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Shot a fork horn mulie for the freezer behind my house this morning. Used a reload with a 95 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip bullet. The bullet entered high in the ribs behind the shoulder and broke ribs on the far side but did not exit. Without a exit hole there was no blood trail and because the buck went down out of my view I had a heck of a time finding it.
I would appreciate anyone's advice on a different bullet that would give a reliable exit on a mule deer. I'm hoping there is something better without going to the expense of a monolithic or a partition. Thanks

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If you're after two holes everytime, I think you'd better go to a monolithic. But maybe look into the nosler etips from shooters pro shop, will be cheaper than barnes.

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I have killed a few deer and a couple antelope with the 85gr TSX out of a 243 AI and always had an exit. Once I shoot through the stash of bullets I have I'll probably look at switching to the tipped version. I have never had any bullets that failed to expand with the TSX, but I can't see the plastic tip being a bad thing in any way.

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I am looking for the same thing from a 243, two holes. I will try the 100 grain Partition this year.

How far was the shot and how far did the deer go after the hit? Thanks.

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Originally Posted by kalbrecht
Shot a fork horn mulie for the freezer behind my house this morning. Used a reload with a 95 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip bullet. The bullet entered high in the ribs behind the shoulder and broke ribs on the far side but did not exit. Without a exit hole there was no blood trail and because the buck went down out of my view I had a heck of a time finding it.
I would appreciate anyone's advice on a different bullet that would give a reliable exit on a mule deer. I'm hoping there is something better without going to the expense of a monolithic or a partition. Thanks


The 95/100gr Partition is my default for a 6mm game bullet, although I am going to use the E-Tip some this year. Buy them as factory seconds from Nosler and they aren't too expensive. Never caught a 6mm Partition in a deer, while I have stopped some of the better cup/cores like the 95gr NBT and the 100gr Interlock. I like both of those bullet designs for deer, just in larger calibers.


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I’ve had good results with the 80 GMX and 80 TTSX


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Thanks for all the replies so far. Shot was about two hundred yards off my Harris bipod. Deer traveled about 75 yards before piling up.

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My go to bullet out here in my 6x6.8 and 243 has been the nosler 95g hbt running at 3000fps. It's always dropped goat/deer with 100% pass throughs even at 525 yards, all behind the shoulder hits. This year I changed to Sierra's. 6mm 90g TGK (higher BC and slimmer). I'll be using them from now on. Both my goats this last week dropped on the spot, both pass throughs at 313 and 135 yards.


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Simple answer..... 80 grain, Barnes TTSX. You will get an exit....”almost” guaranteed! memtb


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Just checked my hunting notes, and we have never recovered either a 6mm 100-grain Nosler Partition or 90 E-Tip, or Barnes TSX from any deer or similar-sized game. That includes the biggest-bodied whitetail buck Eileen ever took, shot through both shoulders and spine with a 100-grain Partition.


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Thanks everybody. Looks like I may have to go monolithic or partition. Of course my wife had the cheapest solution, she said just use your .308 Winchester for deer and save the .243 for antelope because in antelope country you can pretty much watch them fall.

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Good luck with that. Have recovered cup-and-core bullets from deer when using the .308 Winchester. In fact once recovered a 225-grain .338 Hornady Interlock Spire Point from a whitetail buck that weighed around 150 pounds field-dressed. It was a quartering-away shot at around 200 yards with a .338 Winchester Magnum. Found the bullet under the hide of the far shoulder.


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Originally Posted by memtb
Simple answer..... 80 grain, Barnes TTSX. You will get an exit....”almost” guaranteed! memtb

Agreed 100%. My experience with these has been relayed on here multiple times.

$0.64/bullet for the TTSX vs $0.38/bullet for the NBT. I don't think I would let the cost be my decision point......

2 holes is always better than 1 in my opinion......especially with smaller cartridges.

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Thanks, John. Guess I will have to look at monos or partitions.

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Originally Posted by Mule Deer
Good luck with that. Have recovered cup-and-core bullets from deer when using the .308 Winchester. In fact once recovered a 225-grain .338 Hornady Interlock Spire Point from a whitetail buck that weighed around 150 pounds field-dressed. It was a quartering-away shot at around 200 yards with a .338 Winchester Magnum. Found the bullet under the hide of the far shoulder.


totally believable as I doubt that no one can guarantee exits with any "run of the mill" hunting guns and bullets.

Last year I shot three elk with .308 diameter TTSX …..two of the elk were cows and both shot with a .300 H&H at 175 yards and 165 grain TTSX, and the third animal a rag bull taken at 200 yards with a .30-06 and 180 grain TTSX....only one exited as I found both the 180 grain and one of the 165 grain bullets quite well mushroomed in the elk. All three shots were in the central rib cage area and at least in theory, all should have exited......and yes elk are bigger than deer but the point is still made.

I would venture that exits are more a matter of shot placement than bullet construction. I believe the best bullet for exits are the Swift A-Frames...spendy, yes, but I've never recovered any of them and that includes from Kudu, Elk, Gemsbok, and deer.

I'd still be using them but there's more to hunting than exits.....Monolithic will some day be the required bullet and I'm committed to learn the ropes with them now.....they are darn fine bullets.

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It's never not wrong to know that boolits is more important than head stamps. Partitions and Monolithics lack requiste BC fer the properly twisted 6mm.

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90gr Nosler AB might be a good choice, they shoot to same POI as the 95gr BT in my rifle. 80gr TTSX as others have said. But the real question here is; at what point in the Deer's demise did the bullet fail?? I know you would like an exit, but that is not always a guarantee (with any caliber)

I have double punched a buck with a .270win (140gr interlock) and never found a single drop of blood, until I saw the buck!

There's never a definitive answer, but as a Rule of thumb, if you want to see blood, use a bigger caliber, with light for caliber bullets, that expand rapidly. Exit or not you will see blood; and have faster kills on deer size game... ie 30-06 150gr BT

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I know you'd like an exit, but with small diameter bullets even if you get one to exit there is no guarantee you'll get an easy to follow blood trail. Having said that, I'll take my chances with the NP. It's, in my not so humble opinion, a great choice. I know this because I've never seen the NP fail to work as designed and I've used a bunch in a variety of calibers for the past 40 years.

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I have always shot 100 grain bullets in my 243. Don't remember if they are Sierra or Speer. A few years ago I shot a pretty large bobcat. He was facing me and the bullet entered where his neck joined his chest. There was no exit wound. He flipped over backwards and never moved.

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Originally Posted by kalbrecht
Thanks everybody. Looks like I may have to go monolithic or partition. Of course my wife had the cheapest solution, she said just use your .308 Winchester for deer and save the .243 for antelope because in antelope country you can pretty much watch them fall.

Smart woman, best advice here.

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