Premium vs standard ammo for hunting

What's your take on premium ammunition?

  • Standard is fine. Premium is overrated.

    Votes: 39 51.3%

  • Pay the extra money for barnesX/nosler/etc..., it's worth it.

    Votes: 37 48.7%
  • Total voters
    76
The cheapest part of any hunting trip is the cost of ammo. Considering how much depends on the ammo you choose, I think it only makes sense to go with the best you can possibly afford. Better to have it too good, than not good enough.
 
Soft points have been around for a lond time and are never going away. The only huge advantage I see in premium bullets is the polymer tips that make every bullet more uniform. I also don't like using soft points and having the bullet not feed properly and and smash the exposed lead, makes me think I'm gonna have a stray flyer, but I've never shot one of those at a target. I started shooting Fusion, uniform bullet appearance and $16 a box aint too bad.
 
Here is my thing. I have 40-50 rounds of ultra premium ammo (Nosler, Hornady, Winchester Elite XP3 etc.) for each of my guns just for self defense and shtf scenarios. Winchester Super X does good for huntin though. But keep a couple of boxes of those ultra premium rounds on hand just in case, because when your life or the life of your loved ones depends on it, ammo is priceless.
 
Buy a reloader, make your premium rounds yourself...I make a premium round using the EXACT same bullet for my 22-250 that Federal uses, except I use the soft point version instead of hollow point. (cost is the same though). They cost $27.00/box (or $1.35 a shot) at Academy. My cost, w/ all components is $5.20. (or $0.26 per shot). This is a round custom tailored to my gun and shoots sub MOA.

For my 7mm Rem Mag the cost is higher, but accuracy still impecable...Cost is about $10.00/ box for a premium round using Sierra Game Kings. If I go to a bonded bullet the price goes up, but the game king give me the accuracy I'm looking for, and the bullet stays together. If I were hunting bear, I would move up to a bonded bullet, but for all others, this is the one. I get a clover leaf out of this gun/bullet combo. I think a box of 7mm runs approx. $32.00 for the equivelant bullet.

I only spent about $200.00 for all the components of my rifle press.
 
Where I hunt, I'm shooting down a 450 yard, straight section of snowmobile trail lined with small fir trees. It's about 8 feet wide. We've taken about 45 deer out of that stand in the past 15 years, at distances from 15 to 400 yards.

The bullet that seems to take more deer is the .270 Win, 130 grain Ballistic Tip, handloaded to 3,269 fps. It's taken 16 deer in 15 years, the largest being 200 lbs. at an average distance of 220 yards. Zeroed at 255 yards, it's within 3" of POA out to 320 yards. At 450 yards, it's only 16" low.

With no need to hold over or under out to 320 yards, it's very easy to shoot quickly at deer walking across the trail.

Others using the blind use rounds that drop more, or don't sight in to maximize cartridge performance, and they miss more deer as the result. Plus, most don't shoot as much as I do.

Picher
 
Folks, there is no substitute for shot placement-none. Over the past 20 years I have killed over 125 deer. None were shot with a "premium" bullet. All were shot with a .30-06 or .308 and the 150 grain Sierra Pro-Hunter and Sierra BTSP bullets. Not one deer got away. Fewer than five of those deer required a second shot. Few of them went over 20 yards after being shot.

No premium bullet is going to turn a gut shot into a bang flop every time.
 
I use standard bullets for deer. I usually stay a little heavier than usual for the caliber. Take the 7mm Hornady 154gr sp. That is a very good deer bullet. In 30cal 165gr is all you need.
 
Thallub said it all...
no premium bullet is going to turn a gut shot into a bang flop
Click to expand...

I've killed 2 deer and 2 hogs w/ my 22-250 this season. KEY...Shot placement...Didn't trail any of them...50gr. speer soft points. 1 hog in the head, 1 hog in the neck, one deer in the head, one deer in the shoulder...all bang-flops...My total bullet cost (reloads) for all those animals mounts up to $1.04...not bad...
 
Most of this discussion has been about domestic deer hunting. I would like to present a view of ballistic requirements for African plains game and dangerous game hunting.

Please keep in mind that a safari requires a flight halfway around the world for what frequently is a once in a lifetime hunt. $3-$5 per round is cheap insurance when the total safari cost is $8,000 to $50,000, depending upon game and the number of days spent on safari. I would also suggest that the following applies to guided Elk, Moose and Brown bear hunts in NA.

The basic recommendation I make to potential African hunters is to:
1. Use heavy for caliber bullets
2. Use premium, bonded bullets
3. Know the animals physiology
4. Practice, practice, practice. Then go out and practice some more.

As to plains game, you will do fine with your deer rifle. I first used Nosler partitions on safari with good results. Then bonded bullets arrived and I ran some experiments with my .300WM while on safari in Zambia with different brands of bullets. I settled on the Swift A-Frame. I would venture that this is now the most popular soft-point among African professional hunters, who have seen a larger variety of bullet performance on game than any other group in the world. Remington currently loads the A-Frame in its' premium safari line. I have used the A-Frame exclusively and with great success in .300WM 180gr, .375H&H 300gr, .416RM 400gr and .458Lott 500gr since 1999. Superior Ammunition will load the A-Frame in virtually any caliber for which Swift makes the bullet.

I have taken large, tough plains game with the .300WM - Zebra and Eland - as well as Leopard and Crocodile, using Swift A-frames in 180gr.

Bullet placement, is of course, the key to one shot kills, and this is why an understanding of the location of heart, lung and brain is critical. The most common complaint of African PHs is that clients cannot shoot well enough to make one shot kills. In Africa you pay for wounded animals and ethics and the law require a sincere effort to follow-up. In dangerous game, wounded animals will be tracked until found and finished or until further tracking is impossible. This can mean days of walking and tracking follow-up - days when you are not hunting other animals.

Practice can be accomplished with standard ammunition of the same grain weight. I shoot a minimum of 60 to 100 rounds in the months leading up to safari. Then fire up a box of the premium bonded ammunition you will be hunting with, to assure zero. You are now ready for the hunt.

As to dangerous game, here is how I load a rifle for specific animals:
Lion - All soft points
Leopard - All soft points
Crocodile - All softs
Cape Buffalo - 1st out a soft, followed by all solids
Elephant - All solids
Rhino - All solids
Hippo - All solids

How much ammo to take? Figure 20 rounds to check zero and adjust if necessary (things can get knocked out off zero on long air flights) and then 5 rounds per animal on license - 10 for Cape Buffalo. Only one load per rifle, ie do not mix weights and bullets within caliber. You are allowed 10 kilos (22 lbs) of ammo by the airlines. While this is well more than enough for plains game, you may come close to this on a 21 day dangerous game safari where both DG and PG will be hunted.

Keep in mind that airlines have reduced the maximum weight of luggage from 70 to 50 lbs on most carriers, with two pieces of checked baggage, one of which will be your firearms case.
 
Lion hunter...All the more reason to use hand loaded ammo...when done by an experienced loader, the ammo is precise, consistant, and custom to yourgun. Sometimes you can't find the bullet combo you really want. If I were going to the dark continent - I'd be spending the time to work up the most ballistically efficient, premium round for the gun I would be hunting with, matched to the game I'd be hunting. And yes, I would not hunt there w/out a bonded bullet, just like I wouldn't use anything but bonded for moose or bear...

However, this post I believe is a bit more generic in nature. The general scope of this is production ammo...and all the hype over bonded bullets. Yes, they serve the purpose, but the add wizzards have a bunch of guys buying into the fact that you can't hunt w/ out them. This is true...In AFRICA...but not so true for the average N. American quarry.
 
and all the hype over bonded bullets. Yes, they serve the purpose, but the add wizzards have a bunch of guys buying into the fact that you can't hunt w/ out them.
Click to expand...

Nobody is saying you can't hunt without them. But there is no doubt that they perform better than the "cheap" stuff.

My point is that when I spend $1000-$1200 to hunt out of state, and I may get one shot at one animal, then I prefer to use the highest quality ammo available. I could do it with "cheap" ammo, many folks do. I prefer to spend the extra $20-$30 as "insurance".
 
sasquatch, the problem for many of us in this discussion is the absence of failure of any "standard" bullet.

I've never lost a deer because of any failure of a Sierra bullet, both .243 and .30-'06.

My father used the Hornady Spire Point (150-grain; '06) from the late 1940s (No premium bullets, back then) until he "hung it up" around 1988. Many of his kills were in front of witnesses, and there were no campfire stories about lost deer.

So, after forty years or more of success, is it so hard to believe there's no justification for my/our view that a need for "premium bullets" is rather overblown? (This doesn't at all denigrate the bullets. I'm talking about the perceptions.)
 
So, after forty years or more of success, is it so hard to believe there's no justification for my/our view that a need for "premium bullets" is rather overblown?
Click to expand...

Not at all. And folks are free to ignore technological advances in firearms as well, and hunt with the same firearms (and optics) they hunted with sixty years ago. And they can drive to their hunting camp in late 1940s Chevy and Ford trucks, too.
 
Last edited:
My biggest thing is confidence in what I am shooting - confidence I can make the shot (practice) and the bullet will do its part (experience).

I started late in life, so started with ballistic tip bullets. I have confidence in them. Do I think premium bullets are required? No, but I choose to use them anyway.
 
"And they can drive to their hunting camp in late 1940s Chevy and Ford trucks, too."

My Lord, no! You sell one of those for an inflated price to some collector, and go buy a new 4x4. :D

I guess my problem--if there's really a problem--is that dead's dead. How do you improve on that? I guess it's the ancient routine of, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

:D, Art
 
For Castnblast and all the other handloaders out there.

First, I am not a handloader as I never saw the need to be one. I understand the hobby for what it is. Hunting, however, does not require sub-minute of angle hits. The heart/lung shot on most game is what is desired, so if you can place all your hits within a 3-5" circle at 100 yards, you will make one shot kills while hunting big game. My factory Browning A-Bolt .300wm shoots 1.5" at 100 yards with factory ammunition. An Elephants brain is about the size of a loaf of bread and they are shot at less than 20 yards. A Crocodile "brain" is the size of a tennis ball and they are shot at less than 50 yards.

I am considered by others to be a very good shot. I fired possible at 200 yards offhand with the issued M14 rifle and standard service ammo and qualified USMC Expert. I regularly make one shot kills at 250-350 yards on medium sized antelope - think whitetails. I generally average over 90% one shot kills on safari. I also miss sometimes.

Most African PHs will discourage you from bringing handloads on safari. They have seen too many problems. They all encourage the use of premium bonded bullets. With the use of modern proprietary powder - unavailable to the handloader - and premium bonded bullets, commercial premium ammunition provides the degree of accuracy required for hunting. Larry Barnett of Superior Ammunition loads for most of the gun writers and for many African PHs. You can send him your rifle and he will design a specific load to meet your needs, should you feel that is necessary. He will also provide sample packs of 4 different loads for you to try, to determine which shoots best for you in your rifle.

I have seen commercial ammunition failures - a .375H&H Federal premium solid that failed to penetrate the skull of a Hippo and lodged just under the skin in 1999, creating a mess that needed sorting out. I have also seen failures with handloaded ammunition result in catastrophic failure and injury.

I don't believe bonded premium bullets are required for deer hunting in NA, but when I travel to New Zealand later this year for Red Deer, Thar and Chamois, you can be assured I will be taking along premium bonded core ammunition loaded by Superior Ammunition. To do otherwise would be foolish.
 
No argument about using the best bullet available when that sort of thing is necessary. Surely don't want blowups, or failures to expand as expected.

I've been handloading for rifles for 58 years, though, and my failure rate to date is zero, zilch, zip, nada.
 
Art Eatman-

Bless you my son and here's wishing you another 58 years without error.:D

We had a saying about motorcycle riders, however. There are only two kinds, those who have gone down and those who will go down. That's is how I view handloading. My own brother-in-law, a Dentist by profession, still has metal fragments in his lower lip from one of his own handloads gone wrong.
 
I will give this Larry Barnett credit for doing a hell of a job of marketing. He manages to sell for a ridiculous price ammunition made to a standard that many on this forum have been loading for years.
 
My own brother-in-law, a Dentist by profession, still has metal fragments in his lower lip from one of his own hand loads gone wrong.
Click to expand...
Sounds like your brother-in-law forgot to pay attention to detail when hand loading. Hand loading is a very cost effective way to shoot more with the same amount of money. If done properly it is as safe and as effective on game as any factory ammunition a person can buy. To me it is more satisfying to hunt with my own ammunition than it is to use factory fodder.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top