308 bullet weight & choice for red deer!

mrkipling

Well-Known Member
hi,i'm looking for some advice on bullets to use in my 308win,i only use it for reds on the scottish highlands,what would be the best bullet weight and type and why?not looking for mega expensive bullets like the barnes tsx,just a reliable type i can reload fairly cheaply and gives minimum meat damage and a good clean kill if i do my bit,many thanks in advance!
 
Mr Kipling,

I've tried lots of different bullets in .308 and reckon Sierra Gameking take a lot of beating. 150 or 165 No. 2125 and 2145 respectively. Not fancy or glitzy - just do the job!


Richard
Deer Diary
 
I have had a couple of .308's one liked sako factory ammo the other i used nos bt's which were ok although i did have a big stag that i shot in the engine room just looked like i had missed him so i gave him another one in the neck.
The chest shot had been bang on the money at 80m but not a lot of damage dont know why it never expanded maybe a faulty bullet.
It put me off them and i moved on to 150 sst's and bumped the velocity up, i found them more accurate in my sako than the noslers they expanded and killed well but with more meat damage.
If i went back to a .308 again the sst's would be what i would plum for. DF
 
i use hornady 150 grain sst in my 308 but only drive them at 2650 fps, they are mustard alot better stopping power than the sierra gameking i used to use with no big difference in meat damage either

and they are bloody accurate
 
As above the Federal 150 grain Power Shok factory ammo worked well for me - very accurate and killed deer.

I started reloading for deer with the 150 grain Hornady Spire Point (part number 3031 I think) and it was very accurate plus gave me really good velocity (3000fps) and worked well on deer though chest shot sika always ran.

Recently I've moved to the 150 grain Nosler Partition. It is more money and hasn't quite been as accurate as the Spire Points for me but it is now my preferred bullet for deer as it sometimes (maybe 50%+) puts chest shot sika straight down and I'd never seen that before I started using the Partition. Not having to crawl about in the undergrowth for 4 hours looking for the bodies makes the extra expense of the Partition seem like a trivial thing. I've shot reds as well with both the Spire Point and the Partition though not enough to reach any conclusion but the last red hind I shot, with a Partition, went down so fast the stalker thought I'd shot her in the head :)

I think the truth is that nearly any cup and core bullet will perform in a similar manner for you and my advice would be to pick something that you can get a reliable supply of.
 
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