I doubt that there is an 80-grain bullet that will stabilize in a 1-14 twist. Was it a round-nose? The heaviest bullet that will stabilize in mine is a 60-grain Partition, not a particularly long bullet for its weight. Nosler does list some loads for longer bullets in a 1-8 twist barrel.
I do recall that he had the standard "green and yellow" box with him on that trip, but I wouldn't be certain whether it was 80 grainers or 60 grainers. If memory serves me correctly, I'm pretty sure they were 80 grain bullets. Personally, I'm not a favorite of the .22-250 on extremely large Rocky Mountain mule deer. I think the reason he brought the gun was because it was all he had and he figured he could kill a deer with it. Kill he did - a monster. That was a pretty good hunt. Back then the plateau was overrun with mulies. Of course, most of Arizona at that time was going through a high-moisture trend.
