Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game What is the WORST hunting bullet?

There are many people that use match kings to hunt with.
Long range guys, mostly.
By the time the mK hits, it's down to a velocity that lets it expand well.
i donm't use them mind you, but I've shot a truckload of game kings over the years with no problems....
Cat

I've had very good success with Sierra Game King Boat Tails. No bullet failures to date, but I'm shoot factory loaded Federal Premium rounds, nothing "hot." Speaking of the military ammo, my dad used to shoot a lot of FMJ stuff when he came home from WWII. He killed many a deer with that stuff-and as the others said, the tips were filed off. I still have an old round of that "altered" ammo in my gun case. 'Guess you shot what you could afford when the money was tight.
A question to the group: It was always put forth to me that hollow points didn't make good deer bullets because the expanded to rapidly and tore up too much meat. What's the true story on this, because I know many people use them effectively on deer.

For me, the worst have been the SMK, SGK, NAB, NBT, and SGS........

AD

Mtn Hunter,

Those are exactly the sort or heavy-sidewalled Core-Lokts that developed their good name. If you sectioned one, you would find a LOT heavier jacket along the cylindrical part of the bullet than you would in today's "poinsted soft point" (PSP) Core-Lokts

JB

Jeff,

If you found the bullets doing taxidermy, am I wrong to assume that most would be under the hide, or at least in he rib wall? I mean, the animals would have been gutted, right?

It is actually pretty common to find the separated core and jacket under the hide on the far side of the animal, either with boatail or square-base bullets. Sometimes they are right together or the core is even inside the jacket, but loose. Sometimes they are apart, but normally nor by much.

As Craig Boddington has pointed out, so what? Especially on deer. All it means is that the bullet opened up wide enough to make a big hole inside the animal, and a big hole in the vitals is the main ingredient in killing power.

I only once found the core and jacket together on the 30 animals shot with Berger VLD's. In fact, only once once did I find the jacket and core resembling a jacket and core. Yet the animals all died pronto--and yes, much quicker than on average with an X.

Once in a while the jacket gets shed at the entrance hole. I have seen this twice in my life, though it may have happened other times that I didn't notice (especially in Africa, where on a cull the skinners are often too busy to look carefully on all of the dozens of animals they may proess in a day). Once was with a boattail cup-and-core, once with a square-base. In both cases the core went on inside and killed the animal.

My experience with XC's (both TSX and pre-TSX) is that they kill a lot quicker when cranked up above 3000 fps. Have seen some animals go 50-100 yards after being hit in the heart/lung with X's at lower velocities, even "fat" bullets of .33 and over. They are fine bullets, but on average I have found others to kill quicker.

It will be interesting to see how the new "tipped" TSX's work, especially the lighter weights they are bringing out. I have some of the light-weights on the way in all four bore sizes they are making. A 160 from a .340 Weatherby at 3500 or so? Should be interesting.

JB

Mule Deer,

You must be aware that Jeff likes to track, and even prefers it if they go a good way before dropping.


mathman

168 grain Sierra boat tail match through the lungs doesn't seem to even injure big game. 308 in 308 out just like a target arrow would do.

Wayne

Check out this video of the 300 grain SMK from a 338 Edge

http://www.defensiveedge.net/

Click on videos and then click on 338 Edge in Action

Right on!!

I've watched the video, and taken Shawn's LRH class and hunted at longer distances.

There is no secret about it. A 338 EDGE, Lapua, Allen mag and the like loaded with a 300 SMK is about the deadliest thing that can be fielded in the woods.

Ol JWP has a great link here, and it would do all doubters well to be a spotter behind a big 338 shooting SmK's for a day. The violence of impact at long ranges by these weapons is phenominal, and a high shoulder or lung poke with one of these will down an game animal with a quickness.

Damn those big 338's rock.

BTW JWP475. Congrats on that new Carlock rifle.

I don't know how Core-Lokts are on game, having used other bullets for that, but I do know that the 7mm 140gr. Core-Lokt bullets purchased in bulk are pretty accurate for silhouette pistol (IHMSA) competition out of my Contender 7 T/CU.

Sorry I can't answer the question; I just don't know.
DAL357

Some of "youse" guys couldn't recognize "glib" if'ns it slapped yer on the place you're sitt'n on...


bhtr

Jeff: WOW! What is a 338 EDGE?

The 338 Edge is the 300 RUM necked up to 338 Cal. with no other changes............

JB

Yes you are correct on the finds of bullets.... No failures, but only the thought that if it was a hard angling shot ever..... could not be nice MAYBE...

I'd suspect a good X type fast would be lightening, just not all that much my cup of tea really, the fast lights suck in the wind at long ranges and that and penetration is what I prepare for just in case. A few bad tastes in my mouth from not so light bullets years ago and I'm sold on heavy. From guiding, bang flops generally scare me...

But we've all got our rights!

Jeff

Last 168 SMK I saw ran through a deer, deer ran 20 yards spewing lung blood all over and was very dead and very easy to find.....

John

BTW I run 50 cal X in my beowulf well under 2000 fps, and they are pistol bullets, but every deer I've shot they take off around 50-75 yards like you say, very much so dead and bleeding. But no issue to find. Of course I'd bet if I needed to and shot bone I could change that.

And yes as another poster noted, I actually do enjoy following the clues to the game after its shot. Like a puzzle and very much part of what I enjoy in the field. Probably as noted, from my archery background, we always went back to the shack, waited, grabbed a few friends and worked the trail out. I've been on trails that lasted 5 minutes or less up to well over 6 hours, those long ones are very very satisfying and what I remember most, but again, thats just me... I dont' prefer 6 hour trails but I do enjoy waiting, and then snooping for 5-10 minutes to work it all out.

Jeff

Jeff,

Just funnin' about the trailing thing.

mathman

I am somewhat the same way myself. In fact some of my hunting companions think I am weird, because even if I see the animal go down after its death run, I will back-track it to see what the blood trail (if any) looks like, where the blood began, etc. I don't believe we can ever have too much knowledge about that sort of thing.

Plus I learned some years ago that, for journalistic purposes, it is better to know that an animal ran 37 paces after being hit than to guess 25, 40 or 50 yards.

One of my more spectacular trails was when I shot a scimitar-horned oryx a couple years ago on Texas. The rifle was my 9.3 BS wildcat, the bullet a 250-grain X at 2650 fps, range just about 80 paces. Hit the oryx (a 250-pound animal) broadside, in the sticking spot at the top of the heart and through both lungs. All the oryx tribe are tough, however, and she(!) backed up and looked like she was going to go down--but then suddenly recovered and ran off into the Texas brush.

Luckily it was not thick brush and the X left a fine blood trail. We followed it for maybe 50 yards, then one of us looked up and saw a white spot on the ground ahead. In its death run the oryx had run smack into a sizeable mesquite and broken off one horn! If it hadn'r run into the tree, it would have gone a little further. As it was, with the twists and turns through the brush the death run was still close to 100 yards.

JB

You guys who WANT a blood tracking job must not hunt blacktail in the rain like I do! I want 'em dead right there, if possible. That's why I switched from 7mm-08 to .358 for my blacktail rig. Having a deer run 100 yards into the rain forest with a minimal blood trail, like I got a couple times with the 7mm-08 and 150-gn NP's, at dusk, is a real bummer.

This deer left the most amazing blood trail I've ever seen. I shot this little buck last year with a 200-gn Interlock from my .358 at about 25 yards. He'd already spooked, which is why he was able to go so far. Anyway, he went about 150 yards (!) with this hole in him, leaving about a foot-wide swath of blood and lungs the whole way:




Now THAT'S what I'm talking about if i have to follow blood in the rain! :-)

-jeff