Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting What 300 Win Mag bullet for Mule Deer

Guys I am looking for a good bullet to take on a muledeer hunt this fall. I want something with a high BC around the 180 grain range? any and all input will be helpful. SHots could be as 500yds but more than likely in the 300 yd range. Are Bergers the way to go? I will be reloading.

Been very pleased with the 180gr Accubonds in the 300WM.

Slap em' with a 155 Scenar or 168 BT.

The last few years I have been using the Berger 210gr VLD with H1000 powder in my 300WM, great combo

Those are the first two I'd be looking at, and would only add the 155 Hybrid and the 185 Berger.

Tween those 4 you'll find a rock star of a load, if you're guns fairly intelligent that is...

Dober

Have found the 168 Bergers also rock... Two WSM's are scary accurate...

W

+1

I use them for tougher stuff, the 180gr. NBT for lighter stuff, both at 3,050 fps with RL-22. Both bullets have the same B.C. and same POI in my Ed Brown Damara. The NBT edges the NAB in accuracy, but not by that much.

DF

Slap,
Using a 300 Win Mag and you are loading you have a ton of options. If you are currently loading and shooting your 300 shoot what you have been shooting. If your gun likes 180's stuff a few with practically any 180 and it will be more than adequate.
I like the 165 Sierra HPBT. Not the highest BC but it works well. Rl 22 works well with 165's and 180's.
Good luck this fall.

Dave

Another option is the 165TTSX on top of RL19.....

I used 180 BT when I owned a 300WM and they were like hand grenades on WT deer. That was years ago though. After all the blood shot meat I moved up a notch to 200 partitions. It had plenty of reach and didn't ruin meat like the BT . I suspect those were the old design though. This was in '89.

I like TTSX's in 168 grs,and there seems to be less blood shot meat with them, but the 185 gr VLD's work great and the 180 Accubonds work well also, all three have shot 3 into ragged holes,and have been very easy to work up loads for, I'm not a big fan of BT's when used in a 300WM as others have said they can be pretty explosive at times!

Every time I suggest that the 180 gr. NBT at 3,050 fps in my .300 Win Mag is a bit friable, I get zapped by those who say that's the old NBT, not the new NBT. NBT's are super accurate. I use them on whitetails and that seems to work. Hogs I've shot, especially in the head, show a pretty explosive bullet. I've been told that a hog's head is not a good representative medium to test bullets. Maybe not. Anyway, for tougher game, I use the 180 gr. NAB, which is nearly as accurate as the NBT. I like that combo, because I have a choice, both having the same shape, B.C. and POI, both fit the numbers on my elevation turret. My turret is in yards, not MOA's. I lack the experience to tackle all that. Need to keep it simple...

BTW, my NBT's are out of the new box. Took a while to figure how to open it.

DF

They are very accurate but for me too explosive, there are to many other better choices, like you I have had excellent accuracy with the Accubonds and with the speed the 300wm pushes them they seem like a good combination!

Well let me ask this question to you guys, would I be better off to shoot a bullet that would fragment and disipate its energy into the animal or have a bullet that would remain more intact and have more of a chance of a pass through?

That's a good question. In fact, it's so good it's been beat to death up and down this forum for as long as I've been here.

Different schools of thought. The ultra long range hunters like the frag bullets to get clean kills way out there where
velocity may be dropping off. The thru and thru crowd likes the harder bullets that put daylight clean thru the carcass. Then there's the cup and core bunch that loves the old Corelokt and similar lead/jacket bullets.

And there are some who swing both ways...

And they are the ones you need to watch...

DF

Out of the three that I listed you can't go wrong with any of them and there are others that would work just as well, I would see which one shoots the best out of your rifle and that would be my choice!

All bullets mentioned here will work just fine. I like 180 gr AB's and 175-210 gr VLD's for the scenario you described.

Accuracy: 180 Nosler Accubond. Drop them dick dead in the mud: Nosler 180 Partitions. I never lost an elk/deer/moose to a 180 Hornady either.

That's good to hear about the hornady's but what about the winchester power points?????

Sierra 200gr Gamekings and a boot full of RE22�. Accuracy is king and the big 200's will bust some ass way out yonder