Bullet selection is driving me nuts....

[Colin78]

I feel like a dog chasing its tail. Lol

I have always been a Nosler Ballistic Tip guy and they have done very well for me, but I have been wanting to step up my long range game for hunting so I have been researching bullets with a better BC and maybe that holds up better on game, because it's seems that is what everyone is talking about now right..... But it seems that just when I think I have found one that I will try then I find all these bad reviews, which I know, obviously, no matter what you research you will find issues. I also know I am way over thinking this, as I do with most things in life, and I should just pick something and go with it.

I thought I had decided on Barnes LRX, yea I know, there BC is not good, but lots of folks rave about Barnes bullets and this is there long range bullet. So I tried it them out this year and wasn't overly impressed.

So I thought ok, I love Nosler bullets, I'm looking for good BC, something that holds together well, so I'll try the accubond long range. Well crude, there are more bad reviews on them than good.

In all my research it seems like Berger bullets always come up. Yes there are some bad reviews, but when I dig into them, it seems that most are blaming it on a plugged tip, and those that insure the tips are cleaned out, some are even drilling them out, have great luck. What gets me here is it seems lots of people, with seemingly with lots of experience, recommend the target bullets for hunting. What? I even had a very well known and experienced nilgai guide highly recommend 215 Berger Hybrid Target bullets for nilgai over accubonds and Barnes. I trust this guy as he is very successful with his clients who often shoot his rifle with those bullets. And nilgai are probably, IMO, some of the toughest, thickest skinned, animals in North America.

I honestly don't know why I'm rambling on about this, I'm sure most of you are thinking just pick something that shoots great out of my rifle and go with it. But I kinda want to start with a great bullet and go from there.

Anyone else going thru this chasing of the tail trying to pick a hunting bullet?

Any thoughts or recommendations?

Not that it really matters but I'm currently messing with my 7 SAUM, 28 Nosler, and 300 WM.

 

[cajun]

How far are you going to shoot?

 

[Colin78]

How far are you going to shoot?

That's the other problem, I'd like a bullet that works well at all distances. I'd say most of my shots on game are under 200 but I certainly don't want to be limited to short distance. If that was the case I'd just stick with my ol Balistic tips.

 

[cajun]

Yeah. The regular Accubonds are good to 400 or so. Once you get out farther bullet consistency becomes an issue. Bryan
Litz posted on FB about a study on Sd due to velocity variation and bullet bc variation. Pretty eye opener. For 600-1000 you need a well made bullet. To me thats a Berger but I dont like them for short to medium range. The ABLR can be finicky but I might give that a go.

 

[Hard rock]

You need too check out the HAMMER bullets

 

[Colin78]

You need too check out the HAMMER bullets

I actually have in my 28. Shot an axis buck, pencil in pencil out with very little blood loss. He ran a good ways and we got very lucky we found him. Stopped using them after that.

 

[Hard rock]

Your the first I have have ever heard that from , I have not ever seen a HAMMER bullet fail at any distance as long as the impact vel is 1800 fps or more .

 

[Calvin45]

Closest thing I can think of to a true all game all range bullet is the federal trophy bonded tip or newer terminal ascent.

 

[snox801]

I switched everything over form nosler and Hornady and berger to hammers.
I've killed well over 1000 hogs somewhere close to 50 audad, and over 100 deer and many other critters in between.
Large and small. They were the first bullet that did it all for me.
Also keep in mind you need to take the min FPS the bullet will open find that distance for a given cartridge. Then compare them. Bc is not the whole story. Take my 6.5 creed for example. I was shooting 147 eld out of it. Then did load work with hammers. After comparing using the min FPS the hammers actually had about 40 more yards over the eld when they hit min FPS.
So I was causing high bc when it didn't matter for hunting. Keep in mind I've had both work lower than that but we need a constant when comparing. Hammers definitely work much lower if say 1200fps and hornady also do.

 

[snox801]

Red deer taken last week with a 97gr hammer out of a 6.5 grendel.
Went maybe 20 yards have taken things out past 400 with this setup but don't wanna push my luck with suck a little round.

 

[GLTaylor]

X2 for Hammers. Consistent and lethal. MANY deer

 

[cajun]

I switched everything over form nosler and Hornady and berger to hammers.
I've killed well over 1000 hogs somewhere close to 50 audad, and over 100 deer and many other critters in between.
Large and small. They were the first bullet that did it all for me.
Also keep in mind you need to take the min FPS the bullet will open find that distance for a given cartridge. Then compare them. Bc is not the whole story. Take my 6.5 creed for example. I was shooting 147 eld out of it. Then did load work with hammers. After comparing using the min FPS the hammers actually had about 40 more yards over the eld when they hit min FPS.
So I was causing high bc when it didn't matter for hunting. Keep in mind I've had both work lower than that but we need a constant when comparing. Hammers definitely work much lower if say 1200fps and hornady also do.

Thats $1400 in bullets lol.

 

[Calvin45]

I actually have in my 28. Shot an axis buck, pencil in pencil out with very little blood loss. He ran a good ways and we got very lucky we found him. Stopped using them after that.

That's not good to hear…what particular projectile, distance, muzzle velocity, and shot placement? If yuu don't mind my asking. Not being interrogating at all, legit wanna know what not to do and use haha.

 

[Colin78]

It's been a few years but it was the 143 Hammer hunter. Was running them around 3200 - 3300 FPS,just don't remember exactly. Axis was not far, probably 100 yards. In the crease right behind the shoulder. I haven't talked about it much because Steve was extremely helpful to me working out the issues I had with my Christensen rifle and his bullets shot amazing when nothing else would. I think it was an isolated case and don't want to deter others from using his bullets. But I personally decided to move on to something else.