Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting What are your favorite deer bullets and why? Bad experiences?

In the ballistic study of lethality anyone that has a lot of experience and some curiosity learns a bit about anatomy accidentally. There is no way to have a high powered rifle be good for an animal that gets shot no matter what bullet is used.

So the real comparison is actually "how bad can it be" comparing one to another. And the details are very very complex. One bullet that strikes at 2500 FPS may be ok, and the same one may be excellent at impacts of 2200 FPS and be a total failure at an impact of 3000. Another may be exactly the opposite in that it is at it's best at 3000+ and not any better then a solid when it hits at 1900 FPS.

Next we have to look at the angle of the deer's body and what the bullets will hit. Broadside shots are the easiest and present the least number of challenges for a bullet maker to address. Even an arrow with only a 3/4" wide 2 blade broad head, shot from a 40 pound bow is easy to kill deer with--------- if the hits are all broadside.

Raking shots are the worst and most complex as far as trying to make a bullet that can cover all the bases.

Then we see deer in some areas that average 120 pounds live weight and others that got up around 300 pounds

So favorite deer bullets is a HUGE subject. What is outstanding for white tails in the swampy lands in Alabama may not be the best choice for mule deer in Nevada.

Next we look at the purpose of the shot. To kill a deer to mount the head, or to kill a deer to get as much meat as possible? Meat hunters (even when killing big trophy heads) like bullets that are 100% reliable for killing deer even if they deer don't drop at the shot. I for one, will take 100% penetration in a relatively straight line over electric bombs that drop 8 deer out of 10, but the ninth and tenth runs away and leaves me a small, hard to follow blood trail, because of a lack of straight penetration. Some guns and bullet seem to give you the best of both. Many make you choose one of the other.

I know a LOT of hunters who have a favorite bullet but have only killed 10 or 15 deer in their life and so they don't really have a broad basis for their choice or have much to compare their choice to. And that still doesn't make them wrong! (but sometimes doesn't make them right either)

So to give a better answer to that direct question it would be best if the O.P. said deer in so and so area, with such and such cartridges.

To open it up in the way he did, each answer could be be the size of a chapter in a gun book for every individual hunter, in each different area, with about 500 different kinds of guns and with about 250 different cartridges, and each cartridge having been used with between 10 and maybe 250 different bullets. This forum is not large enough to contain the info, and no one would have enough time to read it all and make valid comparisons anyway.

For me personally I can list the bullets I do NOT like, (any that break up regularly and don't hold at least 1/2 of their weight as a rule) but the ones that I do like are varied, and many of them deal with what gun I use them in.
I love venison so I do not want bullets the break up even when the game is a doe deer. I want 100% penetration if I can get it and so unless I am trying a new gun and/or bullet to see if it will work the way I like, I always would choose one that gave me exits in straight lines.

Those in italics below I have killed deer with, but those that I show bold I have not, but I have killed other game with, and expect good results on deer.

There are many others too, but these are what I still have and wound use today.

My current rifles and handguns I have killed deer with (or may some time if I want to )are:

5.56. My choice is the 60 grain Nosler Partition

257 Roberts. 100 and 120 grain Nosler Partitions

25-06 120 grain Speer Garnd-slam and 120 grain Nosler Partition

6.5X54 M/S 156 grain round Nose PPU

6.8 SPC 100 grain Remington. 110 grain Nosler AccuBond

270 Winchester 150 grain Remington round nose. 150 grain Nosler Partition. 160 grain Nosler partition

7.62X39 Wolf Factory 123 grain soft points

30-30 170 grain Remington Core-Lokt. 170 grain Speer Hot Core

300 Savage. 150 grain Speer Grand Slam. 150 grain Remington CoreLokt (from the 1970s) 150 grain Nosler BT hunting

303 British 180 grain Winchester. 180 grain Remington. And 190 grain cast with gas checks.

308 Winchester 150 and 165 grain Nosler Partitions, 180 grain Winchester Power Points, 165 grain Hornady flat base inner-lock. 180 grain Sierra Round Nose

30-06 150 grain Remington CL, 150 grain Grand Slam, 150 grain Nosler partitions 150 grain Winchesters. 180 grain Remingtons. 190 grain Horandys. 220 grain Hornadys

300 H&H 200 grain Nosler Partition (for elk, but I don't change for deer)

8X57 170 grain Hornady SST or 200 grain Nosler Partition

35 Remington 200 grain Remington CL 200 grain Horandy Inner-Lock. 220 grain Speer

9X57 225 grain Nosler Partition

9.3X57 250 grain Nosler Accubond or 285 Grain PPU Round Nose (for elk, but I don't change for deer)

9.3X62 286 grain Horandy or 286 grain Nosler Partition (for elk and bears, but I don't change for deer)

9.3X74R 286 grain Horandy. (for elk and bears, but I don't change for deer)

375H&H 270 grain Winchester Power Point (for elk buffalo and bears but I don't change for deer)

404 Jeffery 400 grain Hornady (for elephant down, but I don't change for deer ---or for anything else either)

50 caliber flintlock. .490 ball cast from Wheel Weights and air cooled.

62 caliber flintlock .600 round ball cast from Wheel Weights and air cooled.

357 magnum handguns. 187 Gr LBT wide flat nose gas check

44 magnum handguns 320 grain LBT wide flat nose gas check

45 Colt 265 grain LBT Flat base wide flat nose

454 Casull 370 grain LBT Wide flat Nose, Gas check.

Ramble over.........