Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Light for caliber deer bullets

Let's keep this discussion within the 6mm- .30cal. range.

Share your real hunting experiences with light and fast for caliber bullets on game.

Years ago an old man in the gun store told me he had great results with the 75gr. Hornady HP in the .257 Roberts (on whitetail). He claimed lots of exits.

I think I'm gonna try the Sierra .25 cal. 87gr. Spitzer this year. Anyone use it on deer?

I typically don’t go light for caliber bullets for “normal” range deer hunting until I get to .277 or above.

For WT under 400, fast LFC bullets in the above range kill like lightning.

I wrote above: " Share your real hunting experiences with light and fast for caliber bullets on game"

We would like to hear details.

I've thought about 100gr. bullets in a .270 Win. How could one going 3350fps not be devastating?

120 ballistic tip in 7 mm08 and 100 ballistic tip in 260AI

I tend to slow them down, instead of rocketing them out the barrel...

light and going fast, tend to either blow up or ya end up with a load of blood shot meat...

under 2700 fps MV seems to be the figure to start out with, to avoid the blow ups or the excessive blood shot meat..

at least that is what my experiences have yielded..

YMMV as always...

Few 55 gr in 243 on smaller whitetails within 300 yards . Killed like flipping a lightswitch.

You need to study up on John Lazzeroni, this is what he was famous for

I shoot 220s out of my '06. .. oh wait, wrong thread.

-Jake

The 180 gr Rem PSPCL will reliably exit a 100-150# dressed weight whitetail hit broadside, or oblique. '06 or .300. The 150 gr version will not....."reliably", I said.

On larger whitetails, even the 180 gr will end up under the skin with about 110-120 gr retained weight.

Not talking shoulder punching. Suppose you could slow the 150 down enough.

And how does that pertain to this topic?

130 TSX & TTSX from a .300 Savage should probably qualify as light-for-caliber.

2,900+ fps from a bolt gun found them neatly severing the spine on 2 hogs: 15 yards and 40 yards. One bullet at 2,700-ish fps from a Savage 99 passed through 3 hogs at 80 yards.

This bullet is purported to hold up well even at .300 WM velocities, but it worked fine as shown above. I can’t say that 150’s or 180’s (either mono or cup-‘n-core) wouldn’t have worked as well at the distances shown.

Like always, if one chooses a bullet that’ll hold up within the impact velocities expected, it should be smooth sailing. Maybe see if anyone can comment on the robustness of that old man’s 75 grain hp vs the Sierra 87 you’re contemplating.

FC

I've seen good results with light-for-caliber offerings when using mono-bullets pushed hard. They were great on bone, great on leaving exits, and still fairly good on lungs, primarily due to the speed.

100gr E-Tip at 3350fps in 25cal
100gr TTSX at 3200fps in 6.5mm
110gr TTSX at 3,200fps in 7mm
130gr TSX at 3350 in 30cal

I've also used or seen used lighter cup/cores at 3,300 or so in 7mmRM and 300WM. They were much more devastating than the mono bullets, but they also shot up a lot of meat. Lots of DRT shots with anything in the chest cavity, but I'd not want them for an angling-away shot.

Now that I think about it, I've also used lighter mono-bullets at more moderate speeds to keep down recoil. The 120gr 7mmTTSX, 130gr .30cal TTSX, and 185gr .338cal TTSX have worked well enough at speeds from 2700 to 2900. Not as decisive as the fast monos listed above, but totally adequate in terms of damage, blood trails, and ability to take on bad shot angles.

I don't know if a 90 grain copper bullet from a .257 Roberts, 3,000fps, qualifies as 'light for caliber' but my neighbor has killed 5 small bucks in the last 3 seasons and is happy as a clam.

I have had great luck with 100 gr NBT out of a 260 at around 3275 FPS and had several buddies that use a 125 NBT out of 30-06's. All have been bang flops with both cal's and bullet combo's

A rifle range buddy of mine used the 125 grain Ballistic Tip out of a 308 Winchester. Top load of W748 if I remember right. Given the results he reported I doubt he could be swayed away from the combination.

I used the 130 gr. Speer HP's and Hornady SP's out of a 30-06 some pushed as fast as possible 3300fps or so and that worked great as long as you didn't hit bone. Still killed just fine but meat loss and wounds were just ugly!

Killed a couple bull caribou and deer with 85gr BTips going as hard as I could push them in a 26” 257 Weatherby. They killed everything I shot with them like lightning bolts. Souped the lungs/heart and only ever had one fail to exit and it was under the offside hide after breaking a shoulder.

Yowza. I bet those BTips were moving.

I run a 100 gr TTSX out of mine at 3675 FPS, what are you getting out of the 85's

Experiences have been negative unless the bullet was especially designed for it. Speer 130gr 30-30 bullet is the latest example.