roe deer bullet choice

please choose


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bullets

I don't differentiate bullets for different animals. In 7mm08 i use speers 145gr spitzer. in 30-06 i will use thier 165 gr spitzer. in 243 i will use 80 gr soft points for foxing
 
soft point 150gn in .308 for deer stalking.
hollow point 85 gn .243 for general use/just mooching around (munty/fox and maybe roe).
ballistic silvertip 55gn .243 for planned foxing/ lamping near livestock.
 
In 6.5 it will be a Hornady 129 gr Interlocks, in .243 it will be a 100 gr Speer HPBT and it .222 it will be a 50 gr Sierra Game King. That is because they are the loads I am working through at the minute. I have also loaded 140 and 165 Hornady for my 6.5, I have 105 gr Sierra and 100 grain Hornady loaded for the .243 and they will get their turn.

John

Forgot I have some 95 gr Nosler partition loasde for the .243 as well.
 
243 Remington AccuTip 100 grains at 90 yards are to be avoided, it blew up on the shoulder, turned 180 and exited 4" from entry point. Small cut to heart, bruise on lung and green all thorough carcase.

The backstop was safe, I was standing beside the stalker and in the forestop that clearly wasn't safe!
 
In my 6.5x55's I have settled on Sierra 120 grain for Fox, muntjac, roe and fallow. These give a flat enough trajectory (+1.2" at 100 and -1.1" at 200) and are effective without meat damage.
100 grain sierras in my .243 give very similar performance.
 
bullets

Thanks guys that was an interesting exercise. i bet that we all use our choice because in our minds they are the best. We a;; have our own experience es as well.

Maybe we can say that they are all pretty good and fit for purpose?

steve
 
RWS 100gn softpoint in .243 - I find very accurate, but doesn't give me the thump that I want to knock Roe over immediately - most run a few to 20 / 30yds after heart / lung shot. Its possibly a bit soft a bullet as it does seem to cause a lot of carcass damage - but thats probably a function of high velocity (3,050 fps according to the box) and close range of most of my shots (40 yds)

Some have suggested going to a bigger calibre, others have said go down to 80gn softpoint. Others have said that the above is normal for heart / lung (inclined to agree) and if you want certain drop on the spot then head / neck shot is the only certainty (again inclined to agree but don't like to use unless very stable and certain).

But still have 40 rds of the RWS and it does its job, and its legal for use on hinds as well, so will keep using until I have the time to try some other brands. But it clover leafs with three shots and I haven't had to adjust the sights in ten years so why bother changing.
 
my findings

Heym,
I agree with you about the .243's knock down power. i have also got a 7mm08 and a .30-06. i get less damage and more instant death with both of them. i think you are right on the velocity thing. If you step up in velocity and down in wieght you will get more meat damage and less knockdown and dead.

That RWS brass is excellant though.

steve
 
Thanks Steve

Does anybody do a bigger than 100gn bullet for the .243 / 6mm - say 110gn, thus giving a bit more knckdown. Even the 100gn is still quite a short bullet when compared to say the 140gn 6.5mm or the 176gn 7mm.

Certainly I would have thought there is plenty of case capacity to shove something out at respectible velocities.

Many thanks

Heym SR20
 
heavy .243

The problem that we have when going up above 100 gr in .243 win is accuracy. most rifles have barrels with 1 in 10 twist rate this makes 100 gr about as heavy as they will spin nicely. My ruger has a 1;8 twist rate and that struggles with speer 105gr spitzers.

There are some specialist barrels which are good for the heavier 6mm bullets but then you have cost and they are less suitable for the lighter bullets that are commonly available.

I would suggest you go for a bigger calibre. but many people have shot lots of deer with .243 win and they will tell you it is fine.

I use 145gr 7mm08 on all deer. They are all as dead.

swampy
 
after some advice. i use remmington accutip 75 grns due to alot of my shooting is for foxes. have shot roe with them but tend to take head/neck shots. are these to light for heart/lung shots, would they tend to fragment to quickly and cause exessive carcass damage, because there is not much left of foxes when shot in the chest. anythoughts would be greatfully received
thanks
jonathon
 
varminting bullet

The 75gr accutip is a varminting bullet. It is designed for immediate and massive expansion and fragmentation on small quarry. It is unsuitable for use on deer. It will not provide sufficient penetration and it may even just reemove a large "scab" of flesh on the surface. I would suggest go as heavy as you can in a soft point in .243 or maybe one of the Nosler HUNTING ballistic tips. they have a far more robust construction and are designed for a more controlled expansion.

i think .243win with the 70-75gr bullets is a very very good foxing round


steve
 
heavy .243 JAYB, your input would be welcome

Hornady do a 105 gr a-max this is a hunting bullet as opposed to a Vmax which is a varminting bullet.

This is a boat tailed design. I believe that the amount of bullet shank bearing on the barrel is what really makes the difference with twist rates. with this being boat tailed it takes a portion from the bearing area. I wonder if this might be better than a straight shanked bullet like the speer hotcor in getting the best for yourwieght for your twist rate?
 
dual rolls

I use hornady 2450 100 gr interlock for both. They are a bit less flat shooting than some lighter bullets but at 200 yards you are only talking 3 inches drop, so it you zero an inch high thats only 2 inches below your point of aim at 200 yards. the foxes are going to be just as dead. it also means that you don't need to change your zero between different uses.

The amax's boat tailed design theoretically makes it better at longer ranges. and it's wieght will make it slightly better in wind. That new hodgdon 100v or retumbo will still push it out at towards 3000 fps. that is quite a good speed!

steve
 
This is getting very interesting, I think you will find that a boat tail bullet and and a straight shanked bullet will spin at exactly the same speed, the amount of bearing surface will make no difference to the spin rate. The reason for the introduction of A-max and Vmax was to change the shape, the longer bullet giving greater accuracy.

So I think that the bearing surface will make no difference as the spin imparted will be the same, but the A-max, having the same mass but a different shape (longer) will provide greater accuracy, all of this of course in theory. I say this as I have known two of the same rifle shoot 105 grain bullets differently one no good the other good.

A .243 100gr bullet that is accurate in your gun, zeroed to give a point blank range of 3-4 inches around the 200 yard mark, just like swampy said, makes a very capable rifle IMHO.

John
 
thanks again guys. been looking on remington website and compared the two accutip rounds the 75 accutip v and the 95 grn acctu tip but is not boat tail. am i still going down the wrong path by just going for a heavier bullet and still sticking to the same design of bullet. i like these remington bullets because they gruop very well thrugh my t3.
jonathon
 
accutip

the 95 gr accutip is a hunting not a varmint bullet. it will be fine for your deer shooting. don't get tangled up in this boat tail thing, i know it's my fault for bringing it up. All i shoot are conventional flat base bullets. it really is personal preferance. I bought up that hornady bullet as it is one of the biggest 6mm bullets out there. I wondered if the boat tail design made its lower proportion of shank in contact with the barrel better with heavy bullets stabalisation with marginal twist rates, JAYB has confirmed that is not the case.

but the bottom line is them 75g bullets are not suitable. I am glad this has been explored as i am sure varmint bullets are used far more often than they should be,

steve
 
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