Deer Bullet

lone wolf · Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 8:55 pm Post subject: Re: Deer Bullet

My preferred bullet prior to handloading was the Remingtom Core Lokt. My most accurate handloads so far have been with Nosler Ballistic Tips, which I intend to use for deer this Fall. I will keep you posted as the season unfolds .....

Pumpkinslinger · Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 12:12 am Post subject: Re: Deer Bullet

I think many folks on here have a lot more hunting experience than I do but here's my 2 cents...

I think a big game bullet should provide enough penetration to reach the vitals on a "worst case" shot. While your first shot should be taken when the angle is optimum a follow up shot might require you to shoot at a poor angle. The hunting trophy in my picture there was shot at about 40 yards. Luckily the bullet deflected enough to miss the deer about 15 yards behind that little tree. If not I would have had to try a follow up at whatever angle was available.

WileyWapiti · Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 1:47 pm Post subject: Re: Deer Bullet

FalPhil:

What kind of 30-06 do you have? Reason I ask is that I tried to tame my .06 with Noslers and just could not get it done. I ran some Barnes through it and it settled right in. Broke my heart as I was a Nosler die hard, but the TSX have impressed me greatly. I have a model 70 by the way.

roklok · Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 4:07 pm Post subject: Re: Deer Bullet

My favorite big game bullet overall is the Nosler partition, however my favorite deer bullet is the Hornady SST, specifically the 130 grain .277.

Jack · Member Joined: Oct 19, 2005 Posts: 98

One factor that should be added to this debate is that the first Nosler Ballistic Tips were considerably softer than the Ballistic Tip that is currently on the market. If you tried them when they first came on the market and thought they expanded too fast, you might want to try them again.
I have used on deer, or seen used, a number of different cartridges with Ballistic Tips: 270/130, 7x57/140, 6.5x55/120, 308/150, and 30-06/150.
My opinion is that the Ballistic Tip is an outstanding deer bullet in a standard cartridge. It would not be the bullet I loaded into a big mangle um for deer...although, if you use a big mangle um to shoot deer, that may be another debate.
I have seen Ballistic Tips break a shoulder on the way into the boiler room a number of times- in fact I have never seen them fail to do so. That alone makes me suspect that a large amount of the Ballistic Tip 'controversy' is due to the performance of the first batches on the market, not the current stuff.
JMO, but the first question that should be asked in a debate over bullet effectiveness is: did you recover the deer? If you did, the bullet worked.

moose2 · Posted: Sat Sep 29, 2007 9:09 am Post subject: Re: Deer Bullet

Perhaps the nosler BT's perform better in some calibers than others. I finally broke down and tried them in my 6MM and .257 Roberts. Yes they all killed deer, but I had to go look for all six of the deer that were shot with them. Went back to using my old tried and true Sierra's and life is good again. A little loss in accuracy, but not enough to make any significant difference when hunting. Just an opinion, others may vary.-tr

roklok · Posted: Sat Sep 29, 2007 2:45 pm Post subject: Re: Deer Bullet

My findings with deer bullets have lead me to the conclusion that with the smaller calibers a tougher bullet is called for. For example, I have had excellent success with Sierra Game king 225 grain bullets in my 35 Whelen on deer. I shot quite a few whitetails with this bullet at 2650 FPS and only one moved from the spot where I shot it, a heart shot buck that went about 25 yards. When I bought a .270 a few years later I tried the 130 gr Sierra Game King and had a dismal bullet failure on a very small whitetail doe. I will not use Gamekings in the .270 for anything much bigger than coyotes. For deer with my .243 I use 100 grain Nosler Partitions. I have to take issue with the theory that a bullet worked if a deer was recovered. Yes I recovered the deer shot with .270 Game kings but in my mind the bullet still failed. I hit the yearling doe in the shoulder(not the bone, just the muscle of the shoulder) and it dissapeared favoring its front leg. After a long search i finally found the deer several hundred yards from where it was shot. The bullet had blown apart in the shoulder muscle of this 60-70 pound deer and only a small fragment had penetrated the chest cavity. I switched to the Hornady SST and have had much better success with this bullet. The SST opens fast but it's core is locked to the jacket giving it a degree of controlled expansion that is missing with the Game King.