Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting What are your favorite deer bullets and why? Bad experiences?

For Mule deer, the Hornady 154 grain Interlock in a 7x57 is what I favor. Whitetail deer, the Speer 87 grain Hot-Cor in a 250-3000 Savage gets the nod.

The Sierra .257 90 grain HPBT bullet was the sexy bullet of the day for awhile among the 250-3000 Savage 99 owners I hung out with. What started it was a Pet Load article by Ken Waters on the 250-3000 Savage where was intrigued by it when driven at better than 2900 fps. Quote: "While I realize that it has neither the sectional density of the various 100 grain bullets, nor the ballistic coefficient of either 100 or 87 grain spitzers, it may just prove capable of doing the work of both heavier and lighter bullets. I dunno, not having had an opportunity to try it on game, but will be interesting to watch the reports as they come in from the field on this relatively new bullet."

Well, I and acquaintances tried the bullet and 1) in majority of rifles it was very accurate, 2) at .908" it shot well in some 1-14" ROT rifles, 3) no reliable performance on Whitetail deer. We discontinued using the bullet on Whitetail deer.

We should have read Sierra's "fine print" found in their reloading manual. ""Realistically, the 100 grain bullets are probably the best choice for deer sized game. The 87 grain spitzer and 90 grain HPBT bullets will serve well for varmints, but are only adequate for deer and antelope even if shots are placed precisely." Current website caveat: "It will perform as a varmint bullet at high velocities, but it may also be used on medium game from smaller-capacity cartridges, such as the 250-3000 and 257 Roberts."

A redeeming quality of that bullet is it's very accurate in the majority of 25 caliber rifles I have owned and if it doesn't shoot well, look elsewhere for a problem.

Hornady "Custom" 250 Savage 100gr Interlock factory is very accurate in my Savage 99-A and have killed 6 Whitetail deer with it with no issues.

My Marlin 336-C 30-30 has shown a preference for Federal blue box 170 grain Soft Point RN and works well on Whitetail deer. Recently, I tried the Hornady factory ammo "American Whitetail" 150 grain Interlok and found it to be accurate. Killed two deer with it...no issues.

[quote=Windfall]140 grain Barnes TSX from a 7mm-08 lost the only deer that I've ever shot with a firearm. 5 drops of blood total and two days of looking turned up nothing from a broadside shot at about 60 yards. A deer the year before should have told me that bullet was not expanding much if at all when it had a nickle size hole through both lungs instead of lung mush that was more typical of cup and core bullets.
Hornady Interlocks and SST's and Remington Core-Lokts have worked the best so far. 140 Ballistic Tips are next up to try for that 7mm-08 given what I've read

I had the same experience with Barnes TSX. Had to shoot one 3 times to put him down. Small holes, no bleeding. Final shot from the rear through the body did him in. Never again.

NBTs in 140-150g work great in my 7-08 handloads, and factory Powermax were very accurate and effective, but they stopped making them for the 7-08. Wish they would start again.
Fusion and Deer Season are doing fine.

Hornady interlocks, usually accurate in mine, no issues on game, but core-lokts have worked well for me also. I tend to load the heavier for caliber ones though.

The ones I cast.

Sierra GameKings and Nosler Partitions have never let me down.

Only bullets I ever had bad experiences with was a first gen 165 gr ballistic tip from a 30-06. Splashed on a shoulder. Never seen the deer again. The other was a Sierra Game King from a 243. Hit a rib and did an odd deflection but I did find the deer after a good distance so not really a failure.

Good experiences? My absolute 2 favorites are the 120 gr BT from a 7-08 IF kept below 2900 or so. I usually use 44 gr of Varget for those. The other is whatever bullet Federal uses in the blue box 270. That was almost all I used before I started handloading. Triple digit kills with them and they never let me down. Ive bought a slew of them pulled and load my own with them now... still kill like lightning.

Favorite bullets nosler ballistic tip and Berger hunting vlds. I've had more drt with these than any other. I've also used them on elk with great success.

Bullets I would never use again Hornady sst of any flavor. I wouldn't take them if they were free. Ymmv

I've been shooting deer for over 40 years now. It's easier to name the bullets I don't prefer.
240 gr Hornady .44 cal out of .54 cal inline muzzleloader. No blood trail. Lucky to find deer. Poor penetration. Switched to 265 gr Hornady which worked better.
165 gr SST out of .30-06. Poor penetration.
150 gr Speer hot core out of a .308 Win. Poor expansion. Long search to find deer.
Bullets that worked-
.50 cal swaged round ball (round ball was mandated in PA flintlock season for several decades)
200 gr TC Shockwave from .50 cal inline
150 gr .30 cal Ballistic tip out of a .308 (even the old ones worked)
150 gr Accubond from .30-06
165 gr partition from .30-06
165 gr Hornady BTSP from .308
168 gr ballistic tip from .308
130 gr Interlock from .270 Win
130 gr Nosler solid base from .270 Win
130 gr Ballistic tip from .270 Win
130 gr Accubond from .270 Win
150 gr Partition from .270 Win
100 gr Sierra semi pointed from 6mm Rem
100 gr Herter's semi pointed from 6mm Rem (looked a lot like the Sierras)

I've had great results from Sierra Pro Hunters, Nosler Ballistic Tips and Hornady Interlocks. All went down within a few steps. The last one I shot was a 9-pt with the 150 BT in my 280 Rem. Dropped him in his tracks and didn't so much as kick.

You must know that begs a certain question.

Well, not sure whether "splash" is the right word. But watched a .308" Hornady 180 gr Spire Pt launched from an '06 (est impact 2600 fps) do about that on a small CT doe. In recoil I saw a hole open up before my eyes. Not a failure to kill, ie., DRT. Impacted a rib, bullet fragments didn't make it through the deer, not even half way. Have the recovered jacket. One of the strangest things I ever saw. This was late '80s.

A friend (whose word I trust) used that same bullet in his .300 Roy on a Newfie moose, had the same result. Another good friend finished the job with his .338 and X-bullets.

Still have almost 1k of those 180s, but reserve them for paper punching now. Then, I might never see one "splash" again, so......

I will take hornady interlocks or Sierra spire points any day over any plastic tip bullets. It would take a big ole truck To haul all the deer I’ve killed with 140gr hornady interlocks in my 270 in 45 years of hunting.

I have killed many deer and hogs with my hand loaded .44 Mag Marlin lever rifle. The load is the 279 grain Speer GDSP bullet over H110 powder.

The ever reliable Hornady Interlocks are always dependable.

I used Sierra bullets since I was a young kid all the way up until 2008 when the internet convinced me that they were not a good bullet.

Game performance was great......it was the forums that talked me into Accubonds

Since 2008 Accubonds have served me very well.

Only problem I have experienced to date was to destructive of a bullet With that saidThe Hornady SST has been omitted from my go to list. I like to eat venison and having frangible pieces of lead and copper all over is not desirable to be sure. Good old core lock is just fine for me. Barns 100gr TSX does well from 6.5 Grendel as do a lot of other choices when I do my part and responsibly put it in the boiler room. Heck a lead 50 cal round ball from a muzzle loader does ok to.

Enjoying the 108 eld for deer.

In my .270 I had a Remington bronze point fail to expand early in my life then a couple years later had a ballistic tip splash on spike bucks shoulder. After that I switched to 150 grain round nose core lokt. Never any issues with that bullet. Of late I’ve been using with great results 140 grain accubonds. Between my boys and I we’ve shot quite a few deer with .243 100 grain core lokts. They’ve worked well as long as we do our part. Going forward I’d like to try the 90 grain accubond in the .244 and also the 85 grain trophy copper.

Most often I'm found with one of these loaded in my deer rifles:

Nosler Accubonds or Barnes TSX

In 308 I used 165gr Hornady spire point's for about 40 years with no failure's. 25-06 used 117gr Hornady spire point's for about 10yrs, no complaint's.6.5x06 use 140gr Hornady spire points for several years. Used the same load for three elk, never a problem. Another bullet I liked was 160gr Speer hot core in 7mm Rem Mag years ago.