Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters In defense of soft hunting bullets

Well, I'm trying to understand.

But, with the cost of gas, license, leases, equipment, hunting in general, I don't see how a few cents difference in bullet costs gets on the radar. I try to watch my pennies, but bullet costs aren't on the list.

DF

Well, there are still a bunch of us out here who don't spend anything on leases, nothing on feed or food plots and little to nothing on gas because we do much of our hunting out the back door. Besides all that, I've never had a well placed, plain vanilla bullet fail to produce a dead deer in short order so see no need for anything else.

I never worry about the price of a bullet that I put threw a game animal it is all the bullets I use getting to that point. Working up a load, zero check at 20 to 300 yards, by the time I am done I have dumped a lot of those fancy 50ct bullets into a dirt back stop.

driftless

You hit the nail on the head. You can get in a lot of practice with good old cup and core. Not so much with premiums especially the monometal type. And C&C do kill and well.

Specifically for whitetails, particularly our Southern variety where a 180 pounder is a big one, quick opening bullets of tipped or cup and core construction DO indeed do a better/quicker job of putting them down in their tracks, or very close to where they were hit. I've field dressed well over 300 deer, and "autopsied" nearly every one, and FWIW, if anyone's interested, the most consistent and best overall results were often with the .270 Win. 130 gr. bullets and the simple, humble little .30/30 with the quciker opening bullets like the Core Lokt and Silvertips, or similar. This, I believe, is simply because the bullets in those calibers are EXPRESSLY designed for the velocities of the .270 Win and the humble little .30/30. In the '06 and .308's, the 150's do best and kill quickest. In the 6mm's, it doesn't seem to matter what bullet you use from the 85 gr. and up in wt. - they all seem to do a good job. In the .25's, I've not yet seen one shot with a .257 Wby., but short of that, the 100 grainers seem to put them down like lightning. Haven't seen many shot with 6.5's, but a buddy used to shoot long shots on a railroad track through some prime woods, and took several at over 600, two at just over 700, and he used the 100 gr. in his .264 Win. Mag. so the bullets would expand well at such long range. He rarely got a shot at under 400, and very few at 300. Then one day he got a shot at what he says was the biggest racked buck of his life, and it was less than 100 yds. when he pulled the trigger. That deer fell like the rug had been pulled out from under him, and he nearly broke his arm trying to pat himself on the back as he climbed down from his tree stand. Half way down, he noted the deer trying to get up. He hied down to the ground and got his rifle at the ready, but it looked so sick he just KNEW it was going to fall again. It didn't, though. And being very close to thick cover, one quick leap and bound and it was gone. He never found that deer. So .... one CAN go TOO far with the quick opening bullet thing. Some other friends alsoo became quite enamored of the .22/.250, and got lightning like kills .... for a while. Then all of a sudden, they started losing some deer. They were using 55 gr. Hornady SP's. They were recoil sensitive and had been placing shots well, but got lax, and those "miracle bullets" quit working at all. Yes, they WILL work IF they're placed well on broadside shots on smaller deer. Change any factor there, and .... well, you know, don't you?

As with all other factors involved in hunting, bullet selection needs to be approached with some decent judgment, and not based on what your buddies are doing, or what's getting written up lately. It needs to be based on what works, and what works CONSISTENTLY when shots are placed reasonably well, at minimum. NO bullet works well when a deer is only hit in a leg or fringed. NONE!

Now when the game gets bigger, say in the 300 lb. and over range, I can't say what works with any authority because I'm just a whitetail hunter. Had an elk hunt planned once, but it fell through, but I still have the .35 Whelen Ackley I built for the trip. I'm not a big fan of most magnums, ordinarily, because of the extra requirements they place on bullets. Nobody seems to talk about that today, but we probably should hear more about that, I think?

I know way too many good ol' boys who've taken many deer with the .22 LR to think that magnums are "necessary." Good HUNTERS could probably get their venison with a spear or a big rock! In reality, we concentrate MUCH more on the equipment we acquire and simply WANT, when we should probably concentrate more on HOW we hunt, and it'd be great if we stopped judging a hunt by what we bring home and its size, and started appreciating the hunt itself, and the thrills therein. But ... I'm just a dumb country boy down in the swamps, so what'a I know? I just have heaps of fun doing simple stuff that MEANS something to me more than bragging rights among my friends, so I guess I'm just out'a touch. I see so few today who even WANT to become better hunters, but who love to play the game of "He who dies with the most toys wins," that I find it harder and harder to find good companionship for a good and satisfying hunt - whether I kill anything or not.

A buddy had his turkey hunt ruined by a BMW driving Atlanta Yuppie Scum type. He'd set up and located a gobbler, and all was progressing well, if slowly, when the BMW barreled past toward where he'd seen 5 more fly to an open field not far away. The Beemer stopped rather quickly, and he heard 5 loud shots. 5 turkeys flew right past my buddy, and they were low, so he threw up his gun, tracked the lead gobbler, and said, "Bang! You're dead," lowered his unfired gun, and gathered up his stuff to leave, and the AYS plodded heavily up to him and asked if he'd seen any turkeys come by. My buddy said very calmly and soberly, "Why yes. I did. They went that'a way," and pointed up the steepest, nastiest and toughest hill in that part of the country. He left before verifying the , ALS took the bait, but personally I hope he did. I guess I"m just not a nice or very PC kinda' guy. But I DO have fun! And I do NOT apologize for any of it, either. YMMV.

If you can't figure out how to match tag and paper bullets you should take up golf.

Any of you fine gents have any luck - or not - with Nosler Ballistic Silver Tips? Just wondering how they compare to other C&C, especially the regular old BTs.

Steelhead.?????

They're the same bullet as the Ballistic Tips, with a black coating.

Guy

Does the coating really do anything? Or is it just marketing hype? You know, like some fishing lures catch more fishermen than they do fish.

Stealhead

I do know how to match tag and paper. But the obsession with premium bullets is just that an obsession, not reality. Cup and core bullets have been killing game for a long time. And I bet that the majority of game killed in the US is killed by cup and core bullets. Two years ago I killed a bull elk with a 180 gr Hornady SP from a 300 WSM took the top of his heart out, went 3 feet straight down. There is nothing wrong with C&C. I do prefer Nosler Partition but in this case Hornady shot much better. PRT gives the best of both worlds soft point and tough rear. At SPS prices the partition is a bargain but at full retail not so much. I do not buy the shot at any angle either, a bad shot is a bad shot. Throwing a premium hail mary is not hunting.

A hard angle shot is not a bad shot as long as the bullet has the ability to reach the vitails.