Bullet Selection Help!!!

[TargetPanic]

dcinia, thank you for the follow up and very detailed experience. Your results were simliar to mine this past week.

I shot a big 6pt (175lb) on new years day with the 275grn bloodline with a 100grn charge of BH. I was hoping for a nice broadside shot to really give the bullet an accurate accessment but as happens many times, that's not what occured. I ended up shooting him at last light about 25yds out with a hard quartering too, almost facing me. I was about 25ft up in a tree, with him trailing a doe right too me. I realized very quickly that if I didn't take the shot in the one opening he was about to enter, I might end up without one. I held the scope on the opening and squeezed as I saw his shoulders appear. He dropped in his tracks and only moved his head a slight big over the next 30sec - minute. Upon inspection, the bullet entered between the shoulders breaking the spine. The entrance hole was nice but I could not find an exit. A friend and I rolled him over multiple times with an exit never found which surprised me. When it came time to dress him I found massive internal damage and alot of blood inside. I could not determine where the bullet base ended up but I would have to guess the rear hip. I asked the butcher to find the base but he told me he forgot and did not look for it. I was happy with the results but definitely need to take a few more deer with normal shots before I can give my final thoughts on these bullets. I will be out saturday looking for a broadside doe to pull the trigger on lol.

 

[451 whitworth]

I didn't realize you needed all these sleek fancy jacketed bullets and sabots to shoot deer at the OP's stated 15-40 yards typical distance. :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

Encore50, im a Barnes guy but seems they dont like to fly at higher velocity. I wonder if its bullets rr heavy and they tend to start yawing . Bullet rpm to high. What your thoughts.

Are you talking Barnes HPs?

 

[ENCORE50A]

Encore50, im a Barnes guy but seems they dont like to fly at higher velocity. I wonder if its bullets rr heavy and they tend to start yawing . Bullet rpm to high. What your thoughts.

Are you talking Barnes HPs?

He's talking the T-EZ flat base bullet and higher velocity out of custom rifles.

 

[wolfer]

Mostly the 15 to 40 yards range with 100 to 125 max. Max "damage"? Yowza, just use those cheapy TC or other 250 to 300 grain soft lead bullets and moderate loads of powder. If you can get acceptable accuracy out of those "belted" bullets that is the way to go too. Actually back in the day, like 1970s to early 2007 I shot a lot of deer with PRB and open sights at those ranges and I can tell you a 280 gr. .58 RB does "maximum" damage to a deer from any angle. So for your paramaters it's soft lead bullets in the 250 to 300 grain range. Of course if you go traditional a 180 grain .50 cal lead ball will do all the $1.50@ fancy bullets will do too. W

 

[bestill]

This post started with wanting advice on a bullet to shoot15 to 125 yds with at fast load of blackhorn powder appx 2000 fps and wanted great terminal performance on game and expense didn't matter.
Barnes 290 Tez is the answer imo!

 

[TargetPanic]

Thanks for all the responses above, definitely appreciated. To follow up on the "maximum damage" part, I hunt multiple heavy briar swamps. If I do not see the deer go down, I have to depend on a good blood trail which is why I started the post. With all of your help, I now have some great contenders and hope to take a doe broadside this weekend to see if the Knight Bloodline bullet results in a good blood trail. If not it will be on to the next bullet. Whether it be a doe or a 150" buck, I want to know that I can count on my equipment. As of right now, I am hesitant which I do not like.

 

[sabotloader]

Thanks for all the responses above, definitely appreciated. To follow up on the "maximum damage" part, I hunt multiple heavy briar swamps. If I do not see the deer go down, I have to depend on a good blood trail which is why I started the post. With all of your help, I now have some great contenders and hope to take a doe broadside this weekend to see if the Knight Bloodline bullet results in a good blood trail. If not it will be on to the next bullet. Whether it be a doe or a 150" buck, I want to know that I can count on my equipment. As of right now, I am hesitant which I do not like.

Not sure which Bloodline you might be shooting -you probably said back in one of the older posts.

I have been using various Bloodlines for several years now. I made the switch to boolines when Nosler stopped producing the Partitions in the 45 and 458 sized bullets. Even if they were to start producing the Partitions again - I would not switch back.

The Bloodloines have produced better results that I got from Partitions on both elk and deer.

They just work!

 

[TargetPanic]

Awesome stuff sabotloader, thanks!!!