Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting 243 for deer

Exactly....

After he got over his magnum phase, my father hunted a good bit with a barreled 308 Winchester, a full stock Steyr carbine. In that rifle he used 150 grain Interlocks and the Ballistic tips of the day which came in 100 count boxes. It was clear that those early BT's were softer. Fast forward about thirty years and it's me hunting with a 308 and 150 grain Interlocks and Ballistic Tips. I've found the current issue BT to be as good a penetrator, if not better.

It is almost sacrilege to say anything derogatory about the Ballistic Tip here on the 'Fire but hear me out. I first used one, a 140 in a 7mm08, in about 1996. It left a large surface wound and disintegrated with a few small pieces exiting. The whitetail deer, did not go far with that lung shot but I wasn't happy with the integrity of the bullet. Next was a 130 out of a 270 (gay) that made an even more horrible surface wound. Yup, I got the deer. Luckily, it was a lung shot and not a shoulder. Next, still in the 90s, was a 95 BT from a 243. That one exited on the 95 yard lung shot, deer went about 75 yards and went down. Not as good as the usual 40-50 yard travel when using a 7mm08 with Sierra 120s or 140s or a 308 with Sierra 150s.

I have read many times here and elsewhere that Nosler made the bullets tougher at some point but we are left to figure out when that was. Also, the 7mm 120 is supposedly tougher than the 140. How are we supposed to know that? What kind of sense does that make?

The 95 BT 6mm was supposedly designed by Gail Root to the a tough bullet from the get go and he even used them on elk! So why then have people using that bullet experienced blow ups? Were these toughened up too? When?

It's all too confusing to me to determine which ones are good and which ones aren't.

Am I the only one who feels this way? I wish I was one of the happy BT users but due to past disappointments, am reluctant to try them again. The only reason I used them in the first place was because the Solid Base was discontinued. That was a good bullet in the 270 and 708.

It's relatively easy, just buy new ones.

I should say for deer I have no problem at all with standard weight Sierras in mid speed rounds like 7mm08 and 308 Win to name two.

I f you go to the store and purchase new ballistic tips you can rest assured they are the updated tougher version.

I've used 100 grain core-lokt's, interlocks, power points and power shoks. Have also used the 85 gr sierra bthp and 95 gr. SST. The 95 SST's and 85 gr BTHP are the quickest killers of the bunch with lung shots no question.

Yep, just look for the Jeff-O proof boxes, and the bullets will be the recent version.

I believe there has been a packaging change since then. Jeff could get into the new ones.

Hope all the glowing reports on the 95gr BTs are true, I've got a couple hundred blems landing here tomorrow.

I hedged my bet with 100 85gr Partitions though......

Case in point, I posted a picture this morning of about 30 WhiteTails, that were killed with the bullets aka 95 gr. NOS BT and 105 gr. Scenars, 100 gr. SMK's note the bullet wounds, very little destroyed or blood shot meat, that was the point of the picture, we kill a lot of deer every year we wouldn't use these bullets if they didn't work or made a big mess out of the deer.

I don't care what you use or why you use it, but a sample of 1 or 2 deer a year does not give you much to go on when talking bullets and their performance.

Rio,
There can be no debate with your sample size.
Perhaps I got a bad batch (bullets were new stock BTW) but even on one hit in the broadside boiler, I hadn't seen that sort of mess since the last time I used 130 BT's (.270) back around 1986.

If you're looking for factory ammo, Federal Fusion (95 grain), Hornady Whitetail (100 grain interlock), Federal Premiums with the 95 ballistic tip or any of the partiions. They all work.

If you reload and your barrel will spin them, the 105 HPBT works well.

There are a ton of options.

I took my buddy's kid a couple of years ago to kill this big mule deer. He did in fact use a .243 and 95 BT combo and made a nice 150 yard shot. The buck folded like a lawn chair. Of course, a partition is never a bad choice.

SKane, Every once in awhile we will have a bullet make a hell of a mess out of a critter, and I don't know why?? I have had bullets that have hit a limb or tree between the shooter and the deer but very close to the deer that turned into a hand grenade and made a hell of a mess of the deer. anything is possible, remember Murphy's Law.

Rio7

Rio, loved that hangin' deer pic. You guys were busy!

Grandkids have killed bunches of pigs with Ballistic tips.

I'm not seeing a lot of lung shot deer in your picture. Where do you shoot them?

JGRaider,It pleases me to see you and others taking young people hunting,Good on Ya!

AnsonRodgers, I wait till I have the shot I want and usually head shoot when culling,if I don't or can't get the shot I want I heart lung shoot or pass that shot my culling buddy and I have a saying for when we don't take a shot for what ever reason, it is " God Wanted That Critter To Live Another Day" That covers misses also. Rio7

Thank you. I wondered about your shot placement. Pretty much any bullet should work for a head shot. I use the lung shot to minimize meat loss, plus our deer are probably larger.

When I lived in TX and hunted Hill Country deer, I used a 243 a bunch, even with Sierra 60 grain HPs. Your deer in south TX are no doubt larger than those. They sure are up here.

I don't take marginal shots either.

AnsonRogers, Our deer a quit a bit bigger than the hill country deer, but not as big as the northern Whitetails, doe's average 125# some are 130# Bucks usually around 200# up to 235# bucks will loose 20# to 30# during the rut and the does will loose some weight also we weigh every deer and age them and score every buck, and collect the lower jaw of all deer killed, that way we know where we are, deer are a part of our over all ranch management program.