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Hand Loaders - Which Bullets for Deer

3K views 25 replies 9 participants last post by  sourdough44 
#1 ·
Fellas (and ladies),
With the move from Arizona to Michigan I realized I might need to look at another bullet for my deer hunting hand loads. Just curious which bullets you have found expand well in shots in the 200 yards and under range.
Out here I ran a 6.5 PRC that absolutely loves the 156 Bergers but those are best designed for longer shots and I’m thinking they might not be well suited for closer, hardwoods hunts. I also have my trusty old .243 that I just picked up some 95 grain SSTs for but I’m open to what you all find effective. Thanks!

dan
 
#3 ·
Fellas (and ladies),
With the move from Arizona to Michigan I realized I might need to look at another bullet for my deer hunting hand loads. Just curious which bullets you have found expand well in shots in the 200 yards and under range.
Out here I ran a 6.5 PRC that absolutely loves the 156 Bergers but those are best designed for longer shots and I’m thinking they might not be well suited for closer, hardwoods hunts. I also have my trusty old .243 that I just picked up some 95 grain SSTs for but I’m open to what you all find effective. Thanks!

dan
I shoot a 6.5x55 Mauser at low velocities (2400-2600 FPS) and typically use plain old 140 Hornady Interlocks or Remington Cor Lokts in my hand loads. None of them have gone more than ten yards, and none of my shots were over 50 yards.
 
#4 ·
I thought about dropping to a lower node but in doing some reading on other threads I see guys are shooting bigger bullets as fast or faster so maybe the PRC has a place in the north woods after all. I was afraid expansion would be questionable at shorter ranges but maybe not.
 
#5 ·
I've killed all but one of my deer the last 7 years or so with a 223 shooting bonded 62 gr bullets.. Either one of the rounds you listed will certainly do the job if you do yours.
 
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#6 ·
When I did my own handloads, my dad and I were fans of soft point round nose bullets. Loaded some long range loads with spire point boat tails for muleys and pronghorn and they did a great job with shots out to 400+ yards. Shot a huge bodied deer with a nice rack with one of those at about 75 yards and let me tell you the bullet absolutely sucked at that close of range, moving to fast and blew right through exit hole only marginally bigger than the intery hole, went back to s.p.r.n. bullets.
 
#8 · (Edited)
Yeah, on one hand I realize that there will always be someone who claims a given bullet didn’t perform well on game regardless of its proven track record, but on the other hand that doesn’t mean any given bullet is always necessarily the best choice for the environment you’re hunting, so I know what you’re saying and I agree. The coues deer i shot in December, all 100 pounds of him, would have been a great chance to test how that 156 load performs at 100 yards but he turned slightly as the trigger broke so my quartering away shot ended up exiting his sternum rather than the back shoulder and left a softball sized exit. Can’t expect anything else from a bullet leaving the barrel at 2900+ and striking bone like that.
The 156s are just too good not to use but the 243 is as effective as anything at closer range so I’ll just have both ready to go and use what’s best for where I’m at. Besides, my old man carried his 30-06 most of his life and took countless deer inside 100 yards with federal and Remington factory ammo over in Wisconsin big woods.
Thanks for the comments fellas. Good discussion.
 
#9 ·
I'd absolutely ditch the Bergers and for that matter the sst out of that 243. When people say 'under 200 yards' for rifle zone Michigan they really mean 'usually under 50' and the bullet will only be traveling 1-150 fps under muzzle velocity when it hits the deer. I'd only consider a controlled expansion bullet designed to retain at least 60 percent of weight and based on my luck last year with a 243 I'd use a bonded or partition bullet for that cartridge from close range.
 
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#11 ·
Well brother might be time to dust off that shotgun then.

It's not that a long shot isn't possible. I just got down in the prone today and shot these 12 shots from 416 yards across a prescribed burn on national forest. But deer aren't known to hang out in open fields during rifle season. Maybe if you got permission to some farmer's private crop field.

766360
 
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#13 ·
That's good. Northern Michigan public land hunting is a game of forested runs and forested bottlenecks. You aren't even technically supposed to cut shooting lanes on public land. In the southern half of the lp you will need a slug gun, ml, or straight wall cartridge by law.
 
#14 ·
For the last 10 years I have used 95sst out of my 243 in the woods. 97% of the shots are under 50 yards and not one deer made it past 10 feet. Every one was like jello on the inside.
Last season I took the 308 out to see how the new Hornady ammo would do. Was very pleased with it. Was one of my further shots at 127 yards.
But hunting where I do only have one shot that long.

Sent from my SM-N986U using Michigan Sportsman mobile app
 
#15 ·
I shot one through the ribs with a 100 grain interlock from 50 yards and it disinigrated in the lungs without even hitting the offside rib cage. Interlock is a stouter bullet than the sst. Pulled a few brass shards out when gutting it. Deer only went 50-60 yards but left no blood trail and changed direction several times. As a result I had to take a half day off work and took over an hour to find the deer part of that finding drops of blood on my hands and knees. Yes it was a dead deer but there's no damn reason a double lung and heart shot whitetail shouldn't leave a blood trail. Too many better options.

Conversely I shot a Pronghorn buck with the same load last year from 200 yards also through the heart. Bullets passed through for an exit and buck went less than 10 yards. That's what a 243 is designed for. That and varmint hunting from similar or longer ranges.
 
#17 ·
I shot one through the ribs with a 100 grain interlock from 50 yards and it disinigrated in the lungs without even hitting the offside rib cage. Interlock is a stouter bullet than the sst. Pulled a few brass shards out when gutting it. Deer only went 50-60 yards but left no blood trail and changed direction several times. As a result I had to take a half day off work and took over an hour to find the deer part of that finding drops of blood on my hands and knees. Yes it was a dead deer but there's no damn reason a double lung and heart shot whitetail shouldn't leave a blood trail. Too many better options.

Conversely I shot a Pronghorn buck with the same load last year from 200 yards also through the heart. Bullets passed through for an exit and buck went less than 10 yards. That's what a 243 is designed for. That and varmint hunting from similar or longer ranges.
I'll take my 243 all day long.
I had issues with my 270 in this area, would get no blood and had to grid search almost every deer I hit with the 270.

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#18 ·
That’s interesting. I mean, this debate has gone on and will go on forever since there’s no one perfect bullet, caliber, rifle, etc. The point of the original question was to get a feel for what folks are using in the situations I’ll be finding myself in again. A Nosler partition, hornady SST or interlock - they’ll work when they’re put in the vitals. Since I have SSTs on hand it’ll probably be those and they’ll do the job. Eventually you just have to load them up and shoot.
 
#19 ·
I bought some 180 sst for my .308 but in the end I found a more accurate option for my barrel. I wouldn't hesitate to use it or even a 165 out of a 30 cal. I also got a lot of accuracy in one set up from the 150 sst superformance factory loads. Those chronographed at 3000 fps out of a .308 just like on the box. Pretty amazing velocity. But I wouldn't be using those if my planned shot was from spitting distance. Exploding bullets just ain't my thing.
 
#21 · (Edited)
To be fair tho, those 154’s were moving close to 3000fps, please forgive me I dont remember exactly, that was in 1980. The s.p.b.t.’s and r.n. I used for my 7 were both Hornady bullets, dad always preferred Remington r.n. Corelocks in his 30 calibers.
 
#22 ·
I haven’t tried the SSTs yet but I just remembered about a year ago I had a box of factory American Whitetail that I used to try out a new suppressor. That factory ammo shot just under a minute so if I can get my hands a few boxes of the interlocks I’ll play around with a couple loads and hunt with whichever shoots better.
 
#24 ·
@22 Chuck it’s funny you mention CoreLokt. I picked up a box a while back when I got a new scope and just needed to get rounds on paper and compare some factory groups. Had I not already shot some other ammo through it with good accuracy I would have thought something had to be wrong with either the gun or the scope. Not exaggerating, 8-9 inch shotgun splatter groups at 100 yards from those CoreLokts. I don’t think I’ve seen a gun hate a bullet like my .243 hates those. Funny too because they were one of my old man’s go-to’s in his 30-06.
 
#25 ·
If you are shooting 6.5’s at close range, I continue to believe that lower velocity is the way to go. Bullets obviously have a range of optimum impact velocity for their construction (and sometimes, bullet placement). 6.5’s penetrate like crazy; I have never recovered one, and as noted above, I’ve used garden-variety bullets in my reloads.
 
#26 ·
Once one uses a ‘suitable’ game bullet, shot placement ‘trumps’ relatively minor bullet differences. Of course another factor is accuracy in your rifle.

I went elk hunting a few years ago, decided on the simple 165 grain Sierra Gameking in my 300 WSM. With most mention of elk hunting that bullet would be down the list a ways. They shot great in my A-Bolt. As events would have it, one modest range neck shot and the 5x5 went right down.

Sky Plant Plant community Ecoregion Elk
 
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