Bullet failures - What your experience has been.

What bullet construction has failed you the most, on big game.

  • Mono Metal

    Votes: 25 20.3%

  • Partition or A Frame Style

    Votes: 2 1.6%

  • Bonded

    Votes: 6 4.9%

  • Cup and core

    Votes: 42 34.1%

  • Ballistic tip style

    Votes: 39 31.7%

  • Other

    Votes: 9 7.3%
  • Total voters
    123
Kelly Timoffee

Kelly Timoffee

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In the spirit of adding to the joyous poll already started on your favorite performing bullet , I will now do one for your least favorite bullet you have experienced.

I had started a poll many years back but now we are having a fresh one, mostly because I don't want to go back centuries of pages to look.

So, what bullet style in your opinion has had the most drastic and/or frequent failures in your subjective opinion?

As I have never used monos on game as through others experiences I have decided to not use them but I do load for others with them and they are not terribly difficult to get to shoot decent.

The projectile I disliked the most was the Hornady SST , many times the fragmentation was just too much and I hated being punished with destroyed meat for making good clean shots in the engine compartment.
 
For only one hunting season I used the Barnes 100 gr. TSX in my 257 Weatherby. Muzzle velocity was 3,705 fps (28" barrel), deer was 150 yards, bullet slammed straight through, deer did not react to bullet impact, deer ran over 500 yards before collapsing, blood trail almost non-existent, tiny spec's of blood. Pencil size entry/exit wound. This also occurred with my son where the buck ran 200 yards before falling over. NEVER AGAIN WE WILL USE ANY MONOLITHIC BULLET!!!
 
Worst bullet i have used was 6.5mm .264" Serria Gamekings spbt. On 3 occasions the bullet blew up upon impact creating flesh wounds and requiring follow up shots to finish the job. I dont know if it was a bad batch of bullets but they failed miserably.
I have used serria pro-hunters in 8mm with good success though, so not writing off the brand.

Another bullet I had blow up with a 165 gr Nosler ballistic tip in a 308 WIN. Frontal chest shot on a black bear. I was hoping to find the bullet intact but it disintegrated and all that was left was shrapnel. Did the job and dropped the bear so I wont write off the ballistic tip. I do have good experiences with 180gr 8mm versions, but i hear they have thicker jackets which help.
 
Hornady SST. Always made mush. But in reality that is what it is supposed to do. Any recovered bullet usually means you recovered the game. So can't really call that a failure.
 
None of the above. They all dried. 99% Hornady user, some bullets lost 10% some lost up to 40% depending on the path travelled. No moose made it more than 50 feet or 50 seconds. To me thats a zero fail.
 
Shot a whitetail buck from about 125 yards with Federal Fusion 150 grn out of a 308 Win. Had to shoot him in the chest 3 times before he fell down. Very poor penetration.
Is this a conventional cup and core, or bonded?
 
it has been known for decades that good, inexpensive, cup and core bullets, appropriate for caliber, at modest speed, are best for deer as they expand well and kill fast whether they exit or not. And still some use thin, fast, light for caliber, monometal, more expensive bullets on game and expect fast kills.
 
Need another option for none of the above. I suppose I need to pump my kill numbers up or else begin using a bunch of different bullets because I’ve yet to experience a “failure”. I’ve never shot a big game animal and not had satisfactory performance.

I’ve had a couple rodeos after the shot but once the animal was recovered it was clear who was at fault and it was me each time.
 
There is an argument to be made that "failure" did not occur if the animal was recovered.
However, I have been a bullet "digger" since the late 1950's, and have made some personal
observations.

I will not use a bullet a second time to hunt with if the first experience resulted in full bullet
breakup, [disintegration],or complete separation of jacket and core.

I have a collection of bullets dug out of game. In that collection are some very classic mushrooms
from conventional cup and core bullets, but also there are some of them that reflect the negative
aspects. [jacket pieces, heel only, separations, etc]

I'm inclined to agree with those who tout heavy for diameter, modest velocity, cup/core bullets.
I shot a reasonably decent muley buck in the Salmon Arm area [early 1960's] with a 6.5x54 M-S
rifle. The load was a 160 grain cup/core Dominion load that had an advertised MV of 2160 fps.
This load performed perfectly. The shot was at about 80 yards, broadside. The bullet was under
the offside hide and was double diameter or more, and weighed 127 grains. [80% retained]

I have several 180 grain original Silvertips from a 30-06 recovered from moose. At 30-06 velocities
those bullets just seemed to perform well. However, when I loaded some in my 308 Norma Mag at
3100 fps, they did not stay together well, losing the cores easily.

Any who spend time on here know that I am a Partition/ A-Frame fan, but not exclusively so, since
I am fond of several bonded offerings as well.
Monometals also work in MOST cases, but need velocity to work, and I believe reliability is still the
issue with these. From my observations, game will generally go farther before piling up when these
bullets are used.

As far as "match" bullet used for hunting, I refuse to use them, no matter how accurate they are.
Great for paper and steel, not really suitable for hunting. Sorry for the long post, Dave.
 
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