Premium vs Regular Ammo for hunting?

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DTrain

New member
What's your all's take on premium vs regular hunting ammo for normal whitetail deer hunting situations. Say clear shot 200 yds or less.

I've been using regular 130 gr Remington Core-lokts for years in my .270 with success but if you look through a Cabelas catalog these days they are filled with premium ammo range from $35-$50 dollars for a box of 20. I know they have there place but are the really necessary for normal average deer hunting assuming you are using an adequate caliber to begin with?
 
http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=394331&highlight=premium+ammo

This has been chewed over several times, but what I agree with is use whatever works in your rifle for you.

If I am buying a box of core-lokts, I ain't going to order them from anywhere - I can get them off the shelf at 1,000s of places, so I don't think any of the mail order houses really make an effort to sell them. But they do sell it http://www.cabelas.com/product/Shooting/Ammunition/Rifle-Ammunition|/pc/104792580/c/104691780/sc/104532480/Remington-Express-Core-Lokt-Rifle-Ammunition/740954.uts?destination=%2Fcatalog%2Fbrowse%2Fshooting-ammunition-rifle-ammunition%2F_%2FN-1100190%2FNs-CATEGORY_SEQ_104532480

Believe it or not, not everyone hunts whitetails at 200 yds or less - but dead is dead.
 
Case in point, as a matter of fact, my Savage 110, .270win, likes the Rem. Corelokts 130 gr. Last weekend, my son and I tried the Hornady 130 grn SST ammo, it tightened up our groups alot,at 25.00 per box,Corelokts at 14.00. I will probably switch to Hornady's after deer season to get a new tighter poi.:)
 
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DTrain -didn't mean to come off like a jerk.

What I was trying to point out is that if they work for you, why worry about it? As Hooligan pointed out, they might work better accuracy-wise, but that is very gun specific.

I shoot 165 gr accubond handloads in my 30-06. I wanted to go with 165s in a premium bullet so I did not have to switch between 150s for deer and 180s for elk.

I do not think that any thing I have shot with them died any faster or deader than if they had been shot with a "regular" bullet, but it gives me confidence that if something goes wrong, they will hold together. To me, hunting is all about confidence in your skills and your equipment, and premium bullets give that to me.
 
If you are hunting deer and your rifle shoots the standard loads well there really is no reason to change. Deer aren't that hard to kill.

If you are hunting Elk then a premium bullet would be a wise investment. The reason I say that is because elk are heavy animals and can be found at ranges from 20 yards to 400 yards or more. Considering the cost of an elk hunt an extra $50 on bullets is worth it.

Remember there is a lot of marketing going on when it comes to premium hunt and shooting gear.
 
I just shot a smallish mule deer buck at @50 yards with a 30-06 using Winchesters new Power Max bonded bullets. The shot took him in the shoulder and penatrated to the off side and lodged under the skin. Not the greatest penatration and though the bullet mushroomed well and held together it did loose alot of its weight. The same shot a year ago completely discenagrated a Rem Cor-Lokt in only 4" of penatration.
 
I shoot 150 grain Remington Core Lokt in my .30-06. I have killed four deer with it now. The only one that wasn't a through and through shot was standing almost back end to me. I put the crosshair right in front of his hind quarter. The bullet took out three ribs on its way into the heart/lung area and made it into the deer's neck. The deer went about 25 yards and dropped.

One of the other three dropped in its tracks. The other two each went about a hundred yards but left blood trails that a blind man could have followed.
 
>>I put the crosshair right in front of his hind quarter. <<

Hunters ed teachers you not to take those shots. unless you like eating lead.
 
Core-lokt bullets are somewhat premium, as that process of locking the core to jacket makes them better performers.
Much of the development of premiums comes from the increased use of high velocity 'magnums' especially when they are inappropriately used at close range !!
But premiums can make a big difference .I was unhappy with 300 gr 45-70 ammo as they sometimes expanded too much and destroyed meat and lacked penetration .I want full penetration ! I switched to Winchester's Partiton [ Nosler Partition] and got good expansion and good penetration !
 
Hunters ed teachers you not to take those shots. unless you like eating lead.
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That's absurd. You don't eat the guts or any bloodshot meat. Besides, I've bitten down on birdshot at least a dozen times in my life. Contrary to what 'hunters ed teachers' might have told you, I ain't dead yet.
 
With deer especially I think "premium" bullets like bonded or copper are un-necessary. Not that they are bad, but cup and core bullets have been killing deer dead as dead since they were invented. If they are accurate in your rifle you may as well use them if only because they are cheaper. Deer just aren't that hard to kill in my opinion, especially within 200 yards.

On larger animals like elk I can see a (potentially) bigger advantage, though standard cup and core bullets will kill them as well. A lot can be said about shot placement, but we all know how that goes. I've shot a bunch of elk with cup and core stuff, but I'm also not shooting them at 400 yards and I hit them well.

Hunters ed teachers you not to take those shots. unless you like eating lead.
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Kind of a side note but from what I'm hearing lately, hunter's ed instructors these days are teaching a bunch of stuff that doesn't make much sense...
 
With proper shot placement, the Core-Lokt is perfectly adequate for whitetail. Even with improper shot placement, it'll still outperform it's direct competition (Federal/Speer, Winchester, PPU, S&B, etc.).

In certain cases, I might consider the Nosler Ballistic Tip (hunting version). It's not really needed, though. The BT isn't really a "premium" bullet any more, either. You may pay more for loaded ammunition, but it has been surpassed by many other bullet designs (and they're cheap as a component).
 
I just started reloading and for accuracy mainly but prior to that I have hunted with corlkd ammo since day one. deer are not that hard to kill if your shot is placed right. I have never had a deer take a well placed corlkd and run off not to be found. I have also shot Elk with these bullets with good results.
 
Personally, I think the premium bullet trend is mostly hype. I hunted with Core-Lokts for years and never had a problem. I eventually switched to Winchester Ballastic Tips because they are cleaner to shoot. Otherwise, I've never noticed a difference between the two. Just my opinion based on my experience. Your actual mileage and usage may of course be different.

I was unhappy with 300 gr 45-70 ammo as they sometimes expanded too much and destroyed meat and lacked penetration
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Mete - Really? Just curious what critter and at what distance?

I've used those Winchester semi jacketed 300grs and from my experience they've always penetrated and exited the deer. Of course my shots were under 100 yards.
 
Blur, some of us older hunters, us the philosophy of aiming through the animal to the other side, hence Win 73 was trying to hit the off side front shoulder, but he had to shoot through just in front of the rear quarter. And the desciption of damage caused by the shot tells me it was perfect! One of these days you will be behind the trigger when the big buck is walking away(probably for good;)) and you're going to have to make a decision, shoot and place that bullet through to the target, or let him walk..:) See it's confidence in shooting and bullets destruction that kills. Confidence in one's skills has killed more deer than the thirty-thirty:eek:, anyway back to the op's original question, deads dead, 130 grn Corelokt's have killed lots of deer for my family, my second oldest son has shot all his deer with the 130 grn Corelokts, while my oldest son has an infinty for trying out different ammo each year!:rolleyes:( I like to kick him one). I have killed close to fifty whitetails over the years, and maybe it's a toss between Nosler Ballistic Tips and Corelokts for me. D train, I promise you that well-placed shots do the killing, not the extra 10 or 20 bucks a fella could spend on ammo!!;)
 
some of us older hunters, us the philosophy of aiming through the animal to the other side, hence Win 73 was trying to hit the off side front shoulder, but he had to shoot through just in front of the rear quarter. And the desciption of damage caused by the shot tells me it was perfect!
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Hooligan, that is exactly what I was trying to do. The deer was a nice six point buck. I was in my portable blind. I spotted the deer behind me through a peephole that I had left in the back. I knew I couldn't unzip the side window without spooking it. I waited until the deer walked past my blind. About 40 yards in front of me he stopped. I put the crosshair right in front of his left hindquarter. When I fired I could tell he wasn't going very far. He barely made 25 yards and went down.

The field I was hunting was the only area I had to hunt that year. There aren't many deer there so if you get any kind of a decent shot at a decent deer, you take. It might be the only one you get for the season.
 
Generally speaking the premium rounds are not needed. But if you find yourself in a position to hunt larger game or shoot at longer ranges than your gun is really meant for, the premium bullets may make enough difference to be worth it. A $50/box of premium ammo can make my 30-06 perform much closer to a 300 win mag and is a lot cheaper than buying another gun.
 
Krezyhorse - all within 100 yds. I do want exit and minimal meat damage ! With standard 300s I got two deer with the same result. Lung shots -entrance hole 2" dia exit 1" dia.Holes were clean holes as if a cookie cutter was used !! :eek: Impressive but some quartering shots would not penetrate.
My first Partiton smashed the shoulder joint ,through the lungs and kept going with no excessive meat loss .I'll stick with that.
My next project if things work out is to use a Barnes all copper in 44 mag revolver on a red deer.
 
DTrain, instead of paying that 30-50 bucks for a box of premium, you can make your own for considerably less:D

And while this premium stuff is a good thing to have around, it seems to me that the old standbys like core lokt seem to perform better than they used to. Some years ago, I took a head shot on a nice doe about 100 yards away because thats all that I had a clear shot on....grossed my hunting buddy out because that winchester power point took the other side of her face clean off. I only had that box of ammo because a friend of mine sold his 308 for a 7MM mag and had no use for it, and I wanted the brass. It got me to thinking about my reloads-I was reloading with ballistic tips for lighter skinned animals and partitions for the heavy stuff.

I now load Hornady softpoints for deer and such, still load the partitions for hogs and anything else that might be tough to get thru, and Ive never been happier.
 
With premium ammo you are usually just paying for a more expensive bullet design. Partition, accubond, TSX, etc, etc. The premium ammo will not necessarily shoot any more accurate out of a given rifle and I have not found it to be any more reliable. So if you are hunting whitetails and some of the regular ammo shoots accurately from your rifle you have no need of the premium stuff. In fact some of those premium bullets are best suited for really big game and may not expand as well on smaller whitetails.

Killed deer with both premium and non premium bullets. Never noticed a difference in the degree of dead. LOL!
 
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