Hunting Bullet Choice

[22to45]

Lets hear you guys sound off on how you choose a hunting bullet.

I go for heavy bullets and modest velocity, like 175 grain in 7x57, at about 2500 fps. Cup and core bullets are ok for me at this velocity, and I get excellent penetration and not too much meat damage. I choose to sacrifice hydraulic shock in the interest of penetrtion. I hunt at relitively short ranges, about 200 yards or less, so ballistic co efficient is not too important, hornady round nose are just fine for me.

 

[Eagleye]

Only you yourself can decide what is best for your style of hunting.
I still favor the Nosler Partition over all other hunting bullets.
But I also use Accubond, TTSXs, Scirocco IIs, A-Frames, & GMX's for hunting.
The monometal bullets are improving steadily, and lead is a known problem.
This means a complete changeover may be necessary sometime in the future.
Since I have seen monometal bullets fail to expand, I use them with caution at present.
I drive my bullets as fast as is practical in the chambering I am using.
I will take a shot beyond 400 meters if necessary.
We have so many "good" choices out there today that no one should have a problem opting for what is best for them.
Regards, Eagleye.

 

[22to45]

Is there talk somewhere of banning lead in hunting bullets? I can understand it for shotguns, as in some places the waterfowl hunters broadcast shot over the same areas year after year, but for hunting bullets it would seem that any toxicity caused by the lead would be pretty minor.

 

[Dogleg]

In a general sort of way I use fairly small (.30 and under) fast and fairly soft bullets on fairly small,soft and fairly fast animals.

Big, heavy, hard and slow animals get big, heavy, hard and slow bullets. For the sake of argument lets call big over .40, thick skinned and with weights easily rounded off to the ton.

There's some over-lap; moose are reasonably big but real soft.

 

[caramel]

As Dogleg mentionned moose is big and soft, i never nedded more than a 308 under 400 yards to downed them... JP.

 

[VLT79]

I go with bullets that are heavier as well, nothing fancy or exoctic either. I use one load, for everything up to and including moose, in my .308 and it's assembled with the Hornady 180gr. (190gr when it is available) BTSP Interlock bullet. My .30-06 Remington 7600 prefers a handload using the Hornady 180gr SST or the factory loaded Remington with 220gr. round nose Core-Lokt bullets.

 

[jacky]

I am a really big fan of the Accubond. I load it in my 7X57 ( 140 grain) and my 7mm mag ( 140 grain and 160 grain). I have tried quite a few ( Nosler Bal tip, partition, Speers) and Sierra's bullets have also done well for me.

The 150 grain Scirocco seems to get good reviews and my 7mm mag has always done well with a 150 grain bullet. I just haven't tried these because they cost so much.

 

[Cmiller82]

... My .30-06 Remington 7600 prefers a handload using the Hornady 180gr SST or the factory loaded Remington with 220gr. round nose Core-Lokt bullets.

A bit off-topic, but what powder does the 7600 like? I have a 750 and I'm having trouble finding a powder the gun likes.

and back on-topic, I use Sierra 165gr Gamekings, BTHP in .308 for everything I don't use my SKS for... basically deer and up.

 

[prosper]

I use a bit of everything. The most effective are bullets that are driven fast and expand dramatically, but hold together well enough to get penetration and exit holes. Smacking a whitetail with a bigger/slower bullet kills just as surely, but usually not as instantly. Currently my favourite is the 139 GMX in a 7mm magnum at about 3200fps. It opens up very quickly for those dramatic dead on the spot kills, but holds together well enough for exit holes.

 

[chappy]

if i'm using cup and core i tend to go heavy. 7rem 175grn 30 06 180grn. bonded mid weight and mono bullets lighter and faster as they rarely loose any weight.

 

[Rocket Surgery]

There are so many good bullets out there today, you just have to know how to use them properly. The premium premium ones, like the ###-frames and the TSX bullets require higher velocities to expand properly. If you're using a slower caliber, you'll find that the cup and core, or bonded bullets will outperform these premium choices, but if you're using a 300win mag at 100 yards then the TTSX or partition would be best.

The new winchester lead and copper petal coated MRX bullets look pretty badass. You basically get a partition with non-lead expanding petals at the front and match grade accuracy. The issue is that you pay out the nose for them and they only sell the loaded factory ammo. I plan on picking up a couple boxes if I don't get my act together and make a hunting load by September.

I'm going to use 150g partitions in my 308 this year. Hopefully I get an elk tag, this way I can use the bullet for deer as well.

 

[Pathfinder]

Im going to lean on monos for anything above 3000 fps on larger game where Ill possibly get a shot well inside of 100 yards. (good probabily around where I hunt)

That being said I plan on using the 100gr. Barnes TSX with my 25-06 AI this Fall as Im expecting them to move upwards of 3400 fps.

 

[07blackwater]

I'm partial to the nosler partition in my 7mag. Close or far it always performs.

 

[woodchopper]

I use accubonds, I will use a heavier one and drive em fast

 

[beretta boy]

I've been a fan of Nosler Partitions for deer, moose and bear since I sarted reloading in the late 60's. Very dependable and predictable. I've also used Hornady RN's, particularly for the 35 Whelen. No complaints.

 

[Barnes_270]

I'm a big fan of the TSX and TTSX. Sample size on big game so far is small (three deer) but every one so far has been dead in its tracks. My avatar is a 130 gr .277 TSX i recovered from one of them - it went stem to stern on a frontal shot through a shoulder, and lodged in the rear leg hip joint. Lost one petal. All I saw was hooves in the scope on impact. One or two twitches, and it was done. There was no bloodshot meat except right at the wound channel - ate right up to the hole.

There's a video out there done by some US wildlife researchers that scanned for lead fragments in meat donated to food banks (which is done a fair bit in some places). The amount of lead they found was considerable. I say fill'em up with premium unleaded.

 

[Splatter]

This year I'll be developing some loads for my .338WinMag, I'm thinking 250 grain cup-and-core bullets either from Sierra or Hornady (always had good results in the past), I'm hoping I can get them to cross my chrony screens at about 2600fps without pushing to hard.
This will give me plenty of energy and a nice predictable trajectory out to my personal max of around 400m (on game animals) Plus it'll keep costs for full-power practice reasonable (ish).

 

[Andrzej]

I think we are getting this finally.
Link to this video is below.

I think that it is irresponsible to recommend bullets containing lead for hunting if you hunting for meat.

I was hunting with bullets containing lead most of my life now I know better.

"Splatter
This year I'll be developing some loads for my .338WinMag, I'm thinking 250 grain cup-and-core bullets either from Sierra or Hornady"

Try Barnes TTSX 225 over RL 19 75.3 gr what I load 2860 ft/sec....cow elk at 520 y, another 400, frontal shot at Bull moose at 251y.... not much meat damage on WT Buck at 100y.

Lead free venison. Yummy

 

[Dunk]

I have been a RELOADER for over 50 years,From away back I had heard of the superiority of Nosler Partitions. From my limited personal experience on white tailed deer many other 130 gr. bullets for 270 win over all performed better to the point I have reduced confidence in the Nosler partitions for deer.
I like to try all types and makes of bullets. I like DRT and limited meat damage. My latest experience is with Barnes 110 TTSX. Low recoil,fast,penetration,limited meat damage .Over all great.

 

[Kelly Timoffee]

Swift SC II's are now my hunting bullets in a couple different 7mm(150's) chamberings and in .270(130's). These are used on anything coyote sized and larger.

Good weight retention , good accuracy and high BC for good down range velocity and energy when making shots on open prairie.