Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Bullets You Won't Use Again?

Wanna say I've been pretty fortunate, over the years, with bullet performance. But a recent thread recalled a somewhat common complaint about one of my favorite bullets, and I'm curious as to what bullets guys avoid.

My longtime historical favorite, mentioned above, is the Sierra Game King. And I'll mention that I believe and understand the complaints against some GKs in some bullet diameters. Another bullet that I still hear dismissed as a hunting bullet is the Nosler Ballistic Tip. The BT is the bullet style that I've come to trust above most others, for both varmints and deer, over the past 30 years, but many refuse to use it. I personally feel like I'd use a .308/150 or .308/165 BT on just about anything I needed dead.

If there's a bullet I can name that I've had some less than great terminal results with, it's maybe the Winchester SilverTip. But even that has been only a couple of incidents where I thought a deer might should have dropped quicker than it did.

Love to hear which bullets guys just won't use...

And it just occurred to me that my poorer experiences with the SilverTip bullets may have all been from exactly the same box, as I really never bought many, and those only in factory ammo...

I'd bet others might be able to say the same, about a bullet they don't like.

Other than one that has already been fired, I can't think of a bullet I won't use for something. There are some purposes I won't use a particular bullet type in a given caliber but that is about it.

I’ve killed 7-8 elk with the 270 cal, 150 GK. They usually stop in the first lung. They’re not a good elk bullet. I’ve killed several deer and pronghorns with it also.
I’ve seen 5-6 elk killed with the 270 cal. 150 NBT, a couple did make it past the first lung.

With all of them them concerning elk there was more drama than necessary, most took longer to die than then if using a stout bullet.

Neither are a great choice for big game if at hair burning range, although the 150 NBT is my pronghorn hunting choice.

I had difficulties with Remington Bronze Points and Winchester Silvertips when young.

Probably the most consistent blowup resulting in large surface wounds and very little penetration was from a friends .300 Win Mag. He was using some very early Nosler BT's on blacktails. I was glad when he ran out of them.

On the other hand, in the 70's I killed four elk and several deer with Federal Premium .308 Win ammo loaded with 165 gr Sierras. I only experienced excellent performance.

There is only one in 40+ seasons.

I had a new-to-me Rem 7600 in 35 Whelen. For my first deer season with the weapon, I chose Remington 200 grain PSPCL over H4895 and went out for the Rifle Opener.

Hubert D. Buck Meets Mister Whelen

It took 3 shots and some waiting for the buck to go down. At the time, I asked this august forum how this could be. The one answer that made sense was that the PSPCL were a bit tough, and that I should try SPCL (round nose) instead. I followed the advice and shot another 9 deer with that load over the next decade.



There is one exception. I don't know how many times I've seen Privi Partisan bullets on sale, ridiculously cheap, and decided to give them a try. Each and every time I can't seem to find a load that will produce an accurate round. I keep giving them the benefit of the doubt, figuring it's something I'm doing. However, I can usually make a Hornady IL work on the first try. If someone has had success with PP, let me know.

One recent disappointment, recent meaning within the last five years or so, is the Nosler 64gr bonded .224. Have yet to shoot any innocent forest creatures with it, but accuracy in several rifles with both factory ammo and some handloads has been pretty dismal, definitely poorer than others. Still have some on hand, but I doubt I’ll buy any more unless it’s a screaming deal. I picked up some Gold Dots to try as a replacement. If they do well, I’ll stock up.

Funny thing about that factory ammo; some boxes claim 2950fps, others 2750. All was purchased from SPS at a considerable discount, about $21 a box IIRC. I need to clock some of both and figure out what’s what. Oddly, the website doesn’t list velocity.

Had a Hornady 180 pointed spire splash on rib impact. 100# whitetail, est 2550 fps impact. Saw a 2" hole open up in recoil. Dead deer, yeah. Bullets were purchased late '80s.

Around the same time a friend had a similar failure on a Newf moose with his .300 Bee. Factory load, around 200 yds. Two hits splashed. Another guy finished the job with a .338.

Too many people like that bullet for me to see this as anything but spurious. Still....plenty of other 180s for me to load.

Those old Barnes bullets with the blue coating. Cleaning that stuff out of a barrel was darn near impossible

The 64g Nosler bonded bullets have never given me great accuracy. They have given me plenty of accuracy for food plot or woods hunting. They are highly destructive and penetrate well. Most often pass though on broadside shots on smaller coastal deer. I load them for my grandkids who have killed a pile of deer with them in 223 and 22-250.

For me it is more of what performance I want. I hunt where a blood trail is pretty necessary, so I tend to shy away from those that don't give an exit. Only 1 bullet that I can recall needing to put a finisher in a deer, that was the 35 caliber 200 grain FTX in a 358 Winchester. Deer had intestine hanging out on the entrance, ran off. Caught up 15 minutes later, she was down but still alive. Fortunately I did not need to track her since my brother heard her thrashing arounf when he came out to help me. Felt badly, decided to save the FTX for the 35 Rem (where they work perfectly). BTW velocity in the 258 Win was ~ 2700 fps

Were you trying to drive through the gut into the vitals? I suspect that bullet was designed for 350 Legend velocities.

No I wasn't, to this day I wonder if I nicked some brush as she was in a raspberry thicket. That would explain both the hit far back, and the 'splash" on contact. So maybe I judged the bullet too harshly. But there were plenty of others to try, so I moved on. Currently I use 178 grain shock Hammer bullets at 2650 fps. That one has me grinning on terminal performance!

Match bullets on elk.

The Hornady SST. I had one 150gr from a 308 hit a rib then fragment into several pieces. It took out one lung only. I was able to find the deer after a long search. It is actually the one in my avatar. They sure were accurate though. In my experience, any cup and core bullet should be limited to about 2900fps. Over that, I want a copper or bonded bullet. Anymore, I try to stay away from Hornady stuff after Steve’s rant and stance on the COVID shot.

The other is a Nosler Partition. It is not because of performance, I could never get them to shoot better than 1.75-2.0 inches. I got tired of spending money and them not working out.

Barnes TTSX and Sierra TGK are my go-to bullet choices.

Seirra! I had some extremely poor performance from their .375, 300 grain SBT purchased in the early ‘80’s. In a phone call with Sierra, I was given the largest pile of steaming bull 💩 as excuses for their bullet failures that you could imagine…..none of which was because of their inferior bullet!

I’ll never purchase another Sierra cup and core bullet for any reason at any price! memtb

The Barnes TSX 140 grain from a 7mm-08 tops my list. A nickel size hole through both lungs instead of lung mush should have told me that they should not be my deer bullet of choice. A lost stuffing class buck that took one the next year and left 5 drops of blood cinched the deal.

Next was the 140 grain Hornady SST on my 12 point that dropped at the shot, but never exited.

Then it is the Nosler Partition that I used for too long in a 7mm-08, 7mm RM and .300 WM and nearly lost finding deer hit well that left minimal blood trails. Always a dead deer and elk at the end of the trail, but I want more than scuffed up leaves to follow them by.

The Nosler Accu-Bond from a .308 made a larger entrance wound than exit wound that didn't start to bleed much for too far in my opinion. The red squirrel chattering 100 yards away helped me find the deer.

Back when I was loading for my .30-06, I liked the Sierra Game Kings for accuracy, but they seemed softer than I wanted for deer hunting, so I never took them hunting.

In 2012-2013 I used .264" 140gr Sierra Gamekings at a modest 2650 fps out of a swede. Must of been a bad batch of bullets, these bullets would literally go off on impact creating flesh wounds with next to no penetration. This happened on several game animals. Lost confidence in using that specific bullet.

A few notes on various bullets that have "failed" over the decades:

A 130 Sierra GameKing handloaded to 3000 fps in my first .270, a Remington 700 ADL. Shot a forkhorn buck mule deer angling away at around 100 yards, on the opposite slope of an eastern Montana coulee. The buck dropped right there, due to massive damage to the lungs, but when I skinned him the jacket of the bullet just inside the skin at the entrance hole. The core, however, had penetrated the far shoulder. But also saw the same bullet fail to penetrate on bigger game when others used it. (I still use Sierra Gamekings, but only at moderate velocity. Have killed a pile of big game in the U.S. and Africa with the 160 GK handloaded to a little under 2700 fps in the 7x57 at ranges out to around 375 yards. They killed well--and I have never recovered one.)

Wasn't totally sold on early Barnes Xs . The first ones often didn't group well, and also occasionally failed to open. The first TSXs worked fine in larger calibers where the hollow-point was larger in diameter, but sometimes failed to open in calibers under .30. The Tipped TSXs have worked great on a bunch of big game.

I had a couple problems with early Ballistic Tips, due to over-expansion and lack of penetration, but Nosler modified solved the problem pretty quickly--and even some of the early ones always worked fine, such as the 140 7mm in cartridges from the 7x57 to .280 Ackley Improved.

Had Hornady Spire Points sometimes not penetrate very well when I started using them in in the mid-1970s, but after they added the Interlock ring inside the rear of the jacket they worked well.

Will also note that I (and other gun writers) have often been invited on hunts by various bullet companies to "pre-test" new big game bullets before they're officially introduced. This has sometimes resulted in changes in bullet design--but this pre-testing didn't become common until the late 1990s. Before then a lot of new big game bullets weren't tested on actual game, which sometimes resulted in sub-par performance. Will also note that many bullet companies keep tweaking their big game bullets, both to improve on-game performance and accuracy.

Swift Scirocco. Such great looking bullets, I really wanted them to shoot well. In fairness, it’s been a long time since trying them.