Best place to find cheap hunting bullets

S

superking75

Inactive
I an loading for my 30-06 to hunt whitetail deer in PA.
I don't expect to go really any long range.

Do you know of a good place to find cheap bullets to load.
 
I like cheap plinking ammo, but to be honest, I've never fired enough ammo on a hunting trip for ammo cost to be a factor, so I'd go to the local gun store and buy a box of 100 Sierra Game Kings or some other name brand hunting bullets. Heavier bullets will stay together better at close range.
 
Agree with Tim. For whitetail deer, the more traditional jacketed/lead core bullets are fine. You can likely find some on sale somewhere if you shop around, but it will be more than the $5 you might save.

Nothing wrong with a box of 100 of 147 FMJs for practicing some positional shooting and working up to your desired velocity, then put a good hunting 150 grain with that load and 100 might last you several years.
 
'Cheap' is a relative term. Where you are in PA matters too.
150 grain SP hunting bullets(No FMJ's. No match bullets like A-Maxes, et al, either. Practice with the ammo you intend to use for the hunt.) all run pretty much the same or very similar price. Cabela's wants about $30 per 100. They might have a sale on though. Lot of empty space in PA on Cabela's store(not the only game, of course. Any retail shop will do. Basspro is in Harrisburg, if that's anywhere near you.) search page.
You do not require one hole, or even 1 MOA accuracy, for deer. Two or 3" groups at 100 is fine. Think IMR4064. Tends to give more consistently accuracy than the 4895's.
Then, once you have a load, practice, off hand at 100 yards on a 9" pie plate until you can hit it every time. Far easier than it sounds. Use the sling.
 
…I'd get the 150 grain Hornady FMJ's for economical jacketed bullet practice. For some reason I've never found a 147 that shot well in my 10" twist guns, but YMMV.


Superking75,

If you are in typical wooded areas in PA, I'd be surprised if you got even a 100 yard shot. Even clearings I've seen are not normally that long. Only if you were hunting farmland might you get a longer shot.

For woods short range, I would consider one of the economical 170 grain 30-30 bullet designs, and just load it down to 2400 fps with H4895 (which doesn't mind being loaded down). You'll cut down on recoil and won't have the bullet flying apart on impact.
 
To be honest, I haven't seen many .30 caliber bullets that weren't okay for deer, although the first Nosler Ballistic Tips seemed a tad fragile...then again the only way I found that out is because it came from a dead deer!

150 grain Remington Cor-Lokts seem to be more than adequate, although you might never get the perfect mushroom and weight retention for a full color ad.

My personal favorite was Nosler Solid Base, our family literally would fill a pickup box full of dead deer when all four brothers and their sons were out on opening weekend. Of course, Nosler stopped making them, due to fact of the gun industry spying on me to see whatever I was using at the time so they could discontinue those particular items...:(
 
I'm in central PA.

For the least expensive option I run to CAC Associates in Ebensburg.
www.cacassociates.com

They are a wholesaler, that specializes in shotgun reloading, but they have a good supply of rifle, pistol supplies also, at good prices. Only open during the week, no weekends.

Other than that, I go to Grice's in Clearfield. If your a gun looney like me, you'll love that place!!

Other than that, just keep an eye on Grafs, Midwayusa, Brownells.
 
If you plan to shoot several hundred or several thousand rounds each year then I can understand the concern with trying to save money on bullets. But for a typical hunter you won't shoot enough to justify the trouble.

Most of the standard cup and core 150-165 gr bullets (whichever shoots best) sell for about $30/100 bullets and will be just fine most of the time. You can sometimes get FMJ or other bulk ammo and save $5-$6/100, but you won't use them for hunting, they tend to be less accurate, and unless you are shooting 1000 rounds or more a year won't save all that much.

Even at about $60/100 the premium bullets won't break the bank for most hunters. Two hundred bullets of any type will last me several years of hunting and the premiums cost about $60 more/200. I will cost me $70-$75 to buy one tank of gas for my truck even with gas under $2/gal. With all the money spent on licenses, transportation, and other things involved in hunting it doesn't make sense to worry about saving $.05-$.30 on a bullet.

I like Hornady SST or Interlocks for general shooting and practice. They are just fine for hunting, but load Nosler Accubonds for my hunting needs. The SST's are about 1/2 the price and shoot to the same point of impact for practice. Probably don't NEED the more expensive bullets, but the extra cost is insignificant and they are more accurate in my rifles.
 
You do not require one hole, or even 1 MOA accuracy, for deer. Two or 3" groups at 100 is fine. Think IMR4064. Tends to give more consistently accuracy than the 4895's. Then, once you have a load, practice, off hand at 100 yards on a 9" pie plate until you can hit it every time. Far easier than it sounds.
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Very sound advise...Sierra or Hornady 150 gr Spitzers are just fine for deer out as far as you can hold on them and are cheap enough to allow you some practice as well...Rod
 
Even the d fashioned Remington core locked is a fine bullet. They are every bit the equal of hornady, Sierra, Speer, etc, at ordinary ranges for 30-06
A few bucks less, and often on sale online.
 
cheapest place is in grand isle, ne. at hornadys factory store. they have seconds, cosmetic and plain ole rejects. usually at 5 to 12 bucks a box. bobn
 
cheapest place is in grand isle, ne. at hornadys factory store. they have seconds, cosmetic and plain ole rejects. usually at 5 to 12 bucks a box. bobn
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Call ahead: Hornady has an agreement with their dealers. Their dealers believe it would be an unfair advantage if Hornady sold to the public at the same price dealers pay. Blems: that can call bullets blems, when the blem bin gets low they can add bullets and declare them blems.

F. Guffey
 
Something that hasn't been brought up is cast lead. You can find cast bullets for thirty caliber, notably the ones for blackout, and they can be loaded to proper velocity, and the dealer can advise you on that.

The lead rounds will cost about ten or fifteen cents, and yes, a lead bullet will kill a deer if that's what you choose.
 
"...a 147..." Is a 7.62NATO ball bullet.
Like briandg says, reloading doesn't get any cheaper than a cast bullet and Bambi won't care. Gotta keep the velocities down though.
Used to go camping outside of Newcastle, PA. Cooper's Lake.
 
But, it still begs the question, why are you concerned about the cost of the bullet, is there something that I'm missing? I take a real beating on powder, as well. If you are looking to lower the overall cost of your rounds, there are lower priced powders that function well with smaller than average charges, and you can save a bit the r e, as well. A lot of my 30-06 Loa s s were with 4831 for 180, and 4350 for 150. They worked well changing powder may have cut my costs in half.
 
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