Close range deer hunters - do you pay for a prem bullet?

I have had great success with plain old Remington Core Lockt in 7mm-08 and 30/30. where I hunt a long shot is 75 yards and they always perform for me and are affordable allowing some quality range time each off season.

Mwal
 
I don't bother with a premium bullet for deer. They ain't bullet proof and don't wear body armor. With that said, the only time I came close to losing a deer was when I had to use my 30-06 and my elk load with a Nosler protected Point Partition. The deer walked past me at 35 yards at the most and I put one I hoped was right through the heart. The deer reversed direction. The second shot was theough the lungs at about 25 yards and again the deer reversed direction. The next shot was a complete miss, shot number four hit an antler and my last shot broke it's neck. I did a rough autopsy as I clean out the insides and it was an eye opener. My first shot cut a groove through the top of the heart without open up the muscle. The lung shot was though both lungs but look like the holes were poked through with a pencil. The miss was a miss and the antler shot broke the antler. The neck shot shattered the spine and finished off that fiasco.
The reason for using the Nosler was they'd been loaded up for an elk hunt that I had to pass on due to it becoming short handed at work. Doing 12 hours shift work 7 days a week doesn't leave much time for load work up. If I'd had the time those 180 gr. Noslers would have been replaced with the 180 gr. Sierra Pro-hunters I prefer for deer in the 06. I don't think those bullets expanded one bit The shortest shot was about 25 yards and the deer was at roughly 40 to maybe 50 yards when I broke it's neck.
Paul B.
 
I tend to splurge when it comes to deer hunting. I use my 40-82 which puts out 260 grains of lead. It tends to shoot through the deer at any angle, and I almost never get the lead back to remelt so that I can shoot another one with the same lead. With lead pushing a dollar a pound now, that's a lot of money.

A few years back I loaded up some 300 Winchester Magnums for one of my younger brothers. I forget which premium bullet I used. What with the new case, the powder, and the primer, I figured the reload cost 79 cents. He shot a little doe with it, and I told him, "Nobody can afford 79 cents for one deer."

He told me, "I'm flying to California tomorrow for a conference. I think I probably can."

Sometimes I think the world is passing me by.
 
Not really .... Sierra Game Kings are not really spendy ..... and the ones I bought were all on clearance, as apparently, 150gr .277 bullets are not all that popular around here- they big box stores don't stock them, and when they show up at smaller shops, they sit on the shelf til I buy the lot of them on clearance ......
 
if premium wasnt better in some situations we would all still be using a brown bess with roundball.

Some bullets have a design impact velocity.
Me i have used remington corelokt for over a decade with good satisfaction. However once a 243 came into being for me, corelokt loads SUCK. in 243.
accurate yes. but bad performance.
turns out that the big writers say the 100 grain psp core lokt needs to drop 500 fps to get correct impact velocity to keep it from vaporising inside the deer like a hornady varmint grenade. but that 500 fps means i cant shoot anything with 100 yards of me. cant give up deer. so switched to a premium bullet.
 
Used a .308 Win 165 gr SST out of my M1A to take a big GA deer two seasons ago... Sadly I haven't had any luck since, not for lack of trying either :(
 
I've been deer hunting with my 30-30 carbine since 1968. Over the years I've tried all the regular brands and weights. These are my favorites based upon performance:

- 170 grain Power Points
- 150 grain core-lokts

The longest shot on a South Dakota muley was approx. 175 yards. The bullet expanded perfectly and made a wide wound channel thru the chest organs. A Premium bullet could not have done better.

Good hunting to you.
Jack
 
For years, either for short range whitetail, or long range antelope, I used Remington Core Lokts without issue.

Eventually I switched to Winchester Ballastic Tips but not for performance issues. I just found the Ballastic Tips shot cleaner than the Core Lokts.

I wouldn't hesitate to go back to Core Lokts for short or long range hunting however.
 
For my hunting reloads the first Decishion I make is what bullet. For deer I don.t want a bomb exploding at some 3200> FPS. I want some weight that can hold together enough to punch through. I fant the bullet to open up and hold weight for deer. I don't care fore my selfie getting hammered by a magnum rifle. I like 308 168gr BTBT, 358 win 200gr Silver tip or AccuBond. "to be developed". 30-30 170gr, 257 Roberts 120 gr. Although I recently have worked up a load with my 22 K Hornet for a deer blind. Where I have time and comfort to make a clean kill under 75 Yds . I will be loading a 45 gr Barns moving out at about 2900 FPS. With good placement it will do a fine job.
No 30-06 120gr, 7mm mag... 300 mag... Or some SSM. I try to not destroy large porch ions of meet on my deer but make a clean kills.
 
only

I pay for Partitions in .243.....100 grainers. Shot most everything else with traditional lead core SP, except for a few ballistic tips obtained in swaps that were so accurate I had to have them.
 
up untill last year (for shots less then 100yrd) i have always used 180gr sierra rn pro-hunter in my 30/06. Ive killed many deer with them but the ammo shortage left me looking for something else. I have used just about everything out there in one form or another but i keep going back to that bullet.

Ballistic tips tend to be a bit to explosive for me along with all 150 grainners i tried. Monolithic bullets work great but i dont trust them (i have no reason not to but cup and core have always worked so why change). And i have had 180gr psp of different brands fail to expand when not striking bone.

I do load a sierra 165gr hpbt gameking for my longer range shots (they have the same poi at 100yrd as the 180gr from my gun) so i figured i would try them at close range. Killed 3 deer with them last year all within 60yrd and all were DRT. Although they are quite explosive at close range they will do untill componets find there way back on the shelf.
 
I shoot a .270 Winchester for deer. Most of my shots are between 100 and 200 yards. I have been using Hornady GMX 130gr. I use reload my own but in a pinch I will use the factory loads. I have had great success with both. Great expansion with no meat loss. Last year I shot a 10 point 190 lbs buck at 175yrds and he dropped in his tracks.
 
Close range, you say. I have been using "Premium bullets" for years. They are called Remington corlokts, Hornady, and Sierra. When the "Premium bullet" craze started a few years back, I was given some by well meaning handloaders. I had to really fight to get any decent accuracy out of most of them, so I never thought it was worth shooting them. Maybe they got better, but I don't care now. As others stated, every once and a while you get a situation where a bullet will not perform as it should, but it is rare when using bullets from companies with 50 + years experience. A couple months back I was in a Walmart and went back to the hunting area to look around. The shelves were almost clear of hunting rifle ammo except for the stuff with "Premium bullets". That should tell you something.
 
I Handload first for accuracy but want them to be a good
Performer also. I've done great with factory core Loks 30 years ago but soon started reloading. For last maybe 18 years I use hand loaded SSTs. They are extremely accurate yet do awesome on hogs and deer. Maybe do as good with factory core Loks but I doubt it. Plus if you can't place your bullet in proper place you have already screwed up. Sure they'll all kill things, I've killed tons of deer with .22 LR in the past but after seeing results from SSTs they are just awesome.
 
i use the sierra pro hunter or game king.because my rifle shoots them well.plus you could come out of a thicket and there could be a deer 300 yds away in a meadow.you never know.i go sierra for long shots because you wont miss the harder hitting balistic tip that much,but will miss the accuracy of the sierra and the sierra's have good B.C too especialy the game king
 
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Do you pay for a premium bullet if hunting short range?

I am not sure that range is the consideration here, but performance in general. How does the bullet perform at the range(s) that you shoot it?

For most hunters, the cost of ammunition is pretty darn incidental when it comes to deer hunting. If they paid $5 a round and used 10 rounds to zero and had a bad season and or took a couple of hogs as well and used another 10 rounds, the $100 spent would be a fraction of the fuel back and forth, lease cost, supplies, processor fees, etc.

Most hunters don't use ammo that is $5 a round. It costs anywhere from 75 cents to $2 for most typical deer calibers, and that is for loaded factory ammo, not reloads. If you are reloading your own, the cost is very inconsequential compared to most of your other costs. So unless you are on the financial ragged edge (and I do realize that some people are), then why not spend the little bit of money for the round or bullet that will perform in the manner that is most apt to produce the quick and efficient kill that you want to make? If the cheap stuff does the job, then no problem. If you feel you need the high performance ammo or bullet, it really isn't that much more money than the cheap stuff for putting a deer on the table in the grand scheme.
 
I use speer DCHP (aka Gold Dots) but I mostly hunt with a 357 magnum carbine. For my 45-70 I use Hornady FTX (325 grain) or Woodleigh 550 grain (I converted over from Hornady 500 grain) But the 550 grain is subsonic and I use it for shooting suppressed.
 
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