Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Worst bullets for Killin game

Can't say I've ever had a bullet "failure". I've lost 2 deer due to poor placement. One was a 300Win/200 Partition on a whitetail buck @ ~150ish yds. Clipped him across the front on the move and he buckled. I quit shooting assuming he'd tip over, nope, he got a 2nd wind and ran off leaving not enough blood-trail to follow once he went out of sight. Looked for better than 1/2 day and just couldn't find him.

2nd was a whitetail doe, 257Wby/100TSX @ ~250yds and I hit her too far back. She got into a full section of standing corn and we never did find her.

Neither case stopped me from using the same bullet on the same critters for a good long while after the losses. I can't blame anyone but me for those deals. I once asked a gunsmith I used a fair amount if he could build me a rifle that would still be accurate if I jerked the trigger and peeked over the scope as I was firing? That got a pretty good chuckle out of him. I know I'm guilty of the "Jerk/Peek" when I get into a bunch of shotgunning and don't get behind a rifle for a while. It's OK, I'm human, I make mistakes and have shortcomings.

That out of the way, there are a couple of bullets I don't use due to what I've seen from recovered projectiles.

Dad kept an expanded and separated Sierra .277 130gn BT core/jacket. You could dump the jacket out of the core, I can't recall what deer or how far it came out of. Would've been shot @ ~3000fps from a 270Win.

Cousin shot a whitetail w/140gn NBT Fed Premium ammo from a 20" 7-08 in which the same thing happened while butchering, found the jacket and core. I shot a pile of deer from the late 80's through the early 2000's w/.277 140NBT's @ ~2850fps without losing any animals but did lose quite a few front quarters to bloodshot.

.277 150 ABLR didn't "fail" really. I shot a bull elk @ ~125yds. He was almost dead on, just slightly quartered and steeply downhill, I was aiming to stick the bullet just inside the on-side front quarter. My heartbeat lifted the crosshairs a bit and the bull dipped his head to take a step up/forward as the trigger broke and I hit him just behind the ear @ the head/neck junction. The bull went down in a heap, nary a wiggle. I found the slug on the off-side @ the shoulder/neck junction. The core/jacket were still together but went from 150gn to 55gn. I used the bullet on several deer after that and got pass-throughs and good vital damage, about what I'd expect from that bullet. However, despite a fair amount of practice and attention to getting rifles capable to 600+ yds, I still shoot way more animals @ 200yds and under than I do @ 400yds+ and as such, a "splash" is more likely than a failure to expand.

In fairly "controlled" situations on occasion I've used bullets "out of their class". I've taken a few deer w/223 and 50 V-max and 22-250/75 A-max but they've been "gimme" shots and that's what I had in my hands at the time.

I am a big fan of the TSX. I've killed way more animals w/that projectile in various weights/calibers than all the rest combined. For me the affinity has come due to them always being fairly easy to attain accuracy as well as mind-numbing consistency from .243 85's up through .308 200's and a whole bunch in-between. Caliber in, golf-ball sized out, soup in-between. I've recovered a few out of elk and 1 moose and mostly they look like text-book expansions, I have lost a few petals on occasion but most retain all 4 and look great.