PPU Soft Point - performance on deer

[FoxAndDeer]

I bought some SP PPU recently for training ammo given it's cheaper than reloading. I was pleasantly surprised at the grouping - 1MOA and sub MOA on my 308 and 243 respectively.

Does any have experience of these bullets on deer? I am interested to hear of carcass damage / expansion performance from users before I use them on game.

 

[lochty]

They work just fine, bit of damage if you hit a shoulder, but net result is....dead deer. 7mm 08 with 140gr soft point. See my media "7mm 08 working well."

 

[ChesterP]

I used them once and they were fine. Little different to Sierra Game kings but in my rifle, 1.5" was the best grouping and approx one third of the box simply wouldn't chamber in 308 so I didn't use them again. If I buy ready mades it tends to be Sako these days.

 

[User00040]

I bought some SP PPU recently for training ammo given it's cheaper than reloading. I was pleasantly surprised at the grouping - 1MOA and sub MOA on my 308 and 243 respectively.

Does any have experience of these bullets on deer? I am interested to hear of carcass damage / expansion performance from users before I use them on game.

Check your drops out to 200m or better still 300m first.

 

[Kjf]

I bought some SP PPU recently for training ammo given it's cheaper than reloading. I was pleasantly surprised at the grouping - 1MOA and sub MOA on my 308 and 243 respectively.

Does any have experience of these bullets on deer? I am interested to hear of carcass damage / expansion performance from users before I use them on game.

It's all I use , I stock up on them, deer drop to the shot no mither

Kjf

 

[FoxAndDeer]

Check your drops out to 200m or better still 300m first.

Good advice. I rarely shoot above 100m due to the topology of the ground I have.

 

[IBD]

Hate them. Cheap for a reason imo.
Quality costs in all walks of life.

Used them in a .25-06 maybe a decade ago and shot a Sika spiker around 200 metres away. No reaction. Another shot, and it ran. Third shot from my friend with his sst killed it properly. The PPU hadn’t expanded and had pencilled through.

Just my view but I don’t like them and wouldn’t use again.

 

[FoxAndDeer]

Hate them. Cheap for a reason imo.
Quality costs in all walks of life.

Used them in a .25-06 maybe a decade ago and shot a Sika spiker around 200 metres away. No reaction. Another shot, and it ran. Third shot from my friend with his sst killed it properly. The PPU hadn’t expanded and had pencilled through.

Just my view but I don’t like them and wouldn’t use again.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

[tim@tcs]

Hate them. Cheap for a reason imo.
Quality costs in all walks of life.

Used them in a .25-06 maybe a decade ago and shot a Sika spiker around 200 metres away. No reaction. Another shot, and it ran. Third shot from my friend with his sst killed it properly. The PPU hadn’t expanded and had pencilled through.

Just my view but I don’t like them and wouldn’t use again.

Oddly enough I bought in 600 in 6.5 Swedish when I was guiding and never had one fail, they aren’t cheap, nothing is they are cheaper that’s all

 

[IBD]

Oddly enough I bought in 600 in 6.5 Swedish when I was guiding and never had one fail, they aren’t cheap, nothing is they are cheaper that’s all

Maybe was just me then I guess . £15 box is cheap and imo nasty.
Rather spend and have good quality that I know performs but again just my opinion

 

[tim@tcs]

If you aren’t shooting much then federal etc is a wise investment, I’ve had T3’s in that would only chamber federal so that one gets its fired brass reloaded once every couple of years!

Edited to add:

Privi brass is good quality but I have found some rifles have tight chambers when new, something I noticed years ago with military rifles which are the opposite to accommodate many variables in manufacturing

 

[.25-06]

Always 4-5 won't chamber out of a packet. Not particularly accurate and likely to pencil through unless clipping a big bone. They do go bang and should hit an a4 piece of paper

 

[tim@tcs]

Always 4-5 won't chamber out of a packet. Not particularly accurate and likely to pencil through unless clipping a big bone. They do go bang and should hit an a4 piece of paper

I’ve only recovered and weighed one out of that batch, all went through expanding reliably on the ribs/shoulder and left a good sized entry hole, tested on Roe and Fallow over nearly two years
The covered one was dug out of the spine after the trainee stalker got confused over front and back when the deer was quartering away!

 

[Namman]

I bought some SP PPU recently for training ammo given it's cheaper than reloading. I was pleasantly surprised at the grouping - 1MOA and sub MOA on my 308 and 243 respectively.

Does any have experience of these bullets on deer? I am interested to hear of carcass damage / expansion performance from users before I use them on game.

A mate of mine has used .308 PPU on fallow for years. It's all he uses, never needed to change and has shot hundreds.

 

[Donk1]

I bought some SP PPU recently for training ammo given it's cheaper than reloading. I was pleasantly surprised at the grouping - 1MOA and sub MOA on my 308 and 243 respectively.

Does any have experience of these bullets on deer? I am interested to hear of carcass damage / expansion performance from users before I use them on game.

Yes worked well on munjack and roe with 90gr in 243 and 150 gr on fallow bucks no problem

 

[Koenig]

Always found their .308 150 grain OK in my 20” barrel Tikka. 1 inch groups all day long at 100m. They can in my opinion/experience cause 10-15% more meat damage than other more premium brands particularly if they go through dense bone like the shoulder. I don’t use them so much these days but would do if my LGS stocked them.

 

[User00040]

I bought some SP PPU recently for training ammo given it's cheaper than reloading. I was pleasantly surprised at the grouping - 1MOA and sub MOA on my 308 and 243 respectively.

Does any have experience of these bullets on deer? I am interested to hear of carcass damage / expansion performance from users before I use them on game.

PPU is pooh-poohed by some on here, but exceeding popular the world over and for good reason.

@Edinburgh Rifles uses their brass in the Fox line of ammo.

PPU also have a new lead free offering in 308 (although it seems a tad heavy, perhaps for boar and other European big game?) PPU Lead Free for 308

I'm sure if all the RFD's were to put a new label on and charge £80+ for a box of the same ammo, we would be told by the 'select few' that PPU suddenly is much better than the 'cheap crap' Norma, Sako, Lapua etc...

 

[JTO]

Check your drops out to 200m or better still 300m first.

If I zero Samson 180gr at 300 yards out of my Steyr SSG, PPU 168?gr match will be constantly about a foot low and a foot to the right with the same aiming point.

 

[tim@tcs]

If I zero Samson 180gr at 300 yards out of my Steyr SSG, PPU 168?gr match will be constantly about a foot low and a foot to the right with the same aiming point.

I have found similar issues with.308 using GGG and FNB ball ammo at 600 yards!
Unfortunately I preferred the FNB, which I can no longer find but if I had to use the GGG it’s only a simple re zeroing and both batches were NATO STANAG compliant and headstamped with cross in circle! It’s nothing new or unexpected the GGG printed top left of the target screen at 600!

 

[Edinburgh Rifles]

PPU bullets are good
Slightly softer and more prone to terminal erosion than some “harder” bonded or “locked” lead core, exposed soft point bullets.

Terminal effect on deer is very good
I have used them extensively in .222 as they shot so well I couldn’t reload for the same cost.

The only observation is that PPU size their brass to the upper limit of the CIP chamber spec.
Consequently if you have a tight chamber cut to the lower spec of the CIP dimensions, you may find pressure when closing the bolt.
In practice this matters not.
The loads are no-where near max and the subsequent shot usually presents no issues and will extract just fine.

We use vIrgin PPU brass in both Fox and Peregrine Factory ammo as it is one of the few brands available in a wide range of Sporting cartridges that can be purchased trade and in volume.
It keeps the price down in what is otherwise a small volume ammunition production