Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada Do you use a premium bullet for deer?

Ya kno before the gun rags told us c'c bullets weren't good for anything but paper wieghts we killed everything with'em,so did our Dads and grand Dads..jus sayin

Nope, if your rifle doesn't have CRF, a 10 kazillion dollar Swarhotski Terminator or whatever scope on top of it and shoot premium bullets at warp factor 3 you might as well stay home.

I don't have any of that stuff so I wonder who keeps hanging that multi-point buck from the meat pole in my yard every fall. Couldn'ta been me with the antiquated relic of a levergun I hunt with. Could it?

Yes and no

Hot fast rifle I tend to use x bullets

Other than that, with low or slow nope

Pricedo,

Nobody said you HAVE to use premium bullets. The question asked was DO YOU. Obviously you don't.

Well here's the reason I use one bullet in my 280. The old Cor'loc 150 or Horn Interlock 150 has been killing deer, bear & ...gasp moose for yrs, my go to gun never has to be resighted to change bullets.
What was your reason again
If there was a possibility I might have to deal with big mean game I would certainly consider premium bullets or carry a larger gun, but bears around here seldom get larger than 400lbs.

I have never shot an animal , be it deer moose or bear, that died any fast with a "premium" than with a "non premium" bullet.
I've killed a mess of them with a pathed round bal in three different calibers as well, yet some "experts " say you need to use a Maxi ir minie ball for proper penetration, blah , blah, blah.
HORSEFEATHERS!!!
I've used Barnes, Nosler, Speer, Seirra, Hornady, most all the popular brands.

I shoot what works in my rifles, and on any given day may run into black bears, mosose, mule deer or white tails - I NEVER worried that I was using a cup and core bulllet or a patched round ball insted of a H mantel style or monolithic style bullet.
I was never one to worry about what I was shooting or shooting at, I try to concentrate on HOW I am shooting.
Cat

HEY.. ...don't mess up a good thread with common sense! many won't understand you!

Well how do you define the word Premium? I never bought into this Premium vs cup and core el cheap o bullet argument!. It all depends on what your bullet launcher is! for example, a 30-30 launching 170 gr bullets of a cup and core nature will perform to perfection. Now you take that same bullet and load it to the max in say a 30-06 and that same bullet will prove to be a missable failure, with regard to what it will do or not do when it smacks meat. Now you take the same 30-06 and load it with either a 165 or 180 gr Hornaday SP and you get the same kind of seller performance that the 30-30 delivers with the 170 gr bullet. Bullet choice is based on what your bullet launcher is, Now if you are going to shoot the same deer with a 300 Weatherby, The better the bullet has to be because of the operating vel. you get So you go with something along the lines of a 180 gr or 200 gr bullet that is a little stouter made than say what you would choose for a 30-06. This is such a subjective subject that there is really no real answer that will fit all shooting and hunting situations. I do most of my hunting these days with a 7mm RM. For my deer hunting I lean to heavier for cal bullets because where and how I hunt. Distances are not long. As it turns out, Federal Fusions 150 gr Loads and the Blue Box Federal 150 gr Loads work very will with not much in the way of blood shot venison. My bullet launcher is a little much, but I like the rifle so I pick reasonable weight bullets.

The difference is the practical C&C and lead bullets I use and that have worked for years are designed to target game and the so-called premium bullets principal targets are wallets.
Take those Barnes X bullets for example and their fancy named offspring with all the supertechno sounding descriptive names.
Priced some the other day.......$35 for 20 bullets or a coupla ounces of copper alloy!
GIVE ME A F'N BREAK !!

Riddle: How do you turn copper into gold?
Solution: Make "X" bullets out of it.

Remarkable how a whole premium bullet industry can be based on gimmick merchandising. You could sell a refrigerator to an Eskimo if you can come up with the right gimmick sales pitch.

The boys at Barnes and Nosler .........like the old song says........"They're money makin fools".

I've never seen a .30-30 bullet come apart, even when shot into logs or stumps, and I've never recovered one from a deer, so I can't see any advantage for using a premium bullet in a rifle of that class. I've often wondered why nosler even makes a 170 gr. partition.

In my 7x57, with lighter bullets and high velocities (2900fps), I do use partitions, because the range is sometimes short and I don't want the bullet to come apart. I had a core/jacket separation with a Hornady Interlock under those circumstances, and I don't want a repeat.

I think the Nosler is still the best of the premiums, with the soft front half and the solid shank, you get the best of both worlds. If your rifle shoots them well, there's no disadvantage to using them except for cost.

I'm not sure where I would draw the line for using conventional or premium bullets, probably around 2500-2600 fps. My .30-30 has never fired a premium bullet however, and probably never will.

when i was 16 YO or so, i was hunting whitetails with a .243 when i happened onto a 450# blackie at spitting distance. i was using the plain 'ol green box Sierrias. long story short, i will never factor 'economy' into hunting bullet selection ever again.

For deer I shoot a 257Roberts with 100gr Hornadys and pretty much nothing else for the last ten yrs.

I won't be needing anything for bear protection, won't have a tag for black bear or moose, ranges will be fairly short, velocity will be modest. C&C bullets will work just fine under these circumstances in any std chambering.

If I lived where there was large bears who might want to eat me or where a very high velocity may be needed to flatten out long ranges, I may reconsider and shoot a TSX or Partition for deer.

Lots of variables as seen with the answers thus far.

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As common sense as it get, Cub.

Which is a good reason to examine one's personal requirements - game to be pursued, expected range of encounter and the cartridge to be used - before selecting the bullet.

What might be a necessity in BC would be unimportant/unnecessary in NB.

...... which IS the bottom line here.



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Exactly.