Best Bullets for Deer

E

epl1007

New member
I'm trying to find a round in 270 that will group well and also do major damage to a deers vital area and maximize shock. I hunt in Buffalo Co WI so my shots
Could be anywhere from 20-500 yards.the bullets I'm considering adding to my group testing are
Winchester Deer Season xp
Nosler Accubond
Ballistic Silvertip
Barnes Vor tx
Berger hunting VLD.
Any big game experience with these options and I'd love to hear your experience or recommendations
Thanks
 
I have no personal experience with anything on your list in my 270, however, I will volunteer that good ole Sierra 150 gr. GKs work great in my gun. I load them over RL22 and get good performance with outstanding accuracy.
 
I am on my 3rd barrel in one of my four 270 Winchester rifles, and the other 3 have a pretty high round count also, but not enough to burn out the throats yet.
Safe to say I have some experience with the cartridge.
Of the bullet you list I have experience with only the Nosler Accubond (excellent)
and the Burger VLD (very poor, comes all to piece when it hits even a doe through the ribs. Very erratic performance on impact. )

I started killing things with a 270 in 1968. I have used Sierra's, 130s and 150s(ok, but they come apart more then I like.

Hornady inner-lock (Ok too, but also a bit more frangible then I like, but better than the Sierra. The 150 grain bullets were the best overall. I have used 130s, 140s and 150s.

The new Inner-bonds are excellent.

Winchester Silver-tip (old ones. 100% frangible. (Very poor on game.

Winchester Power Points in both 130 and 150 grain. Both quite good. Far better than you'd think for a "plane vanilla bullet". Good accuracy and I have to assume good construction, as the exits are about 2" in diameter and I have never recovered one from any game shot.

Remington Cor-Lokd (excellent with the 150 grain offering, and very good with the 130s

Nosler Partitions (the best of the bunch in all 3 weights I have used, 130s 150s and 160s)

Barnes X 140 grain (excellent also, but not much expansion at very long range.

Norma Steel jacketed 130 gr. (Hard on meat, but killed well. Not as deep a penetrator as other 130s I have used.

Speer Hot-core 130 and 150 grain flat bases. Both ok. About like a Sierra or maybe a bit better, but pretty close.
Old Speer 170s grains. VERY good, but no longer made.
 
That's kind of why I want to try the Berger because they're designed to break the skin and hollow point and shrapnel to create massive wounds. Did the doe drop or run forever?
 
You really don't want a bullet that comes apart. The fragments, being very light in weight, stop quickly and don't reach the vitals leaving a relatively shallow wound. While it may kill, it's not reliable. Far better to select a bullet that mushrooms yet retains it's weight for penetration to and through the vital area.
 
The Bergers Wyosmith described are doing exactly what they are designed to do. They offer the best aerodynamics of any of the other options and are designed to penetrate 3-4" then come apart violently. If you put one in the vitals they are one of the quickest killing bullets you can shoot. And they work very well at long range since they don't require a lot of speed at impact to work. Their disadvantage is that they don't give very much penetration on shots from bad angles. There is nothing at all wrong with them, you just have to understand how they work and use them appropriately. For long range shooting they are a great choice, but you must pick your shots carefully.

I'd probably pick the Accubonds overall. The Nosler Partitions have a well earned reputation for staying together and providing good penetration as well as good expansion. Their disadvantage is poor aerodynamics at long range. The Accubond bullets combine the killing ability of the Partition with much better aerodynamics. Almost as good as the Bergers.
 
Used to use the Speer 130 gr Hot Cor, but I have trouble finding Speer bullets.

If you want to look at an alternative to the Berger, I would try one of the Cutting Edge Bullets. They have a few different designs that work quite well in the long range category and will still perform very well at close range.
 
130gr nosler ballistic tips!!! i shot deer from 10 feet to 365 yards, all were 1 shot kills. now that i'm getting older, i think 150gr nosler bt would be great too.
 
oldscot3 wrote:

I have no personal experience with anything on your list in my 270, however, I will volunteer that good ole Sierra 150 gr. GKs work great in my gun.
Click to expand...



Yep - That's what I use - 150 Sierra GameKings.

And YES, Very accurate, too.
 
I'm going 2 see how good all of them group out of my gun because the core lockts I were running maybe shot 1.5 at 100 yards and didn't perform the best in terms of on game performance. I was just getting opinions trying to narrow down my list. Right now I'm thinking the Deer Season VLD Hunting and the accubond
 
Every deer I have shot with an Accubond has been flattened on the spot. They work great on moose too, though it usually takes about half a minute with any bullet before moose figure out that they are dead. Actually though, premium bullets are not really necessary on deer. It is when you use them on the big boys that premium bullets make a big difference. I just don't like having to resight every time I switch from one type of game to another, so I use Accubonds on all big game. Partitions have never failed me either, but as stated earlier, they are not as aerodynamic. I have had no experience with Ballistic Tips, but have killed both deer and elk with its predecessor, the solid base and they worked just as well as the Partition. However the Ballistic Tip has the reputation of opening up much faster, which is fine for deer, not so good for elk and other big animals. Sierras, Speer, and corelocks have all worked well for me on deer.
 
factory ammo

The ballistic tips have a good reputation for accuracy, and if I were just going to hunt deer/antelope, I'd sure give them a try. Three different rifles (.270) of my acquaintance all shoot the 130 Nosler BT very well, and its the best bullet accuracy wise that I've found in my own Rem 700.

My rifle has a 22" tube, and I cannot get the velocities I'd like with 130's, but 24" tubes can drive the 130 to near 3000 fps easily, in most cases. The BT gets a lot of chatter, seems like its love/hate. Swear by'em or swear at'em.
 
I prefer the Accubond as well. I have used the ballistic tip but stopped after less than a box. Where I hunt in MI with lots of thick areas I prefer a deep penetrating bullet that will pass through and leave a good blood trail. The ballistic tip killed deer quick but did not penetrate the 1 I shot with it and I almost did not recover that deer. In open grassland where you can watch the animal run and fall they are great, not so much for my needs though.

I do use a different caliber but would expect similar performance in the .270
 
I've killed somewhere around 300 deer. The first hundred were probably killed mostly with Remington CoreLoct bullets. I had no complaints. Then I moved to hand loading and Nosler bullets. The next couple hundred deer were shot with the 270 and the 130 gr Nosler Ballistic Tip or its predecessor, the SBBT. If I didn't take quartering shots, I got a bullet exit on deer. I will stay with that bullet in the 270 and my newest rifle, the 260.

So, knowing what I do about deer and bullets, if I was going to start over with bullets for my 270 and 260, I really do think I'd go with the new Nosler Accubond. Same super accuracy that the BT gives us, but a tougher bullet. That said, you really don't need a tougher bullet in the 270 than the 130 gr Ballistic tip for deer, so I'll just stick with that.

Other contenders for my affection, for use in the 270, would be the 130 gr Sierra GK, the 150 gr Partition (for heavy duty use), and a bullet that nobody seems to ever mention - the Sierra 140 HPBT. That HPBT by Sierra is way better than it needs to be, and is relatively inexpensive. I think it's the 'sleeper' that few really ever consider using. That's one you should try. It's a tough bullet.

Everybody talks about the new premium bullets, the 'boutique' bullets of our day, and the truth is that we really don't need them for deer. Granted that they are new and improved to some degree, but we really don't need them for deer. It's just extra money to do what you can already do with the bullets we had.
 
I bow dow to bergers vld....no animal i shot with it had taken one single step....it was one straight trip to heaven.....
 
I have found in over 50 years of successful deer hunting, any bullet well aimed will down a deer in its tracks. If you can't bother to learn to shoot well, don't hunt.
 
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