Worst performing big game load?

Any Igman users? I read that people find them to be good ballistically (power), but I wonder how the bullets perform on game.

I don't think hunting ammo gets much cheaper (not my criteria in hunting ammo decisions).
 
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BIGREDD said:
Failsafes.... even Winchester now admits they are junk!
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i like my fail safes thank you lol.
I droped a deer a 75 yards with a 308 180gr small hole in behind the sholder just nicked a rib xpanded to have an exit wound the size of my fist.
talk to ya all later
Riley
 
skhunter said:
Interesting that these "poor performing" bullets were taken out of dead game, I thought that was what a bullet was supposed to do.
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I use nothing but good bullets to hunt with now,they kill as fast or faster than a poor bullet.You get the penitration to do the job right and you don't have to throw away a bunch of bloodshot meat.;)
 
Tod, if your talking factory rounds, here it goes:

Sellier&Belliot, bought a box for my uncle's 243, three of the first five had full head separation! I took the rest back, never even got reimbursed for the blown off extractor!

Federal 24 bulk pack for 06: Used to get these when I first started shooting to get my brass stash built up, bullets fragmented real bad, 165 gr.

As for handloads:

Sierra 338 cal, 250gr game king. even in my 338-06 they were like using a grenade. Wonderfully accurate but don't hold together on even a little whitetail.

Speer hotcores. Have used 180 gr and 200 gr 30 cal in my 06's.
The 105gr 6mm cal in my 6mm Argentine mauser literally vaporize. Used a muzzle velocity of 3000. Hit a whitetail twice last fall, 250 plus yards and never found either bullet. Just little fragments spread all over. Same result at 70 yards on a muley the same year. They work, barely, but stay away from the bones! Big mess!
The Speer 375 cal 235's work well in my 38-55 but they aren't going very fast either, they are the only ones that did work. I have a bunch of the discontinued 275gr 338 cal but have yet to really try them.

I had a dickens of a time with Barnes X bullets. Could only get 1 1/2" groups at best, usually 3".
Used the 165gr flat base X in my 308 Win to get a Muley one year, at 80 yards I smoked him broadside and it was like I never hit him, panick mode set in and I let him have three more. Still he stood there. It was at least five minutes before he fell over.I was dumbfounded. All the exit holes were the same size as the entrance and they were three in the vitals too, one thorugh the liver.

Nosler Ballistic tips are like mortors! Great for pest control or punching paper but I won't hunt with them again. the 150's in my 06 were so hard on my Antelope there was nothing left of animal or bullets, and that was at over 422 paces. I bet they work great on stray cats. Hmmmmmmm......
 
Same as guntech, plus 165 Grand slam went off like a bomb in a smallish deer wasted a lot of meat. Bloody accurate bullet though.
 
death-junky said:
i like my fail safes thank you lol.
I droped a deer a 75 yards with a 308 180gr small hole in behind the sholder just nicked a rib xpanded to have an exit wound the size of my fist.
talk to ya all later
Riley
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Yeah OK... the bullet probably failed and tumbled creating th massive exit wound...thats why Winchester has dropped the line completely... and is now using XP bullets.;)
 
Barnes X
The first issue they made for the 30-30 were terrible. Not only did they not group well, exit and entrance holes wetre the same size, and the guts were full of petals. This is not a one deer story either. The results were the same for three deer I shot that year. Deer that should have dropped from good hits, continued to run, requiring second and third shots. It was a bad scene. Back to Hornady Interlocks fer me.
 
I mostly use premium bullets for hunting but I shot a coyote yrs ago with my fooling around load( accuracy load ) in a custom 300WBY. A 180 hornady at 3300 fps, this was an honest 3/4" or less load. Hit him at less than 100 yrds. and blew the off side off! Don't use this bullet for edable game over 06 speeds.
 
This is a REALLY good thread, guys. Well done to todbartell for suggesting it.

My only exeperience with the Barnes X bullets on game was last year using a 130 gr XBT in my .280 Rem. It was an extremely accurate load at the range, and the one deer I shot with it (about 100 yards, through slash) dropped in its tracks and did not even twitch. No meat damage to speak of, either. BUT I had quite a copper fouling problem with them........and especially in my one .308 Win.

I think my all-time favourite is the Nosler Partition, and I note with some surprise that guntech (who let's face it, is an expert, makes his living at this stuff!) talked about this grand old bullet failing to do its job...........

Doug
 
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The only problems i hav ever had was 130 Sierra and 130 Hornady's shot out of my son's 270 at distances of less than 200 yards in three cases we had case spearation, 2 sierra's on hornady. The sierra's were both on does and didn;t hit bone, the Hornady was on a large buck quartering away through liver, lungs and heart found the case in the far hide. The hornady story isn;t a failure, the deer only went 3 yards, but both of the sierra's the deer were lung hit and went along way. Sierra is only good for paper.
 
Doug said:
This is a REALLY good thread, guys. Well done to todbartell for suggesting it.

My only exeperience with the Barnes X bullets on game was last year using a 130 gr XBT in my .280 Rem. It was an extremely accurate load at the range, and the one deer I shot with it (about 100 yards, through slash) dropped in its tracks and did not even twitch. No meat damage to speak of, either. BUT I had quite a copper fouling problem with them........and especially in my one .308 Win.

I think my all-time favourite is the Nosler Partition, and I note with some surprise that guntech (who let's face it, is an expert, makes his living at this stuff!) talked about this grand old bullet failing to do its job...........

Doug
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I agree totally with guntech on the hornady and the partition... especially on medium game... the hornady blows up and the partition fails to expand:(

I gave up slamming them on the site ... too many loyal (blind) followers of the old technology fossil bullets to get anyone to listen.;)
 
Man, the more I read about this thread, the less I know what I should use. The worst stuff I used was remnigton express 130gr in my 270, ok that was at a time where I didn't think ammo was that important but on a medium doe, didn't even exit on a lung shot....

I'm really looking at using triple shock X for next year both in 130gr .270 and 85gr 243.
What do you think?

pilot
 
I am surprised by guntech's comments also. I use 180 gr Nosler Partitions in my 30-06 as my moose load. I also use this as my deer load....just because they are already loaded I guess. I love this load for both animals. However, like Doug, I will bow to guntech's assessment.
 
I have not been impressed with the performance of Speer 145 BT's out of my 7x57, bullet blow ups in 2 mulies I shot with it. Early batch of Noslet BT 150's out of a .270 Win also gave blow ups. Factory Federal 150's in a .308 also appeared too soft. In all cases except one with the preceeding bullets the deer were killed with one shot, but the meat damage was unacceptable.

Hornady 139 and 154 plain base have always given excellent performance on deer size game for me, and the 140 BT's in the .270.

Used Federal factory Nosler 140's in my 7x57 this year and was very impressed with results.

44Bore
 
I guess the worst failure I've had was a factory 150 grain Remington Core Lokt out of my 7mm mag. This was before I started reloading. I made a poor shot, but hit the deer in the spine, at 175 yards. The lead came loose from the jacket, and didn't even exit. Although, I walked to the deer immediately, and it was dead by the time I got there, shrapnel went down into the lungs.

Another bad one, but understandably so, was a 30 yard shot using a 140 grain Nosler Balistic tip, from the same 7mm mag, this load pushes just shy of 3000 fps at the muzzle. On a deer again, I took the shoulder shot and on impact the bullet exploded and made a huge entrance wound. It penetrated into the lungs but did not even touch the far side rib cage. The deer dropped, well more like blew over sideways;) from the impact and managed to get it's front end under it and started to push itself with it's back legs. A quick neck shot finished the deal. At that range the volocity was far to much for that bullet, but I still use it for deer. It's not often I get a 30 yard shot with a rifle on deer, but at distances at even of 100 yards it preforms great. This year I took my buck at 404 yards. The bullet was not a complete pass through, but lodged against the hide on the farside. Where it passed through the heart you could see the entrance hole, the opposite side was completely exploded.

Next year though, the 7mm mag, a friend I've been deer hunting with since I was 18 gets to rest. I'll be using a 25/06 AI, and as long as I can get the 100 grain Barnes Tripple Shocks to shoot the way I want, then I think I'll have a deadly combination with that rifle too.:D
 
My brother shot his first deer, a little blacktail on Texada, with a .308 Win and 180gr Partitions from about 20 yards. Bullet performance was good. Maybe Dennis had a "bad" batch.
 
Bullets Performance Confusion

IMO confusion as to performance of bullets arises from the fact that we are
compering same bullets shot from different calibers = at different velocities.

Traditional hunting bullets -light cooper jacket, lead core were developed to be shot at modern velocities from standard calibers ,so loaded in todays Magnums they fail...they are powderized, shed jackets, to much energy when shot at short distance...3000-3500 ft/sec...they still ok to hit targets from same rifles at 400-500 yards as velocity decreases to 2000 ft/sec...

Due to tendency to shoot faster magnums ,bullets had to be modified to withstand demands of high velocity magnums...thus development of new
construction H-mantel ,A- frame or Partition and expanding solid cooper.

Premium bullets at high velocity and short distance will penetrate haevy bones retaining lots of initial weight but shot on chest my pierce right through with minimal expanding.

In standart calibers good oldie will perform like did for years ....Rem Coreloc;Hornady:Speer:Sierra...If we move to high velocity magnum we need stronger bullets at close distance...

I like Barnes TSX due to fact that they penetrate 28% deeper than any other premium bullets at short distance as they shed petals and act as solid projectale.Then as velocity decreases with distance they open to large diameter retaining 100% of initial weight...

I shot them in 7 STW 140 gr. at 3400 ft/sec with excellent results on deer,black bear and moose and in 300 WBY 180gr at 3180 ft/sec.

New offering from Barnes will have plastic tip to expand at high velocities and tungsten bonded core to push hard and thicker petals to resist shedding..
This might be preventing from piercing through at close distance..

Andrew
 
ivo said:
I thought the Ballistic Tip was a target bullet not meant for hunting. In any event a guy I hunt with used them this year and couldn't figure out why he lost 2 cow elk after making a "perfect shot". After I asked him what bullets he was using (out of a 7mm), I said "no ####?"

With all of the other great flying hunting bullets out there I don't know why people use anything but a bonded bullet for hunting.
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Because Remington makes a 180 grain Pointed Soft Point Core-Loct in 308 calibre.
 
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