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

I remember there was a stink about the 180 grain .308" a while back. It appeared that the Interlock ring was moved closer to the nose of the bullet and if I remember right it had less depth of bite into the core as well.

The worst bullets I used were the early Barnes X monometals. Had me chasing animals all over the place. Barely expanded or didn't expand at all. Never recovered one and had to shoot several animals a couple of times. One Elk I shot with one of them (225 grain .338 X bullet) actually went over one mountain and up the other side of another after crossing LaBarge creek. Thank God for snow. What a bitch of a recovery, my hardest ever. Even today after they have considerably improved their bullets I will only buy their match bullets.

One that I would fall a failure was a Nosler 180 gr. protected point in a 30-06. I had to shoot the deer three timed to get him on the ground. I have to say he was the heaviest deer I have ever shot. Anyway, when I opened him up, one bullet had cut a narrow groove in the top of the heart with no other damage to the muscle. Another went through both lungs with the hole looking like it had been stabbed with a pencil. The last shot broke it neck and put an end to the fiasco. I believe those bullets did no open up and did "pencil" on though. Several years later when chronographs were more available I ran the last few rounds of that hand load to find velocity was 2600 FPS. The deer was at no times more than 35 to 50 yards from the muzzle of that rifle.
On the early Ballistic Tips, they were definitely too fragile. I shot a deer with one that was never recovered. Cartridge was the 7x57,a 140 gr. BT at 2800 MV. Deer was maybe 100 to 120 yards out. Bullet was from an early 100 count box. I will say they were very accurate though.
Only other failure I can think of was the 175 gr. Federal bullet in the 7x57 Mauser. I'd just bought the rifle and that was the only available ammo in town. Shot a deer with it opening day about 8AM. The wife and I spent the rest of the day looking for the deer until it got too dark to look anymore. Went out the next day and found what the coyotes had left. Still haven't figured out how that deer traveled as far as he did. My thoughts are the bullet was too tough to open up and acted more like a solid. A run over a chronograph years later showed that ammo was not delivering the advertised velocity of 2400 FPS but roughly 200 FPS less. That bullet must have acted like a full metal jacketed round.
Paul B.

So far he’s hammering out the best topics yet

Sierras have the worst track record with me. But, on the other hand, their 225 GK is my favorite deer bullet in the Whelen and I love their 77 TMKs.

I’ve had some 6mm stuff grenade on the outside before getting inside real well. Never lost an animal but I moved on to other stuff for that.

I also had a 250 TMJ or whatever explode on a deer leg bone from a ML. My recovery shot from above made a perfect expanded bullet. My fault on that, wasn’t even close to what it was designed for.

Ya don’t shoot any sierras except the 225 gk in my 358’s and whelen. Best bullet for both .

Teal, I notice that as well. The SS II’s are great bullets if ya can get em. 👍

Hell yup. I’d take the SSII over about anything else when they’d shoot for me.

I've never used them but if the ABs stuck, I'll look for them.

Berger hybrids killed well but man oh man did I lose alot of meat. Plenty of other bullets kill just as well but don't destroy nearly as much meat.

MM

Sierra TMKs 130 gr 6.5mm.

Are not advertised as hunting bullets and open way to fast for even deer.

I will don my flame suit... the most failures I have seen has been with Hornady interlocks..... 338 Mag 225 gr failed to penetrate a mule deer buck broadside, 150 yds
Another 180 out of a 300 mag, another mule deer buck , hit quartering onward angle , hit the spine instead of breaking it, traveled down the spine... ended up running to the bottom of the deepest canyon around.... a pack from hell out

The guys mentioning Barnes I'm kind of curious if that is the ttsx or like the original Barnes.... For me the ttsx has been really good the original I had issues in getting them to shoot very well.

Exactly the same bullets I had problems with...

You nailed it.

Damn, 338 and interloks have been $$ for me. Giant mtn caribou at 30 yards in the timber, oryx on the stallion range at 450 yards.. great conversation and cool to hear others experiences. 👊🏻

Mainly the TSX and the original Barnes for me, though some limited TTSX is also in the mix with the same issues.

i've got a box of 162 eld x's I may try out of my 7 mag. but it really, really likes 150 NBTs i just wish i could find some RL 26 to laod it with

After my first safari I swore that you couldn't run fast enough to give me an original Barnes X.

My hunting pard was shooting a 7 STW and 140 Barnes X bullets and I swear we looked longer after he shot a critter with that bullet than it took us to find it to shoot in the first place.

I did shoot a few impala, warthog and blesbuck on a later trip with .243 80 grain TTSX and they seemed to do a good job.

Swift A-Frame and Scirocco are pretty hard to find fault with for sure

Jud, these threads are my favorites as it is hard to test all the different bullets on game, impossible actually. Funny thing is when the Barnes X came out I used them and they were deadly, never has a failure , yet I have read many times they were unreliable...
Another failure I have had was a ttsx 55 gr out of my 220 swift at 3900 fps.... as another poster said it was out of the parameters it was designed for. I believe it blew the petals off instantly and was a miniature solid....
Another bullet that has surprised and impressed me are those Berger VLD's , just like Mule deer said they penetrate a few inches and grenade... instant death

Sometimes, the best bullets are confused with "bad" bullets, because there is little, if any blood trail.

That happens when both heart and lungs are disabled. The same can happen with a broad head.