Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Expanding vs Penetrating Premium Bullets

I'm just the opposite. Partitions seem to always shoot well while Accubonds are my nemesis. That's only a few rifles, but they are all the same. I really want Abs to shoot well. Then I get fed up and load up some TTSXs and they shoot lights out with no effort whatsoever...

Choose a bullet for the game you are shooting. I started shooting whitetail deer with a 270 in 1980. I shot standard cup and core bullets in 130 grain. Those bullets were all too hard and gave no expansion unless they were put through the bones of both shoulders. They left small exit holes which sealed up with fat and left no blood trails when punched through the chest. I soon tired of looking for my deer and switched to 130 ballistic tips. Every deer I shot from then on were DRT. Now I have killed a ton of whitetails and a few pronghorn with ballistic tips, 130 grain in 270, 100 grain in 25-06, 95 grain in 243, and 140 grain in 7 Rem Mag. Only recovered one 95 grain from a buck my son shot end to end as it was facing him. Also shot a lot of hogs with the same and none of them complained.

I did try the 120 Ballistic Tips in the 7 Mag and was none to impressed. Those did not expand. I learned they were given thicker jackets for some reason (was told per request of metallic silhouette shooters). But the 120 grain V-Max and the 140 Ballistic Tips performed wonderfully. The only experience I had with blood shot ruined meat from a ballistic tip was with the 55 grain out of a 220 Swift. Stopped using those for deer and switched to the 63 grain Sierra which performs perfectly.

Now that I live in elk and mule deer country I have loaded 160 Partitions in the 7 Rem Mag. I used it on a big bull buffalo in 2010 and was very impressed with it. It ought to work on elk. I switched my 270 load to the 130 accubonds for mule deer and I have the 54 cal muzzleloader ready as well. If I draw an antelope tag the 25-06 and 243 with ballistic tips are good to go as is the 50 cal muzzleloader. Looking forward to giving them a go.

I hunt deer in the same conditions and I agree that fast expanding bullets like ballistic tips and Bergers tend to put deer down quicker than the tougher bullets like Barnes and Partitions. However, there's no free lunch, everything comes with a price and after shooting truckloads of deer with ballistic tips I now shoot Barnes TTSX's. The ballistic tips were great until they weren't and I had a few blow ups on bone resulting in long tracking jobs and a bit of gruesomeness. 98% of the time they work great and a deer lying in it's footprints is always easier to find than one that runs a few yards. The TTSX shot deer tend to run a little bit but the results are more predictable, they always penetrate and the deer always die. I don't worry about shot angle nearly as much anymore.

Nothing's perfect, but I've come to prefer bullets that hold together better and penetrate at any angle at any velocity instead of the quicker expanding ones. Berger makes great bullets but I always get a chuckle at the claim that they "penetrate a couple of inches then expand". Basically that means "they're a grenade" and it's presented as if they were designed that way when really it's the byproduct of a target bullet design with a bit of hollow airspace behind the meplat. Bullets that grenade kill quickly and I shoot a lot of bergers for fun, no doubt they account for a lot of game but I just prefer bullets to hold together better.

Crow hunter,

It doesn't sound like you've actually used Bergers on deer. Is that correct?

Anyone use the 115gr 6mm Berger Hunting on game yet?

Remember the following: lung shots on deer. The story about the Berger VLD is not only told by the Berger's advertisements, but in hunting articles. As I mentioned before I hunt moose in Alaska where I live, and like you use bullets that hold together. I use the .338-caliber 225-grain TTS-X, although I have also used the 250-grain Partition, 250-grain A-Frame, and the 230-grain FS (not longer produced).

I don't know anything about deer hunting, other than most hunters not wanting for a bullet to pencil through deer, thus my reason for bringing up the Berger bullet.

Funny things yes but stuff seems to trend for folks. I have only dabbled with partitions because of initial poor groups. Go figure.

EFW gifted me all sorts of 6mm bullets and all was hit an miss including partitions, nbt and Speer of various weights.

Sierra's, as crazy as it sounds, light or heavy, hp, bt or flat base, all seem to just shoot better than other stuff. Even different weights in the same rifle. heavy f twist.

I know I am counter culture in this regard and because I load mild.

++++++++ on the interlocks, 165gr here

I went to the range today, took some hand loaded 308 with 150s and 165s and different amounts of Varget to push ‘em. Most of the groups were consistently about 1MOA but I did get one group of just under .5MOA with the 150gr Interlocks and 46gr of Varget. That loads a keeper. I’m hoping the 270 will find a load it likes with the Ballistic Tips.

"Sierra's, as crazy as it sounds, light or heavy, hp, bt or flat base, all seem to just shoot better than other stuff. Even different weights in the same rifle. heavy f twist. "

It's all I have been using since I started handloading.

That is a good load, but I settled on CFE223, in the .308, with the 150s and I will never go back to Varget, Re 15 etc. for that bullet.