I have a new custom .308 hunting rifle that is scary accurate. What is your favorite deer hunting bullet for this caliber?

Thanks

roger 165gr Speer round nose. roger

Whatever it really shoots best. Deer are not tough to kill, so any will work. In my Micro-Medallion I use a 150 Partition, my ADL likes the 165 Sierra HPBT Gameking, the BLR gets 180 Core-lokts.

My .308 of choice is a W,by SPM. I have killed deer with both 150 gr NBT's and 150 gr. Horn SST's. Each is big medicine for WT's.

Bob

For the last two years I've gone w/165 grain Nosler Partions backed by R15 or Varget. I use the 165's when deer hunting because hogs are seen too often. The 165 Nosler Partions absolutley knocks the tar out of any deer, hog, bobcat or coyote that gets in their way. This is with shots generally taken between 75 and 125 yrds as you can't really see any further than that most places I hunt. My confidence level is huge with this bullet in a .308 case.

150 grain nos partition gold that I got from Midway on a sale a year ago for $4.99/50. What a deal!! Only shot one deer and it worked great but feel I have a bullet that will penetrate to the vitals from any angle. Fueled by max loads of 748 they shoot 1-1.25" in my BAR

I've been shooting the 165 grain Hornady BTSP since 1981 with no complaints.

165gr Nosler Partition. Here in Idaho the deer and elk seasons run concurrently. The 165 will down an elk easy.

Rich
DRSS

Hornady 150 SP over Varget works great for me.

I have no reason to complain of the service Rem. bulk 150SPCL bullets from Midway have given me. Accurate and inexpensive too.

Nosler Partions & Hornady SST

quote:

Originally posted by Capphd:
I have a new custom .308 hunting rifle that is scary accurate. What is your favorite deer hunting bullet for this caliber?

Thanks

My favorite for years has been a 165gr Partition over 46grs of Varget but I have started flirting with 165gr Accubonds since they are extremely accurate and a bit more aerodynamic.........................DJ

I load the 185gr Lapua Mega bullets to about 2300 fps at the muzzel.

It reminds me of a 30-30 bolt rifle I used back in GA many years ago.

KB

165gr Sierra GameKing SBT or HPBT take your pick!

Any weight Bullet that says Nozler on it!!!!

My brother and I inherited a Rem 308 in 1987. I loaded up the 165 Btip over Re 15.

That load has killed about 250 deer in the south since then, a few in MO, by me, my brother, and friends that borrowed the rifle.

Not one failure. Closest shot was about 8 barrel lengths, furthest was about 150 yards.

I have a 30/06 not a .308 but the difference is miniscule. I load 180 grain Sierra SPBT's and shoot everything (deer, elk, antelope, Bighorn Sheep, Mtn Goats, hogs etc.) with this one bullet. Many people will tell you that Sierra bullets won't penetrate and blow up, it is BS. I've shot Deer as close as 50 yards and elk as far as 425 yards, all dead all with exits, many one shot kills. In my opinion this is a very accurate bullet and I've never needed more performance on game. I'd try 150, or 165's in your .308 and be happy about it if they shoot accurate. What bullets are scary accurate in your .308 now?

So far my 308 has racked up 11 - 1 shot kills with 150 gr NBT

I have never recovered a bullet
But the lungs all have been trashed and anything in the way in or out broken

Deer die easy
Any 150 -180 gr standard ( not a hard , ment for higher velositys ) expanding bullet that shoots good should do the jod

My brother shoots the Remington Bulk 150 gr bullets and never has had a beer go more than 20 yards

Johnch

I have taken a lot of game with a 308 over the years, most of it with a 165 grain bullet, some with a 150gr and some with a 180.

Did not seem to make much difference.
For deer any 308 load will work just fine.

For the bigger stuff the 165 or 180 premium bullets would be my choice.

The 308 is one of my favorite cartridges.

My 308WIN load is 48.5grns of Win748 with 150GRN RWS TIG bullets.
ozhunter

I agree 100% with what has been said above about vanilla-flavored bullets in the .308 Winchester for Deer. Premium bullets are always good but not always required and the .308 Win. is a good example.

Try some inexpensive 150 grain Remington Bronze Points. Also, as mentioned above; Nosler 150 gr. BTs, Sierra 165 gr. SPBTs or HPBTs - all of these bullets have given up "scary" accurate loads, too......and dead Deer.

I load 308win but, don't hunt with them myself. I know two guys that love the performance of the 165 Hornady SST. Good expansion and good blood trails. I took one of them hunting with me a couple of years ago and put him in a climber that I had hunted off and on all season without seeing a buck but, I knew they were there from the sign everywhere. He had two big 8pts and a spike come out at one time! He shot one of the 8s, the smaller of the two and he still scored 118. Anyway it was a good mature 3.5-4.5 year old deer. The 165 SST from his 308 double lunged him and there was blood everywhere for the short and sweet 10 yard blood trail That's the kind of tracking jobs I like. I'm loading them over a max charge of Varget in a Remington 700 and the accuracy and SD are very good.

Good Luck

Reloader

Have to agree with the 150gr Nosler partition.

I never thought much about the .308 for many years, thinking it to be a 30-06 wannabe. A new job in another state in 1970 where the deer hang out at between 7,000 and almost 10,000 Feet MSL forced me to think I neded a lighter weight gun. My old 1903 Springfield at 9 pounds was way too heavy for this heavy chain smoker. (FWIW, I quit smoking in 1975.) I found a Remington 660 in .308 Win. and the first thing I did was restock that thing to a nice mannlicher style stock. A really stiff load with H-335 and the 150 gr. Sierra Pro-Hunter was my go to load for years. I did consider a heavier bulletm but the gun was accurate so I put up with the somewhat mangled meat from that bullet.
Then I moved to Arizona and continued to hunt with that .308 until Ruger came out with their Mannlicher style stocked RSI, also in .308. It was lust at first sight with that rifle. The only thing was it did not like that load, or any other loads that had worked with the Remington. It absolutely hated 180 gr. spitzers, was a dog with 150 gr. spitzers, and I was ready to throw that rifle in the nearest lake. I had a box of 165 gr. Speer Hot-cores laying around that I'd picked up in a trade, so I tried them. They shot better than most but not what I wanted from that rifle. I went and tried W-760 and finally got a decent load that grouped fairly well with the Speer bullet. velocity wasn't all that great at 2550 FPS, but it woukld stay withing 1.25" on a steady basis so that was the load for that rifle. For those that might be interested, that same load does 2610 FPS from a 22" barreled .308. Every deer that has been shot with that load has either been a bang/flop or dropped within maybe 35 feet from where it was shot.
The load for those that wish to try is is 49.0 gr. of W-760, Winchester brass and WLR primer. Bullet is the 165 gr. Speer Hot-core. Not the fastest load on the block, but it's worked for me for many years.
Paul B.

This is what I meant by scary accurate. I shot these two groups back to back with different loads on my first trip to the range after barrel break-in.

What bullet and what load is that?