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Has anyone used the 125 grain .308 bullet for deer?

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yep

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yes i use 125gr sierra pro hunter with a max chare of varget in a 308 and also use it in a 30-30 340 savage with a max charge of imr 4198 did ok on deer but thought the 130gr hornady worked for me alittle better hope this helps

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I started on a .308 loaded with 47 gr. 4831 and a 125 gr. Nosler BT. Did what I asked of it on deer, killed well and held together. I shoot a 165 gr. BT out of my .308 these days for deer.


Selmer

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Ran into an old hunting buddy this weekend and he stated that he was using the 125 grain in his 30-06. That started me to thinking about using it in my .308 for white tail and smaller animals for the flatter trajectory.

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Is he a handloader, or is he using a factory reduced recoil round?

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He could be really smoking them out of that 30-06, maybe 3300 fps.

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I'm not sure I'd want to fling a 125 gr. Ballistic tip, Hornady, or Sierra at a deer moving at 3300 fps. I've done it at 3000 and a ribcage shot looks like a varmint bullet hit. As long as you don't have to penetrate more than a few inches you're fine, but I wouldn't try the "thru-shoulder" shot on a deer with one at that velocity. 130 gr. Barnes, sure, why not?


Selmer

"Daddy, can you sometime maybe please go shoot a water buffalo so we can have that for supper? Please? And can I come along? Does it taste like deer?"
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Nosler's data indicates a max velocity of the 125 gr. BT with Varget of 3418 fps in .30-06 - that's smoking!

Last edited by selmer; 11/23/09.

Selmer

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Yup!!!!


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I built some 125 grain ballistic tips for a buddy in .30-06 to use on antelope and deer. A little too destructive for his tastes. They were going 3250 at the muzzle with 56 gr of IMR 4064. But they certainly kill things


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A fellow I see at the range loads the 125 Bal Tip for his 308 Win. handgun. IIRC he's pretty happy with his results on deer, I'll try to get details next time I see him.

I do remember he's using stiff charges of 748 in his top load, and the groups he shoots would be the envy of a good percentage of the rifle shooters at the range. He's probably hitting the deer right where he wants to.

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If I were shooting a .308 in a handgun the 125 gr. BT is THE bullet I'd go for. It worked great for us with reduced loads when we were just starting, it was running about 2700 fps and performed perfectly, I'm just saying another 500 fps would be a different story.


Selmer

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I wouldn't crank it up all the way in a 30-06 either. grin

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The only thing to consider is that those short bullets can be tougher to get to shoot. I was just at the range at lunch trying to work up some loads and the initial efforts with the 125 balistic tip, as well as the 110 hornady and speer were disapointing.

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My wife uses the 125 gr Sierra @ 2900 fps and it works just fine on whitetail deer.
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I have killed 5 deer with the 125 gr. Nosler B.T. I was running it out of a 308 at 3125 fps using 51.3 gr. of Win. 748. The closest shot was 27 yards the longest 250 yards. Is the 125 gr. the ideal deer bullet out of a 308, no, but it does work. On the 27 yard shot the bullet hung together to get in side of the rib cage, the other side of the rib cage on the inside looked like bird shot had hit it. All others at least a part of the bullet exited. I never did find any piece of the bullet in a deer even the 27 yard one.

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I love Barnes 130s over Varget in 30-06 and .308. I get the best accuracy at ~3150 (53 grains Varget in 30-06) and ~2950 (44-46 grains Varget in .308).

I have seen guns that didn't care for TSXs but shot TTSXs extremely well. I have not seen a gun that would not shoot TTSXs well.

I like the Barnes 130s so well, and the performance is so uniformly excellent that I see no reason to ever load anything heavier. Out of about twenty deer over the last few years with the Barnes bullets we have yet to stop one in a deer, and we just this year recovered one. Oddly, it was the only deer the first shot did not stop. The guy shot it in the knee and I got the bullet out of the dirt behind the deer. It took another 14 hours to get the deer (had to stop over night).

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I loaded some reduced recoil loads for my brother in law and nephew (courtesy Seafire's data for red dot).

both made 1 shot kills on does with 130 grain Hornady SP (#3020)

"upped" the velocity for my nephew, and he killed a nice 9 pointer with a head on shot thru the neck; got to the lungs and tore stuff up.

130 Hornady's seem to work!


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