornady) with sabot

I have used a variety of bullets to take deer but one that stands out was the 100gn Swift Scirocco in my .257 Roberts. I took a good fallow buck last year at 20 metres at a slight forward angle. The bullet entered just in front of the left shoulder and lodged under the skin about 6-7 inches behind his right foreleg. It weighed 79.0 gr (79% weight retention) and formed a nice mushroom. Considering the close range and velocity (>3100fps) I thought it held up very well. The buck dropped on the spot. It's only an example of one but I was quite impressed.

In muzzleloader-200 grain PR dead center bullet

Grandkids 30-30 single shots -Sierra 170 grain FN

30-30 single shot w Cabelas Lever Action Scope-Hornady 160 grain FTX

308 Marlin Express- Hornady 160 grain FTX

I prefer standard cup and core bullets for deer. Hornady Interlock, Speer Hot cor, Remington CoreLokt etc. 7mm and up. Nosler Ballistic tips are good. I sometimes use Nosler partitions in the smaller calibers like 6mm and .25.

Damn, what a waste if that had hit a major area like the shoulder.

Wonder why so much disdain for 243, its proven itself over and over and to longer distances than most would try for me at least...

To my way of thinking, the 243 is not right for most people. I hunted with one when I first started in the mid 60s. I have hunted the hill country of Texas all my life. The deer are small. I have talked to a lot of guides and ranch owners. It is their general consensus that eventually the 243 will let you down. They used to loan 257 Roberts, now it's 7-08s.There are several reasons for this. First, there is little room for mistake in bullet placement. Early on most bullets were iffy. Second, bullet failure. I think a lot of this has to do with hunters going once or twice a year. They go somewhere, buy a box of shell, go to the range, shoot a couple Times, and if its close go hunting. Maybe they mix varmint with big game bullets. Many are young or inexperienced. A lot of this is not the rounds fault. My thought is that one can buy a 7-08, or one of the 6.5s use reduced recoil and eliminate a lot of the problems. Experienced hunters using the best bullets can do ok with the 243, but there are better options. Captdavid

From what I've seen on deer, a hit that's bad for a 243 isn't going to be very good for a 30-06 either.

a gut shot is a gut shot.

The ONLY way I can see it making a difference is pure bullet diameter being just say .017 wider and cutting an vessel... and thats a stretch.

Given the right bullet choice, the 243, especially on hill country deer, is never under gunned. I've taken them way out close to 600 with no issues and that with the old 105 speer cup and core. Granted the 80s we were told to start with were the WRONG bullets... I can't even count how many I killed with 90 fmj to save meat years ago because a mentor did it that way...

80 ttsx these days.. its good to way out there.

I"m not going to say larger isn't a bad thing, but its sure not needed.

I could kill the majority of the deer we kill with a bit more patience and a 22lr.

I kill a LOT with a 300/221 and a 194 out to 200 yards at about 900 fps MV... check the lack of energy there...

32-20 100gr Hornady XTP 1400fps (head and neck shots, spitting distance)

7x57 154gr Hornady SP 2600fps

270 WSM 140gr Hornady SST 3150fps

358 Win 200gr Hornady SP 2450fps

Yeah...I like Hornady bullets. Others are good too, I've used different brands in the past but Hornady are tough to beat for the money.

Dan

I hear you on the "super prems" for deer. Good ol' c&c bullets are just fine.

I use 165 Hornady IL in the '06, 117 gr. Sierra P-H in the .257 Roberts and 250 gr. Speer H-C or Hornady SPRP in my .35 Whelen.

Of course the Whelen with 250 gr. bullets sounds like gross overkill but, some of my deer hunting is done in grizzly country and, should I ever get into a p***ing match with brer bear, I would want things stacked in my favor.

I can only speak to the 30-30 and the 30/06 as those are the cartridges I have used most over the last 35 years.

For the 30-30, Federal blue box in 170 grain. Accurate and Deadly.

165 grain Remington Core-Lokt PSP in the old 760 Carbine. 20 deer or so...Never had one go more then 50 yards. Most just hit the ground where they stood. never recovered a bullet. Don't care. 2 holes are good.

95 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip in 6mm Remington
129 grain Hornady Spire Point Interlock in 260 Remington
140 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip in 7mm/08 Remington
140 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip in 270 Winchester
165 grain Sierra BTSP Gameking in 308 Winchester
170 grain Remington Core Lokt Hollow Point in 30-30 (Factory)

For many years hardware store
130 Core Lokts in 270 Win.

140 Nosler Accubonds 270 Wsm and
130 Nosler E Tips 270 Wby these days.

Playing with 190 Nosler ABLR 300 Wby.
All fly about 3000.

These days I use 150 grain Partitions in 270, but when I was younger I used 100 grain Partitions in 6mm. Because I don't shoot at any game past 300 yards I never had any trouble with either round killing mule deer.

I really loved the Nosler solid base bullets- I suppose the replacements are Accubonds. I still have some .270 130 solid base left

I use a lot of Speer Hot-core bullets as well, really like the 7mm 130gr for my 7x57 on antelope and mule deer. when things are serious I use the Nosler partitions.