Selecting the "right" bullet for reloading

[Karl Blanchard]

Barnes need speed, max velocity. Last critter that died died quickly and the bullet traveled a long way through but bad expansion. My fault...need more speed.

one of the ones I got to watch was a 7 mag on a bull elk at 125 yards.  If that's not enough speed I dont know how fast you'd need to push one

[bobcat]

I'd start out with a Barnes 150 grain ttsx. Or for more speed you could even go with the 130 grain. These bullets retain nearly 100% of their weight, even if you shoot through both shoulders, so you can get by with a lighter bullet. You also get the benefit of not having lead fragments in your meat.

  unless they fail to expand which out of the three animals I've seen shot with Barnes Bullets all three were that exact result.  I'd be sticking with an accubond or partition personally

With enough speed failing to expand shouldn't be an issue. That's one reason why going down in weight to the 130 makes sense. Should be able to get 3100 fps muzzle velocity. I wouldn't use Barnes for a long range bullet but out to 400 yards isn't that far. My daughter was shooting the 120 grain .284 ttsx at a muzzle velocity of only 2800 fps and it expanded perfectly at 250 yards.

[h20hunter]

Good point. Mine was a bear, 150 grainer, 30 ish yards. Bullet probably slowed down to much  .

[h20hunter]

Here is my last recovered barnes bullet.  270, 150 gr. Bear 2as very dead. Hard qtr away, in at the last rib, stuck in and broke far side shoulder right in the ball and socket. Bear went about 3 strides.

[Okanagan]

My highest criteria for a big game bullet is consistency.  I want a bullet that comes as close as humanly possible to ALWAYS flying straight and ALWAYS opening and ALWAYS penetrating deeply.

In your situation I'd go with 4350 and a 165 bonded bullet of some kind, or possibly a Nosler Partition.  For elk bullets in .30 I have migrated over the decades from Sierra to Partition to Swift A-Frame and will likely stay with the Swift.  It is the most consistent bullet I've shot at game:  tight groups in my load and rifle; deep penetration; boringly consistent expansion with rapidly fatal wounds.   

The only performance you can count on is the lowest.  A bullet that performs wonderfully most of the time will probably perform well on any shot on game, but you can't count on it.  Too often in life, when a shot requires the optimum performance due to animal position, distance, etc. then a bullet delivers at its lowest level of performance. I'm wary of generally good bullets that consistently drag along anecdotes of when it did not perform well.  Rather than a pic of an ideal used bullet, a pic of a used bullet at its poorest gives me better info as to whether to use it on game.  Just my philosophy.

That should be a fun hunt you are planning.

[Hilltop123]

For what its worth, here are some Accubonds I have recovered from elk. The smaller slug was recovered from an elk shot at 400, the larger was recovered from one shot at 800. 7mm, 160 grain, 3000 fps.

[packmule]

I'd start out with a Barnes 150 grain ttsx. Or for more speed you could even go with the 130 grain. These bullets retain nearly 100% of their weight, even if you shoot through both shoulders, so you can get by with a lighter bullet. You also get the benefit of not having lead fragments in your meat.

  unless they fail to expand which out of the three animals I've seen shot with Barnes Bullets all three were that exact result.  I'd be sticking with an accubond or partition personally

Mirrors my experience as well, Barnes failure to expand on 1 out of 2 animals led me back to Accubonds/Partitions.

[Jpmiller]

So I've got a setup that shoots as accurate as I can already that's not really my concern. I just hear about finding the "right" bullet alot and never knew what all that meant. Ive shot a handful all with good results and always hunt with the same ones and have always had good success with penetration and mushrooming just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something. Sounds like unless my skill improves I'm doing alright. They all shoot a two inch group at 200 when there's no operator error and I'm consistently putting together three and four inch groups so sounds like I should be ok with my current setup right? No reason to leave a well performing load to chase a good performing load?

[h20hunter]

3 or 4 inch at what range?

[Jpmiller]

3 or 4 inch at what range?

200 - 300 yards. I've never even practiced farther than 300 and to this point in my life wouldn't have considered a shot in the field past 200. Looking to stretch it a little bit for next year though.

[h20hunter]

Roger. I was hoping you would not say at 100. If it is working then keep on. I would think you could tighten it up if so desire.  To me the right bullet is only part of the equation. The right recipe is the big picture.  Ultimately,  it only matters when the metal meets the meat. Tight groups from a bench is fun but if you can put one shot ethically at your comfortable distance than you are good to go.

[Stein]

I picked the bullet I wanted and then bought a box at different weights and worked powder charges from the min to the max book values.  I have an -06, but pretty much the same thing.  I loaded 5 of each weight at each powder charge in .5 grain increments and did a ton of shooting.  Once I zeroed in, I loaded more in .1 grain increments around the one that fired best and came up with the tightest load.

I wanted the 180 to work but ended up with the 168 as it was much more accurate. The load ended up being a bit on the low side, but I really like the groups and no animal has complained about the few fps difference.

It is a ton of loading, measuring and comparing, but I have a load for life now and use it for all big game so it was worth it.  I could have quit earlier once I got sub moa, but loading and shooting is fun and I didn't have many of the demands on my time back then so it worked well.

I'm not going to get into the mud and argue bullets, there are several that are decades proven on big game.  I use the TSX, mainly picked it for elk but it works on deer and antelope.  If you are going to hunt elk, pick a tough bullet for them and it will work on anything around here.  For sure, don't get something that can't blow through bone.

With modern rifles and bullets, it is child's play to get something to shoot MOA or better with little trouble.

[jnordwell]

Hornady eldx over varget will work for your needs.

[SilkOnTheDrySide]

Practice and know your rifle.  Learn how to calculate ballistics and read wind.

It took me missing two bears in the Wenaha to get serious about my shooting.

Now I won’t even send one unless we are shooting 600+.  Ammo and bullets are too expensive 😆

I’d start there.  Download a ballistic program, buy a kestrel and learn how to dial.  Throw those ballistic dials away.


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[yorketransport]

Practice and know your rifle.  Learn how to calculate ballistics and read wind.

It took me missing two bears in the Wenaha to get serious about my shooting.

Now I won’t even send one unless we are shooting 600+.  Ammo and bullets are too expensive 😆

I’d start there.  Download a ballistic program, buy a kestrel and learn how to dial.  Throw those ballistic dials away.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Man, I'd do just the opposite except for the go shooting part. Ditch the gear and just go shoot stuff.

For bullets I'm on a lead free kick right now for all my hunting guns. I've had great luck with Barnes bullets, but I don't shoot nearly as many big game animals as a lot of guys do. I typically use the TTSX bullets though which solve a lot of the problems that the TSX and original X bullets had. I shoot a lot smaller stuff like porcupines to test bullets though and I've had some pretty spectacular results on those.

I'm really loving the Hammer bullets for the last 2 years. They shoot as well as Bergers do in all my guns with less load development and higher velocity compared to other similar weight bullets. I've yet to have one fail to expand in all my completely unscientific testing with impact velocities as low as 1650 fps, as long as they were properly stabilized. The same goes for the Berger bullets I tested too though.

For lead core bullets it's really hard to beat Accubonds. Those were my go to hunting bullet before I went lead free and they always performed and shot really well for me.