300 rum load for black bear hunting

[MSANTAQUIN]

I have decided to go on a black bear hunt in Alaska for the 2nd time I was not successful either hunts I attribute the second trip failure to bullet malfunction .
I loaded a 180 grn Hornady SST bullet 93 grn. H1000 powder ,which should have been traveling 3150 fps. However when the bullet hit the bear at 200 yards, In the shoulder I had a very small wound channel and was not able to recover the bear . What did i do wrong...

 

[Derek M.]

I have decided to go on a black bear hunt in Alaska for the 2nd time I was not successful either hunts I attribute the second trip failure to bullet malfunction .
I loaded a 180 grn Hornady SST bullet 93 grn. H1000 powder ,which should have been traveling 3150 fps. However when the bullet hit the bear at 200 yards, In the shoulder I had a very small wound channel and was not able to recover the bear . What did i do wrong...

You took the most **** poor hunting bullet on the market in my opinion. I will never ever use an SST bullet. I took a buddy to TX and he used a 308, 150 SST factory loads for a pronghorn. Blew a hole the size of a foot ball on the entry side and simply took off the meat and skin. Didn't even break bone or penetrate more than flesh deep.

Even though I've killed blackbears with Bergers, Swift Sciroccos, Barnes TTSX, and Accubonds, I've not lost one. My favorite bear bullet is the Swift Scirocco 180 grain in 30 cal. The first bonded plastic tipped mass produced bullet for hunting and it flat out works. I have about 300 loaded in the safe for my 300 RUM with Re25. I used Re22 with the same bullet in my 30.06 which has now accounted for a half dozen blackbears.

Don't ever use the SST bullet. Just my 2 cents.

 

[MSANTAQUIN]

Is there a advantage to shooting a bonded bullet over a soft point or core lockt bullet for greater expansion /bullet re tension ? I have had luck with factory core lockt bullets on many elk however when I started to reload ammo it seemed to be a better fit to move to a bonded bullet.

 

[trebark]

Have to agree with Derek. The rapid expansion, tipped bullets are absolutely terrible. To provide another anecdote, my nephew shot a whitetail at 335yards with a 130grain SST out of his 270 right before dusk (and I mean moments before it was too dark to see). At the shot, I watched the deer hit the ground. In the few moments it took us to high-five and celebrate it was too dark to see. We gathered our gear and walked out to get the deer. It was gone! We searched and searched, then returned the following day and searched and searched. No blood! nothing! That bullet his the deer in the ribs and knocked it down. Then it just got back up and walked away! Lesson: NEVER use SST (or Nosler Ballistic Tip) bullets...EVER.

As to whether there is an advantage of a bonded bullet over a soft-point, it depends. If you're shooting a thin skinned animal like a whitetail or a pronghorn, I would (and have) have no problem shooting them with a soft-point bullet. If I were going after something tougher (like elk or bear) that required great penetration, I would opt for a tougher bullet like a bonded bullet, barnes solid, or berger VLD or hybrid.

 

[Derek M.]

Is there a advantage to shooting a bonded bullet over a soft point or core lockt bullet for greater expansion /bullet re tension ? I have had luck with factory core lockt bullets on many elk however when I started to reload ammo it seemed to be a better fit to move to a bonded bullet.

You would have found your bear DRT, in my opinion, had you used a plain jane Hornady Interlok bullet with a lead tip. Those bullets remind me of the old Nosler Solid base. The Interlok and Remmy Coreloct peel back to the cannelure usually with a perfect mushroom.

Regarding Nos btips, well, I have a different opinion. I love 'em. I've never had one fail or come close. I used a 150 from my newly built 280 Remington on my mule deer back in November. It's only traveling 2750 at the muzzle with VV powder but in my experience, that's the key to success with the btip. Slow 'em down and lob them at the animal then watch 'em hit the ground:

Here he is the day before I killed him:

 

[MSANTAQUIN]

Speaking about Great expansion of bullet tips ,One of the best wound channel I ever experienced was on a Elk hunt in the fall of 2011 . My friend of many years ,and I woke up to 2.5 feet of snow . We started our journey to the top of a back buster hill about 1.5 miles vertical. Upon cresting the summit we encountered the elk herd that had vacated the area However their was one straggler that had decided to mosey around . My friend put the sneak on him ,chased him to the end of the last possible tiers of the mountain . He had two 220 gn Winches tor factory load silver tips in his 300 win mag in his gun he managed to make a great shot leaving this elk throwing blood in a 20 foot radius from the initial shot the elk expired in less than 20 yards .. Then the work began getting him to base camp 8 hours later.
I have spent 2 years searching for 220 winches tor silver tips and can not find them anywhere. I have herd that they discontinued them but they would be a great bullet to bring back to the market.

 

[Derek M.]

Yes, the silver tip was a very good bullet, just like the Nosler Solid base. The fact and proof is, if you are not focused on stretching your shots out there, most of the proven bullets will meet your needs in hunting scenarios where you are shooting 300-400 yards such as the partition, Aframe, Northfork, (to name some fancy ones), then the REGULAR Hornady interlock lead tipped bullets, Remmy corelokt, Sciroccos, Accubonds, Accutips, Interbonds, etc will do just fine. Among my favorite boring killers is the good old Speer bullets. I use to load the 150s, both boat tail and flat base in my 270 for me and my brother. Though we killed everything cleanly with them for years, like I wrote, they basically got boring.

The Swift Scirocco is my favorite plastic tipped bonded bullet. Pure copper, pure led, never a breaking tip problem like Nosler had with their accubonds. Expensive but noteworthy.

 

[HARPERC]

The old 220 Silvertip was a good 30 caliber bullet. For me the 30's come into their own beginning at 200 grains. Currently using 200 Accubond, but there are others that will meet or beat its performance depending on how they are used. The Swift 180 is a decent bullet we never got one to blow up in a test box, even point blank. Great expansion even at longer range, but they never penetrated well for us. Flatten out nearly like a washer and stop.

 

[Derek M.]

The Swift 180 is a decent bullet we never got one to blow up in a test box, even point blank. Great expansion even at longer range, but they never penetrated well for us. Flatten out nearly like a washer and stop.

Interesting. All my 30 cal 180 Swift Sciroccos blew through every bear, even shoulder on 2 of them. I've never seen what a spent Scirocco looks like.

 

[HARPERC]

I sent mine to Riley (barnesuser28) awhile back when he was looking at different bullets. If he sees this maybe he'll post some pics. I don't do the picture stuff yet so I sent them to him when he was curious. If not PM him and he'll likely send you a picture. I pulled one from a BC mule deer at around 600 yards, hit twice first one a quartering toward shot mistimed the strides, slid under the off side shoulder without hitting much, turned the buck to a straight on shot, second shot actually entered the first hole, buck dropped in his tracks. Snowing, cold, etc. didn't look for the bullet. Scored the first one a miss until we were cutting meat, Checked the cape one entry hole. Couldn't do that again on a bet. 300 H&H just a hair under 3100fps if memory serves. He might have a 190 Hornady in there as well, separated jacket and core, found together, small Nevada mule deer almost broadside 50-60 yards, same rifle right at 3000fps. It always amazes me the full range of performance different folks find with the "same" product.