Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Trophy hunting deer rifles and loads

I will typically take tougher shots at larger bucks than I will at average bucks or does. Most of my shooting is at under 200 yards (under 100 yards generally) in country where seeing that far isn't common. During the rut the bucks are often on the move and don't offer enough time to wait for the perfect broadside shot. So presently my two favorite rifles hunting for the big ones are a 308 on a Mauser action, scoped with a Redfield Widefield and loaded with 150 grain Partitions pushed to 2800 fps with BLC2. My other or backup Texas big buck rifle is a 7-08 Remington Model 7 topped with a 3 power Weaver loaded with 140 grain Partitions pushed to 2650 fps with IMR4350. The Redfield has a thick duplex crosshair and the 3 power Weaver has a post/crosshair and both point quick for me. The rut in my area started Sunday and I will be back out there Friday. I also have a Ruger 77 in 270 for more open country and it is loaded with 130 grain Partitions. Anyone else out there think a bullet that gives deep penetration is better for trophy hunting than your basic CnC?

Barnes....

Well Barnes lost me s a customer when they introduced their X bullets. The first several versions were terrible but costing me money to test their products stopped me from ever being a Barnes customer again.

I've only got two "Deer Rifles", a .270 M70, and a Marlin 336 .30/30. Both work well enough on Missouri whitetails. I don't use "premium" bullets, because deer are easy to kill. I did switch to flatbased bullets because they shoot better in my M70, other than that, nothing else needed to be done. I am happy with the Sierra ProHunters. I haven't lost a deer since I started using them.

I feel the same way about Sierra! I however, found the cure in 1992.....Barnes Bullets! memtb

I like a bullet that will pass through (more blood on the ground), but some CnC ammo will dojust fine. Hornady interlock, Speer hotcor, Federal bluebox or fusion are usually dependable.

Cup and Core is all I have shot for the last 15 years and the deer rarely move more than 20 feet, if that. Hornady Interlock 140 grain BTSP for my .270. This ammo got discontinued so I bought 25 boxes online recently. I should probably start reloading but I just haven't had the time to learn it. My shots are typically 200 to 350 yards on average. I see no need to ever change as it is very accurate

Not to sound trite but every deer is a trophy to me so I wouldn’t load anything different for one deer hunt over another.

That having been said I’ve come to favor Nosler Ballistic Tips for deer because they’re a great combination of expansion and penetration. The shock factor is excellent yet they’re typically equipped with a heavy jacket to bring em through.

One thing I’ll point out with regard to harder bullets was the study done at a southern hunt club where they found that while harder bullets typically created two holes for a blood trail, they also kill a little slower so that blood trail is more necessary.

That having been said, I’ve used Barnes TTSXs, Nosler ETips, and Hornady GMXs and they’re excellent.

Good luck,

Efw

Never know what I'm going to run into. Big or small they all fall to standard cup/cores.

I load Barnes TTSX, Nosler Ballistic tips, GameKings in my 308. If I hit them good, they go down. If I had to choose one brand, I would go Barnes TTSX.

I have a bunch of tipped Bear Claws but haven’t tried any of them yet. I used the old Jack Carter Bear Claws a bunch. I traded out plumbing work for bullets with him. I think he would have liked the tipped version of his bullets.

Though I don't currently use them (don't really have an answer as to why this is), if I had to pick only one bullet for deer hunting. I believe I would choose the Nosler Partition. It is an older design that still to this day has never been better IMHO. Watch The Real Gunsmith on Youtube. Randy Selby discusses the Partition. Randy is a wealth of knowledge and experience. I trust his judgement.

Bullets:
1. Nosler Partition
2. Barnes TTSX
3. Nosler Accubond

Rifles:
Ruger M77 MK/II
Winchester 70

Cartridges:
30-06
270 Win
7mm Rem Mag

For whitetails in the northeast where I am, I use a cup & core bullet in .308 or 30-06 for any whitetails. On average with either of these calibers and a 150 grain bullet if I sight in 7/8's of an inch high at 50 yards, they are 2 inches high at 100, inch and a half high at 150 and dead on at 200. While the majority of my shots are 50 yards or less, I can simply hold dead on out to 200, despite the fact that I'll never get that far of a shot where I hunt.

I'm much more interested in a fast handling rifle for jumping a deer and a quick follow up shot and I'm not much of a bolt action fan for this type of hunting. My 2 favorites are a Remington 760 pump carbine in 30-06 topped with a Leupold Vari X III 1.5X5, and a Remington 7400 Jamomatic in .308 topped with a Denver Redfield Widefield 2X7, which despite it's nickname, shoots and cycles flawlessley for me.

Ruger Haweye Predator .308 165 gr Gameking

Rottweil Brenneke, 12 gauge Original 2 3/4.

I tried the X bullets too,deer hated them !

Not real hard to kill deer at 200 yards ,let alone 100.

TTSX, NBT, VLD, Amax, Fusion.......

Just back from a successful KY deer hunt, .30-06 with 165 Sierra Game King over IMR 4350 was my load. Both the buck and the doe were raking shots just behind the shoulder, the buck somehow manged to run about 100 yds. downhill into a steep hollow and the doe was a bang flop. When field dressed both were nearly turned inside out by that bullet.

In thick country, big bullets at moderate velocity do bad things to big deer.

Factory:
Fusion for the 30-06
Hornady ST for the 6.5 Swede

I have found that the same rifle/cartridge/bullet that works on deer at under 100 yards, will also work on deer at over 100 yards, and 200, and 300, and 400. As an example, for many years I hunted with one rifle.....a Remington 700 Classic in 270. I used 130 Sierra Gamekings, and killed deer from 25 yards to 450. No big deal either, it worked like it was supposed to.