Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting .308 win. bullet for deer.

Is there a bad deer bullet for the .308? I suspect that any big game bullet between 150 and 180 gr will work fine for you (and even lighter monometals like the 130 TSX). Personally I've managed to kill a few with the 180 Partition.

For my .308 Win I settled on 165-168g bullets for everything.

I have used the 150g Hornady Interlock flat base with fantastic results with a hot load of Win 748. Accuracy and speed is really fantastic with this powder in a 308. My rifle puts bullets touching at 100 yards with 48g at 2975 fps, but that load may be too hot for your rifle, so work up, differences in barrels, lot number of powder, etc can be very different.

For years prior to me switching over to the 150g Hornady Sp, I shot the Seirra 135g Single Shot Pistol bullets with 51.5g of 748 at 3200 fps with less than 1/2" accuracy. I dumped 12 large bucks with this load, bang flops on the spot everyone. The bullet rarely penetrated the deer, but they were all graveyard dead where they stood, this kinda bucks conventional thinking.

After getting board with the 135's, I worked up a load with the 150g HOrnady Interlock flat Sp, and it always puts a large hole on the off side, same results, dead right there.

My brother uses the 130g Tripple shock with a Max load of 748 at 3100-3200 fps, deer are very dead. The 130g Triple shock does not leave the blood leaking out of the deer, but the insides are pure mush. My brother and his son have shot 30+ deer with the 130g Tripple shocks, they have never found a bullet. They shot one at 320 yards last year that was an unusual shot. At the shot the deer bucked and kicked his rear legs up high, then fell to the ground nose first-DEAD! We usually see deer kick like that when they have been gut shot.

These shoot very well in my Lil' Sky but haven't had an unsuspecting victim get in front of one yet.

The 150 Hornady flat base spire point bullet has been a great bullet for me out of several different rifles.

I have it used on lots of deer,out of the 308,30-06,and 300 Win Mag.


It's a bullet that has worked for me out of handloads and factory loads.

I have a little Classic Compact in .308 and I use whats cheap to buy. Got a bunch of 180 Nosler Partition 2nds a few years back for a very good price. I think every deer I've shot with those bullets has been either dead right there or one or two steps.

How much 4895 do you use? I have some on hand and was going to work up a load.

I'd try the 130 & 150 grain TSX & use whichever shoots best. Mine likes the 150 better.

I've wondered about the 130 grain TSX and TTSX. Most "experts" seem to say that 150s are as light as should be used in .30 cal for deer. I know the solid Barness bullets are supposed to penetrate deep, but is 130 still too light..to low a sectional density and all that? Anyone actually seen how they work on game?

Steelhead has smoked deer and hogs with them out of a handloaded 300 Savage. The 308 would be just a bit more of the same. I'm sure he'll be along with some pics.

edit: I see he did make a suggestion earlier.

I use a fairly mild load, 40.0 gr. of H4895. My Lyman manual goes up to just over 42 gr. with a 180 gr. bullet. Since I am unlikely to shoot over about 225 yards where I hunt, it works well for me.

AJ-
Only one way to find out.
I'm betting there isn't a deer walking that'll stop a 130TTSX.
There might be better hammers for this nail but I prefer to find things out the hard way. *grins*
Will hopefully have a report for you in several months.

Sounds perfect to me. I've shot about 10 deer with a .308 and a 150gr bullet. All coreloks. I've shot 1 with a 180gr corelok. They all died pretty quick. Furthest deer ran about 60 yds.

My dad and I have killed a load of deer with the .308 Winchester with 165 gr. Hornady flat base Interlocks. I've also used the 165 gr. Sierra HPBT with perfect results. RE-15, Varget, W748, and IMR-4064 have worked well for me in the past. It's pretty hard to mess up the .308 for deer size critters.

The 165 Sierra HPBT is one of my all time favs in the 30's.

Dober

Gonna probally get clobbered but for years I shot a 760 30/06 carbine. I loaded 130gr Speer hp with 50gr of IMR3031. I killed probally 125 deer with it and would still be if my oldest son hadn't wanted it. He's still knocking them with that load. Got a Colt Light Rifle that I may try to work up a load with the 130's.

We've taken quite a few lopes/deer with the 90 Sierra HP so I don't see why the 130 wouldn't work just fine in a 30.

Dober

Harldy a bad bullet to be found. In my .308s I liked the 165gr gamekings and speer grandslams

My only experience is with the 180 Partition. They don't seem to slow down much on deer. I would go with something in the 150-165 range if all I were doing was hunting deer. But it sounds like you've already come to that conclusion as well. Flip a coin, hard to be wrong with all the choices out there. Pick two different bullets and a lb of Varget, see which bullet shoots better and enjoy.

I like the 165-168 grain bullets, gentle load of 43.5 grains of Varget in Fed Match once fired brass. I shoot 168 grain Sierras in my bull barreled Savage into one hole at 100 yards, then reload with either 165 grain Fusion, Hornadys or TTSXs depending on the intended target for my old Rem 722 or Little Sky.

The 308 is such a versitile round, and shoots everything pretty well, its hard to go wrong for deer with anything weighing 180 grains or less.

My sons all shoot 308s with 150 grain partitions, and its a virtual wack-fest on deer and elk.

BTW, I shot "cheapie" blue box federal ammo for years and none of the deer turned down the invitation to dinner ;-)