Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Hornady, Speer, Sierra whats your choice of 'plain janes'

Looking at all the different bullets I have for the calibers I reload for, my small supply has speer bullets for all of the calibers. Speer bullets have done alot of work for me and freinds from distant ground squirrels to elk, few bear and pick-up loads of deer. The speer 160 grain spitzer, now apparently now discontinued, was a hellava bullet in the .280 Accurate, broke elk shoulders, SLAPPED deer to the ground. I used it ALOT till a nosler in the same shape and weight was found to tighten groops a we bit...

Very close second is hornady. Most of the work done by the hornadys has been in varmint and deer. But I did take a large fall black bear just after sst had came out with my .280 The 162 sst at about 20 yards dropped after the sst broke both shoulders and was found under the hide opposite side. Just the jacket expanded past the cannulure, no lead with the jacket but I was very impressed to say the least... AND 3 elk with the 250 gr spire point out of a 338wm. found two out of elk, one weighed 150 grains, perfect expansion looked like the hornady bullet ad years ago. shot was 305 yards dead on front chest shot, dropped found bullet sticking out of stomach like a cork. Another from a 5x5 bull hit just to the left of his tail dropping him. Hips were toast, unfortunately so was alot of backstrap as it bored onward to stop between shoulders. Looked Identical to bullet from spike. Did not weigh that bullet.

Sierra I just never used very much and have the least of. Stories of poor terminal bullet performance held me back from buying them. Do shoot some 100 gr. spitzers from the .257 roberts coyotes, crows and assorted vermin. Some in .22 cal 55 grain for the 223 and 22-250.

Just my take on this.
I could never get a Hornady over 22 caliber to work for me. Speers were soso. Sierras always worked, accuracy wise and performance wise.
As I said, just my personal experiences

actually I've gotten real good service with all of 'em

I've reloaded with Speer Hotcores for the 270, 30-06, and 300 WSM for many years. Highly successful bullets - accurate, good penetration, and good wt retention. I haven't tried their new Deep Curls yet. I haven't seen them on the shelves here.

More Hornady boxes than anything on my bench.
I've used a lot of 55 flat base spitzers in my 223s and 22-250. 50 V-maxes shoot great, but for some reason I've always held them back for future use. Kind of settled on bulk pack 50 Speer TNTs for daily use.
Have had great luck with the 100 Interlock in my 250 Savage and 257 Roberts.
The ol 270 does it's best work with 130 Interlocks and Interbonds along with 140 Interlocks. 150 Partitions are the go to for bigger game though. This Pac-Nor barrel shoots anything well.
In my 7-08 the 139 Interlock is as good as anything I've tried. 120 Ballistic Tips get some play here, but don't group any better than the 139.

Mostly Hornady for big game and Sierra for groundhogs. I ran a couple of Speer boattails (.277/130 and .243/85) for a few years, they worked well.

But definitely more red boxes than any other.

Dale

of the three c&c plain jane bullets you mentioned, i'd go hornady. but if core-lokts were in the mix, i'd go with them. otherwise, partitions have been my primary bullett.

Sierras. I really like the .30 cal 165 HP Gameking in the .308 and the 140 GK in the 7mm-08.

Ken

I was a Hornady guy for years, but have switched some to Sierra's in C-N-C bullets. I've found them accurate and reliable on game. I still have Hornady bullets, in fact I killed a big Muley this year with a 140gr BTSP out of my 270, but I am migrating away from them a bit. I have shot some game with Nosler BT's, which worked just like they are supposed to. I generally just use whatever I can find guys selling cheap in the classifieds forum, as I shoot them mostly at paper, rocks and steel plates, and am moving towards Barnes TtSX for most of my hunting....

Most of mine are Nosler seconds,mostly ballistic tips then partitions. From there Hornady mostly being V-max and match BTHP would be my next most, and finally Sierra mostly MKs. I haven't used many Speer bullets yet.

Looks like hornady is taking a lead...

I had good results from a smattering of ballistic tips on deer, varmints in 100 gr. 257 roberts, 140 gr in 280 and 200 gr 338. There performance I felt, was the same as the 'plain' bullets. But only got fifty ballistic tips for the same price that can get 100 of the 'plain'....Course' the box of 25 cal ballistic tips were purchased back when they could be had in 100 count boxes.

A bud of mine smoked a cougar out of a tree with a 100 gr. ballistic tip from his 25-06 at 3300 fps. Im positive the cat was dead long before it hit the ground from the complete destruction of the vitals.

Nothing shoots better in my .30-06 than Hornady 180 SP ILs. Horn 165 BTSP ILs shoot second best.

Expat

I'm about evenly split between the Hornady Interlocked and the Nosler Ballistic Tip, depending on the cartridge, velocity level and the game.

Friends, we truly live in THE Golden Age of Bullets.

God Bless,

Steve

I have used all three to shoot several deer and one cow elk. Mostly Hornady's. I have never had a Hornady Interlock fail to do its job on the deer and antelope I shot with them.

I've seen one deer killed with the Speer 120g Hotcore from a 6.5x55 and I killed my elk this year with a 165g Hotcore from a 30-06. Both worked excellently.

I have only used the 130 Sierra Game King in a 270 on deer and antelope. If I missed bone bigger than ribs they worked fine although erratic. In other words they would kill, but would sometime penetrate just enough to get to the vitals and sometime blow up creating large wounds. On shots of 300 yards or more they worked well on the few animals I shot at such distances.

The NBT has been my main go to in most of my rigs for a long time, I don't see that changing much. Have used the Horns quite a bit as well. Never done much with the Speer brand except for a fair bit of TNT work for rodents and such. Also did a fair bit of work with the Sierra's especially with the HPBT's. Aside from the fact that they have the BC of a friggin jelly bean they're darn good heads.

Side note, in this day of VLD/Amax's and gack like that I feel that the NBT is incredibly overlooked and underated. Kind of like the Nozler Pt is, they're both so darn good that people begin to get bored with them and look elsewhere...

Isn't hardly a critter in the ark that I wouldn't take with the NBT.

Dober

Nosler Ballistic Tip, because I choose Oregon companies whenever I can, and, with the NBT, I'm not sacrificing performance in keeping my dollars in Oregon

The Hornady Interlock is my first choice, Speer Hot Cor second, I've had excellent experience with both. I've never gotten around to using the Sierra (not nearly as well distributed in my area) so no experience with them.

Steve,+1 we are in the golden of bullets and scopes and firearms; life is good for the gun loony. GRF

Hornady...

dang, it. I can't decide....like 'em all.