Bullet selection is driving me nuts....

[Calvin45]

I'm sure at the rate I'm learning and unlearning things I'll one day end up surrendering my overbore magnums and high bc lawn darts and hypervelocity monos and rediscover that for most of what I do a medium bore with a big thumping round nose in the 2200-2800 fps range with lots of exposed lead just straight cannot be improved upon as far as terminal ballistics and DRT kills to no matter what a ballistics table "knows". Oh wait…it sounds like maybe I'm discovering it already…:

Dads 30-30, my 8mm mauser, and my .358 Norma (yes a mag but not overbore….and as Nate Foster says, the .358 Norma with old fashioned "blunt" projectiles has a certain intangible X factor…those who use it fall in love with it) all seem to kill very cleanly despite not being fast or high bc.

 

[Huntsman66]

Let's talk a bit about the Lapua Scenar bullets, are any of you using them as a hunting bullet? And do they work well?

 

[dogz]

In the 7 RM a 175 game king right at 3k seems to cover a wide performance range. Any 7 that would run it higher might be an issue.

The 175 SGK is a great bullet, don't hear about people using it much. Now getting it to 3K in a 7 RM is a totally nuther challenge unless the barrel is in the 28" range or so. That doesn't matter cause what it'll do at 2900 isn't any diff from what it'll do at 3K......real world

 

[Wanashoot]

I shoot what I can find and have had very good luck with 140 GameKing in 6.5. Every thing from Antelope, pigs , deer, and coyotes. Nothing complained.

 

[dogz]

Let's talk a bit about the Lapua Scenar bullets, are any of you using them as a hunting bullet? And do they work well?

I use them in my 7 Mashburn Super (150's) @ 3200 and they work great. Have a lot of friends using them in various 6.5's. My impressions are that they work great, are tougher than the Bergers and yet fly very well.

They're hardly on the radar on this forum which surprises me but they're a heck of a bullet.

In the 308 I've used the 155 Scenar, it's a fantastic slug!

 

[best defense]

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.

I have never hunted nilgai and probably never will, so I cannot provide any comparison there.
What I have done is compare different bullets in 30 caliber for accuracy. My primary 30 caliber rifle is a Savage model 12 with a 1:12" twist rate. The rifle does not like heavy bullets. The twist rate is too slow to stabalize them. If the twist rate in your rifle is 1:10 or faster you may have better luck with the 215 grain Bergers. They did not work for me when I tried them at 600 yard F class matches.

 

[Huntsman66]

I use them in my 7 Mashburn Super (150's) @ 3200 and they work great. Have a lot of friends using them in various 6.5's. My impressions are that they work great, are tougher than the Bergers and yet fly very well.

They're hardly on the radar on this forum which surprises me but they're a heck of a bullet.

In the 308 I've used the 155 Scenar, it's a fantastic slug!

I picked up a few hundred a couple years ago when all of the 6.5 bullets were made of unobtainium , just because they were on the shelf, but have never messed with them yet… I guess I'll have to give them a shot!

 

[dogz]

You'll not be disappointed!

 

[Chris Greenwood]

The 175 SGK is a great bullet, don't hear about people using it much. Now getting it to 3K in a 7 RM is a totally nuther challenge unless the barrel is in the 28" range or so. That doesn't matter cause what it'll do at 2900 isn't any diff from what it'll do at 3K......real world

I guess I need to compare it with at least 1 other chrono. But on my cheap pro chrono it's there anyday it's above 40. 1/2 Moa and at least 3x brass life. I've gotten no further. I realize bolt lift, extractor marks and cratered primers aren't the end all be all in ensuring over pressure. But the speeds that were commonplace 40 and 50 years ago aren't that tough to exceed with newer slower powders. Retumbo in this case. But again, I'll readily concede my own figures may not be reliable to begin with. 26" barrel.

 

[Ucsdryder]

You're 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 .

what are you talking about? 2 weeks ago I said the exact same thing to you!

 

[WYO300RUM]

Ford Chevy Dodge which preforms best. Matter of personal preference.
I like Nosler Partitions and Accubonds they've worked great (for me) from 100 yds to 650 yds on elk in a 243,25-06,7-08,30-06,300 Lapua mag,7 RUM and 338 wm

Nice bull Jim ! What caliber did you use on him ?

 

[Varmint Hunter]

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.

Snox - if you ever need a hunting buddy, I'm right around the corner!!

 

[tooth doc]

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.

haven't read all the replies, but if you haven't tried hammer bullets you should. gr8 selection. amazing performance, customer service fantastic, just call and talk to steve. I went from 195 Berger in my 28 nosler to a 143 hammer hunter at 3560 for last year safari in RSA. they shoot about .3 moa in my gun. killed at 550 blesbock, 780 blue wildabeast. 1046 zebra, 360 wart hog and a few more.

 

[Calvin45]

I'm going

haven't read all the replies, but if you haven't tried hammer bullets you should. gr8 selection. amazing performance, customer service fantastic, just call and talk to steve. I went from 195 Berger in my 28 nosler to a 143 hammer hunter at 3560 for last year safari in RSA. they shoot about .3 moa in my gun. killed at 550 blesbock, 780 blue wildabeast. 1046 zebra, 360 wart hog and a few more.

another positive is that they're not forever out of stock