Target bullets for deer

[RL338]

3 of the last 4 deer I took were with TTSXs. The 4th was with Hornady’s A-tip. Granted it was a 500gr target bullet , it did what I expected , no penciling through , no excessive tracking , just a really dead deer.

 

[Guy Miner]

Interesting observation. I favour the E-Tip and TSX. I never had great success with the GMX. Accuracy was there, but terminal performance wasn't impressive.

Ya, the Hornady is a hard bullet... Barnes is a soft all-copper bullet. Not sure where the Nosler E-Tip lies in there. Somewhere in between I'd guess?

Guy

 

[TackDriver284]

I also know from hundred's of animals killed the 107 SMK out of a 6XC, and it does a great job of killing. My friend is not a fan of Berger's on game or other SMK's on game, but loves the 107.

A friend that hunted in our group recently swears by the 190 SMK in his 300 Win Mag, he hunted bull elk up in Colorado every season with them and uses them on deer as well. My guess is some SMK works better than others.

 

[Joec7651]

There's the rub, you generally don't get all the relevant information when a "failure" happens. I've seen it many times on forums if you follow the thread long enough, sometimes you'll find out the bullet was over stressed or, in the case of hard mono's, too low velocity for relaible expansion...And like you said the "I hit it perfect and never recovered it" I always wonder; if they never recovered it, how do they know it was a perfect hit? We've all had those shots we felt good about, but turned out to be poorly placed. But sometimes there are absolute failures. I tend to use a little more bullet than is needed, like an AccuBond or partiton for deer and black bear, just because sometimes things don't go as planed, and and $.75 is a cheap insurance policy.

My agreement with you on this is complete. You’re correct. It’s tough for me as A sportsman to write every aspect of a perplexing situation without details getting lost in translation. I try to use more bullet than I need as well. I have never sent a target bullet down range to an animal. I would, just never needed to. I use bonded, ET, PT, or 175gr ELD-X’s for deer, black bear, and soon elk. One time specifically comes to mind.
I made one of those perfect shots on a nice buck. 80 yards, great rest, and had him in the freezer before even pulling the trigger. I shot, it ran at the shot, I watched and never ever chambered the next round because I KNEW it would be laying just over the rise. That very confident feeling didn’t last long. No hair, no blood, nothing………but most of all no butchered buck anywhere. Being the stubborn type that I am, I went back and forth recreating the shot for 3 hours because there’s no way I missed. So as I was sitting exactly where I was when I fired I finally figured it out.
There was a tiny twig that looked like the end had been turned to cotton About 4 feet in front of my rifle. The 4x scope I was using made the tiniest little twig invisible when it was that close. The bullet struck the twig, vaporized the twig, and veered the bullet off to who knows where after it deformed. That was a 130gr Partition from a 270 Win. If I hadn’t been so stubborn I could have just as easily let my own vanity cause me to blame a Partition for failing.

 

[noslerpartition]

Which lead-free bullets do you favor for your hunting?

Thanks, Guy

I use several.
In 30-06 it is called LOS hunter tactical. A European producer. Cheap, precise and the front part fragments into some bigger pieces. Works more like a lead bullet.
In 6,5 Creedmoor the Lehigh controlled chaos. Works similar, but with smaller fragments. I think I will quit them once they are used up and try the Fox Hunter classic. Again a European producer, this one a deformer.
US products are hard to get here, so I try to move to European products.
For a friend, I load the 130 gr TTSX in 308 and he is happy.
Our distances are rather short, all within 300y, so BC doesn't matter much.

 

[xphunter]

My agreement with you on this is complete. You’re correct. It’s tough for me as A sportsman to write every aspect of a perplexing situation without details getting lost in translation. I try to use more bullet than I need as well. I have never sent a target bullet down range to an animal. I would, just never needed to. I use bonded, ET, PT, or 175gr ELD-X’s for deer, black bear, and soon elk. One time specifically comes to mind.
I made one of those perfect shots on a nice buck. 80 yards, great rest, and had him in the freezer before even pulling the trigger. I shot, it ran at the shot, I watched and never ever chambered the next round because I KNEW it would be laying just over the rise. That very confident feeling didn’t last long. No hair, no blood, nothing………but most of all no butchered buck anywhere. Being the stubborn type that I am, I went back and forth recreating the shot for 3 hours because there’s no way I missed. So as I was sitting exactly where I was when I fired I finally figured it out.
There was a tiny twig that looked like the end had been turned to cotton About 4 feet in front of my rifle. The 4x scope I was using made the tiniest little twig invisible when it was that close. The bullet struck the twig, vaporized the twig, and veered the bullet off to who knows where after it deformed. That was a 130gr Partition from a 270 Win. If I hadn’t been so stubborn I could have just as easily let my own vanity cause me to blame a Partition for failing.

Your story reminds me of one I heard about recently.
I know the OP personally. A number of bizarre situations all happening at once. I was just going to copy the text part, but decided to give the link. FWIW-The 270 Win on this forum is made fun of and maligned, simply because a long time member had such a crush on it. Kind of like some people's view of the 6.5 Creedmoor today. That type of conversation is posted with rich sarcasm.

My Best Worst Shot on Game.

Yesterday was the Best Worst Shot I’ve ever made. A buddy has been inviting me to shoot an Axis for a month or so now but I’ve been too busy.

forums.gunsandammo.com

 

[TackDriver284]

There was a tiny twig that looked like the end had been turned to cotton About 4 feet in front of my rifle. The 4x scope I was using made the tiniest little twig invisible when it was that close. The bullet struck the twig, vaporized the twig, and veered the bullet off to who knows where after it deformed. That was a 130gr Partition from a 270 Win. If I hadn’t been so stubborn I could have just as easily let my own vanity cause me to blame a Partition for failing.

Back in January I hunted a red stag with the 300 Win Mag and 180 Accubonds, at first light I saw a group of red stags at around 450+ yards at the end of a sendero, after calibrating the scope to the distance, I settled the rifle on the hood of the truck and adjusted focus, then I was about to squeeze the trigger then noticed some twigs above my line of sight at around 300 + yards, I had a feeling the bullet may pass high enough to hit those twigs, so I backed off from taking the shot only to find another stag an hour later.
Those little twigs can ruin a hunt for sure.

 

[wvbuckbuster]

I've had branches and twigs get in the way more than once. 150gr PT in 30-06, 200gr Rem CL in 35 Rem and .530 230gr round ball out of a .54 flintlock come to mind. No hits on the deer from the misaligned bullets. Dan.

 

[Joec7651]

I think I took this thread off in a different direction than it was originally intended. The long and short of what I was saying is this.
I think heavy for caliber target bullets work splendidly on all But the very toughest or dangerous game. I feel that target and hunting bullets alike perform much more consistently than I can shoot. I haven’t yet, but wouldn’t blink an eye to using 180gr Berger’s in my 7mm Rem Mag for hunting. Different strokes for different folks.

 

[remingtonman_25_06]

I'll take a 338/300g SMK for deer and elk anyday, same with a 7mm 162amax/180g eldm for that matter. They work great at longer ranges when velocity has slowed down a bit.

There's nothing wrong with using heavy for caliber target bullets on game as long as a guy knows what he's doing with them...

I've had quite a few bang flop kills with the 7mm 162amax/180g eldm and 338 edge/300g smks from 200-1100 yards.

If I'm ever in the brush/timber for elk/bear, I always have a few 160g Partitions loaded up now because they're obviously the better choice and I know that. However those same 160g partitions aren't going to do what I need over 600 yards either...

At the end of the day, use what works for you, what you like, and what you're confident with.

 

[KinleyWater]

...
There was a tiny twig that looked like the end had been turned to cotton About 4 feet in front of my rifle. The 4x scope I was using made the tiniest little twig invisible when it was that close. The bullet struck the twig, vaporized the twig, and veered the bullet off to who knows where after it deformed. That was a 130gr Partition from a 270 Win. If I hadn’t been so stubborn I could have just as easily let my own vanity cause me to blame a Partition for failing.

Had something very similar happen to me with a 105 yard broadside on a deer. Crosshairs behind shoulder, pulled trigger, and - the buck did a U-turn and walked back the way it came. Never gave me any other indication it knew it was being shot at; never changed the pace it was walking at. Also happened on my bear hunt. One of the other hunters absolutely annihilated a branch with his 338 Lapua, as in the moment he neglected the difference between bore axis and scope.

I suspect this happens much more frequently than we're willing to admit to ourselves or others.