best hunting bullet

I had a 150 gr BT from my 308 disintegrate on impact with a mulie and made a mess, absolute mess in the body.

It was a perfect double lung shot, but fragments ripped the stomach to shreds. I was so disappointed.

Interesting. Has this been typical of them or a one time occurence?
I've only shot one white tail with them and it was a complete pass through with no extra damage. I normally use the .44 though.
 
Over the years what bullet have you found to drop em in there tracks the best?

I've never found any bullet that guarrentes an animal will drop dead in it's tracks!
I've shot deer & moose with, Corelocs, Horn Interlocks, Sierra's & various factory loads, in calibers 6mm, 280, 308, 30-30, 30-06,375BB,38-55 & 45-70 & likely couple others as well. My experience is with a double lung shot most animals will run 50' to 100 yds.
Sure would like some of them bullets that'll drop em in their tracks every time! cou:
 
For whitetail and mulies I swear by Hornday Interbond. I've had great success with them and after all the trial and error found that my gun really likes them a lot!!!
 
My mulie Saturday was with a 6.5mm 129gr SST. Impact velocity was best guess in the 2650 range. Lost some chops but when you destroy 4 or 5 cervical vertebrae, things crash hard. Took the best shot I had and one shot dropped it like a rock.

There was no large entry or exit wound.
 
I'm a reloader too. I used to like the bulk Remington Cor-locks in my 280 and 257 Roberts when I could still get them. Always dead, with good expansion and retention in the few I recovered.

Now I like the Accubonds and Interbonds, they are very close. I haven't gathered enough feedback to make the call between them.
 
I kind of pride myself in keeping up with the latest developements in ammunition but honestly the original posting is the first time I've seen any of this Winchester Power Max red box with bonded bullets.

How long has this stuff been on the market?

It sounds like you've been shooting deer with it for years so I'm obviously out of the loop with this stuff.
 
.308 180gr. nosler partition
.303 180gr corelokt
7.62x39 hornady sst will be put to the test this year,
federal truball rifle slugs.
I'd love to try a .44 mag marlin for deer. I'd like to try the 45-70, but what do you use that on? I don't hunt bear.
 
I kind of pride myself in keeping up with the latest developements in ammunition but honestly the original posting is the first time I've seen any of this Winchester Power Max red box with bonded bullets.

How long has this stuff been on the market?

It sounds like you've been shooting deer with it for years so I'm obviously out of the loop with this stuff.

Not last season but the season befor that. Maby longer but that's at least the time we found them pretty much.
A good hunting friend has a Mauser 98 in .308 with a 1:14 twist barrel. He bought these bullets as a cheap 150gn to go blast at the range one day and they turned out pretty accurate in his rifle. Two deer last year with em, one the yr before and than this one with that bullet. All dropped in place. A lot of it is luck as well mind you and that's were old faithfull comes from. Just a good favorite lucky hunting bullet of choice.
If you go to wallmart or Canadian tire you will see this box. If that's ur pride I'm sorry I don't know how u missed it.
 
Last edited:
Interesting. Has this been typical of them or a one time occurence?
I've only shot one white tail with them and it was a complete pass through with no extra damage. I normally use the .44 though.

Never bought a box agani, but I always thought of them as more a varmint bullet
 
winchestor "fail safe" 150gr HP .308 ... never again will I buy those... first time I ever had to pick chunks out of a tenderlion. The second deer I shot was the first time I ever had a deer get away after hitting it right through the lungs. we boxed searched over a .5km area with no sign of trail and no deer; waste of a morning, waste of a shot and worst of all, waste of a living animal.
 
Winchester Silvertip (the older style) in 30-30 and 308 with each of thier differing profile 150 grain bullets. Also in 308 Winchester, Remington Core-Lokt SP in 150 grain, just about as good as the Silvertips for one shot drops on whitetail deer.
I think I might try the Nosler Partition in the future.
 
Not last season but the season befor that. Maby longer but that's at least the time we found them pretty much.
A good hunting friend has a Mauser 98 in .308 with a 1:14 twist barrel. He bought these bullets as a cheap 150gn to go blast at the range one day and they turned out pretty accurate in his rifle. Two deer last year with em, one the yr before and than this one with that bullet. All dropped in place. A lot of it is luck as well mind you and that's were old faithfull comes from. Just a good favorite lucky hunting bullet of choice.
If you go to wallmart or Canadian tire you will see this box. If that's ur pride I'm sorry I don't know how u missed it.


I guess I'd better start reading some of those e-mails Winchester sends instead of firing them off with the spam messages.
Looks like a good design. Maybe big red's answer to Federal Fusion?

Website says introduced 2009 with some new additions in 2011.
Honestly have never seen any for sale but then again likely wasnt looking in the right places.
 
I've never had a bullet "fail". I've used a bunch of different types from cheap IVI soft points, Nosler Ballistic Tips and Partitions, Winchester Silvertips, Barnes X, Hornady Interlock, RWS H-Mantel and Kegelspitz and probably others that I have forgotten.

I'd shoot at an animal, and if I hit it in the right place it would die quite quickly. If I missed, it would run away.

I've never had, or ever seen, an animal hit in the right spot and survive.
 
neither have I, I'm sure that deer died... just not anywere near where I shot it, 500m is a long way for a fataly injured animal to go. I know the shot placment was good because I watched it get pushed over and flip front side first and land on the grass legs up... after 1.5 minutes of it not moving I walked 150m up the road to grab a buddy, got back, glassed the cutline and it was gone. Tracks lead off one side of the road disapeared in the grass. We brewed up giving the deer time to settle down, then traced every deer trail out to the clearcut about .5km away (glasssed the clear cut thats about another 500M to the end on the block)... then box searched the area, not a sign.

Might have just as well as shot it with a FMG.... might have had better results
 
I've never had a bullet "fail".

I'd shoot at an animal, and if I hit it in the right place it would die quite quickly. If I missed, it would run away.

I've never had, or ever seen, an animal hit in the right spot and survive.

^ this for me.

I shoot 180gr core-lokt's out of my .30-06 every year, but only because they are inexpensive, and my rifle puts them where I want them.

I know that there are quality differences in different bullets, but I can only think that getting hit straight through both lungs and heart with ANYTHING will be curtains for sure...
 
neither have I, I'm sure that deer died... just not anywere near where I shot it, 500m is a long way for a fataly injured animal to go. I know the shot placment was good because I watched it get pushed over and flip front side first and land on the grass legs up... after 1.5 minutes of it not moving I walked 150m up the road to grab a buddy, got back, glassed the cutline and it was gone. Tracks lead off one side of the road disapeared in the grass. We brewed up giving the deer time to settle down, then traced every deer trail out to the clearcut about .5km away (glasssed the clear cut thats about another 500M to the end on the block)... then box searched the area, not a sign.

Might have just as well as shot it with a FMG.... might have had better results

I'd be willing to bet the shot was too high and provided some shock to the spinal cord. This knocked the animal down and it took some time for it to recover.

This happened to me on a whitetail buck that was trying to slink away. I made what I thought was a high shoulder shot (broadside). The buck dropped instantly. I waited for it to die as it was pawing the air. All of the sudden he got up and started to walk away, this time standing up as opposed to slinking. I quickly shot him again and he dropped, for good this time, within 10 yards.

The first bullet had nicked the top of the scapula but went over the spine. The shock knocked him down and it looked like he was doing the death kicks. The second one went right through both lungs and killed him.

My point is this - I never would have known, or guessed, the path of the first shot had I not waited and then killed the deer with the second shot. The fact of the matter is that the deer was in an odd position when I first shot it and I made a mistake by shooting too high.

I suspect that the vast majority of bullet failures on game are misses or poor hits.

For example:
[youtube]BPLQc3JJDGw[/youtube]
 
We just recovered what was left of a 225grain, 35 caliber partition out of my sons moose. Not very impressed, all that was left was the copper jacket. Both cores are gone, somewhere in the moose. Perfect broadside double lung shot, no exit wound.
It was shot out of a 358 Winchester at 2450fps. The moose was at 300yards, so impact velocity was significantly lower than that.

It should have held up better. Will be shopping for a bonded cup-core bullet to replace the partitions
 
Back
Top Bottom