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Best deer bullet - LRRPF52 - 08-13-2013

I also think this is a good time to bring up the differences in animal weight, which generally is based on the region you live in. Up here in the Rockies, we have some fairly large mule deer.

In UT, we have a lot of monster bucks-heck, we have some pretty large does. When I was a kid living up in the mountains, we had this double-height chain link fence in the backyard. There were several deer that loved to forage in our neighbor's back yard, and they literally pranced through our yard, then hopped that fence like it wasn't even there. Beautiful, powerful, elegant creatures. I also remember hiking often way up into the Wasatch Range, playing Army. While hiding, I would hear almost a galloping sound thundering the ground, only to be swiftly bypassed by a herd of deer up the mountain.

[Image: 11-15-06-Deer-on-Dickinson-Hill-Gar-Co-8.jpg]

My experience living in the Northwest was there were mule and white tail. We had a monster on Fort Lewis who liked to live in the impact areas. When we got M4's in 1997, I was on a Qualification Range when a well-known monster buck showed up right in my lane just past the 300m pop-up targets, and a cease-fire was called. One of the NCO's running the range walked all the way to the edge of the 300m range, and through an MRE at him to get him to scare off, but he only flexed his muscles in an intimidating manner to let the NCO know he was the Alpha here (much chuckling and comments ensued from the firing line), and the NCO was looking up at him, that's how big he was. I think they called him Mufassa or something of the sorts (It's as if he knew we weren't allowed to shoot him). WA Dept. of Wildlife will say Mule bucks weigh up to 250lbs, but that beast was likely 400lbs easy.

When I lived in the Maine, riding by motorboat to and from the islands, I saw these strange creatures swimming ever so swiftly in the water between isles. I was surprised to learn they were deer, leaving whatever island that had a hunter on it for greener pastures on another. They are powerful swimmers. There are some monster bucks up in the Northeast as well, easily exceeding 350 lbs.

[Image: deer-swimming2.jpg]

Down in North Carolina, the white tail tended to be smaller, at 100-200lbs range.

The questions then become:

* What are the species like in my area?
* What do they generally weigh-in at?
* Do I have doe tags, or buck, or both? Doe weights can average ~40% lighter than males.
* Am I looking for a rapid energy transfer or "shock" approach, or a complete pass-through?

I think these questions should help drive bullet selection, but being able to practice with a decent bullet is more important than finding a "magic" one. That's the lure of the SST.

Best deer bullet - JASmith - 08-13-2013

This chart might be useful for the discussion. Several bullets of interest to the Grendel hunter open at significantly lower velocities than the 2,000 fps shown in the caption. The weights are what the algorithm gives, and should be fuzzed by a plus or minus 10% factor:
[Image: BulletWeightsforMediumGame.jpg]
You can read the rest of the caveats and how the chart was built in this discussion: Ideal Bullet Weight.

Best deer bullet - cory - 08-13-2013

toolsofthetrade Wrote:I like the 100gr Ttsx and the 105 interbond (made by sneakyone here) both loaded with 8208, but think the 123 sst should be a solid performer a well

Do you mind sharing what load you use with those 100gr TTSX?