Good ammo suggestions for hunting

[BIGR]

What time I was not using my reloads, I used Federal Fusions (30.06) 180 Grain Bullets. Never lost a deer to that combination.

[Todd1700]

We have all heard the saying, "You get what you pay for."

Here's another saying, "There's a sucker born every minute." LOL!

By that I mean a lot of people have been duped into believing that they need really expensive ammo to hunt deer. You don't. In fact what you are typically paying more for in that expensive ammo is not increased reliability or greater accuracy but simply a more complicated bullet design that costs the manufacturer more to produce. In my experience the expensive stuff is no more likely to shoot accurately out of a given rifle than the cheap stuff. Every rifle is it's own unique entity in that regard. And often the bullets loaded in the premium ammo are actually designed for much bigger and tougher animals than deer. That being the case they often don't expand as much on smaller critters like deer. Penetration is great but I don't want to just punch a caliber size hole through a deer.

I don't know squat about elk, moose or caribou. Never killed a single one. But I've killed way over 100 whitetails with lots of different bullets. And what I've learned is that a standard lead tipped cup and core type bullet is all you need to kill the biggest whitetail that ever lived. If your rifle will group cor-Lokts well then they will serve you just fine. I've killed a dump truck load of deer with them. Never had one fail to go off when I pulled the trigger or fail to kill a deer if I put it where it needed to go.

Other fairly inexpensive bullets you might try if your rifle doesn't happen to like Cor-Lokts would be Winchester Power Points, Hornady Interlocks, or Federal Fusions.

[Gunplummer]

If you do a lot of hunting and cut up your own deer, eventually you will find out that a lot of the bullets sold to reload fly worse than factory bullets and do not perform that well when they hit. Bullet performance and bullet sales are a tangled web produced by urban legends and rumors for the most part. There is nothing wrong with reloading, I am a fan myself, but reloading has caused more problems than it ever solved. Some of the new factory ammunition is really accurate.

[Art Eatman]

Gunplummer, the factories have come a long way, these last sixty years. One reason I got into reloading, as had my father and uncle, was to have sub-MOA ammo. The factories now can provide that.

Performance? The Eatman family experience has been right at 100% with Hornady, Sierra and Remington bullets and DuPont powder.

Problems? I admit to having loaded some bullets a bit long for the chamber, one time, but that was one box of twenty out of somewhere above 6,000 rounds or more of centerfire rifle ammo.

[kraigwy]

I reload so I cant based this on experience, but looking at the stores here, and what (factory ammo) I see people carry in the field, Core Lokts are the most poplular ammo in this Part of Wyoming. I hang around a lot of shooters and hunters, I havent heard of it failing.

After having said that, I'll venture to add that any factory ammo (assuming the proper bullet weight for the critters you are hunting) will suit you just fine.

[TX Hunter]

I have used a 3006 for years, My favorite cartridge for Deer and Hog sized game is the Remington 180 Grain Coreloct.
I have fed my family many a backstrap, and pork chop, that fell to that round.

[22-rimfire]

I use 150 gr Core Lokt bullets in my 270 win for whitetail deer. They work everytime. Choices along these lines are often about how "into" the sport you are. I honestly seldom shoot my 270 win other than before deer season to check the scope and ammunition. I prefer to shoot smaller calibers for fun.

[James R. Burke]

I will adimit most good factory ammo will work just fine for hunting, and it keeps getting better. I reload for several reasons. The main one is it's a great hobby, and fun to do. I like getting the c.o.l. correct for each rifle that does makes a big differnce on accuaracy, finding the best powder for what I am using it for, and of course the bullet selection. But that is just myself, and there are very good factory made rounds out there, and a good selection of them. If I was not into reloading I would have no problem using factory made. It's also nice when you do take a big game animal with a load you made, knowing you created it.

[TMUSCLE1]

Man I like hearing this! Thanks guys. I actually just sited in my rifle this past weekend and the 150 grain Core Lokts grouped about 1.5" due to my fault. I'm going to practice more this offseason...but it is making me more confident in the bullet choice that I made and the success it has had in the past.

[ZeroJunk]

I've shot a lot of deer and seen a lot more shot. I think bullet performance on deer is over exaggerated as W would say. I think the reason Core Locts have a reputation is because so many of them have been used . I've never heard a claimed bullet failure with a lot of these bullets, but then I've never known anybody to use them.

I've used Hornady Interlock, Barnes X, Sierra Game Kings, Nosler Partitions, Speer... Other than the original Barnes X that didn't expand enough I couldn't tell any difference in any of them.

IOW I don't think I had any results with one that would have differed substantially from another.


Now obviously, big bears, cape buffalo, or such are a different ball game.

As far as reloading, I get some satisfaction out of making my own more than any particular belief that store bought wouldn't work fine.

[Deerhunter]

Maybe I missed it but I don't think anyone gave you info on slugs for your 12 gauge yet. If you have a rifled slug barrel go with the Hornady SSTs. They shoot flat and have great knock down power. My buddy and I got into those a couple years ago and I wont shoot anything else. Real nice, they are a little expensive at $13 for a box of 5 but worth it.

[Honda4me]

I had some Winchester Supreme 150gr. Ballistic Silverstrip which worked great but I stopped by a pawn shop on my way to the range one day and saw they had a special on HSM "Police Ammunition" for $9.99 a box. This was a few years ago by the way. Anyway I bought a box of their 165 gr. SPBT bullets to try out and put three of their bullets touching each other at 100 yards and then a few others that went outside of them a little.

I went back to the pawn shop and bought the remaining 4 boxes which was all they had. I have taken several deer with this bullet over the last few years and each was a one shot drop dead right there. The range was 75 yards or less with this bullet but I wouldn't hesitate to take a shot out to 200 yards with the accuracy of this bullet in my Colt Light Rifle.

[Jack O'Conner]

My older Glenfield carbine shoots 150 grain Remington ammo BEST of all! The jacket is thin at front but much thicker at rear of crimped belt. RESULT: rapid expansion and adequate penetration (for deer).

Core-lockt bullets are worth every penny!!

Jack