Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Plain Ole Flat Base Cup-n-Core Heavy for Caliber Bullets...

... at moderate Muzzle Velocities.

Who else is still using'em?

Maybe not for an expensive, exotic hunt, but for everyday meat hunting, generally inside of maybe 300 yards.

Inexpensive, and plenty precise enough for both field and range shooting, so one can really get to know them.


Got a pile of the Speer Grand Slams a while back, on a factory rebate, both .277/150 gr. and .264/140 gr..

No complaints.




GR

Still use 117 pro hunters in my 25.06. Have 4 or 5 boxes left.

That is all i load for my rifles. I use 160 gr Grand Slams in my 284, 270gr Speer SP in my 9.3x62, PPU 156gr in my 6.5x55 and Creedmoor, and will be using 235 gr Speer FB in my 375 Raptor this year.

I use Speer HC 250s in my 35 Whelen and Speer HC 200s in my 30-06. I have complete faith in both bullets doing their jobs.

Interlocks

I like the Interlocks and Pro Hunters. The Sierras are hard to find. 7x57, .243, .270 and .375 Win
Have a great day.
Jim

Interlocks, Grand Slams, and Hot-Cors. Works for me. YMMV

All I've ever used and am still using. Hot cores, Interlocks, Sierra's, Core Lokts. I do have and have shot partitions but interestingly enough have never fired them at game. At moderate velocities in todays world cup & core bullets work, just as they have for decades, and are probably more accurate today on average with modern equipment and improved tolerances.

Shouldn't say ALL i've ever used..........I did use a Swift A-Frame lever bullet in a 348 a few yrs back on a doe.

I have had excellent results on Whitetails with .308 dia. Interlocks and Sierra Pro Hunters. both bullets are very accurate with some load developement and on game performance compares very well to some of the other much more expensive "premium" bullets I have tried......Good hunting...Hb

interlocks, pro hunters and hot cores and even Speer varmint bullets (14" and under Contenders and Encores) are great for deer/black bear. i did premium bullets once (85gr Barnes X bullet in 243 Win, it looked like a pencil size wound thru the doe's lungs) and i'll never use them again. i used Nosler BT about 10 or 11 years ago, but then got too expensive and it for 50 bullets, instead of 100 bullets. i leaned to download the BT to about 2800fps, no matter what caliber. for instance, i was using a 270 Win and 130gr BT with IMR4320 that was going 3000+fps. under a 100 yards, the BT was like a hand grenade. it killed deer (lung soup with and without chunks of heart) as long the deer was broadside. the BT never did an exit wound, instead it would fragment into pieces. i slowed down the load and i found the did exit the deer. i don't have a spent bullet, but i did see the entrance wound, the lungs and/or the heart and the exit wound (1.5 - 2" bigger than entrance). i use Hornady SST and i download it to about 2800fps. i have bought 600-700 2nd hand 150gr SP in .284" from Midway and i'll take them out hunting too.

for the past 10 - 11 years, i use cast bullets for deer/bear. the cast bullets are cheap, 2 cents - 10 cents, depends on what caliber you do, i had a bunch of "pure" lead, COWW and tin that didn't cost me nothing. i have bought at an auction a couple or four years ago, 1000lbs or so Lyman #2 CHEAP!!!!

the cup n core bullets have killed game for years and years. the cast bullets, even longer. i figure why start with premiums? i ain't going to Africa either. i'm going for whitetails and some bears.

I've been using the Speer Hot-Cor most of my hunting life and still do. I use the 120gr in my 25.06, the 150gr in the .308 and use to use the 120gr Speer in the .260 rem until they went away and now I use the Sierra 120gr Pro Hunter in that one. The Hot-Cor and Pro Hunter bullets have always been excellent in both accuracy and performance on game. When I found out Speer was discontinuing the .257 120gr i bought 12 boxes and still have about 8 so I'm set with those I just wish I had done the same with the .264 120gr but i did stock up on the Sierra 120gr .264 because they became scarce too. I haven't had any problems finding the 150gr .308's but i still stocked up on those just in case. I've always preferred the ole school cup and core bullets and no doubt my favorite is the Speer Hot-Cor and always has been.

Depends on the cartridge and MV. I use Barnes 85gr TSX in my 243 and 6mm and make sure I hit a shoulder. My go-to for everything else is an Interlock if they make one. They discontinued the .338 200gr so I switched to the 185 and 200 Federal Fusion in my 338Fed.

Frankly, I am trying to shy away from Hornady. Steve Hornady’s stance on the jab was not to my liking and he seems like an arrogant cuss based on a couple of podcasts I’ve watched.

This in spades.

Also use winchester power points. Never had much luck getting accuracy/precision out of speer bullets. Factory federal game shok bullets work good too.

Most of those guys on the Hornady podcasts are idiots. I would not change how I buy my bullets based on those stupid fu cks. At least Hornady has kept the shelves stocked and prices low, compared to other bullet manufactures.

I killed a few deer with the original X’s and liked the 180 30 caliber and the 225 35 caliber just fine. I also have a stock of Nosler Partition 140’s for my son and I’s 260’s. He used one to kill a cow elk and one a nice whitetail buck.
All the rest of my bullets are flat based cup and core. Killed a pile of game with them. Plan on adding to the pile with the same. Loaded 140 Speer, Hornady in the 260; works well. Loading 156 privi in it lately; works well. 180 rn in the old pump ‘06 going north this year. 220 rn in the Mauser here at home. Load 150-180 Hornady spt for the son in law.
So yep. Use them a lot.

I hold high regard for Hornady Interlock bullets in 257, 277 & .308 - I don’t have much experience with the other diameters of Hornady but would bet on performance being great.

Speer HotCor has also been exceptional for me in 130/150gr .277, 150/180/200gr .308, 200gr/.338. I have shot a few of the Speer boat tails but feel they are softer than I prefer.

I’ve shot many deer and several Elk over the years and have never been disappointed in the traditional cup & core bullets unless I drove them too fast - still have a working load with each bullet but have generally moved over to the Partition as the years go on - but really didn’t need to - just felt like changing things up. Now I’m tinkering with mono slugs but only in a few cartridges.

A looneys work is never done & I’m way behind

I have been using the Speer Hot Core 130 grain flat base for the .270 for a while. Mostly at the range because they are about half the price per bullet as the next guy and I like to shoot it a lot. I have been getting good accuracy with them and having a hard time deciding to use them for hunting from now on or use the good stuff like Barnes or Nosler that I know will probably perform better on game.

I’ll be using Hornady Intetlock FB SP bullets out of my .308 Superlite for doe season. Shots are sub-300 yards in the woods where I hunt. I will also be taking a 6.5 PRC with high BC bullets for hunting fields where shots could be to 600 yards.

I don’t think that Hornady 270 grain SP’s are considered heavy in a .375 cal. ……but, kept under 2700 mv, they are a darn good bullet!

When I started running them at 2900+ …… on close range impact I wasn’t pleased! While the did hold together, they lost a lot of weight and had a very wide frontal area…..penetration wasn’t what I wanted. On a 60 (ish) yard shot, broadside into a spike elk, behind the shoulder, hitting only a rib……the bullet failed to exit! When run at a lower velocity…..it would have exited! That’s not much penetration on a relatively small elk when minimal resistance is met! JMO. memtb

When I started hunting the only centerfire rifle that I had was a .30-06. Living in NW Colorado, I used it for everything from prairie dogs to elk. I loaded 125 gr bullets for the prairie dogs, 150 gr Hornady FB spire point Cup & core bullets for deer, and 180 gr Sierra FB spire point c&c bullets for elk. Those kept my freezer full of deer, antelope, and elk meat for about 10 years. That was 50 years ago.

Now I have a safe full of rifles, I find a bullet that each rifle likes, then match the rifle to the game animal. This system works fine when I'm hunting here at home in Montana where I'm usually just hunting one species of animal on each trip. My favorite elk rifle now is my .300 Weatherby shooting 180 gr Barnes TTSX bullets, but, in reality, the elk that I killed with my .30-06 and 180 or 150 gr cup and core bullets 50 years ago were just as dead as the elk that I kill now with my .300 Wby and Barnes bullets.

In the late '70s I built a .257 Ackley for my primary deer and antelope rifle. One of the first bullets that I tried in that rifle were Sierra 117 gr GameKing cup and core FB bullets. I've tried other bullets in in, but I usually come back to the 117 gr Sierras. Over the years, I shot almost all of my deer and antelope with that rifle and bullet, and have also shot several Bighorn rams, a Dall ram, and my 2nd best 6x6 bull elk with them. All one shot kills!

For the most part, bullet placement is much more important that bullet diameter or bullet construction.

My first guided and "high dollar" hunt was for a Dall ram where I also killed a Mountain caribou and a Wolverine...all one shot kills with my .257 Ackley and 117 gr Sierra Gameking cup & core bullets.