Bullet vote please

[cjmac]

Yes.

Seems like a good bullet . Tempted to try the pro hunter . Iv heard its kinda like the old core lokt

 

[JMRhino]

Those can't be bad. I am interested in the 30 cal 165gn GameKing HPBT designed to resemble their "MatchKing" of which is my gold standard for 308 handloads. If I can't get a rifle to shoot well, I run some Federal GMM w/ Sierra MatchKings to get a good baseline. It generally shoots well in every 308 that I have but I don't hunt with them...

30 CAL 165 GR HPBT GAMEKING (SGK)

Sierra GameKing (SGK) bullets are purpose-built for hunters pursuing medium and heavy game, featuring a boat-tail design and tapered jacket engineered for reliable expansion and deep penetration on impact.

sierrabullets.com

 

[cjmac]

Those can't be bad. I am interested in the 30 cal 165gn GameKing HPBT designed to resemble their "MatchKing" of which is my gold standard for 308 handloads. If I can't get a rifle to shoot well, I run some Federal GMM w/ Sierra MatchKings to get a good baseline. It generally shoots well in every 308 that I have but I don't hunt with them...

30 CAL 165 GR HPBT GAMEKING (SGK)

Sierra GameKing (SGK) bullets are purpose-built for hunters pursuing medium and heavy game, featuring a boat-tail design and tapered jacket engineered for reliable expansion and deep penetration on impact.

sierrabullets.com

I have never tried them or known anyone to try them . Id think it work good tho .. if i go with ballistic tip or a gameking ill probably aim for the yellow dots . I used to aim for white dot and thay never made it off the plot. Thats why I was thinking about the nosler Partition. It would push Through the bone

 

[JD338]

My wife shot a couple of crop damage does with a 140 gr Sierra TGK from her Weatherby Carbonmark in 6.5 Wby RPM. Her bullet is doing north of 3000 fps and her impacts were 3” below the white dot. Both were DRT.

JD338

 

[bdbrown66]

Those can't be bad. I am interested in the 30 cal 165gn GameKing HPBT designed to resemble their "MatchKing" of which is my gold standard for 308 handloads. If I can't get a rifle to shoot well, I run some Federal GMM w/ Sierra MatchKings to get a good baseline. It generally shoots well in every 308 that I have but I don't hunt with them...

30 CAL 165 GR HPBT GAMEKING (SGK)

Sierra GameKing (SGK) bullets are purpose-built for hunters pursuing medium and heavy game, featuring a boat-tail design and tapered jacket engineered for reliable expansion and deep penetration on impact.

sierrabullets.com

I'm sure those will do the job. I took this buck with the little 85gr GKHP from my .243.

 

[Aussie Wanderer]

That Makes sense. How you feel about the Hornady sst ? Vs the nosler ?
Iv shot one with a Sierra gameking btsp at 90 yards in the neck . Bullet didnt exit. Guess it just dumped all its energy in first few inches . Maby thats what I need for small deer here ? Fast expansion?

I recently took 2 fallow does with one shot using the 165sst out of my 30-06, so no issues there.

I have used the 139sst out of a 7mm08 on big pigs and red deer with no issues.

 

[PJGunner]

After going through all the posts I never saw exactly what the OP was shooting but many of the comments were said it was the .308. Good choice.

Probably 90+ percent of my hunting has been with either the 30-06 or in later years, the .308 Win. I started using the 06 and 150 gr. Sierra Pro Hunters back around late 1954 IIRC. The load worked just fine but left a lot of mangled good eating meat. Later on I switched to the 180 gr. Siiera Pro Hunter which was ay least a bit better.
The switch to the .308 was in 1973, yes I was a hold out for the good old 30-06. ended up with two rifles, a Remington M660 (20" barrel) and a Ruger RSI. (18.5" barrel) The 660 was easy to get shooting well but the Ruger took over two years before I would shoot at least a decent hunting group. (1.5" or less) The only bullet that rifle would shoot was the165 gr. Speer Hot Core. At last count I've taken about 8 or nine Mule Deer at ranges from 30 feet to 250 yards. Velocity from the Ruger is 2550 FPS and 2610 FPS from a Winchester M70 Youth Ranger I won at a raffle. It has a 22" barrel. Velocity from the M70 is exactly the same as the now discontinued Speer Nitrex ammo with 165 gr. bullet. FWIW, I've only recovered one bullet from game using that 165 gr. Speer bullet
Regarding the Nosler AccuBond and Partition, one deer with a 180 gr. Partition. That was a bit of a fiasco but I did get the deer. Shots were all properly placed but apparently didn't open up properly. Very large Mule deer that just did not want to give up. In that same rifle, I ran the 165 gr. AccuBond and took a nice fat juicy cow elk at about 100 yards.
I've shot the 165 gr. Sierra Game King hollow point a few times in the 30-06 and the only animal shot was a coyote at about 200 yards. I made the hit and when I got to the "yote' he was in severak pieces scattered around. I hear people say they like that bullet and maybe I'm being unfair but I won't use them on big game. They are very accurate.

I think that if I were hunting under the conditions you specified and if you are using a .308. I'd give a close look at the 165 gr. Speer Hot Core over W760. According to Winchester's publish data:
Start: 47.0 gr. w760 2551 FPS 46,400 C.U.P.
Maximum: 49.0 gr. W760 2640 FPS 50,000 C.U.P.
Note that either load would take deer nicely at the ranges you posted. It is also the same load that shoots as good as I can get from the Ruger RSI but sub- MOA from the M70. The Remington 660 averages about .75" but Ive never clocked that load in that rifle.

Just a small aside, my primary elk rifle is a .35 Whelen running the 225 gr. Barnes TSX. at 2710 FPS. I've taken six elk with that load, four body hits and two right at the base of the skull. All six wereone shot kills bit the damage to the neck was massve. It looked lke someone tied a stick of dynamite to the neck an et it. On neck shot was deliberate and the other a freak of geat proportions. The scope lost the crosshairs at the shot. Leupold replaced the entire scope.
PJ

 

[cjmac]

After going through all the posts I never saw exactly what the OP was shooting but many of the comments were said it was the .308. Good choice.

Probably 90+ percent of my hunting has been with either the 30-06 or in later years, the .308 Win. I started using the 06 and 150 gr. Sierra Pro Hunters back around late 1954 IIRC. The load worked just fine but left a lot of mangled good eating meat. Later on I switched to the 180 gr. Siiera Pro Hunter which was ay least a bit better.
The switch to the .308 was in 1973, yes I was a hold out for the good old 30-06. ended up with two rifles, a Remington M660 (20" barrel) and a Ruger RSI. (18.5" barrel) The 660 was easy to get shooting well but the Ruger took over two years before I would shoot at least a decent hunting group. (1.5" or less) The only bullet that rifle would shoot was the165 gr. Speer Hot Core. At last count I've taken about 8 or nine Mule Deer at ranges from 30 feet to 250 yards. Velocity from the Ruger is 2550 FPS and 2610 FPS from a Winchester M70 Youth Ranger I won at a raffle. It has a 22" barrel. Velocity from the M70 is exactly the same as the now discontinued Speer Nitrex ammo with 165 gr. bullet. FWIW, I've only recovered one bullet from game using that 165 gr. Speer bullet
Regarding the Nosler AccuBond and Partition, one deer with a 180 gr. Partition. That was a bit of a fiasco but I did get the deer. Shots were all properly placed but apparently didn't open up properly. Very large Mule deer that just did not want to give up. In that same rifle, I ran the 165 gr. AccuBond and took a nice fat juicy cow elk at about 100 yards.
I've shot the 165 gr. Sierra Game King hollow point a few times in the 30-06 and the only animal shot was a coyote at about 200 yards. I made the hit and when I got to the "yote' he was in severak pieces scattered around. I hear people say they like that bullet and maybe I'm being unfair but I won't use them on big game. They are very accurate.

I think that if I were hunting under the conditions you specified and if you are using a .308. I'd give a close look at the 165 gr. Speer Hot Core over W760. According to Winchester's publish data:
Start: 47.0 gr. w760 2551 FPS 46,400 C.U.P.
Maximum: 49.0 gr. W760 2640 FPS 50,000 C.U.P.
Note that either load would take deer nicely at the ranges you posted. It is also the same load that shoots as good as I can get from the Ruger RSI but sub- MOA from the M70. The Remington 660 averages about .75" but Ive never clocked that load in that rifle.

Just a small aside, my primary elk rifle is a .35 Whelen running the 225 gr. Barnes TSX. at 2710 FPS. I've taken six elk with that load, four body hits and two right at the base of the skull. All six wereone shot kills bit the damage to the neck was massve. It looked lke someone tied a stick of dynamite to the neck an et it. On neck shot was deliberate and the other a freak of geat proportions. The scope lost the crosshairs at the shot. Leupold replaced the entire scope.
PJ

I did consider the speer hot core bullet but never knew or heard anyone talk about them . .. iv often wonder what bullet the federal powershok in the blue box uses. Ot seemed pretty good on a doe a friend shot last year

 

[cjmac]

My wife shot a couple of crop damage does with a 140 gr Sierra TGK from her Weatherby Carbonmark in 6.5 Wby RPM. Her bullet is doing north of 3000 fps and her impacts were 3” below the white dot. Both were DRT.

JD338

I was just looking at the tipped gameking .

 

[PJGunner]

I did consider the speer hot core bullet but never knew or heard anyone talk about them . .. iv often wonder what bullet the federal powershok in the blue box uses. Ot seemed pretty good on a doe a friend shot last year

Interesting. Quite a few years back I was at a gun show and was talking to a fellow about cartidges and what one may rally need for bg mame. The felow as a big fan of the30-30 and even wrote a book about it. The book is WINCHESTER'S 30-30, MODEL 94 and the writer is Sam Fadala. The book is a darn good read. He didn't look all too well and I learned later that he was in bad health.
Anyway, I bought a few things from him which included four boxes of Speer Nitrex .308 ammo with the 165 gr. Speer Grand Slame bullet. Whike that doesn't sound like much, I was very close to destrying that Ruger RSI. I put in a little over twl years trying to find something that would work in that rifle. I'd never tried that Speer ammo but the first group of five shots was about two inches, give or take a fraction. I pulled the bullets from a few rounds and the average weght was IIRC, about 48.7 gr. The powder was a ball type that suspiciously looked like W760. I have a couple of Winchester loading pamphlet and the charges they show are a tad shy. However, I also have an early copy of the One Book/One Load for the .308 and the data there is from Winchester. The only diffrence in my load from the Speer ammo is I used Winchester brass and the plain Speer 165 gr. Hot Core. I figure that if the load worked I really didn't need a premium bullet like the Grand Slam. After all, the velocity is only 2550 FPS from three Ruger RSI .308s.
I'd always wanted an RSI as I like the full stock stutzen style rifle. fter a while I spotted one in the paper and it was cherry an the price was right. The guy selling it said he couldn't get nice groups and just wanted to get rid of it. Guess what? TheSpeer load I cloned shot just as nice in the new rifle as in the old one. RSI number three came from a shooting buddy with the same problem, the gun wouldn't shoot. I offered him a box of my handload but like the gentleman before him, he just did not want to bother.
All three were averaging 1,5" groups with an occasonal 1.5" sneaking in. I took one of the rifles, removed the nose cap and using a cratex bit on the Dremel tool removed a very tiny bit of metal from the nose cap where it contacted the barrel. End result was the rifle now shoots closer to 1.25 to 1.30". I did the same for the other two and accuacy was also improved.

I apologize for being so long winded but that just a brief synopsis of the two year plus struggle to get a rifle I really wanted to shoot reasonably well. Why three? Well, one was mine, my late wife filed a claim n the next one and we used number three as a back up. She even took a few deer with hers.
PJ
Editd to add: I did take a cow elk at 530 yards using a Winchester M70 and the 200 gr. Speer Hot Core.

 

[steve99]

For hunting larger game I always use Nosler Accubonds. I've used them in 270 Win, 270WSM, 280Rem, 7mm/08, 7mm Rem Mag and 308Win. They always performed well and shot accurately. Here's a few pics of recovered 150gn Accubonds from my Rem 700 .308.

 

[Hunter26]

Can't go wrong with an AccuBond or Partition, no matter the caliber. Overkill? Maybe a little for deer, but the bullet is the only part of our whole hunting ensemble that actually touches the animal before we process it. I don't mind going with a premium bullet to up my odds. I've killed plenty with normal every day bullets too, I just prefer the good stuff especially at blem or factory 2nd pricing.

 

[cjmac]

Interesting. Quite a few years back I was at a gun show and was talking to a fellow about cartidges and what one may rally need for bg mame. The felow as a big fan of the30-30 and even wrote a book about it. The book is WINCHESTER'S 30-30, MODEL 94 and the writer is Sam Fadala. The book is a darn good read. He didn't look all too well and I learned later that he was in bad health.
Anyway, I bought a few things from him which included four boxes of Speer Nitrex .308 ammo with the 165 gr. Speer Grand Slame bullet. Whike that doesn't sound like much, I was very close to destrying that Ruger RSI. I put in a little over twl years trying to find something that would work in that rifle. I'd never tried that Speer ammo but the first group of five shots was about two inches, give or take a fraction. I pulled the bullets from a few rounds and the average weght was IIRC, about 48.7 gr. The powder was a ball type that suspiciously looked like W760. I have a couple of Winchester loading pamphlet and the charges they show are a tad shy. However, I also have an early copy of the One Book/One Load for the .308 and the data there is from Winchester. The only diffrence in my load from the Speer ammo is I used Winchester brass and the plain Speer 165 gr. Hot Core. I figure that if the load worked I really didn't need a premium bullet like the Grand Slam. After all, the velocity is only 2550 FPS from three Ruger RSI .308s.
I'd always wanted an RSI as I like the full stock stutzen style rifle. fter a while I spotted one in the paper and it was cherry an the price was right. The guy selling it said he couldn't get nice groups and just wanted to get rid of it. Guess what? TheSpeer load I cloned shot just as nice in the new rifle as in the old one. RSI number three came from a shooting buddy with the same problem, the gun wouldn't shoot. I offered him a box of my handload but like the gentleman before him, he just did not want to bother.
All three were averaging 1,5" groups with an occasonal 1.5" sneaking in. I took one of the rifles, removed the nose cap and using a cratex bit on the Dremel tool removed a very tiny bit of metal from the nose cap where it contacted the barrel. End result was the rifle now shoots closer to 1.25 to 1.30". I did the same for the other two and accuacy was also improved.

I apologize for being so long winded but that just a brief synopsis of the two year plus struggle to get a rifle I really wanted to shoot reasonably well. Why three? Well, one was mine, my late wife filed a claim n the next one and we used number three as a back up. She even took a few deer with hers.
PJ
Editd to add: I did take a cow elk at 530 yards using a Winchester M70 and the 200 gr. Speer Hot Core.

No need to apologize I enjoy reading about people's experiences and what thay learn.. i may look into the hotcore some more !

 

[cjmac]

Can't go wrong with an AccuBond or Partition, no matter the caliber. Overkill? Maybe a little for deer, but the bullet is the only part of our whole hunting ensemble that actually touches the animal before we process it. I don't mind going with a premium bullet to up my odds. I've killed plenty with normal every day bullets too, I just prefer the good stuff especially at blem or factory 2nd pricing.

I dont mind paying for the better bullets . Just didnt know if how thay would preform on our small deer lol or if thay would just pencil through if hit soft tissue

 

[cjmac]

For hunting larger game I always use Nosler Accubonds. I've used them in 270 Win, 270WSM, 280Rem, 7mm/08, 7mm Rem Mag and 308Win. They always performed well and shot accurately. Here's a few pics of recovered 150gn Accubonds from my Rem 700 .308.

Man those look like thay did great.. did you recover those recovered from deer ? The AccuBond seems like a tipped Partition thats bonded .. im really tempted to try these on a high shpulder shot or base of neck shot

 

[wvbuckbuster]

I have never tried them or known anyone to try them . Id think it work good tho .. if i go with ballistic tip or a gameking ill probably aim for the yellow dots . I used to aim for white dot and thay never made it off the plot. Thats why I was thinking about the nosler Partition. It would push Through the bone

You can still aim for the white dot with these bullets.

 

[cjmac]

You can still aim for the white dot with these bullets.

What bullet ? The nosler ballistic tip?
I would have figured it would come apart if hit bone?

 

[Aussie Wanderer]

CJ, all the speculation about bullets doesn’t matter if you can’t afford to shoot regularly and learn your rifle inside and out. A non premium bullet in the hands of someone who understands their rifle will be better than a bloke who never goes to the range and believes the bullet will do the job for them. Find the bullet that works in your rifle, allows you to shoot regularly with it so when the time comes it is nothing more than muscle memory and then a butchering job.

 

[cjmac]

CJ, all the speculation about bullets doesn’t matter if you can’t afford to shoot regularly and learn your rifle inside and out. A non premium bullet in the hands of someone who understands their rifle will be better than a bloke who never goes to the range and believes the bullet will do the job for them. Find the bullet that works in your rifle, allows you to shoot regularly with it so when the time comes it is nothing more than muscle memory and then a butchering job.

I can place bullet anywhere i want out to 1k yards . Learned that very well with a issued m24 sws . Its the preference of the bullet that would probably make a difference if you try drive it through a high shoulder shot VS just say through the flesh and heart or lungs.
One bullet might just pass through if to tough , one might expand on just soft tissue but disintegrate on bone . I need a bullet fir both. Fast expansion and hold together enough to push through bone if needed

 

[JN270]

In my opinion you are getting too caught up with "rapid expansion". Bullets expand on impact and travel through the. The difference you see is how much the expand or hold together.

A lot of people claim "penciling though" but this is very rarely the case. How many people with a naked eye can tell if the exit hole is bullet diameter or 1.5x diameter. Or if the soft tissue expanded and contracted as the bullet went through.

The majority of my game animals in the last 20 years have been taken with mono bullets, Accubonds, or Partitions. I've had as many bang flops with those bullets as I ever did with the cup and core.

With what you are wanting honestly just about any hunting bullet will work. For Nosler the Ballistic Tip or Solid base would be good cup and core options. If you are intentionally taking shoulder shots I personally would use the AccuBond or Partition to reduce meat damage. However any of them will kill.