I'm enjoying the reading on the "failed bullets" thread so thought the question should be asked conversely.

What hunting bullet (for deer and larger) have you used that have never failed you....

maybe you screwed up.....but where it was clear that the bullet performed as you expected it to and wanted it to!

FWIW I have five so far....interlocks, SSTs A-Frames, Northforks, and Rem. ultrabonds. All have been excellent for me.

good luck with my .30 cal 168 grn bthp from hornady in my 300 ultra mag. dropped deer and elk one shot.

whatever federal uses for their "plain-jane" blue box PSPs in their factory-loaded ammo has always worked very well for me, and has been quite accurate to boot.

i wish i knew what bullets those were; i thought they might be speeers because as i recal federal and speer are both aprt of teh same outfit, but they don't look like any speer bullets i have seen.

quote:

whatever federal uses for their "plain-jane" blue box PSPs in their factory-loaded ammo

I believe that's what they call their shur-shok

Nosler Ballistic Tips in 22-250, 243, 270, and 300Win

quote:

Originally posted by vapodog:

quote:

whatever federal uses for their "plain-jane" blue box PSPs in their factory-loaded ammo

I believe that's what they call their shur-shok

i think so, vapo - i don't think they're available for reloaders, but i wish they were.

My "go to" projectiles are Nosler Partitions, Barnes X or TSX, and Woodleighs. Never had a failure. What few I've recovered did exactly what one would expect under the circumstances.

Going to try Rhino and Northforks ... just haven't gotten there yet.

Have had failures with Speers, Hornady's, and Nosler Ballistic Tips. Probably just pushing them too hard ;>

1. 165 gr. .308" Nosler Partition

2. 165 gr. .308" Sierra SPBT or HPBT

3. 165 gr. .308" Nosler Ballistic Tip

4. 180 gr. .308" Hornady RN

5. 300 gr. .375" Hornady RN

Howdya guess that when it gets serious I've shot the overwhelming majority of my hunting career with a .30/06 Sprg. or a .375 H&H?

Then again, I've only been witness to ONE bullet failure (Sorry Ron, 180 gr. .30/06 Sprg. Federal Shur-Shok. Do I consider their ammo bunk - No!.

I've used Speer, Hornady, RWS, DWM, PMP, Sierra, Nosler, Barnes, Norma & probably some I've forgotten to mention but the ones mentioned above are IMO the Holy Grail.

quote:

Then again, I've only been witness to ONE bullet failure (Soory Ron, 180 gr. .30/06 Sprg. Federal Shur-Shok.

yikes!

Man there are alot of these posts.


300 grain Silvertips in my 375H&H.

During the 60s and 70s the Original Fred Barnes' bullets in .224, 243, 6.5 and 300 cal.Did the job just right. roger

You beat me to it VDog.
For me it is Rem. CoreLokt 130gr. .277 cal. and Nosler Partitions in the same.
Only had one failure, but an extremely dead deer,with the old true Win. SilverTips in the (you guessed it) 130 gr. .277 cal. Up until six years ago, I didn't know they even made another caliber for deer and elk. When I was a kid, I shot a 22-250 with 70 speer semi-spitzer bullets. They worked great!

Remington PSPCL's and Nosler Partitions.

Bullets failng on north american deer are probably few in calibers from 277 up.

Barnes X and TSX, and Nosler Accubond work just as intended in my experience. I also have good experience from Sierra Prohunter on moose and also Gameking on smaller than moose and their accuracy. Fusion and Oryx are brilliant with good shots but wont do on a bad angle with wounded animal.

Others ,probably just as good, I have not enough experience with to mention.

Broadside shoulder/lung area first shot and any shot at tracked and wounded is what I consider.

I have only had two bullets "fail" in 25 years of hunting. One was a batch of Nosler Accubonds that had brittle plastic tips. They would break off when the cartridges contacted the front of the magazine box in my .300 Weatherby. After firing a few rounds you could open the floorplate and 3 or 4 of the white plastic tips would fall out. This probably did not hurt terminal performance a whole lot....but it sure changed the point of impact.

The second "failure" was a Barnes TSX that bent in a 90 degree angle after hitting the front leg bone in an average sized grizzly in Alaska. Found it under the hide on the same side in entered.

Having said that, I have shot moose, Mountain caribou, mule deer and elk dead in their tracks with other Accubonds and I have killed another grizzly with the same box of TSX's.....so it all depends on the day. No bullet is perfect, but most are very good.

Chet

I've never had a reason to use anything other that Federal Power Shok's or Remington Core Loct's on deer. Each has performed excellently on every deer I've downed.

However, I've never had the opportunity to hunt game larger than whitetail. I may choose a "specialty" bullet for something larger.

quote:

Originally posted by vapodog:
...What hunting bullet (for deer and larger) have you used that have never failed you..

Rifle Bullets:
Original Fred Barnes, Hornady Double Diameters, Hornady Interlocks, Hornady RNs, Nosler Solid Base, Nosler B-Tips, Nosler Partitions, Remington PLHPs, Remington PSPs, Remington RNs, Sierra GameKings, Sierra ProHunters, Sierra RNs, Speer Grand Slams, Speer Hot-Cors, Speer Mag Tips, Speer RNs, Speer SPBTs, Winchester PSPs, Winchester Silver Tips.

Revolver and Pistol Bullets:
Beanies Linotype Cast, Hornady SPs, Hornady HPs, Hornady XTPs, Nosler SPs, Nosler HPs, Remington SPs, Remington HPs, Speer SPs, Speer Gold Dots, Speer Half Jackets, Speer HPs, Winchester Fail Safe(still have enough to carry them).

Only needed 2-shots maybe 7-8 times in over 5 decades of Hunting Deer, Bear and Hogs. None of those were because of a Bullet Failure.

All kinds have been excellent for me too. I've found that when the actual Bullet Design is taken into consideration "before a shot", then the term Bullet Failure is not often, if ever, mentioned.

Remington 150 gr Core-Locts in 308 Winchester.
Hornady 165 BTSP Interlocks in 308 and 30-06.

For me the Hornady Interbonds in 270 and 300wm have worked great from hogs all the way up to kudu.

I've hunted deer, elk antelope etc since I was knee high to a duck. Over the years I used Speer's, Sierra's, Nosler's and especially Hornady's, as well as numerous hard cast handgun bullets in .44 Mag.
When my self control was intact as in wait for the right shot at reasonable distances and my skill level was up to the task I've never had any one of em fail me. I'm real fond of standing still broadside and doing through and through shots on both lungs by the way . Works a beauty!

Accubond

Hornady interlocks are my go to bullet for deer and interbonds for elk and larger game.

Vapo:

Never had a bullet disappoint me, but at times my shooting has.

Regards

Jerry

Barnes X and TSX. Nosler Partition DID fail me once: on a very close shot, tip blew off, bullet penetrated fully but 'penciled out' causing virtually no wound channel or shock. Animal gave no indication of being hit, we did find it later by pure chance.

Gidday Guys,

Corelocts 120gr in 260, 150gr in 308 & 30-06

Ballistic Tips 120 in 260, 150gr & 165gr in 30-06

Speer Hotcore 90gr in 243 win

Happy Hunting

Hamish

After having failures with cup and core bullets, I went straight to Nosler Partitions, and stayed with them till today. I just can't stop using a winner.

Don

TSX!

quote:

when it gets serious I''ve shot the overwhelming majority of my hunting career with a .30/06 Sprg. or a .375 H&H?

Me too. They cover about everything.

LWD

25 caliber Hornady Interlock. 100 grain.

quote:

on a very close shot, tip blew off

isn't this what the tip is designed to do? granted, it sounds like it didn't expand as much as it should, but at close range i'd be more inclined to think that it would have expanded quite a bit. what were you shootng, what were you shooting at and where did it hit?

i wasn't there, so it's not that i'm doubting you - it's just that i was thinking of using this bullet and would like some information.

Hornady Interlocks! If I've hit the critter with an Interlock, it has died! 'nuff said!

For deer hunting I use the Hornady 180g Interlock in .308 for my 06 over 48g of IMR 4064 and it flatens both northeast and huge Canadian whitetails. One thing to remember is shot placement, if you do your part this bullet does perform very effectively. I guess in the past 15 years I haven't seen a deer shot with this combo go any more than 40 yds and most go right down, it might be the muzzle velocity that makes this round perform for me. I was quite suprised that mv of this load is about 2575 out of my 22 inch tube, but very devestating. Books say it should be around 2700fps.

I have shot many animals with many different bullets, my preference in order that have never failed me follows. North Fork, Nosler Partition, Barnes X and XLC and TSX, Nosler Combined Tech, Swift A-Frame. When I hunt Dangerous Game or I am hunting in Dangerous Game country, it will be with the North Fork bullet. Good shooting.

Bullet that has never failed me: Barnes TSX. Have used them on Elk, Deer and hogs and they've never failed to get great penetration and have never had one fail to expand properly.

Bullet that failed miserably: Remington Corelock
30 yard shot on a small whitetail doe with a 7mm SAUM. Killed the deer but bullet blew up and failed to penetrate more than the shoulder.

Anything that comes in a green box that says "Sierra" on it.

for whitetail about all i load is sierra or speer spbt..some hornady sp. im not much for those preminm bullets for deer size game

Lets see here.

.277 cal
100gr Rem Corlokt
130gr Rem Corlokt
130gr Hornady SST
140gr Hornady spire pt.
150gr Hornady spire pt.
150gr Hornady SST
135gr Sierra Matchking
150gr Berger VLD
130gr Nosler Ballistic tip
150gr Ballistic tip

.308 cal
150gr Corlokt
165gr Corlokt
180gr Corlokt
165gr Sierra Gameking
180gr Sierra Gameking
168gr Matchking
180gr Matchking
190gr Matchking
165gr Sierra Gameking HPBT

243cal
85gr sierra gameking
100gr corlokt

22cal
55gr hornady interlock
55gr hornady FMJ

452 cal
200gr Hornady SST
250gr Hornady XTP
250gr Barnes XPB
300gr Cast lead

357 cal
158gr corlokt

430 cal
180gr sierra hp
240gr sierra hp
180gr rem hp
240gr rem hp

All these bullets have been used on whitetail deer, havalina, or turkeys. The only one that ever failed to meet my expectations was a 150gr hornady FMJ that I shot a turkey with, loaded to 2900fps, hit in the breast the turkey literaly exploded. The skin is just to thin for any bullet much larger than 22cal fmj. Had similar experience with most of the rifle bullet listed above with turkey, but attributed it to bullet expansion. I was wrong! Just have to be sure to hit em in the ass, otherwise you might as well not shoot one.

Nosler Partitions, still the best out there. Over 30 head of Elk and Deer over the years, never a need to follow up if I made the shot.

Rich
Buff Killer

Any round nose I have used in about ANY caliber I using for hunting...

SMP design also get an honorable mention...

as do Ballistic Tips...

In am a believer in one rifle, one bullet for all my European hunting, from roedeer to moose. Cause I do not want to spend much time on load development on a number of bullets, I am fully satisfied with the TTSX 130grainers for my .270 Win. They are sub-MOA and my speed is about 3200 fps. They perform excellent for my shooting, up to 400 yards.
Jan

Bullets come and go, but tell me which one is the measuring stick for all others for 60 years.

I've hunted animals of every size and temperment for over forty years and the Nosler Partition is still my "go-to" bullet in all my big game rounds. They expand even at low speed, and of course, they always penetrate.