have always shot 150/165 gr bullets through all my 308's anybody use 180's for the most part, on deer and hog hunting? and by 180's nothing fancy.... plain old cup and core like a federal 180 gr power shock

I've found that Remington's 180 grain round nose bullet performs excellent for downing a wide variety of animals at typical forest and foothill distances. The bullets open up fast like the speedier 150's but have the weight and momentum to penetrate deeply and break through bones. Moose and caribou have been toppled with this bullet fired from my .308 carbine. I feel that pointed soft nose bullets have their place too, but within about 225 yards or so, the round nose design is my first choice. - Sherwood

Back in the late 70's and maybe into the early 80's I ran 180 Sierra boat tails through my 308. I didn't have many powder choices (poor college student, etc) so I pushed them with H380. I shot several mule deer and several pronghorns with that combination. I can't recall shooting an elk with it. I also don't recall recovering a bullet. 180's at 2450-2700 fps are nothing to sneeze at. I'm sure they'll work for you if that's how you're inclined. Good luck!

I'm using Hornady 180gr RNs in my 308 with D4064. Shoots into 1".

RN bullets are getting hard to find. Hornady dropped those 180 RNs and haven't seen Remington putting any out either.

In much of Canada Whitetail deer and moose season overlap. Many moose hunters feel better equipped with 180 gr. bullets in their .308 Win rifles rather than lighter bullets. I've used 180 RN bullets in my .308's for years, and they work very well for bonus deer and the intended moose. Since the RN aren't available any more, I have used regular cup and core PSP 180's ( Remington CorLokt, Win PP, Federal blue box ) and they are OK for deer too. No advantage to using Standard cup and core 180's for deer, but no disadvantage at typical bush country distances either.

Heads up. Sportsmans outdoor superstore has remington corelokt 308w 180gr round nose for 22/box.

I was thinking about trying some Nosler 180 grain B/T in my .308 Winchester with Varget powder.

The 180 grain round nose Core-Lokt was always our most preferred deer bullet. The Benoit’s too early on which tells you something. We never lost a deer hit anywhere with that bullet. Dad came and got me once to find his deer for him. I asked him where he shot it and he said, “Right in the middle. Thats all I could see.” Yup, hit right in the middle and it didn’t go 75 yards from where he shot it with his .308 and that bullet. We never recovered one of those bullets either. Always complete penetration with a good size exit wound. 150’s will stop in a deer, but seldom a 165 or 180.

I’ve got that bullet test poster from Handloader Magazine that tested most of the 180 grain .30 caliber bullets and the best one on the page is the 180 grain Remington round nose Core-lokt. It expanded and penetrated well at high velocity not shedding it’s core and with the big gooey lead tip, it expanded well at lower velocity. Round nose bullets don’t get much respect, but that 180 grain round nose Core-Lokt flat out works on deer at woods ranges.

Shoot yeah! Those big suckers worked great on this bull at 300 yards as well.





Count me in as I believe they work just fine at normal speeds.

Most of my 30 caliber deer hunting for quite a while was with the 30=06 using 150 gr. bullets. talking with a friend he said he always used 180 gr. bullets s they messed up less meat. I tried them and liked the results. In 1973, I went to the .308 Win. in a much light rifle and back to the 150 gr. bullet. Just as messy as when I ran hem in the 06 so tried some loads with 180 gr. spitzer and round nose. Accuracy was good with both bullets.
One day, my buddy and I spotted a couple of does and he wanted some meat Seems we both shot at the same time and both deer went down. Nothing unusual but then my buddy asked if I'd shot? Very tempted to say no just to see the reaction but basically what happened is he didn't hear me shoot and both shots went off simultaneously. Dunno whose bullet was in his gun as he didn't reload and depended on factory ammo. IIRC, my bullet was the 180 gr. Sierra round nose. Shots on the ranch we hunted on at the time weren't way out yonder very often.
PJ

Friend of mine hunts with a nice .308W with an ancient 4x scope that needs to strike a match to see if you can see through it. He shoots 180 grain Core Lokts and won’t take a shot much past 150 yards because of the “drop”. Not much use in our elk country where most shots are 250-300 yards due to terrain. Whatever…

Have no time of day for 180's in 308 or 30-06. Slow kills have been my experience. I'll take 150 grain and 165 gets honorable mention

I use(d) 180 gr Nosler Spire Points in my RL 77 in 308 Win when hunting out west.
Use Win 748 powder mostly in the 308

Killed mule deer and elk just fine.
Use 150s for whitetails.

In over 50 years of hunting many of which I've toted a .308 I've never needed any bullet over 165 grains to kill deer or blk. bear. Save the 180's for elk or moose.

found 6 boxes of 180 gr round nose remington core lokts in the stash of 308 ammo and one box of 200 gr silvertips in the old winchester white box will be trying the core lokts this weekend

Back in the 1970's all the guys with .308's were shooting 180gr. bullets, factory guys preferred Remington Core-lokt 180's. I handloaded Hornady 180's over 41.5gr. of IMR 4895, killed the biggest whitetail of my entire hunting career with that load. In recent years I have been loading Sierra Game King 165gr., a great bullet that is accurate on target and deadly on whitetails. Been shooting a .30-06 with a max. charge of IMR 4350.

I switched to 180 gr ballistic tips in our .308's because we hunt in an area where bear is in season at the same time. Have not seen a bear during the season, but the 180 gr BTs put deer down just fine.

I used them one time. It on one of the biggest does I've ever shot. It wrecked a lot! Frontal shot. She reared up and swatted the other deer at that shot. Fell over backwards, got up and ran about 50 yards. Decent amount of blood. Tons of damage.

Shot my first deer with an old yellow box 180gr. Silvertip. Small deer, but left a blood trail a brand new hunter hunting alone could follow. I’ve since moved to 165s for the 308, and like the Gameking 165 over BLC2. I still have an old yellow box of 180 silver tips for nostalgia, though.

Old70

Why would you want or need 180's for deer? In my -06 I have settled on 150's for deer and 165's for elk. Mrs Blacktailer and I have used 165's in her 308 on game from blackbuck to zebra 🦓. I don't see a need to slow the 308 down.

I'm not saying I'd never use a 180 in my 308's, but I've never found a reason to. I've been happy with 150's and 165's, antelope to elk.