Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Question about Deer ammo

Ok..... Shooting a .308 this year and so far not impressed. Shot a 10 point with Barnes 3x. No blood trail, dang lucky to find him. He ran about 200 yards. Lung shot. Switched to a Winchester ballistic silvertip in 168 grain. It's the rapid controlled expansion polymer tip. Shot a big 8 yesterday at 250 yards. He ran about 30 feet and stopped, look like he was going to pile up. I think I clipped his shoulder. Anyway, poked another in him just behind the shoulder. He jumped and ran in the woods. Not much blood, but what was there looked like lung blood. Tracked him 4 hours, jumping his twice. He would go 150 yards and bed down. Backed out and going back in today with a dog.......What bullet do ya'll recommend for deer??? I'm hesitant to blame the gun, but dangit, I'm losing confidence in the round, but deep down I know there is nothing wrong with a .308 Just never had this happen.. Advice?

weird, I have killed a lot of them with a 308, mostly corelocs and WW powerpoints they all died within a 100 yards of where they were shot with a good blood trail. I would guess at least 40 or so with that one cartridge, I have owned 5-6 guns in that cartridge. If you use the TSX go lighter and faster the 130's is what I use in my Kimber 308. I mostly gave up the 308 and use a 223 now it works just as well and has half the recoil, half the powder to burn.

I went from solid copper to Nosler in my 30 caliber for similar reasons. That said, 25 caliber is gets the X bullet nod every time. 500+ feet per sec difference though.

A 150gr flat base cup and core bullet. It's a deer so need for fancy or high tech bullets IMO.

In my deer camp we've killed a bunch with 30 cals and probably 12-15 have been with .308s. Out of sixty some odd deer killed with Barnes bullets (mostly 30 cal 130 grain) only two went more than fifty yards. Both shot by the same guy and both bad hits.

The first thing I'd consider is where you're putting the bullets.

Shot PLACEMENT is everything.Shooting AT them indiscriminately doesn't get it.I have been hunting with a .308 for 20 years now and never had one run more than 20 to 30 yards.

Stan in SC

Are ya getting both lungs or just one?

About a zillon deer have been killed with a 30 cal bullet launched between 2600-2900fps. Deer don't know about headstamps. I would say that the evidence is fairly conclusive that most bullets between 150-180 grains are going to kill deer fairly well if placed well.

I think most barnes and the ballistic silver tip are both fine choices. Its really about where you hit them. If you don't want to track.. hit bone. center up on the shoulder and your deer will be DRT 99% of the time.

Aim for the exit hole. Pretty simple really.

If you want them to drop faster,reload that 308 with bullets made to be loaded in a 30-30.The extra velocity makes them expand very fast,and the few I have shot with them fold up like a house of cards.
With good bullet placement,of course.

Thanks for the advice. I cut my teeth with a 308, I guess I just wiffed both shots. Going in now to look

Many years ago I switched to a .444 and left those problems behind. . 444 in any factory ammo drops them like a bag of rocks. Dont have to worry about what ammo to use.

I've been using 180 gr. round nose core lokt's in my 7600. Have'nt had a deer go anywhere. Also blood all over the place.

Same thing with a .45-70. When lung shot, Stevie Wonder could follow the not-so-long blood trail. It helps when they leak out of two �" holes. Hit the running gear and down they go.

I've killed numerous deer with a .308, and the only problem I've had was a poor bullet choice, changed that and all is good.

A well known gun writer reported here that 'mono' bullets that don't fragment like lead/jacketed bullets do are the:

"slowest killers of deer".

I have seen decent results using the regular bullets from the 308 and 06.

If I find the link to the gun writers report I will put it here.

Perhaps you may try shooting them in a different spot. Shoulder, High Shoulder, Neck

Here is a copy of the report:

"To everybody who has shared their experiences with TSX's, thanks very much. Most of the time they will kill deer-sized game very well, especially in larger diameters like 7mm and .30. I was specificaly addressing my experience with the .25 caliber 100-grain TSX--which is considerable, both in the .257 Roberts and .257 Weatherby.

I have seen it do very well, in fact once saw it drop a 3x3 mule deer buck right now with a high lung shot at about 150 yards. But I have also seen some animals not drop so fast with similar shot placement.

The reason for our "disagreements" probably lies in the fact that I have seen a whole lot of game taken with TSX's. Most of the time they kill very well, but sometimes they do not, and when they don't the animal is likely to go a ways, in my experience further than with any other type of bullet.

I have been pacing off how far animals have gone after a solid double-lung hit for many years. Animals hit with Barnes X's (whether the old-style or TSX), Fail Safes, E-Tips or whatever "petal" type bullet have gone an average of just over 50 yards. Those hit with bullets that expand wider, or lose some weight, haven't gone as far.

The bullet that had dropped animals the quickest with lung shots has been the Berger VLD, at around 20 yards. Those averages include lung hits that drop animals instantly--and the highest percentage of instant drops also goes to the VLD, a bullet that normally comes completely apart, but only after penetrating a couple of inches.

I am primarily a meat hunter and do not deliberately aim for the shoulder/spine unless there is some real reason to drop it right there. But I have used that shot on a bunch of animals, and it doesn't take a TSX or other super-bullet to do the trick. I've done it with a bunch of bullets, including such "ordinary" bullets as the Hornady Interlock to the round-nosed Remington Core-Lokt.

All I am doing here is relate my experiences with various bullets. I've seen around 150 animals taken with TSX's, and my statements that it sometimes doesn't kill as quickly as wider-expanding lead cores are based on that experience.

If you are a TSX true believer, who's convinced that exit holes in the hide somehow kill quicker than massive destruction of the lungs, then you are also welcome to your opinion. You're also welcome to shoot shoulder-shoot all the deer you want. But I happen to disagree on both counts, and my disagreement is based on quite a bit of experience.

Please note that I NEVER said TSX's are bad bullets, anwyhere in this thread. They are very fine bullets, and paricularly good for certain jobs, especially on really big game. But I have not found them ideal on deer."

Link

I'll flat guarantee a real double lung shot deer,hit in the right place is not going to run 200 yards.I suspect it was eiterh hit too far back and only caught the rear of the lobe or only one lung was hit.
It is easy to center the cross hairs on the crease of the should ,but if the deer was moving,that puts the hit a little far back.

I shot a pronghorn running full out, hit a double lung shot and it folded in under 50 yards and they can sure cover the ground faster than whitetail.

Not to adminsih the OP,but 99.999% of the bullet failures or complaints about the gun not being big enough is due to improper bullet placement.

It's not the caliber.

I shot a ten-point large whitetail deer from less than ten yards. Through the heart, and through the far-side shoulder. It fell down, then jumped up and took off running on three legs. I was going to shoot it again, but could see blood FLYING out the side of the deer.

It ran a little more than 200 yards before piling up.

Out of dozens and dozens of deer, it's the only one I've seen do anything remotely like that, but, apparently, it happens.

Then again, I had ZERO problems tracking, as the blood trail was spectacular. To the point that after waiting half an hour to get down so I wouldn't jump it, my hunting partner walking over actually spotted the blood trail and found the deer before I did.

The heart was hit, along with the lungs. I usually keep the hearts and donate them to a local teacher for science class. Not this one.....

Federal Fusion ammo. Actually, rather impressive performance considering how close the deer was at impact and that it hit bone.