Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting .308 win. bullet for deer.

I've never used this caliber before and am wondering what bullet people like for deer. I'll be handloading and will probaby use a 150 grain bullet. Suggestions?

I take it you're talking reloading and not factory? And to what ranges?

For reloading I'd take the 150 Horn sp along with R15 or Varget. For factory ammo, I'd go with Federal Blue Box.

Dober

A lot of 150 or 165gr bullets work great for deer in the 308. I have used Hornady interlocks 150, Speer 150 BT, Hornady 150SSTs, 165 NP, 150gr NAB, and all were really good except maybe the SST's were a little soft. Probably a dozen more that would work well.

If I were going to load some up today I would start with 150NAB or 150 Hornady Il.

150 grain Hornady Interlocks work quite nicely. I use the flat base version and seat them out to magazine length. A bunch of different powders will perform great.

I don't handload but have shot a .308 for years. I like 165 grain cartridges.

You can't go wrong with the Nosler Partition. Unless it doesn't shoot well in your gun, then I would try Accubonds or Ballistic tips.

Took my first deer and many more thereafter with the Hornady 150 Gr. SP #3031. Still use it, too, although I mainly stick with the 165 Gr. Sierra HPBT.

Two excellent recommendations.

Thanks for the feedback. All my deer hunting to date has been with a .243 using soft nosed bullets. With the .308 my shots will typically be between 150-250 yards. I always try for behind the shoulder shots, but I want to make sure I'm using a bullet that will expand quickly but will make it through the shoulders if I'm a bit off. Will polymer tipped or hp bullets have any trouble with this?

Cant go wrong with a 150 ballistic tip and Varget or R-15. Nosler ballistic tips consistently seem to shoot well for me from 3 different 30 caliber rifles.

It's hard to go wrong with anything mentioned above, but I'll just throw in one more underrated bullet, the Speer 150 Mag Tip.

I'd go with 150 or 165gr Hornady SP Interlocks and whatever suitable powder you have on hand.

i have had good luck getting the 150 speer BTSP's to shoot over 42 grains of RL15. it does not take much to kill a deer.

180 gr. core lokt ,speer ,hornaday. All of them work well.

130gr TTSX at 3100fps

My two 308s seem to like the 150s for the best combination of accuracy and velocity. One gun likes Hornady SST and the other prefers Hornady SP bullets.

I'm toying with the idea of a 130 gr TSX for longer ranges and the 170 grain Sierra FP shoots well and should hammer deer in the timber.

All of the above are great. I choose the 180 gr. Hornady round nose bullet handloaded with H4895 in my .308. My observations over the years have satisfied me that RN or FP bullets seem to knock the snot out of stuff. I have gotten a higher percentage of bang-flops with them than I have with spitzers. All very unscientific, but I am convinced it is so.

RN's work fine to 250 yards and a bit more.

I was thinking that RN or FP bullets would be really effective at those ranges too. I'm glad to hear that experience from you hobbybobby.

I would too. I've had excellent performance on Mule deer with my .308 Win. using the 150 grains Hornady Interlok JSP. I use IMR 4064 powder. I get excellent accuracy with that load from my Rem. 700, also.

L.W.
Good luck.

Sell the rifle. Everyone knows that you can kill a deer with a .308. Boolits bounce off.