Ethan Givan Posted July 26, 2010 Report Share Posted July 26, 2010 I use a .308 win for deer and Ive always shot factory ammo, usually Winchester power points. They seem to work ok on deer, but I want to shoot better bullets. My dad has a reloader and I want to reload some ammo for hunting. I like what Ive read and heard about Barnes bullets but they are pricey. What is, in your opinion, the best bullet for hunting whitetails? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strut10 Posted July 27, 2010 Report Share Posted July 27, 2010 Do yourself a favor. Stick with the Power Points. Whitetails are easy to kill. You do not need to use Triple Shocks or Partitions or TBBC's, etc to kill them. If the Power Points are giving you acceptable "deer hunting accuracy", then why change?? Only reason I can think of is that you may have too much money laying around burning up holes in yer pockets. Both my kids use 150 gr. Power Point handloads in their .308's and they kill deer like the hammer of Thor. You can buy PP's as components if you want to load your own. There is actually another reason to use premium bullets for whitetails. Some super hotrod cartridges will splatter cup & core bullets at high velocities. But the .308 (which, in my experience is one of the greatest DRT deer rounds ever) is not one of them. Save your bullet money and buy yourself something you really need. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ethan Givan Posted July 27, 2010 Author Report Share Posted July 27, 2010 Yep the power points do the trick. Its just somethin to play with more than anything. There are alot of new bullets now that are supposed to be so high tech, that I would like to try some out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbHunterNY Posted July 27, 2010 Report Share Posted July 27, 2010 Yep the power points do the trick. Its just somethin to play with more than anything. There are alot of new bullets now that are supposed to be so high tech, that I would like to try some out. There's the Berger VLD. I've seen them work well, but I'm not so sure I want my bullet turning into lots of pieces. I process my own deer. I've always had good luck with plain old lead power points or Corelokts. 150 grain bullets of this type just seem to work, if they will give you acceptable accuracy out of your gun. The only thing you'd need something different for is bucking the wind and to have a little flatter shooting load. Out past 300 yards, you're compensating for wind and drop either way, but not many hunters should shoot that far. Swift Scirocco's have a good BC too, as well as Nosler Ballistic tips are popular and have a good BC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottb Posted July 28, 2010 Report Share Posted July 28, 2010 Not sure how well it would work on a deer, but the match grade 168gr bthp is the most accurate bullet on the market for the .308 and it does a magnificent job on humans.....lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grady269 Posted July 28, 2010 Report Share Posted July 28, 2010 NBT-Federal Personally I shoot Federal 150 Gr Nosler Ballistic Tips in my .308. There may be better bullets but I have not found any that will shoot better out of my Browning BAR Shot-trac. I have 5 boxes of bullets @ home with 5 missing out of each box inlcuding, Nosler Partitions, Remington Core-Locks, Hornandy SST, and those high dollar Winchesters. None of them shot the groups the Federals did SUB-MOA @ 100. The do really well on White-tails. I shoot the same bullets in my .270 (130gr), 30-06 (165gr), and 22-250 (50 gr) and they are extremely accurate in all of them. As a matter of fact every deer I have killed in the last 10 years has been shot with a Federal Nosler ballistic Tip bullet. My only complaint is that in the 22-250 they are too devastating for light skinned stuff like foxes, I am in search of a bullet that does less pelt damage when i varmint hunt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hungry hunter Posted July 31, 2010 Report Share Posted July 31, 2010 Me personally, ya can't beat the 168gr BTHP match for the .308. I have tracked 0 yards on anything I have harvested with this round, other then trying to find that magic bullet, remember shot placement and trigger squeez and know your limitations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeramie Posted August 3, 2010 Report Share Posted August 3, 2010 150grn Hornady boat tails are a good choice too. Hornady makes affordable reloading stuff and its pretty good quality. That being said, stick with the powerpoints. If youre not happy try the Corelokt. If you really want to reload the rounds for the heck of it check into hornady stuff or even consider Nosler. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Posted August 4, 2010 Report Share Posted August 4, 2010 I would work on flatter shooting loads before looking into bullet performance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ethan Givan Posted August 4, 2010 Author Report Share Posted August 4, 2010 I would work on flatter shooting loads before looking into bullet performance. I will never be shooting at a deer past 200 yards so I dont see the point in this. I want to reload some rounds for hunting instead of buying them and for the moment thats all I want to do. Maybe later I can get a little more in depth with it and play with flatter shooting loads. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeramie Posted August 4, 2010 Report Share Posted August 4, 2010 There is nothing wrong with doing it for fun. I took about 250 rounds to western oklahoma for an antelope hunt. I also used that same round for Prarie Dogs. I worked up a good hot load (.243, 100grn btsp hornady) to shoot both with. It was serious overkill but gave me something to do and was done for "fun." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted August 6, 2010 Report Share Posted August 6, 2010 Have had pretty good results with the core lokts with my .270. Too bad I did not buy more of it back when it was under $10 a box, just 4 or 5 years ago. Likely I will be giving the 150 grain core lokts a try with my .308 after I get it broke in, bought a couple boxes of em at rural king for under $15 a box. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowana Posted August 9, 2010 Report Share Posted August 9, 2010 If your shooting the .30, .284 or .277 inch bullets at medium velocities 2650 to 2850 fps.....any lead core hunting bullet that shoots well in your rifle is the best. I have shot Elk, Mule Deer, Whitetail Deer, Bears, Antelope, Sheep with various bullets. Nobody complained. However, when loading for hot caliber/chambers example 338-378 or 300 RUM.....you need a bullet that will stay together at close range, yet expand at 600 yards reliably. This is where the premium bullets come in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dakota Posted August 10, 2010 Report Share Posted August 10, 2010 There is nothing wrong with doing it for fun. I took about 250 rounds to western oklahoma for an antelope hunt. I also used that same round for Prarie Dogs. I worked up a good hot load (.243, 100grn btsp hornady) to shoot both with. It was serious overkill but gave me something to do and was done for "fun." Hey Jeramie, how'd that hunt go? I don't remember if you posted that or not... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeramie Posted August 10, 2010 Report Share Posted August 10, 2010 Hey Jeramie, how'd that hunt go? I don't remember if you posted that or not... It was great.. yeah, I posted about it. http://www.realtree.com/forums/showthread.php?t=77746 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnf Posted August 10, 2010 Report Share Posted August 10, 2010 150grn Hornady boat tails are a good choice too. Hornady makes affordable reloading stuff and its pretty good quality. That being said, stick with the powerpoints. If youre not happy try the Corelokt. If you really want to reload the rounds for the heck of it check into hornady stuff or even consider Nosler. I've had great luck with Hornady. I've had a little better accuracy out of MY GUNS (maybe not the OP's) and they are not nearly the most expensive. I've only killed one deer with them, and that was with my kid's 223. That thing went down in a heart beat, or lack there of I guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redkneck Posted August 12, 2010 Report Share Posted August 12, 2010 I took about 250 rounds to western oklahoma for an antelope hunt. Dang dude, I'd hate to see how many cases it took you to sight one in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.