I have been given 3 boxes of .308 220 gr. hornady round nose bullets. I will load them for 30-06. I am only hunting deer here in the south this year, so I was wandering what experiences people have had with these heavy bullets and deer? Shots will be kept under 200 yards. Any and all comments are welcome.

You don't need that much penetration for deer, and a lighter bullet/higher velocity will give you more expansion on deer. They should work, but may not open up as much on a broadside shot through the ribs.

brewtcl,

I agree with todbartell's comments above. That said, the 220 gr Hornadys should work fine. I have never used them for Deer but I did do load development with both the 220gr Hornadys and Woodleighs, in .30-06, in preparing for a recent trip to South Africa.
(It was the first week of August this year). I ended up using the Woodleighs as I wanted a little tougher bullet for the bigger plains game animals. I did take a couple of deer-size animals while in South Africa . The 220 gr Woodleighs worked fine on them. Here's a pic of my Limpopo Bushbuck which is about the size of a Whitetail Deer (or a little smaller).

[picture link deleted on 8/27/2002]

My .30-06 load, with the 220 gr Woodleighs, was 52.0 grains of IMR-4350 using Winchester brass and WLR primers. Chronographed at an average of 2460 fps from 22" barrel. Good, accurate load.

-Bob F.

[ 08-27-2002, 18:10: Message edited by: BFaucett ]

They should work great on whitetail, i use a 180 grain Hornady & never had a problem. I use 56 grains of 4350 IMR & Winchester primers.

They well work fine But if you want to trade them for some 165gr remington corelocks I would be willing to.

Brew - Unless your deer are mighty big, you've got way more bullet than you need. (Not that they won't work...and not that you probably don't already know this.)

I shot a mule deer one year when I went hunting with either a 205 gr or 220 gr bullet in my /06. Can't remember which now but the results would be the same.

Me and my uncle jumped a small mule deer buck out of a ravine that day and I thought he was going to run over my uncle. I wasn't going to shoot at all...going to let my uncle handle the deer since it was becoming almost a matter of self-defense for him.

Anyhow a few yards before collision the buck realized his mistake and turned and started going away from us as fast as he could go.

At that point my uncle started yelling for ME to shoot the deer. Duh! I thought maybe he was having rifle trouble or something. Anyway I shot and the bullet hit him in the left buttock, went thru the pelvis, completely thru the stomach, hit to back rib on the RIGHT side of the deer, turned slightly and just ran along blowing ribs in half all along the rib cage and at the last minute turned outward slightly and finally exited the body but then it hit the right front leg and blew it off all but a strip of hide holding it attached. On impact the deer looked like the hand of God reached down and grabbed him. He went up in the air, twisted 90' and then seemed to be body slammed to the ground.

Poor critter was dead before he hit the dirt I believe.

Bottom line is a bullet like that SHOULD shoot end to end thru most deer, even if that isn't the best way to shoot them by far. Bullet expansion really didn't seem remarkable and probably wasn't

In summary - Not the best bullet for deer but it will work.

The 220's DO work great on whitetails at woods ranges. I have used them in .308 Win. in the Virginia swamps, with 48 grains of MRP, and they were instant knockdown loads!!

I have tested the 220 gr Hornady's along with a host of other .308 caliber bullets in wetpacks since last fall. Some of these (not all yet) are illustrated at:

http://www.mindspring.com/~ulfhere/ballistics/methods.html

The 220 gr Hornady penetrated deeper than any other 220 gr bullet (except the Nosler partition) if memory serves. Most did not penetrate any deepr than the typical 180 gr conventional bullet, despite what we have been led to expect. In general it gave a "wound" track similar to the 180 gr Core-Lokt, but the total depth was a bit more. I should not expect that it would be any less likely to expand than any conventional bullet and may be a good deal more likely to than some with harder lead cores.

I have a couple of more tests to conduct in .308 caliber and then I will post all the bullet profiles. The real super-performers so far have been the 200 gr Barnes X, 200 gr Swift A-Frame and 200 gr North Fork.

Hey, if guys like using 338 magnums for whitetails then I dont see a damn thing wrong with 220s from an 06. Load um, shoot um, and have fun..!

Hey'
I recognize,BFaucett,but who's the guy with the gun?
1geejay
www.shooting-hunting.com

I cannot comment specifically on the .308 220gr. But, I load .338 250gr Hornady RN to 2200fps as a close range deer load in my .338WinMag. It goes through like a freight train, with minimal meat damage. I think of it as a "heavy 30-30" or a "mini .458WinMag" I call it about perfect for close cover deer. Plenty flat out to 150 yards.

MM

On impact the deer looked like the hand of God reached down and grabbed him. He went up in the air, twisted 90' and then seemed to be body slammed to the ground. Poor critter was dead before he hit the dirt I believe.

I just love reading those words.