Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting .257 115 grain Nosler?

Okay okay, more research is required for me My daughter, buddy and I have three cow tags. We will all be sharing the .25-284 this weekend to wack them with, since you'll talked me into it.

Oh, but I really wanted to use the 120 grain ballistic tips on elk again out of the 7mm-08. SO many choices, so few tags Flinch

Most excellent! Keep us informed.

Well, I thoroughly tested the 115's on an elk Story to come. Flinch

Tease......

Come on Flinch,

I'm eating elk steaks...lol. Flinch

They are yummy Flinch

We're w-a-i-t-i-n-g!!! Come on, bro! We gots to know!!!

Ok, ok. P-l-e-a-s-e?? Pretty please??

I'm anxious to hear of the Nosler 115's performance on elk too although in my opinion there are several better bullets for that purpose (Accubond, Barnes, Hornady, Combined Tech).

I've shot a lot of deer (whitetails and muleys) with 25-06s and 25-06 Imp over the years. I have tried them all but have gravitated to the Hornady Interlock 100g for ranges out to 300 yards or so. They are accurate and deadly. All have exited from every angle except for one about 15 years ago. That one was a 200 yard Texas heart shot that broke pelvis, three ribs on left, three ribs on right, went through the heart and was just sticking to the skin as it exited the chest. It was a perfect mushroom with about 80% weight retention and a very dead extra large 10 point South Dakota whitetail.

I use Sierra Game King 100g when shots might be out to 500 yards. They are just a little more accurate in my rifles and the tips never deform as I load/unload them (as they occasionally do with the soft lead tipped Hornadys). They don't penetrate quite as well for certain but they rarely fail to penetrate completely. I recovered one this Fall from a head on antelope at 500 yards. It hit the sternum a third of the way up and lodged in the hip socket with about 3 feet of penetration. My 100g bullets go 3350 fps and shoot well under .5 MOA. I can shoot them faster but they are most accurate at this speed in both my rifles. Noslers just don't shoot as accurately for me, certainly not accurate enough for long range shooting. The 100 and 115 ballistic tips are unusable in my rifles at 1.5 MOA and beyond. The Accubonds are hard hitting but not as accurate as most others. I can't trust them beyond about 300 yards. They work much better in other calibers for me, but I just can't dial them in with the .257 caliber.

Why do I shoot 100g bullets most of the time? I appreciate the slightly improved energy of a 115g bullet at 500 yards but trump that with:
a) Speed - they are faster than 115s or 120s. Many of my deer are running and I want to minimize lead. Its nice to see the bullet hit where the cross hairs are inside of 200 yards. Its nice to minimize holdover and windage too as game scatters.
b) Light recoil - For long range shooting, I have discovered that accuracy is more important than anything. A great VLD or a sledge hammer that misses is not as good as anything that hits the vital zone. High recoil seems to affect my accuracy more than the bullet does. I notice the recoil of the 120's and don't want to develop a flinch as I shoot hundreds of rounds practicing at 300, 400 and 500 yards. For me, that practice is required for me to have the confidence to take the shot in the first place.

I also shoot Hornady Interlock 117s if I am hunting in wooded areas. They are one of my most accurate bullets as long as I protect the relatively soft lead points. I slow them down to about 3100 fps in the woods. They are quite deadly and I can't imagine any deer bullet doing anything more. I doubt you will ever recover one from a deer unless it is beyond 600 yards. Although I don't shoot deer beyond 500 yards with .25 calibers, I could shoot a Berger 115 if I wanted to go out to 600. It is just as accurate at the Hornady 117 but holds its speed better and carries enough energy to deck a deer at that range. I like their accuracy. They are just too expensive any more to shoot hundreds of them in preparation.

The Noslers are very pretty bullets but I really like getting 100 more accurate, more deadly bullets for less than 50 of the Noslers. That gives me more practice, makes me a better shot and anchors more game.

Good post, Mikey! I have a box each of Hornady 100 and 117 gr. Interlock bullets sitting on my loading bench right now, ready for stuffing in cases for testing!

Flinch, did you forget about us???

Thanks Delgue. Let us know how they shoot. If you are careful of the tips in the seater die and your pocket, they should be mighty fine. Best of luck!

I posted a new thread with the story. No, I didn't forget you. Flinch

Great thread here. I just picked up a 25-06 for deer/coyote hunting and am going to try 117 hornadys, 115 ballistic tips and 115 partitions to see which shoot better in this gun, as a starting point. Previous 25-06s (both remingtons) shot the ballistic tips very well, though I never used them on game.
My brother runs a 257 weatherby and 110 accubonds. Three kills with it so far, all DRT. Maximum range has been maybe 150 though. (I kid him about having a custom tubed hot weatherby and shooting them at 30-30 ranges)

I use 115 BT for deer and 85 gr BT for varmints. Try some H4831 SC.

That's the combo that works in my 257 Rob as well as 120 PT.

Alan