Out here in commie California, some of the areas I hunt are 100% lead free bullets. I've tried the Nosler E-Tip, Hornaday GMX and Barnes TTSX & TSX. I've settled on both of the Barnes Bullets. I have not recovered one of the Barnes Bullets in any Deer.
If you reload, there's no such thing as an obsolete cartridge.
Once you render an opinion, you open yourself up to criticism.
.358 225 Sierra SBT .308 180 Speer Grand Slam .308 165 Speer SBT These are what shoot best in the 3 rifles I load for deer hunting. They all hold together and don't bruise up a bunch of meat either.
12ga. Rifled slugs, 12ga. Sabots .50 muzzleloader, and now .450Bushmaster AR.
An unemployed Jester, is nobody's Fool.
the only real difference between a good tracker and a bad tracker, is observation. all the same data is present for both. The rest, is understanding what you're seeing.
Wow gunner that is an impressive list. I'm wondering if you can recall a 338 210 gr partition ever meetting up with a deer from your rifle, and if so, what was the performance like? I'd guess that you would not have recovered it. I have been stalling reloading 210 grain partitions in my 338 federal because it would be primarily used for elk if I ever get out west. However, recently I thought I should just load them and use them for deer and that way I can be familiar with them and be ready if I have a chance to go out west. Hoping expansion would be adequate. Muzzle velocity will be approximately 2500 ft./s. Shooting distance would be most likely under 150 yards, possibly out to 300.
To the question:
30-30 150 gr hornaday RN 308 win. 150 grain power point 300 WM 165 grain sierra HPBT 338 fed. 180 grain ballistic tip and Accubond 375 H&H 200 grain sierra flat points ( downloaded with sr4759 to 2270 fps)
I load the 210 gr partition to 2800 fps in my 338-06 and have only shot one deer with it, but, as you predicted, no bullet recovery.
I actually developed a load for my 338-06 with that bullet from what I read about it here, there are far more men with much more experience with that bullet than I, some even fire it near 3000 fps in 338 WM's, I have never heard a complaint about that bullet.
2500 fps in your 338 Federal should be perfect for ANY animal in the U.S. inside 300 yards, good luck.
Sierra GameKings are what I've used the most, never had a bad experience but deer are easy targets for the most part. They normally are very accurate which leads to confidence in taking shots, performance on game has always been stellar. If I want a tougher bullet the partition is my choice.
Good post Matt. I know a lot of guys turn their noses up to the GK, but they do work and they are accurate. As are the Hornady btsp and sp interlocks. Deer are NOT hard to kill, any old damn bullet is going to work. An accurate one is one I'd be looking for. Hell even the Winchester powerpoint is a great deer bullet and is damn accurate in my rifles:
Originally Posted by raybass
I try to stick with the basics, they do so well. Nothing fancy mind you, just plain jane will get it done with style.
Originally Posted by Pharmseller
You want to see an animal drop right now? Shoot him in the ear hole.
I use Sierra and Horndy Interlock. Maybe not the last word in deer bullets, but good enough.
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I load the 210 gr partition to 2800 fps in my 338-06 and have only shot one deer with it, but, as you predicted, no bullet recovery.
I actually developed a load for my 338-06 with that bullet from what I read about it here, there are far more men with much more experience with that bullet than I, some even fire it near 3000 fps in 338 WM's, I have never heard a complaint about that bullet.
2500 fps in your 338 Federal should be perfect for ANY animal in the U.S. inside 300 yards, good luck.
I used to use 100 gr Interlocks in my Better Bob & 165s in my 06 but have changed over to almost all Noslers... 90 gr/6mm, 100 gr/257, 168/308 ballistic tips as well as 110/257 NABs.
I'm not terribly fussy as long experience has shown that damn near any bullet will kill deer just fine so long as you put it where it needs to go. Usually I use whatever's cheap and readily available so long as it shoots with acceptable accuracy in my rifles. That said, lately I've been using.
.223 - 55 Horn. sp over H4895
Marlin .30-30 - 170 Federal power shok {factory load}
.243 - 95 gr. Nosler Ballistic Tip .308 - 150 gr. Nosler Partition 30-06 - 165 gr. Hornady SP Interlock 338 Federal - 180 gr. Nosler Accubond 30-30 - 170 gr. Remington Core-Lokt 45-70 - 405 gr. Remington Soft Point
My favorite is the .308 165 gr. Hornady SP Interlock
Wag more, bark less.
The freedoms we surrender today will be the freedoms our grandchildren will never know existed.
The men who wrote the Second Amendment didn't just finish a hunting trip, they just finished liberating a nation.
Most shot 8x57 150 Pro Hunter A couple with 257 Roberts 100 PPU One with 9.3x57 232 Vulkan All plain Vanilla, all will take a black bear if he comes by.
.243 100gr Hornady IL FB .308 150gr Hornady IL FB .30-06 180gr NPT or Hornady IL FB .338 Win 225gr Hornady IL FB .35 Whelen 225gr Sierra BT
Up until a few years ago I used a lot of Core-Lokts in the same weights. Then I got some odd results and have pretty much switched to Hornady IL for economy bullets. I do tend to switch to Partitions or Bear Claws for elk and end up killing an occasional deer with them when seasons overlap.
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