I have personal knowledge of 2 whitetails becoming dinner due to 200 gr Hornady's and 2015 powder, in PA ,in dec 2003

Lou,

I use the Federal TBBC load for the bigger stuff, but have had great luck and accuracy with the 225 grain Sierra with 58 gr. or RL-15. More than enough power for any deer and great accuracy. The bullet is soft enough to open up as well. I have used the TBBC on deer and it opens fine also.

If I have only your choices, it would be the 250 Speer, but I prefer the 250 Hornady RN.

I have used the 200gr Hornady SPTZ on deer for years , performs beautifully. I use it in a 35 Rem and a 350 RemMag.
Excellent performance. My buddy uses the 200 Sierra RN and also gets good results on whitetails with the Whelen.
bigbull

Lou,

#1 son killed a local deer with my Whelen using 200 gr Hornady's. He said there was too much loss of meat, claiming the whole front half and part of the back strap was messed up. These were loaded with 53.0 gr IMR 3031 in .30-06 brass (I've never had any actual Whelen brass). I haven't gotten around to clocking the load, but it should be in the neighborhood of 2500 fps.

I'm thinking real hard about loading some 250 gr Beartooth LFNGC's at a more modest velocity so they will be a little less destructive. Of course, that same bullet out of a .357 Mag at 1200 fps is sufficient, if you hit where you need to hit.

Hey Lou270,

I've hunted in PA for more than 40 years. I hunt in the woods - which is where most of the deer live I've never heard of a woods shot being more than 100 yards and most about 50 yards. The Whelen is an extremely powerful cartridge to use on deer so I'd stay with 200 gr. bulles.

Since it sounds like you are hand loading, I would keep the velocities around 2,200 2,300 fps. At a starting velocity of 2,200 fps, at 50 yards, the 200 gr. bullet will probably completely penetrate the chest of a PA deer. If you get a shot at 25 yards, which is quite possible, you'll get the same effect without a blood shot deer.

I say these things because I've shot a lot of deer in PA. You don't need 250 grains of anything comming out of the end of a Whelen to cleanly kill a PA deer. (Our deer are relatively smaller than western deer - about 125 lbs. average. I've shot bigger but only 3 times. None were shot with anything approaching the power of the Whelen.)

Good Shooting,

Smoker