Deer Bullets

It seems at this time of year, I spend a lot of my spare time thinking about, reading about and shooting rifles as much as I can.

As mentioned in previous articles, I am personally NOT a big fan of the SST or Ballistic Tip format for deer bullets. I base that on an admittedly narrow minded singular occasion last year in which I had a one shot kill on an 8 point buck and NO tracking job.

Regarding the SST 150 grain .308 Win load I used, I will state it is one of the most accurate bullets to ever grace the chamber of my Savage Weather Warrior .308. That is why I choose to go with it and never doubted that given a steady rest and a few seconds to make a shot, I could place the bullet where I wanted to. I was not happy with the penetration and lack of a blood trail in dry leaves IF I had needed one.

To me, confidence is everything and I just don't have the confidence in this load and personally like an entry and exit hole and a blood trail IF I need one. That is why this year as mentioned in my last post, I am going to use my 45-70 with the 325 grain Hornady LeverEvolution loading. Doesn't make me right or wrong, but it does instill confidence when I touch off a round. I will limit myself to approximately 150 yards max (YES, I use a range finder when on stand). Very few of the deer i have taken were killed on the far side of 150 yards. MOST of the whitetails I have killed were taken with a 12 guage Ithaca Deer Slayer bored improved cylinder using foster slugs. That set up was pie plate accurate out to 100 yards. I then graduated to an Ithaca Deer Slayer Storm model just before Ithaca folded up and closed their NYS Plant. The factory did a trigger job on that gun for me and with the saboted slugs, my groups tightened considerably, and it added perhaps 50 yards to my outside limits.

A Little History on Ithaca Gun:



http://www.ithacagun.com/history.html


Other great loads I have not tried would include the Winchester E-Tip, the Hornady Super Performance GMX, the Federal premium Vital Shok Trophy among numerous others. New ones are coming on the market all the time and technology marches on.

My deer hunting these days is pretty much confined to the N/E farm land and mixed hardwoods etc.
The Win PP and the Rem Core Lokts have been around a long time and have always done a great job on whitetails. Ammunition is also getting expensive for us that do not load our own any more. I used to years ago and simply don't have the equipment or the time to do so anymore.

I grew up working on a dairy farm up until the time I went into the Navy at 17 back in 1965. A favorite saying when dealing with farm equipment, automobiles etc. was, "If it ain't broke, don't FIX IT".

I have had pretty good success applying that to hunting also.

Dan