Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors What's your 250-3,000 go-to deer bullet?

My 1955 vintage 99F in 250-3,000 won't shoot bullets heavier than the 90 grain Sierra HPBT. It shoots them and any 87 grain bullet very well. So, what is the best light bullet for deer hunting? The Sierra 90 grain, Sierra 87 grain, Speer 87 grain?

87 grain Hornady spire point. Been shooting it for 25 years and never had a deer walk away, DESPITE what the maker says the bullet is designed for.. Accuracy is great and blood loss is phenomenal.

Well, I've got the oddball 1950 R that loves the Remington 100's, and won't shoot 87's. My buddy recently inherited 10-15 boxes of the 100 CL's so I'm set for life with them. The 87's we loaded for the R that didn't shoot well, shot wonderful in two of my other 250's, so I'll stick with them till I run out. My 87's were the Speer's.

Go with the 87 grain Speer Hot-Cor.

I've got 4 unopened boxes if anybody needs some.

Thanks,
Steve

I guess no one uses the Sierra 90 grain HPBT. I have plenty of them and plenty of 87 grain Speer spitzers. I shot the Sierra 90 grainers yesterday and they grouped well. I just don't know if a hollow point is the way to go. I just loaded up some 87 grain Speer spitzers. I will try them next time.

Thanks for the replies.

I've used the 87gr Speer Hot Cores on antelope, and it was awesome. Haven't got a shot at a deer yet with it, but I don't have any qualms about using it for deer.

Hopefully this year will see me shooting one with a .250. My Pre-G M.250-3000 definitely shuns anything but the Speer 87 grainer. That suits me just fine. My handload built around CFE-223 squirts them out the muzzle at 3000fps flat, and they group into a fat inch at 100 with the tang sight. (And lordy lordy, that rifle stays zeroed after multiple times being taken down- something I can't brag about with my 1899H's.)

I acquired a custom barreled Ruger #1 in .250-3000 that has a 1-10" twist barrel. I don't see myself carrying it into the deer woods this year but if I do, it'll be stoked with the same load. Why not? Heavy(er) .25 bullets aren't necessary for deer, so why bother? It is what it is. If I expect to shoot way out into the next county I'll arm myself with my Ruger #1 6.5x55 shooting long-assed Lapua Scenars.

Just for giggles, I called Sierra and asked what they thought about using the 87 and 90 grain bullets for deer. Of course the tech said that would be fine. I asked about the high shoulder shot which I so often see on videos, and was told to aim for the boiler room. No surprises there.

I have bolt action rifles in 250 Savage (1 in 10" twist) and 257 Roberts which of course will handle about any 25 caliber bullet I might choose. However, this is the Savage forum, and I want to use one or more of my 99s this November. This 250-3,000 is the best shooter of the bunch. The others are 300 Savages.

When I took the 250-3,000 to the range Tuesday I put 8 rounds into about 2" on a freshly painted plate at 100 yards. This with a cheap 4x Bushnell shotgun scope. Nothing builds confidence like hearing that plate clang. It beats the heck out of punching holes in paper.

By the way gnoahhh, I use Leverevolution powder in my 250-3,000 handloads with 87 and 90 grain bullets. It's almost identical to CFE-223 in burn rate, and I will be using CFE-223 as soon as I use up the rest of the LVR powder.

I've killed whitetails with 87 grain Hornady, 87 grain Speer HotCore, and 90 grain Sierrra BTHP bullets fired from 1-14" ROT Savage and Winchester 250-3000 barrels. Of those 3 bullets, I'd pick the 87 grain Speer HotCore 'cause it seems tougher than the others. I had a couple of the 90 grain Sierras come apart on impact, so I quite using them on deer, but they shoot so well that I still use them on coyotes.

The toughest bullet for shooting deer with a 1-14" ROT .257" bore barrel that I've yet to use is the old 75 grain Barnes Original X. That is the bullet that I use in my Winchester/USRA 70 Lightweight Carbine in 250-3000 and Winchester/Olin 70 in 25 WSSM.

Of course you don't need to, but if that rig were mine I'd see what Nosler's top charge of H4895 and a 100 grain Ballistic Tip seated just off the lands would do. It's magic in my 700 Classic.

Hey Sqweeler - you're getting dangerously low on 25 caliber bullets!

Regarding the 87 grain Speer Hot-Cores, I loaded up a bunch and will shoot them soon.

Back in the 1980s I shot a lot of woodchucks in NJ and NY States with my 25-06 and either Sierra 87 or 90 grain bullets. There were no plastic point bullets back in 1983. At first I loaded them to 3,200 fps, a mild load. They worked just fine, and blew through a 12 lb woodchuck every time, except once, and that bullet was a 90 grain Sierra HPBT. A sample of one isn't much, but the 87s never did that. I'm guessing the 87 grain Speer is a bit tougher. I sure do like the accuracy of that 90 grain Sierra, though....

sqweeler,

what's your favourite load for those 75 gr pills?

In a rebarreled Savage M-10 it is either the 117 gr Hornady round nose or 120 gr Seirra Gameking. Both shoot to the same place at 100 yards.

A Bubba'd 99R (or so I'm told) nothing shoots better than 100 gr Rem Core-Lokts. I have a couple boxes left so I have not played much with anything else. It does not like any 110+ gr bullet nor the 100s from Winchester or Federal.

A 20s 99 and a 1920 have not liked anything I've put down them yet. Maybe the worst has been 75 gr Hornady V-Max or something like that. To be fair, none of the four guns liked them. The remainder went down the tube of a 25/35. They were OK in that gun.

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Mine was always the 100 gr. round nose core-loc in my 1915 Savage.Have shot several deer with them up to 75 yards. I guess California has made my rifle extinct here now. Another good reason to move!

Mine likes the 100 grain win silver tips, I have a few boxes of old 87 grain ammo that I need to try.