Favorite bullet to hate

[mowin]

1 minute ago, chrisw said:

Agreed. I guess I really don't HATE any particular bullet for whitetails except for powerbelts. My father uses them and hardly ever gets exits, even at close range. They aren't great for accuracy either. That being said, I've never lost a deer with a rifle, pretty much all rifle rounds work just fine on deer, they're easy to kill for the most part. I will shoot whatever shoots best in my rifles, not too worried about composition, people way overthink bullets for deer.

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I hate them because a clean barrel vs a fouled in my experience has the POI 8" off. The 3rd shot could hit the deer next to the one I'm shooting at.   Easy to load a 2nd or 3rd shot, but no consistency at all.

[chrisw]

I hate them because a clean barrel vs a fouled in my experience has the POI 8" off. The 3rd shot could hit the deer next to the one I'm shooting at.   Easy to load a 2nd or 3rd shot, but no consistency at all.

Yea, but I've had a change in POI with most every bullet I've tried clean vs fouled. I never hunt with an unfouled barrel. The powerbelts did load really hard though, I remember my father pushing his ramrod against a tree in order to seat the bullet. After 3 rds good luck getting that bullet down.

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[Nytracker]

1 hour ago, mlammerhirt said:

Nytracker.....pencil through?
 

Same size hole in and out with very little tissue damage. Might as well push a pencil  through. Or shoot a slugger.

1 hour ago, sbuff said:

The faster you push them the more they fragment, the slower you push them more mushroom. 

Didn't find that to be true in our case  but once we pushed them we had full penetration. Don't recall any bullet recovery after we got the powder charges up . I do remember one guy had one that looked like we could load it again... notbsure if he did try . Back then we used loose powder and 117 grains of powder was alot .  My pro hunter I shoot  3 / 50 grain pellets with tc super glides. I don't recall what grain bullets they are at the moment .

[grampy]

Before I started handloading my own recipes, Remington ammo shot the worst of any other brand of ammo I tried. 

I only hunt deer with a 270 and a 7mm-08. With handloaded Nosler 140 grain for both. Love the performance and accuracy of those bullets. 

[airedale]

As long as you match your bullets to the game you are hunting and put it where it is supposed to go today's modern bullets do their job well. As for accuracy you have to try them out as one rifle will shoot groups in the same hole and out of a different rifle groups the same ammo may open up to the point they would be unacceptable.

On a side note I received an ammo survey from the DEC, I am here to tell you they are looking to follow California's suit in banning traditional lead ammunition which has totally devastated sport hunting and shooting in that state. Do not take my word for it, if you think ammo is hard to come by now take a look at the California hunting and shooting forums to see what has happened there.

They will be going to their old tactics of posssible lead poisoning from traditional ammo which is total bunk if your meat is taken care of properly. Any lead found in humans is most certainly caused by old paint or lead in plumbing, not from eating a deer.

This is hocus pocus back door gun control. 

Al

Edited December 12, 2021 by airedale

[moog5050]

I have 10 boxes of the corelokt for my 30-30.  Really accurate out of my Henry 30-30 and they put the few deer i shot with them well.   But I moved to the lever evolution based on the hype of extended range.  
 

the accutip slugs always annoyed me.  Shot well from my 220 but never left a great blood trail.  Still killed plenty of deer with them though.  

[Buckmaster7600]

I love core-lokts, but I’m a heavy for caliber guy with cup and core bullets. I have had awesome luck with them in everything I’ve shot them out of 35whelen 250gn, 30-06 180gn, 35rem 200grain, 308 180gn, and 260 rem 140grain. Always had blood and I don’t remember ever recovering a bullet even from some pretty good angles.

I have since moved to an all copper program but wouldn’t hesitate to use core-lokts if I had to.

Now bullets I hate, federal fusions! I had terrible luck with them in 270 and 30-06. Neither exited and got little blood although both deer were recovered. I admittedly didn’t give them much of a chance after these two deer they went in the get on paper pile.

Hornady SST’s doesn’t matter if they’re in a shotgun, muzzleloader or rifle they’ve never expanded well for me and never got much blood. We’re always accurate as hell.

Powerbelts, absolute garbage, they either didn’t expand at all or exploded “depending on weights/cal.” Were an absolute bear to get stuffed down the barrel. They were the best around for a while, now their only use is as sinkers!


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[PraiseDiana]

I started out with Black Hills boat tail hollow points because they grouped great out of my Savage 110 .308 and switched to 150gr Core Lokts this year because I wanted better retention. They had worse grouping (about 1" at 50yds) but performed great on my buck this year with a good exit. The BTHP nuked the heart & lungs but no blood trail to speak of.

[DDT]

Barnes copper go straight through with no expansion on deer.  Had some left over 300 win mag handloads from a Maine moose hunt.  Son shot a nice buck 4 holes through chest (in out was really 8 holes) before finishing him over half a mile away. Good thing there was some snow. Very sparse blood trail as the holes sealed up. And hes a tenacious tracker. Worked on moose but didn't stop firing until magazine was empty and needed a finisher.  Passed through with bigger holes on outs. Must have expanded.  Barnes slugs always had text book nose petals curled back.

Best bullets for me are any Sierra or Hornady. Have shot many SST 7mm in a 7GNR, (an improved 7x30 waters). All deer DRT. Fusions group under an inch in a custom Remington 7mag. But shot 4" out of a 7mm08 Savage. Change to SST went to 1".

Every barrel is different.  Being a handloader let's you find the combo that works. I love a gun that spits many bullets accurately.  Then I can pick one that works.  Always test as many as you can. 

[wolc123]

9 hours ago, Buckmaster7600 said:

I have used those Hornady Sst’s in my slug gun for quite a while and have noted the same thing.  I like where they and that they don’t wreck much meat.  I don’t like that they don’t leave a good blood trail. 
 

The final straw on them for me was when I found a chunk of lead in some stew meat from the 60 pound DRT button buck that i shot from 40 yards.

When and if the ammo situation normalizes, I am going with Remington or other 12 gauge copper sabots and cutting back my maximum range as needed.  
 

I am stuck in a shotgun only zone so rifle is not an option.

Edited December 16, 2021 by wolc123

[phade]

Powerbelts for sure. It's one heck of a marketing sell for how popular they are vs performance.

Corelokts haven't been the best in my experience either - although Remington's transition in ownership may change that.

The base line ammo that has always done well for me has been Federal Blue Box. My hunting partner likes Hornady alot more than I do. I think if I were to try to pick the ONE regardless of prices, it's be the Barnes line. They are expensive but you can usually count of them to be high end performing. 

I use them out of my .243 but when I bought another .243 this year, I lucked into some Federal Blue Box 100 gr SP. Bought 10 boxes to plink. When sighting in they grouped absolutely fantastic. Didn't run the Barnes through as a result. Looks like the Weatherby will be slinging base line ammo. I'm OK with that. Worked fine this year in MO.