Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Worst bullets for Killin game

My worst experience with bullet "failure" was at least partially my fault. First safari I read and reread everything I could find on African game and hunting. One of the books was by Kevin Robertson where he talked about slowing the 300gr 375H&H down to 2400fps because he claimed it worked much better on buffalo. I loaded 300 Speer African Grand Slams to 2400fps.
Long story short, the bullets have a soft point so expand quickly and a solid core to drive them through but at 2400fps MV they expanded and stopped. Shooting a cape buffalo and having him run off several times does not inspire confidence in the bullet or the hunter. And yes we recovered all five bullets.

I have had one "wreck" that for several years I thought was a bullet failure. Lined up on my first bull elk at close to 300 yards. The bull was heading downhill and I was looking strait toward his back. I put a 165 Hornady (not positive if it was a boat tail or soft point) right between his shoulder blades and the bull dropped and rolled. I had to go out of sight to get to him and when I got close to where he was supposed to be he was back on his feet. Hours later we caught up to him and my buddy finished the job.

The bullet was placed perfectly between the shoulder blades but failed to break the spine or do significant damage to the vitals.

It was years later that I got more interested in ballistics and learned more about velocity, expansion, design parameters, etc. That bullet was started really slow because my rifle shot best with book starting loads...which was never an issue on the truckloads of deer I killed under 200 yards. It hit that elk really close to the magic 1800 fps and it likely didn't open up much at all. It grazed enough of the spine to knock him out for a bit but not enough to keep him down.

My one "bullet failure" was simply operator error for delivering a bullet to the right place at the wrong speed.

All the rest seem to work fine when placed properly. In the last few years we have taken game with Speer, Sierra, Hornady, Barnes, Nosler, and Berger. Monos, Premium Bonded, and cup/cores. Some worked "better" then others but all did the job.

Exactly right. I've been handloading 165gr Ballistic tips since the late 80's for .308 win. Dropped at least 20 White Tails and my son got 3 and none went more than 20 yards. Longest shot was 200 yards and closest about 5 yards. Shoot them in the heart/lungs and its a very effective loading. Never had a bullet come apart and all but one I can think of was a complete pass through. I suppose if I was shooting a 300wby I might choose a different bullet but at .308 win speeds it works great.

My exact answer. I had them explode on white tail does at 100 yards. I guess the new ones are better, but I am not going to use them again. Plain Interlocks for me now.

Never experienced bullet "failure" per say as every big game animal I've shot has died. I've also never used "marginal" cartridges nor have I taken a shot that I thought was "marginal". I have on occasion been less than impressed with a couple of bullets but again the animal died and was recovered. This sight abounds with what some label as "stunt shooters". If people have success with a 223 on deer, I say go for it. It seems to be working. Same goes with "match" bullets. I have no reason to call anyone out who is successful. I tend to "use enough gun" and tend to pay attention to articles (written by reputable authors who don't compromise integrity for free stuff, MD comes to mind) centered around new bullets. Middle of the road cartridges with middle of the road velocity pushing middle of the road bullets work.

The bullet I revile the most is the .277" 140 Hornady BTSP. I only shot two deer with them, and in both cases, the bullet shattered, blew up, whatever you want to call it, and didn't penetrate much, but blew huge chunks of meat everywhere. I eventually got both deer recovered, but it was not a pretty sight in either case. Those were the early ones with the cannelure WAY back on the bullet. Hornady changed the location of the cannelure later, but it didn't really help them much. I was shooting them out of a 22" .270 Winchester with H-4831 pushing them, nothing outrageous in any way. Those bullets were just dead soft and pretty much worthless. Both deer weren't very big, either, one little doe and a seven point buck of average size for a corn-fed Missouri deer.
I switched over to Remington Bronze Point 130gr. bullets and had wonderful results on the next few deer I shot with that rifle. Then Remington discontinued the Bronze Points as component bullets, which torqued me off considerably. After that, I went over to Sierra 130gr. Pro-Hunter flatbased bullets, which I continue to use today.

That’s weird. The 140gr Hornady Interlock BTSP has been a go-to for my 270. I’ve also used the .308 180gr version in my 30-06 with no issues. This has all been within the last 10 years. Not sure if they are apples to apples with what you’re using.

I’ve never had any monumental failures with rifle bullets. I’ve seen a few 130 hornady .277’s, 165 hornady.308 BTSP, 150&165.308 BT’s spit their cores out but I found all those bullets in dead animals. The one bullet I will never use again is a power belt muzzle loader bullet. Shot a smallish doe with a.50 cal in the shoulder. When I cut her up the bullet never made it through her shoulder blade it was as flat as a quarter and about the same diameter. I think it was about 280 grains but can’t recall now. It killed her but I don’t know how. If it would have been a big buck I doubt I’d have ever found him.

Never could get the early Barnes bullets to shoot well in any of my rifles so I never shot game with them. Others have told me stories of how they are the hammer of Thor and others have cursed them for pencilling through a deer/elk and needed several shots to take an animal down...

However, in my experience the one bullet I've had the worst experience with has been the Hornady Interlock. They have just plain been unpredictable at best. Between me and my son we have shot at least five elk with them in my handloads . Some of them dropped fairly close to where they were shot, others wandered off like nothing happened and once we finally got them on the ground after several shots you could easily see where the bullet had hit a bone and just blew up with no penetration or just glanced off and headed another direction. They shoot to the same POI as my Partition handloads so we use the often for sighting in and practice shooting, but not for game any more. Those chores have been handed over to Partitions and Accubonds in my game rifle and I am quite pleased in their performance so far...

Which Interlocks were those?

I have had problems with the 180 grain 308 and the 225 grain 338 Interlocks. Can't give you the part numbers any more as I've shot them up and don't have any boxes laying around any more...

My Interlock experience is with other part numbers. It has been uniformly good for deer and pigs.

My god you have the fishing fever. I love it.

Barnes and Bergers haven’t been overly impressive to me. The Barnes if no bone is hit and the Berger if bone is it.

Go!

To include bulls and bears too math. I’m a Hornady fan. 🍺

Shoot a lot of interlocks antelope and deer. The flatbase Spire Points allways seem to hold together better than the BTSP versions for me....mb

all bullets work if they are used at the velocities/ranges they were designed for and you do your part and hit the vitals
there is an article on here in the reloading section that talks about bullet design i think a lot of people on this sight need to read it

For probably 10 or more years all I’ve loaded for a buddies .270 is the Hornady 140 g btsp with nothing but dead beasts. No drama.

Exactly right. I've been handloading 165gr Ballistic tips since the late 80's for .308 win. Dropped at least 20 White Tails and my son got 3 and none went more than 20 yards. Longest shot was 200 yards and closest about 5 yards. Shoot them in the heart/lungs and its a very effective loading. Never had a bullet come apart and all but one I can think of was a complete pass through. I suppose if I was shooting a 300wby I might choose a different bullet but at .308 win speeds it works great.

federal terminal accent close far fast slow doesn't matter they do EXACTLY what federal says they do
weight retention and penetration they are the best of both worlds

What's likely the most interesting part is what bullets aren't mentioned here.

Accubonds and anything from Swift I don't think. I have some AB's for my 7-08, haven't tried them yet.

I was too for a long time- until I wasn't. They shot well, extremely accurate, and were relatively inexpensive- but once the failures started happening they just kept happening. It wasn't a tough decision to change given all the great bullets available now...