xsn10s
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- Mar 7, 2016
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My choice would be Nosler 165gr Partition or Ballistic Tip.
Looking for Help Picking Factory .308 for Whitetails
- Thread starter jlarose85
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RUFFIAN R - NY
Well-Known Member
What ammo can you get your hands on , and the same lot # would work for a while . At the range you asking about 300 and under - any 150 gr + would work. It's bullet placement that count's . Remember all guns are not created equal- some like prime rib others chop meat . I like the Nosler either the partitions or BT's its easy spending someone's dollars !!!!
I never hunted with copper expanders with the 308s I used to hunt with, but with my peashooter I like to use now, 6.5 Grendel and the 6arc this coming season, I am going to experiment heavily with Barnes and some of the softer coppers . I use a 127 long range Barnes in my Grendel, but haven't shot anything yet . Groups in the .3s out of on AR15 though . I have some hammer 99s to test once I get my loading stuff resituated .
Your selected rifle and any of the cartridges will provide needed accuracy in delivering the bullet to the target at =<300yds. The bullet does the work you desire once on target in terminal performance. Deer are thin skinned. Ideal is a through-and-through wound channel with quick expansion out of the area of meat quarters. Entrance doesn't provide massive blood release/trail. Exit wound post-expansion is intended for that. There are two scenarios. 1) best scenario: skin/ribs/tissue vitals/ribs/skin. Need fast expansion, energy dump, with remaining energy to puncture through second ribs/skin post-expansion to release blood, messy but negligible meat damage. 2) worst scenario: skin/quarter meat/shoulder bone/tissue vitals/quarter meat/shoulder bone/skin. Requires great penetration with controlled expansion, retained weight and energy for exit. Massive blood lost, but also massive meat damage. Bullet design performing great for scenario one won't provide the performance needed to please for the second. Bullet providing desired performance for scenario two will not preform well for scenarion one......through-and-through insufficient expansion for massive blood release. For generally non-dangerous deer, the second scenario is to be avoided due to the massive meat damage. Scenario one is best of the two. As typically the case, bullet placement is key. Avoid the shoulders, focus on double lung/heart shots. That said, I prefer a third scenario providing the best, IMHO, of all worlds for deer......a neck shot providing the best terminal performance. Lights Out, Dead Right There, absolute minimum meat damage, minimum blood mess, no need to track. 1MOA at 300yds is a 3 inch kill zone. very reasonable with the correct ammo which your rifle likes. Bullet performance is minimal importance with a hit there. Now, which bullet should you use? I think you are over thinking this deery thingy at your range. Save that thinking for game that might turn the hunter/prey relationship up side down if not a DRT ending. We successfully use store bought Winchester 150gr Deer Season ammo. Rarely any result other than one shot, one kill.....all bullet placement. No heartbeats expended/wasted reloading, cost effective. Know what you and your rifle can do, be picky on the shot placement, have fun, and kill your deer. Save the overthinking for deeper meaningful thoughts like......why women freak out over an "up" toilet seat, optimizing the probability of pulling an orange M&M peanut first out of the bag, and why God decided to create us.
I would need to look up the G&7 Bc's but my vote is for the Federal Premium or Hornaday Precision Hunter. Send some final pics when you get it dialed in and of course, your first whitetail.
Are you going to put a 16-1/2" barrel on that fine Bergara??
Are you going to put a 16-1/2" barrel on that fine Bergara??
ratso000
Member
Trophy Bonded Tip 175 excellent performance..
Winchester Deer Season XP 150 gr…works extremely well and won't break your pocketbook.
The 130's should be good to about 550 yards in a 24" barrel. If I'm not mistaken you will be good to about 375-400 with a 16.5" barrel.
VOR-TX® Rifle - Barnes Bullets
www.barnesbullets.com
Your selected rifle and any of the cartridges will provide needed accuracy in delivering the bullet to the target at =<300yds. The bullet does the work you desire once on target in terminal performance. Deer are thin skinned. Ideal is a through-and-through wound channel with quick expansion out of the area of meat quarters. Entrance doesn't provide massive blood release/trail. Exit wound post-expansion is intended for that. There are two scenarios. 1) best scenario: skin/ribs/tissue vitals/ribs/skin. Need fast expansion, energy dump, with remaining energy to puncture through second ribs/skin post-expansion to release blood, messy but negligible meat damage. 2) worst scenario: skin/quarter meat/shoulder bone/tissue vitals/quarter meat/shoulder bone/skin. Requires great penetration with controlled expansion, retained weight and energy for exit. Massive blood lost, but also massive meat damage. Bullet design performing great for scenario one won't provide the performance needed to please for the second. Bullet providing desired performance for scenario two will not preform well for scenarion one......through-and-through insufficient expansion for massive blood release. For generally non-dangerous deer, the second scenario is to be avoided due to the massive meat damage. Scenario one is best of the two. As typically the case, bullet placement is key. Avoid the shoulders, focus on double lung/heart shots. That said, I prefer a third scenario providing the best, IMHO, of all worlds for deer......a neck shot providing the best terminal performance. Lights Out, Dead Right There, absolute minimum meat damage, minimum blood mess, no need to track. 1MOA at 300yds is a 3 inch kill zone. very reasonable with the correct ammo which your rifle likes. Bullet performance is minimal importance with a hit there. Now, which bullet should you use? I think you are over thinking this deery thingy at your range. Save that thinking for game that might turn the hunter/prey relationship up side down if not a DRT ending. We successfully use store bought Winchester 150gr Deer Season ammo. Rarely any result other than one shot, one kill.....all bullet placement. No heartbeats expended/wasted reloading, cost effective. Know what you and your rifle can do, be picky on the shot placement, have fun, and kill your deer. Save the overthinking for deeper meaningful thoughts like......why women freak out over an "up" toilet seat, optimizing the probability of pulling an orange M&M peanut first out of the bag, and why God decided to create us.
I agree with you on the neck shots. Used to do it all the time until I made a bad shot on a deer about 4 years ago and never recovered it. Been back to shooting behind the shoulder ever since. Also agree that I could likely get really good results with really cheap ammo, but like a lot of folks on here I like to go the extra mile on time, effort and money
That's the plan. I actually haven't decided if I'm going to actually replace the barrel with a Proof or just get my Bergara barrel cut down and re-threaded. I'm leaning a little towards cutting down the Bergara because the short length is more about being able to more easily hunt with the suppressor than it is about pure weight, although that's a bonus.
The 130's should be good to about 550 yards in a 24" barrel. If I'm not mistaken you will be good to about 375-400 with a 16.5" barrel.
VOR-TX® Rifle - Barnes Bullets
That's what I was thinking and since I'm not going past 300 I'm thinking the 130gr Barnes is probably a great candidate.
I like the monos as I've been hunting with them for a long time now. Granted, the situation is completely different as I'm using a 100gr GMX out of my 6.8 SPC AR so I really feel like I need the extra penetration with that cartridge and it's never let me down if I did my part. With the .308 I don't feel quite as much need for all the penetration I can get so that got me looking at the cup and core stuff hence the rabbit hole I'm currently down and the reason for my post.
Appreciate all the input everyone!
snox801
Well-Known Member
You could also move into some boutique bullets. Several load hammer, cutting edge and other bullets.
Superior ammo, custom reloads of Dallas. All will load pretty much any biller you want
brant89
Well-Known Member
I might get some hate for this, but HSM 168AMAX loads have been absolutely devastating the deer out of my buddy's .308. He does a lot of culling and herd management work (part of his job) and 90% of his shots have been DRT and he shoots a LOT of deer. Wouldn't recommend it for anything bigger, but a 168AMAX behind the shoulder of a whitetail is extremely effective.
Absolutely! I use them in all my .308 rifles, and have not had one move over 10 feet in 23 out of 24 kills. Nosler Trophy not quite as accurate as Black Hills Gold but hunting has proven great accuracy. (I have not found BHG recently)
Pacecount
Well-Known Member
I have a tikka tac in 308 20" barrel with an adjustable cheek which I use in heavy brush and under 500 yards. It shoots 1/2 MOA with the ELDX 178 factory load.
It is not my primary hunting rifle but I do like it and I am going to put a proof barrel on it this year.
It is not my primary hunting rifle but I do like it and I am going to put a proof barrel on it this year.
At 300 yards and in, any of the loads you listed will do the job. (300-Yards is a relatively short shot for the .308.)
To maximize your blood trail you want complete pass-throughs with a fully mushroomed bullet. The fully mushroomed bullet increases trauma and will increase blood in the meat unless you limit shots to head and upper neck.
You can limit the amount of blood clots in the meat by draining the blood almost immediately after shooting a deer.
I favor lighter bullets to minimize meat damage. For this reason I would opt for the 130 grain Barnes you have listed.
