Best bullet for white tail deer coming out of a .308 Win, Savage 99

rci2950 said:
As my other thread about load data and Nosler partitions in my Savage 99 has made me question myself on my bullet decision... I am going to ask another question. Taking into consideration the limitations of the Savage 99 and the .308 win cartridge being fired from that rifle. What would you guys suggest as the best bullet for smaller white tail deer? I have roughly 7 weeks to figure this out. If the 165 grain Nosler partitions weren't the best choice I would rather not waste them.. i can just put them aside and use them with my 30-06 when i decide to use that one for the season (probably next year)... So no big deal.

There are all sorts of weights, brand names and bullet types...

My situation is

Will be using IMR 4166 powder... I like the idea of the advertised stability in cold temperatures...

I will be hunting a soybean/corn field. So sitting at the edge of the woods waiting for a deer to step out.

I will be shooting at...

under 200 pound white tail deer... I have never gotten any really large deer out of that spot. Always yearlings.

Under 300 yards range. Most likely will be 100 to 150 yards... Maximum if i was feeling confident would be the 300... but not likely.

What should i be using?

I appreciate any input you can give... Thank you for not getting frustrated at my asinine questions.

Pic of rifle for the curious.

WP_20170730_001.jpg
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So you started off with the most expensive Nosler bullet...don't be disappointed, be happy that you can shoot more with cheaper bullets!! lol
In all seriousness, Nosler Ballistic tips are inexpensive and work great on deer. Should you want terminal performance like the Partition, load up some BTips, find a recipe that works then use the same load for Accubonds. You'll have minimal change to poi and a more devastating load with the bonded bullet should you want to go that route.
For cost effectiveness, try the good ole Hornady Interlock SP...fairly ugly lol, but cheap and nothing...and I mean nothing walks away...don't let the looks fool you...with the right load they will give you great groups and great performance no matter what the price...even though they are less than $40/100...yup, 100
Last year a buddy shot a bull moose, with a Savage 99 in 308 with the Hornady SP. It was an average shot, under 100yds, and the bull just fell out of sight...it didn't move an inch, straight through the spine (neck). He was confident enough with those loads at that distance to take the shot...worked out great....well maybe not so much for the moose, but hey, at least it was quick!

Good luck.
 
If you've already got a 165 gr partition load, a few more rounds for deer hunting won't hurt much. Quite often a practice load with Hornadys of the same weight will shoot together with the Partition load. Weatherby has been doing it for decades.
 
We've fallen for the hunting rag bs like everyone else and used every configuration and contrivance of bullet invented.
Accubonds, hot cores, bergers, nosler partitions, swift a-frames, you name it.
The best all around bullets for deer are the lowly core-lokts.
We buy the green box factory core-lokt ammo and we get it dirt cheap at cabelas, walmart and crappy tire during their sales.
 
torontogungal said:
We've fallen for the hunting rag bs like everyone else and used every configuration and contrivance of bullet invented.
Accubonds, hot cores, bergers, nosler partitions, swift a-frames, you name it.
The best all around bullets for deer are the lowly core-lokts.
We buy the green box factory core-lokt ammo and we get it dirt cheap at cabelas, walmart and crappy tire during their sales.
Click to expand...

Haven't used a lot of core-lokts, but have used the lowly Winchester power point factory ammo and bullets on animals ranging from antelope to moose and a few bear, in many different cartridges and weights. Nothing wrong with them.
 
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In my .308s I use 165 grain bullets exclusively, Sierra for practise and Nosler partition for hunting. Same powder charge in either shoots to the same point of impact. Sierras are cheap and just fine for deer but I have more confidence in NP's for bigger game.
 
wcat said:
My Hornady BTSP have the Interlock ring, eck I've even cut one in half to check it a few years back.
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That is interesting, because the ones I checked did not have the interlock ring. I wonder if they have made a change somewhere along the line. Just curious, how old/new was the one you opened up?
 
I've used factory remington corelocks in 165 and 180's, partitions in 165 and 180, hotcores in 165, ballistic tips in 150, interlocks in 165, and sst's in 165 and 180.
Never had a deer shrug any of them off. Have seen some pretty serious meat damage / waste from deer hit baddly with balistic tips from buddies 30.06 though.
Any decent bullet placed well will do the job.
 
catnip said:
That is interesting, because the ones I checked did not have the interlock ring. I wonder if they have made a change somewhere along the line. Just curious, how old/new was the one you opened up?
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It's a 7mm 162 BTSP, it could be about a 4-5yr old bullets box.
I sawed one in half on the lenght side, then just heated it up a bit to let the lead come out and have only the clean jacket.
I still have it. I'll try to put a few pics up tonight.
 
wcat said:
It's a 7mm 162 BTSP, it could be about a 4-5yr old bullets box.
I sawed one in half on the lenght side, then just heated it up a bit to let the lead come out and have only the clean jacket.
I still have it. I'll try to put a few pics up tonight.
Click to expand...

OK then... I had trouble with them shedding the cores in whitetails about 20 years or so ago (165 gr .30 cal .in a .30/06). Found a jacket skinning one out, and no lock ring!..checked one out of the box of bullets I was using...same thing, no locking ring. I switched to the flat base interloks ,and no more trouble. I'll have to see if I can find a few new ones to check...see if things have changed. Just a note that the boatails I was using were well into the era of interlock tech. from hornady.
 
I'd listen to Dogleg, based on the sheer volume of animals he shoots. While I'm generally not a fan of the Ballistic Tip (owing to experiences with older Ballistic Tips which, I believe, have since been redesigned), he has had very good results with them. Given that the 308 isn't going to stress the bullet, they should work just fine for smaller deer. If I was stepping up to moose I would use the 165 Partition.
 
I use 150gr SST's in my .308 for everything I hunt on the large side: moose, caribou, bear, wolf. Has never let me down nor have I ever required a second finishing shot.
Longest shots out this way are around the 300m mark on wolves, occasionally moose and when they are wild a scattered caribou (these being on frozen lakes or massive bogs). Most shots afforded in the terrain hunted out this way is 150m or less.
 
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