Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting What bullet wouldn't you use for deer?

The correct head shot, from the back or front, prefereably back of the head, leaves about any hit either a flesh wound or instant death. Its the side on head shots that can get the jaw with nothing else. If you simply use some sense about a head shot, its extremely lethal, and very nice to clean the animal. I"ve missed 2 head shots that I can recall, and both times the gun had been knocked off. But I made the shot at an angle such that its either dead or alive, and not wounded.
I wouldn't suggest them for the inexperienced though, and messing up a 40 yard head shot tells me the hunter is capable of shooting for lungs and hitting guts and the same tracking job just the same.....

Now NECK shots are not nearly as fool proof as the target is small, at an angle and there is not a foolproof way to make a neck shot without the chance of hitting the windpipe/esophagus but nothing else vital. I've taken the deer down to bones just to see how things shape up and the very last shot I'd ever risk at an animal would be a neck shot.

Yup, what he said!

I'm good to go with standard cup and core at standard velocities.

Since I started shooting Barnes out of .22's & seen how effective they are, it's now the only bullet I'll load for game animals. Regardless of the caliber.

I enjoyed the discussion also. Always interesting to hear different perspectives. And refreshing that they can be shared without acrimony.

Agreed

Dozen or so years ago I used Remington extended range bullets in my 7mm Rem mag, think they were 162g or something close to that.

Shot excellent and I was young/naive to not know they weren't hunting bullets.

Shot a 1 1/2 old antelope buck (100-125 yards) that I ended up chasing down over quite a ways to get another shot into him to put him down. Very poor bullet performance.

Never really thought much about the poor performance and show a white tail at probably close to 300 yards. Repeat of the above, thankfully there was snow on the ground as it was a bit of a tracking job.

Used up the rest of those shells on targets.



As for the rest, pisses me off to no end when idiots grab their .223's or 22-250's and go deer hunting with the same cheap box of shells they grabbed to go shoot some flicker tails or prairie dogs.

I've had mixed results with one particular Hornady bullet, the 140gr Interlock boattail .277". I've had them just poke thru, without causing much damage till I hit bone (second or third shot), and had them blow up like a grenade. Wasn't happy with either result, so now I won't use them. Hornady changed cannelure locations on that bullet, moving it forward quite a bit. Maybe that fixed the issue, maybe not. I don't think I'll ever know...............
They DO shoot well in my rifles, though.

To be honest, I think almost any bullet will work for deer. I personally don't take head/neck shots (because I've seen what a botched head shot will do), but way too many deer are killed that way here in Texas to argue much about it. Even a varmint bullet or FMJ would work for these shots. There's a chit load of deer killed in TX every year with .223s and 50 grain varmint bullets.

Having said that, I'm a heart/lung guy and I'm convinced that more deer are lost every year from bullets that are too hard than from being too soft. I've posted this before and know many don't agree with me, but that's my experience. Softer bullets (BTs, GKs, etc.) certainly will ruin meat but I've always figured that's better than a deer shot with a super premium running out of sight and out of your life.

I'm not saying the premiums won't work because they will. I know because I've used them. I probably won't use them again, though, because I don't like deer to run so far after the shot as to risk losing the animal.

AP's toooooooo much penetration on deer, but marginal on elk now a days.

Given that I'll pull the trigger on a maximum of 5 deer a year, I'll stick with Barnes X's. Not sure if I'll be able to afford that $4 or so, but I'll make sacrifices.

I'm not a real fan of frangible,thin jacketed bullets intended to fly apart,fully recognizing that they do work and kill effectively,and I mostly hunt with higher velocity cartridges,so lean toward something that expands early to a good frontal area,yet holds some weight for penetration,since I have no real concerns with shoulder shots,either from the on-side or angling to the off-side.

I am not wild about any CC's,mostly because they can vary all over the place and I don't have the time nor the opportunity to sift out which one's work and which don't,so I avoid anything of which I'm not certain.

I tend to like bullets like the lighter Partitions,because they are very predictable in the weights I hunt with and know what they will do when I pull the trigger.I like what I hear about things like Fusions and Remington Ultra Bonds,but have not used either on deer yet.

In general I like bullets with some mechanism or bonding that hold some jacket and core together,and it seems these two will do that pretty nicely,since jacket thickness is a step down from things like BBC's and Swift Aframes,are soft enough to expand to a good frontal area,yet seem to hang onto enough weight for additional penetration.The new Deep Curls look good to me, too.

No deer takes a lot of killing no matter how big they get,and premiums are not required,so lots of things work well,but I tend to like early expansion to a large frontal area and some weight retention;IMHO such bullets kill the large Northern deer I concentrate on very quickly if placed right.

southtexas,

IME, with a deer facing you a center-throat patch shot is a much better option than attempting a head-shot in the same situation.

I've taken this shot because it was the only one I had, as the animals were facing me.

I've never heard anyone favoring a head-shot over the center-throat patch with a buck facing them.

At least your honest...

I have used the sierra and nosler ballistic tips on deer and I ended up with a deer that looked like he was hit with a grenade, never again. I now use partitions and ttsx in almost all of my hunting rifles, especially my magnums.

I wouldn't use a Nosler BT. The ones I tried were like using FMJs.

What? You didn't get expansion from a Ballistic Tip?

Must be shooting them from a slingshot or blowgun.

JohnMoses: You must be confusing me with someone else. I don't do head shots. Never have, never will.

My apologies. I'm drunk with fatigue. My azz is dragging and I misread the poster.

Regards,

JM

would shot distance play into your bullet of choice. Say you were sitting in a stand and knew your shot would be 300 yards or more what would you choose then? Ive seen nosler ballistic tips fragment at close range. But Ive also seen 140 gr bts from a 7mm remington magnum come out in one neat little mushroom after busting a shoulder on a bull elk at almost 400 yards.

If I was in a stand and knew the deer were gonna be 300+ yards away, I wouldn't be sitting in that stand.