.308 ammo choice

[bleedinblu05]

Hello guys,
I posted this thread in the rifle section as well as I did not know where the best place for it was. I'm an occasional reader and felt this would be the right forum for this question.
I whitetail hunt with a .308. I live in the western part of Kentucky so it is a combination of hardwoods and fields. My longest shot selctions range from 15-325 yards (325 just because that is about as far as I'm comfortable with).
For the last few years I have been shooting 165 grain accubonds (I do not reload) and have taken several decent sized deer with them. However I feel as if the kills could be a little better and that the 165 grain accubond might be just a little to tough of a bullet at .308 velocities.
I do like how the Noslers shoot out of my gun however, so I have decided to try one of the two following options; I'm either going to drop down and try the 150 grain accubonds with the thinking that the smaller bullet will expand a little bit easier, OR go with a 165 grain ballistic tip with the thinking that the ballistic tip will obviously open up better but at 165 grains and .308 velocities I will not get the horror story violent expansion you hear about from folks shooting them out of magnum cartridges.
Please help me decide between the two options. Thanks!

 

[MCgunner]

Personally, I shoot a 150 ballistic tip to just shy of 2800 fps from a 20" Model 7 and have no reason to change. It is accurate and performs great on deer and hogs.

 

[outlawjw]

I shoot 150 gr interbonds with DRT kills but I also love 150 gr ballistic tips . I've always shot 140 gr btbts in my 7 mm & have never had anything to complain about from squirrels to elk ,they work

 

[Art Eatman]

From my experience and from what I've seen from others', most any 150-grain bullet will do. "Violent expansion" doesn't hurt anything if you don't shoot Bucky in the eating part.

 

[Don McDowell]

I like the 165 gr bullets for everything from antelope to elk.

 

[Sunray]

Accubond is about the bullet's construction. A 150 Accubond is built exactly the same as a 165 Accubond. The difference is a wee bit of length and nothing else, except a bit of felt recoil.
In any case, Accubond is just what Nosler calls a bunch of bullets, Sierra calls a BlitzKing, Hornady an SST, Winchester a Ballistic Silvertip and their flavour of AccubondCT is exactly the same as the Nosler.
A 165 or 150 grain Speer SP will do exactly what all the expensive bullets will do. However, accuracy out of your rifle is the important part. Use whatever bullet your rifle shoots best. Bambi won't know or care.

 

[BudgetBucks1]

I have been shooting 168 grain Nosler Ballistic Tips and have been happy. I target shoot with 168 grain Noslter CC's and tried the BT's to match point of impact with my target rounds and at 300 yards can't tell a difference. I shot a doe last Saturday at 275 yards. It was quartering too me slightly. I shot her through the front shoulder breaking the bone clean in two and parts of the bullet exited just behind the lungs on the off side. I literally could stick my fist into the entry hole behind the shoulder. Not much of an exit hole due to hitting the shoulder but there was still a 1/2 inch exit hole. I feel like if I would have not hit the shoulder it would have had a decent exit hole. The deer ran 50yards and piled up within sight. I wouldn't try a shoulder shot at less than 100 yards with this round as it could be very explosive at higher velocities. I shot a buck last year through the neck with this same round. It went through and exited leaving a 1.5 inch hole in the off side. Deer dropped with the shot. So far so good and I don't plan on changing anytime soon but would advise to take neck or vital shots, no shoulder shots unless at distance.

 

[Geno]

Buy a box of Hornady, SuperFormance, 150 grain SSTs. They drop deer DRT. Try them for accuracy in your rifle.

Geno

 

[hq]

Buy a box of Hornady, SuperFormance, 150 grain SSTs. They drop deer DRT. Try them for accuracy in your rifle.

I second that. For what it's worth, I've had great success with Norma Oryx 180gr factory loads, even at extended (up to 365yd) distances. More bullet drop than Superformance but better accuracy in my rifle and they hit like a ton of bricks.

 

[MCMXI]

I refuse to hunt with any cup & core bullet since there are a number of outstanding solid copper bullets available from Barnes, Hornady and others, and there are excellent factory loads too. I took the nice mule deer shown below at 341 yards this past Friday using what I consider to be the best factory hunting ammunition on the face of the earth i.e. Federal Premium Vital-Shok 165gr Trophy Copper. It shoots 1/2 moa or better groups out of my Accuracy International (see my thread HERE) so I had no concerns at all at 350 yards, particularly since I've been practicing out to 400 yards on a regular basis. I shot the deer through the heart and he died just about on the spot moving only a few feet as he bucked. I didn't recover the bullet since it passed through but it destroyed the heart and lungs and didn't damage any meat. Simply a great factory load that isn't even slightly temperature sensitive. It was 10°F when I shot the deer shown below and around 5°F when I was gutting him. I've shot the same load in 80°F weather with similar results.

On a side note, Barnes VOR-TX ammunition is also good but it's not as consistent as the Federal mentioned above. Remington loads a lot of the Barnes ammunition and uses ball powder because it runs through the loaders better than stick, but ball powder simply isn't as consistent as stick powder in rifle cartridges. Sometimes you get lucky and find some VOR-TX that shoots well, but after shooting a lot of Barnes and Federal through many, many rifles, the Federal is the way to go if you don't feel like gambling. If you reload then you simply can't go wrong with Barnes TTSX bullets. They are outstanding and I don't use anything else.

 

[der Teufel]

I don't hunt deer, only hogs. However, I'm happy with Hornady Interlock bullets. I think, for deer (and hogs), any cup and core bullet is sufficient.

 

[sixgunner455]

I bought a 6mm-08 (.243 Winchester) to hunt with in Arizona. The Coues Whitetail deer I killed Saturday at about 6000 feet elevation was 290 yards by my range finder. I hit him just behind the shoulder on a quartering toward me shot. He dropped at the shot and kicked for a moment, and was still. The only time I've seen a deer die that fast was when I put a crippled deer down with a head shot from a 9mm pistol at close range.

The 6mm bullet passed through both lungs and jellied them and the heart and liver, but exited behind the right side ribs and pulled a bit of colon out the exit wound under the skin.

There was no blood, but that is because he died instantly and there was no heart to pump the blood out. The chest was full of blood.

100gr Hornady Interlock Boat Tail Spire Point over a max load of IMR4064 at about 2900 fps muzzle velocity.

If that bullet will work that well in the 6-08, I'm sure a similar one will work in the .308.

 

[Cocked & Locked]

150 grain Winchester Power Points are good enough for me in my Remington Seven .308.