Ballistic tip or soft point for deer

[swift4me]

My two cents...

 

I like to walk up to a dead animal, or at least an animal that can no longer move. Hence, like Baldrick, I like a bonded bullet that allows you to take out a moving part of the animal.... ie: the front shoulder that nobody likes to try to gain a lot of meat from anyway. The ballistic stuff, (and I love them for coyotes), seems more like the archery approach for massive internal tissue damage. If you shoot a V-Max, my favorite in the Swift for vermin, at a larger beast and hit some hard stuff, you're out of luck. I've seen V-Max spladh on a coyote's shoulder and then had to follow up. Wouldn't want that for any animal leat of all one I wanted to harvest and eat. I dewalt seriously with this on a Canadian wolf hunt where I really wanted to shoot my Swift, but couldn't get a "hold together" bullet for my load.

 

The Swift Scirocco, and more importantly the A-Frame, both commercially available from Remington, are great "hold together" bullets. I pulled two out of a moose that were 250 grains going into the shoulder... one of them lost one grain, the other lost 11 grains. All energy dispersed within the animal.

 

For the boilerroom shot, I think alot of bullets work. I want one hat works no matter what.

 

Thanks,

 

Pete

[Harnser]

My favourite bullets for my .308 rifle .

 

165 grn,boat tail soft point . For large deer .

150 grn ,spitzer soft point . For large deer .

110 grn , spitzer soft point . For smaller deer .

 

All these bullets work very well on all deer species in the uk ,believe me ,i have tried them over the years . The soft point expanding bullet ,to my mind is the best bullet for a clean kill on all deer species in this country and many more in other countries . After using these bullets and getting the results that i am getting i see no reason to change to anything else . These bullets have been the yard stick for clean kills on big game for many many years . I keep listening to the arguments about balistic tips and v-max and others ,and it would seem that there is difference of opinion as to wether these bullets are in fact legal to use on deer ,and that their performance is iffy to say the least .

I say why fix it if it aint broke .

Harnser .

[M ROBSON]

SP - simply 'cause they group better in my rifle than the BT's I've tried.

 

 

Sako Gamehead SP for me

 

I've used them in .223, .22-250, .243 & .270 and they are a top class bullet!

 

Mark.

[Big Dog]

I know this is an old post but I have found the discussion helpful on the 6.5x55 Nosler 120g BT for deer. To date I have used homeloads with Speer 140g soft points and they sure do the job well. However, my rifle groups much better and shot much straighter with 120g. I have tried to get Speer 120g head here in NI but can't, Nosler 120g BTs are shooting really well but I was unsure of them for stalking, especially large stags.

[al4x]

sierra do a 120 soft point in 6.5 if you wanted to stick with them. I find the 85grn sierras pretty good in .243

[wymberley]

Burpster, you're taking a needlessly defensive and patronising stance on this, and it is not a question of squeamishness. I'm not trying to convince you either way - I am merely saying that I choose not to use light-jacketed 110gr V-Max for shooting deer (to your undoubted amazement, my piddling intellect permits me a pretty thorough, practical understanding of wound pathology and terminal ballistics). I have shot deer with 110gr V-Max, and heavier BT bullets, but prefer the consistent, bone-crunching penetration of a partition bullet to the more modern approach. The results I get are more than satisfactory, but it is a question of each to his own. If you get good results, I doff my cap.

 

If anybody knows him, drag him back, kicking and screaming if necessary, as his posts were a delight

[highseas]

their is some hot air hear gents..... and some good points

lets all agree that we dont agree but we do all have our own likeings

ile use what ever shoots sub inch in my guns for the estate rifles we use soft points beacause thats what they like and their cheep.

im my guns for the .223 i like 55grn bt as most of the shots i take are head/neck/high shoulder shots to put them down on the spot every time haveing them run is not realy a optio.

that said ive been useing 90grn sp in the new 243 and its working ok ish not as good as the bt but ok......just gotsget some dies

[kent]

The whole question is flawed actually. The type of tip means little, some b/tip bullets are very tough and some with exposed lead tips are pure varmint bullets in performance. As such there is no clear line to be drawn in performance as it can never be apples with apples, to draw a line that does not actually exist is just plain blinkered