What’s your go to bullet/ projectile for Deer

[rob-c]

Since there’s been some talk about bullet performance on deer in the live from the woods thread, figured we could share what has or hasn’t worked for us. 

 
For our rifles (300 savage 165 grn , 7-08 145 grn  , 30-30 170 grn )  I hand loaded Speer  hot cores, a super cheap bullet that has been around for years and just flat out works.
My doe  I shot this yr with the 300 had 1/2 dollar sized hole on the way in and out, she ran 10 yards. Really hoping the wife and boy connect on a deer so I can see how the hot cores perform out of their rifles . 

 Our hunting revolvers, ( 44 for me , 357 for wife and son) I was using 240 grain xtp that  I had great performance on one deer , but made a bad shot last year on another and shot the deer in the shoulder and lost it. So still seeing what works,  I’ve bought some 270 grn Speer deep curls and 280 grain swift A-frames to work up loads. When I hunted with the 357 i shot 180 grn hard cast that worked very well on deer ( aimed for the shoulders ) but have other projectiles in mind to try .

So post up guys and girls with your go to bullet for taking deer .. 

[turkeyfeathers]

Settled on the SST’s.  First round sent at doe at 150 yards   I’m sold 

[Skillet]

Out of my 20ga, I shoot 2 3/4" Brenneke Green lightning slugs.

My Hawken shoots 460gr No Excuses conicals.

Edited November 22, 2019 by Skillet

[mowin]

I use the Same loads as TF in my pro hunter. 

My Ruger M77 .270 likes Remington 150 soft point Cor lok. 

[Buckmaster7600]

A couple years ago I switched to only shooting copper bullets. For the 35whelen 180gn tsx handloads. 35rem 200ish grain customized barnes tsx. Have to drill out a 225gb bullet because Barnes doesn’t produce a bullet that will expand at the 35rems velocity’s. I recovered 2 bullets from my buck this year and be was absolutely perfect 4 petal Barnes expansion the other wasn’t expanded at all and was very deformed but I think that bullet hit a tree before the deer. My 44mag carbines i shoot a Barnes 200gn handload.


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[Will_C]

Use Nosler Accubonds in everything-.30-06, .308, 7mm-08, .250 Savage and .243. Only recovered one bullet from a deer-penetration from the last rib forward to the loose skin on the front of the neck on a doe that dressed 127lbs. All other shots over the last 15 years have exited. I have at least one load that is MOA in all of those rifles, no reason to switch.

[Hunter007]

[Billdogge]

Barnes or Federal Trophy Copper.

[ApexerER]

5 hours ago, turkeyfeathers said:

Settled on the SST’s.  First round sent at doe at 150 yards   I’m sold 

I used those SST's out of my BAR .308 on the deer in my avatar. 5 shots, 5 hits and 5 pencil sized holes in and out. If my last shot hadn't spined him, I am not sure I would have found him. There was virtually no blood. It was obvious the bullets never expanded at all. Shots were about 60 yds. If he wasn't so focused on does and actually ran, he would have been gone and dead somewhere. I was thinking WTF when I was shooting at him, there was no reaction at all, I thought I was missing.....

I went back to Remington Coreloks and Federal Fusion because they have always worked. Although this year I had a misfire on a corelok. 

I am afraid to try those SST's again even though they were the most accurate from what I tried at the range....

You said 150 yd shot....What was the damage like?

[turkeyfeathers]

32 minutes ago, ApexerER said:

 

You said 150 yd shot....What was the damage like?

Like this for the 20 ish yards she went. One lung and top of heart 

[doebuck1234]

Remington copper solids for both dad and i.shoots good out of both of our shotguns

[Red]

Hornady SST 165 grain out of the 308.

Breneke 2 3/4" out of the mossberg 500 12 gauge.

[NYBowhunter]

1 hour ago, turkeyfeathers said:

Like this for the 20 ish yards she went. One lung and top of heart 

Damn, you murderer.  Talk about spillage!!!

[avg. joe]

Barnes TSX, 165 gr. They haven't failed me yet!

[dbHunterNY]

i've used different factory loads over the years in 30-06, 30-30, and 300 win mag. Your basic Federal PowerShok, Winchester Power Point, and Remington Corelok bullets have worked great. i use 150 grain that seems to shed more energy but still has enough pentration that i've never recovered a bullet or not a hole in and out.  I used 150 gr Nosler Ballistic Tips in 30-06 for a bit and they worked fine. For a while now I've used 150 gr Federal Fusion ammo that's a bonded spitzer boat tail design. Seem to work great and drop them more often than not.

Shot Hornady SST 250gr sabots in muzzleloader with mixed results but seems that's the case with a ML regardless of what you use.  Maybe next year i'll try Hornady 178gr ELD-X in 30-06.  By this weekend I'll hopefully see how Hornady 120gr SST low recoil 7-08 ammo works on deer, assuming my mentee can make a good shot.

[Curmudgeon]

Good to see a fair number of replies from people who have switched from lead to copper. Kudos to the conservationists among us.

[dbHunterNY]

7 minutes ago, Curmudgeon said:

Good to see a fair number of replies from people who have switched from lead to copper. Kudos to the conservationists among us.

i still have a pile of lead ammo. once it's gone i'll switch.

[JRod 8G8H]

150 grain 30-06 federal.. Lights out!

[rob-c]

3 hours ago, doebuck1234 said:

Remington copper solids for both dad and i.shoots good out of both of our shotguns

I’ve killed a pile of deer with copper solids and my 870. 

[doebuck1234]

20 minutes ago, rob-c said:

I’ve killed a pile of deer with copper solids and my 870. 

Come to think of it i dont think ive used anything but these in my mossberg 500a.they get the job done!

[grampy]

Before I did my own hand loading, it was Federal Premium 140g Nosler Ballistic Tip for 270. Recommended by a forum member, when I went to rifle from shotgun, a few years ago. Not cheap, but worth every cent! They shoot like lazers at the range, and just absolute devastating performance on deer! Never failed to go bang either, with hundreds of rounds down range from four different hunting rifles.

Last winter I started hand loading my own 140g.  270 Nosler BTs and just improved the accuracy a bit. And terminal performance is just as devastating on the two mature bucks we shot this week!

Also, using CCI primers in the hand loads. Every one so far, has gone bang when the firing pin hit.

[Nytracker]

480 is getting  291cast hollow point. 308 is federal  fusions 160 grn.  Super black hawk 44 hunter is 300 grn  hornaday xtp. 41mag is 210grn hornaday xtp  357 max is hornaday  ftx.

[Pygmy]

Since smokeless powder drastically increased muzzle velocities in the late 1800 s,  jacketed bullets have steadily improved...

Now, it is tough to find a BAD bullet for deer hunting, unless you intentionally use a bullet designed for something else, like a varmint bullet or a FMJ... 

Monolithics, bonded bullets  and other  specialty bullets are really not necessary for most deer hunting applications...One notable exception might be the guys like 7600, who track or stalk deer in the boonies and often are shooting at the south end of a rapidly departing northbound buck...

The last few years I have been using barnes X type bullets.. I use them because they are very accurate in my rifles, they expand well as long as I push them on the fast side, and they ALWAYS leave an exit wound, in case I need to do a little tracking in the  thick stuff.... I use the 120 TSX loaded to about 3000 fps in my 7mm08, the 140 TSX loaded to about  3000 fps in my .280  Rem, and the 250  TSX loaded to about 2600  in my 9.3 x 62....

[Culvercreek hunt club]

Ought 6. 165 grain Sierra Game king

[Pygmy]

2 hours ago, grampy said:

Before I did my own hand loading, it was Federal Premium 140g Nosler Ballistic Tip for 270. Recommended by a forum member, when I went to rifle from shotgun, a few years ago. Not cheap, but worth every cent! They shoot like lazers at the range, and just absolute devastating performance on deer! Never failed to go bang either, with hundreds of rounds down range from four different hunting rifles.

Last winter I started hand loading my own 140g.  270 Nosler BTs and just improved the accuracy a bit. And terminal performance is just as devastating on the two mature bucks we shot this week!

Also, using CCI primers in the hand loads. Every one so far, has gone bang when the firing pin hit.

The Nosler BT is an excellent game bullet, Dave...They got a bad rap because some of the early productions had jackets on the light side, and were too explosive...Nosler promptly  fixed it by beefing up the jacket....I used NBTs in my .280 and 7mm08 to take  8 or 9 caribou, a couple of mulies and pronghorns and perhaps 2 dozen whitetails, and they worked great... They were my go to bullet until I started using the barnes X bullets....