308 bullet for deer

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For the Past Several Years I have used Remington Coreloct.
To be honest, I was going to use hand loads this year, but I have not developed a hand load yet the is as accurate as the green box stuff.
This year I killed two nice deer, both with .308 Winchester, Remington Coreloct 150 Grain.
 
For deer,no. The advantage of the new hi-tech bullets is when using a cartridge that has been traditionally considered a little light for the animal hunted. If I were deer hunting with a 223, then I'd likely recommend some of the Barnes TTX bullets. If you ever hunt moose with the 308, then it wouldn't hurt to consider the better bullets.
 
Core-lokt has worked for me for a long time on deer and feral pigs. I keep meaning to try the high-tech rounds that cost twice as much but am falling down on the answer to the 'why bother?' question.
 
Remington core-lokt will work just fine.
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There is an article on the net somewhere, in which they show the results of testing the core-lokt against premium bullets. Surprisingly the old core-lokt came out on top, or near the top, I can't remember which.

All the manufacturers make good bullets nowadays, if you want something not too expensive, you can't go wrong with the core-lokt.

I hand load and use the 150 grain Nosler ballistic tip in my .308's, I like the non deforming polycarbonate tip and anything I ever shot with them, looked just as dead as anything else I ever killed.
 
I have never taken a deer with factory ammo, only handloaded. I have used the 270 130gr Sierra Game King with great performance. I have since switched to 308 but haven't taken a deer yet. The 308 is loaded with hand loaded Sierra Game Kings though. I have no doubt when the opportunity presnets itself they will work just as well.. For whatever reason I can the get the SGK's slightly cheaper than the Core Lokts.
 
I don't hunt with a 308, I use a 257 Roberts. I use 100 grn Hornady SST's and never had to shoot one twice.

The SSTs are relatively cheap and work.

I can't understand why a little 100 grn SST will work and a 150 wouldn't.
 
Kreyzhorse, my friend, you know better than that. Dead is dead, but what about accuracy, fragmentation, meat damage from said fragmentation, consistency in expansion, etc...,
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All valid and very good points Peetzakiller. However, it's hard to measure any of them in a quantifiable way that puts one bullet over the other in real life hunting situation.

I've hunted with Core Lokts and I've hunted with Winchester Ballistic Tips and have had great success with each. The only real difference I've noticed is that the Winchester Ballistic Tips shoot much cleaner than the Remington Core Lokts.
 
You can't in all reality expect a deer shot with any bullet to just drop dead. They almost always run some.
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I totally disagree with this. In the last 20 years (using a .270 130gr and a .300 Win Mag .300gr) I've NEVER had a whitetail buck (10 of them) or doe (5 of them) or elk (2 of them) or black bear (1 of them) go farther then five yards. They DROP. If I were to use the stuff they recommend on TV shows (meant for probably elephants) they'd punch a hole through and run but I use CoreLoks. Of course I'm shooting them in the lungs. :p
 
I've had two this year that haven't taken a step. Shot placement i good sir shot placement. Now they could've ran but they didn't, if i could i would hit the spinal cord every time.
 
Deer are pretty easy to kill. I usually, shoot Sierra 150 Pro Hunters out of my 308. and they work fine. Ive used Match Kings, Core Lokt, Power Points, Ballistic Tips, Accubonds, Partitions, and TTSX's in everything from a .223 to a 45/70. If placed in the vital zone the results were all the same. Dead deer.
I would find the most economical .308 hunting ammo in the 150-180 grain range that my rifle shoots well.
 
I like telling myself the Hornady Match 178gr .308 BTHP are the bee's knees for deer, but
1. they're a recent invention in the wide world of deer hunting
2. guys've been killing deer for a LOOOONG time without em
3. No bullet replaces good shooting.

I do like knowing that if I screw it up that it was me and not the round though.

(I think the allure is the sexy-looking shiny box they come in. Can't resist it)
 
My 14yr old son killed a 90lb doe at 130yrds and a 150lb 6pt. buck at 210yrds with Federal 150gr Nosler Ballistic Tips in a Rem. Model 70 308. The doe was double lunged and went 40yrds then dropped dead and the buck was a perfect heart shot and jumped up and fell dead where he stood. On both animals we could not see any exit wound.
 
checkmyswag said:
Do I need a really expensive/high tech bullet for deer or will softpoint ammo work fine?
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Just about any .308 bullet will do for whitetail deer. I've been shooting them for years in a variety of .30 calibers (.30-30, .308, .30-06) and have never seen the need for a high-tech bullet. You can even used cast bullets, which is about as low-tech as it comes.
 
Kreyzhorse said:
....it's hard to measure any of them in a quantifiable way that puts one bullet over the other in real life hunting situation.

I've hunted with Core Lokts and I've hunted with Winchester Ballistic Tips and have had great success with each. The only real difference I've noticed is that the Winchester Ballistic Tips shoot much cleaner than the Remington Core Lokts.
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True, this is. Few, if any, of us ever kill enough animals with one bullet to make any reliable distinction between them.

Fact is, any bullet designed for deer sized animals will kill them effectively the vast majority of the time.

Still, we all tend to like to make assessments based on extremely limited personal experience and preconceived preferences, especially if the experience was remarkably good or bad rather than mediocre, average.

I, for instance, like light, fast bullets and I have seen a 140gr Rem Core-Lokt fired from a 7mm-08 at 2,850 fps blow apart on a deer at 40 yards.... That's not light or fast from a 7-08 (very average) and they don't make the Core-Lokt in "light" 7mm anyway....

Hence, my personal preference is for 110gr Barnes TTSX which can be driven VERY fast for a 7-08 (3,300 from 24" barrel) and will not come apart.

So, says I, use the same bullet style and a light, fast version in .308 calibers too. Why? Because I like it.;)

But, personal preferences aside, hit 'em in the boiler room with any well-constructed bullet and they'll stop boiling in short order. :)
 
Anything meant to kill deer, or other large game will work just fine. In fact I've even heard of deer being killed with the .17 HMR with good shot placement (not that I'd ever try it, and quite frankly that is stupid and irresponsible) But, my point is that with the right shot, you can kill a deer cleanly with almost anything. Therefore, I would go with the bullet that shoots most accurately in my gun. My family and myself pretty much all use core-lokts in our deer rifles and have had good results. If you hit a deer in the leg, or the butt it doesn't matter if you are using $50 ammo, he aint stayin down.

If you are concerned about meat loss/damage it comes down to shot placement again. Each bullet has its advantages, a bullet with less expansion will have a smaller wound channel which initially destroys more meat. However, there is a smaller exit wound which causes more blood pooling around the wound rendering that meat uneatable. Bullets with greater expansion will cause more initial meat damage, but less damage due to blood pooling. Concerning shot placement, a good shot right through the vitals will result in little meat loss. A head shot will result in no meat loss, although i don't recommend it.

Lately I've seen a big switch from the traditional heart/lung shots to high spine shots. The theory behind this is a shot through the spinal cord will instantly kill the animal. If you overshoot, you miss completely leaving the animal un-harmed. If you shoot under you have a decent chance of hitting the vitals considering that you are aiming at the portion of spine above the vital region. Personally, I prefer the vital shot and most of them are bang-flops, but many have good results with the high spine.

GO with whatever ammo (expect for the 110 grain varmit bullets) that cheaply gets you consistent 1 MOA groups. Good luck and happy hunting
 
I've enjoyed excellent performance with all factory ammo. But BEST consistent accurasy with FEDERAL 150 grain HI SHOK and Classic ammo.

These two coastal blacktails were toppled within moments of each other in northern California. I had double buck tags for A Zone that year.

Jack

Napamorning.jpg
 
Here is an exit wound from a .308 150 gr. Corelokt from last season range was about 20 yds. He didn't run 25 yds after being hit. Well, if you call stumbling/falling/dead on your feet scrambling running.

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Here's is another exit wound from a .308 150 gr. Corelokt from this season. This one bang flopped/rolled in her tracks. Shot her at a full run at 75 yds in the neck. She was nearly decapitated.

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I've used Corelokts in .30-06 for years and never lost a deer to one. Several have flopped in their tracks and the ones that have run haven't run far and left blood trails a blind man could follow. I've only been hunting with a .308 for a couple of years and it works just as well with Corelokt ammo.
 
plain jane

The move to high tech, premium bullets is driven by commercialism as much as anything else.

Some critters need the premium bullet, and some rifles may shoot a certain premium offering better.

But.........the .308 will hammer any whitetail with common over the counter soft points. The W-W 150 Power Point worked for me before I started loading. Now, a std Sierra Pro Hunter PSP does the same.

Save your money.
 
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