Favorite Bullet

[AR-180]

What bullet is your favorite? Please also include your typical use for the bullet.

[rickt300]

120 grain Barnes Matchburner. Target and anything else that comes along.

[SDguy]

120 grain Barnes Matchburner. Target and anything else that comes along.

If price per bullet was not a factor Id go with the 87 grain Absolute Hammer for deer hunting with 6mm ARC. Despite lack of load data load work up was quite simple to accomplish good velocity & Accuracy with a 22" bolt action CZ527. Real life hunting experience for me is limited to two deer taken so far. quite a few other bullets are neck & neck with the Absolute Hammer or perhaps better than if price per bullet is a factor.

[Zeneffect]

Berger 130gr hybrid. 1000lbs of energy at 500 yards and tack driving accuracy? Yes sir

[603Country]

For the Grendel, my favorite bullet would be the 100 gr Nosler BT at approx 2600 fps, but since I can’t get them, I’m pretty happy with the 123 gr SST at approx 2400 fps.I’d like a bit more velocity, and I have a long happy deer hunting history with the 100 gr Nosler’s.

That said, I’ll probably hunt deer this season with my 260 and the 120 gr Nosler BTs and switch later to the Grendel for pigs and coyotes.

[Double Naught Spy]

For the Grendel, 90 gr. TNT if using a lead bullet. I use them for everything from rodents to 330 lb hogs.

[603Country]

I’d happily shoot that 90 gr TNT, if I could find some. You must have bought a bunch of them some time back.

[cagray07]

110 Gr. Makers

[Harpoon1]

For the Grendel, 90 gr. TNT if using a lead bullet. I use them for everything from rodents to 330 lb hogs.

DNS

Any plans on testing the new Sierra 105 Blitzking?

[River]

90 grain TNT is a good bullet. Worked well on a large bodied 7 point. I can't get anymore so I settled on the 123 grain SST.

Thanks!

[CazadorBob]

120 grain Barnes Match Burners for target, 110 grain Controlled Chaos for hunting. Knocks blacktail deer down quite well.

[DeNinny]

I like the Barnes 120gr Match Burner and Hornady 123gr SST equally. Mostly for target shooting. The Match Burner is slightly more accurate but I like that I can load the SST with either TAC or Varget with equally good results.

[DIANEB]

Barnes 120gr match burners with 26.5 grains of Benchmark or 28.5 grains of A2520 450s or BR-4s Starline brass OAL 2.260...
Same load with Hornady 120gr ELD-M...
Both group under .50 inches at 100 yards...

[kmon]

Accuracy loads for me use130gr Berger Hybrid, favorite hunting 129gr Nosler LRAB

[tlen]

Speer 90 gr TNT.
They are currently unavailable. Speer says it has not been discontinued but it is not a popular bullet. Apparently only "popular" bullets are being produced. Unfortunately there is no schedule for when the 90 gr TNT will be available.

[kmon]

Speer 90 gr TNT.
They are currently unavailable. Speer says it has not been discontinued but it is not a popular bullet. Apparently only "popular" bullets are being produced. Unfortunately there is no schedule for when the 90 gr TNT will be available.

So popular they sell out!!! I keep seeing posts other places that the ammo and component shortages are over and for the top 10 or 15 cartridges that may be true but load selection i them is way down. Until I see reloading components available to us that are the normally limited run items the shortage is not over IMO.

[tlen]

So popular they sell out!!! I keep seeing posts other places that the ammo and component shortages are over and for the top 10 or 15 cartridges that may be true but load selection i them is way down. Until I see reloading components available to us that are the normally limited run items the shortage is not over IMO.

It's obvious the powers at Speer have decided everyone wants 140 gr deer hunting bullets. I can't recall when 90 gr TNTs were last available.

[stef1274]

It has always fascinated me how softer bullets at higher velocities are so popular for hunting in North America. I still don't get it, but my frame of reference is limited to hunting of African game. Apart from monolithics now, we have always seen slower and heavier working better on game. Fast and light often not working at all.

I grew up with 175gr soft out of a 7x57 at 2400fps being a nice impala calibre (impala are a bit smaller than whitetails afaik). Wildebeest, gemsbok and the like being hungrier for something like 220gr out of a 30-06. .243 Winchester with a 100gr at 3000fps being suited mostly only for springbok at long ranges, with some land owners banning hunting with 6mm altogether. Almost never would a hunter use a bullet such as a ballistic tip type here. Except perhaps Creedmoor hunters who see an animal for the first time in their lives at 35 over a heavy barelled chassis monstrosity.

And I can attest that my field experience agrees with the above. I have personally seen a Gemsbok shaking a 180gr interlocked bullet on the shoulder from a 308 at about 60 paces, only to be found weakened, over a week later, with infection in the flesh wound. I have also tracked an impala for over 150m, and a wildebeest for about 300m, both with solid hits on top part of heart out of 308. Not to even start talking about warthog in dense bush. Kudu, as a bit of an anomaly, have always seemed a bit "soft" in commparison.

Curious what it is that I am missing.

Edit: As far as my favourite bullet for 6.5 Grendel; that I don't know yet. I am still to go for my first hunt with it, as it is in gunshop holding pending my license approval. I suspect that it would be either 129gr Hornady Interlock or 130gr Nosler Accubond. Both loaded for first range tests end of the month. But for any hoofed animals barring springbok, I can't see it being lighter than 120gr, and either a bonded, interlocked or monolithic design.

[Fess]

It has always fascinated me how softer bullets at higher velocities are so popular for hunting in North America.

In the US, bullet preference really depends on where in the country and when. In many heavily wooded places, a 100m shot is a long one, so high velocity was not important. One of the most popular traditional cartridges was the 30-30 with a 170 grain (11 gram) bullet. I know many long-time hunters who have never killed an animal at over 150m. In fact, quite a lot of deer and hogs have been killed by shotguns.

Killing an animal at short range does not make for interesting reading, however, so most articles in magazines were about longer-ranged hunting. In other words, although a majority of animals were shot at short range, you would not realize it if you just read the magazines and books.

There are, however, many places, especially in the Western US, where 400m (440 yard) shots are fairly common. Until the advent of laser rangefinders less than 20 years ago, the hunters in those areas tended to use lighter, higher velocity loads to minimize bullet drop, just in case they misestimated the range. American cartridges tended to be designed with relatively slow twist for the light-for-caliber bullets that were popular. For much of my life, velocity and flat trajectory was considered more important than bullet weight. Pretty much the last cartridges designed in that era were the early 2000's Short-Magnums like the WSM and SAUM series. A popular factory load for the 300 WSM was only 150 grains (9.7 grams), for example. Only in the last 10-15 years have heavier bullets become popular again in the US. The 6.5 Creedmoor, introduced in 2007 helped start that change.

For a historical perspective, I suspect that the fondness for velocity in the US dates back the the introduction of the 270 Winchester in 1925. The Weatherby Magnums of the 1940's continued this trend. The combination of relatively high velocity and sufficient bullet diameter resulted in a lot of kills where the animals fell to the ground and didn't run, sometimes referred to as "DRT" (Dead Right There). We now know that the higher velocity of impact tended to create a large enough temporary cavity that the animal was stunned for a short time, not immediately killed. With proper bullet placement, though, the animal would die before regaining mobility, which provided the same result.

[treed]

As a hunter I am partial to the Speer 120 gr Gold Dot with the 123gr SST a close 2nd.