For hunting purposes, the weights and the accuracy of different brands of ammo or bullets are very highly over rated.
Not that many years ago in BC, before the limited entry hunting applications, one just bought a moose tag and went hunting. A great many hunters got a moose almost every year. And it is a safe bet that the actual majority of those hunters couldn't tell you what weight bullet was in the cartridges in their rifle, if you asked them while they were in the bush hunting! Nor could they say what brand of ammunition they had.
Ask any salesperson behind the counter of a sporting goods store about hunters buying ammunition. They will come in and ask for a box of "bullets" for their 30-06, 308, or whatever.
The salesperson will hand them a box of shells for their rifle and that is it.
Also, most rifles will shoot any brand of, say 180 grain bullets in 30-06, to very nearly the same point of impact at 100 yards. Same largely goes for different weights that are not too extreme, such as 150, 165, 180 or even 220, in 30-06. In my early days of hunting one fall I was shooting game with a 30-06 with 150 grain bullets. I switched to 220 grain bullets and, without any sighting shots, killed the first moose I aimed at, then I aimed at the chest of a mule deer buck that was facing me and hit the white spot on his chest with with the 220 bullet.
Like most shooters, I'm a cheap bastard, but now a little fussy. So if I were loading a batch of Nosler, or any other premium brand bullets, when it came to sighting I would subtistute the same weight and similar shaped bullet for sighting in. The low priced Speer pointed bullets are very similar to Nosler, so that is what I use for sighting. I am now so fussy that when sighted with the Speer, I would fire one round with the Nosler, just to be sure. I have never yet seen anything except the Nosler going into the same group as the Speer.
Not that many years ago in BC, before the limited entry hunting applications, one just bought a moose tag and went hunting. A great many hunters got a moose almost every year. And it is a safe bet that the actual majority of those hunters couldn't tell you what weight bullet was in the cartridges in their rifle, if you asked them while they were in the bush hunting! Nor could they say what brand of ammunition they had.
Ask any salesperson behind the counter of a sporting goods store about hunters buying ammunition. They will come in and ask for a box of "bullets" for their 30-06, 308, or whatever.
The salesperson will hand them a box of shells for their rifle and that is it.
Also, most rifles will shoot any brand of, say 180 grain bullets in 30-06, to very nearly the same point of impact at 100 yards. Same largely goes for different weights that are not too extreme, such as 150, 165, 180 or even 220, in 30-06. In my early days of hunting one fall I was shooting game with a 30-06 with 150 grain bullets. I switched to 220 grain bullets and, without any sighting shots, killed the first moose I aimed at, then I aimed at the chest of a mule deer buck that was facing me and hit the white spot on his chest with with the 220 bullet.
Like most shooters, I'm a cheap bastard, but now a little fussy. So if I were loading a batch of Nosler, or any other premium brand bullets, when it came to sighting I would subtistute the same weight and similar shaped bullet for sighting in. The low priced Speer pointed bullets are very similar to Nosler, so that is what I use for sighting. I am now so fussy that when sighted with the Speer, I would fire one round with the Nosler, just to be sure. I have never yet seen anything except the Nosler going into the same group as the Speer.
