Pistoleer,



I killed a nice 8 point Alabama whitetail late yesterday at 200 yds with the Speer 165 BT and the 760 load I mentioned earlier. The deer went into a wide shallow creek at the sound of the first shot and I thought I'd missed, so I shot again when he tried to regain his feet. The 2nd shot wasn't needed, but I didn't know that at the time.



Turns out the first shot went straight through the heart, 2nd shot unfortunately straight broadside through the pelvis as he was thrashing around in the water. So lots of bone fragments in one of the hind quarters. Total distance from the first shot to the final resting (floating) place was about 25 feet.



Neither bullet exited, but I would not expect that at that distance. It would have been nice to recover the bullets and analyze just how well they held together, but it was nearly dark when I was field dressing him and I had to hurry.



So don't think twice about 165 gr bullets in an 18 1/2" barrel! It's too bad Remington discontinued the 788, mine is a tack driver, even on 200 yd shots at a moving deer with the scope on 3X. I'm partial to Speer since I've been using that bullet for over 20 years, but I know guys who swear by Nolser or Sierra. All told, the 165 is a great choice for .308, both in terms of accuracy and performance on game.



Best of luck with your new Ruger, I guess I'll hang onto my "cheap" Remington a while longer!





44 Mag

44 Mag.

Sounds like a nice shot on a nice deer. I still haven't even bought dies yet. One of my local gun shops have a big sale in February and I'll be buying a assortment of bullets, some different powders and the dies.

I'll let you know what I come up with.

Pete

You know, I remembered this afternoon that this batch of loads was loaded on my old Lee Loader because I didn't feel like changing the dies on my press. Just grabbed the Lee Loader and my plastic-tipped hammer and loaded up 20 rounds.

And now that I think of it, this is about the 6th or 7th deer through the years that has fallen to Lee Loader rounds.

Wonder if I'm elegible for a Lee Pro Staff jacket? Ha!


44 Mag

My 308 has a 16.5'' barrel. I use 165gr. bullets and Varget powder 2540fps.