Shot a couple deer this year with 30-06 and 150 grain nosler partitions. Quick kills but quite a bit of meat damage for my taste. What other bullets or bullet weights do you guys recommend for deer hunting which doesn't cause so much internal damage yet still kills quicky??

I shoot 180's in my '06 BAR, not because I'm a good judge of bullets but because this rifle seems to like any 180 gr. bullet. Even with standard Hornady's I don't get excessive meat damage, possibly because of the lower velocity.

180 or 200 Nosler, Woodleigh, North Fork or Corelokt. will fix that and they kill as well but perhaps a bet slower, but they leave an excellent blood trail..

It depends on what you mean by quick kill. If by that you mean down in 5 yards or so I don't think you can do quick kills consistantly without a lot of meat damage.

A bullet like a ballistic tip may always kill like lightning, but it may hit a rib on the way in and liquifiy the insides without doing any meat damage or it may slip between the ribs and then hit the offside ribs blowing a fist sized hole through the shoulder muscle. There are too many variables.

I have shot a lot of deer with the .30-06 and the bullets that seem to do the least amount of meat damage(other than the super tough bullets) are the regular 180 grain softpoints, but sometimes the deer still run up to 100 yards, though most drop in the first 30. Seems like a good comprimise.

Try 150gr cor-locks. They worked great for me. Also not to bad with meat damage.

Ray

You can either up the bullet weight, as suggested previously, or lower the velocity (if you handload), or both. Assuming you don't shoot at long range (and I suspect you don't, otherwise you'd get less meat damage from the 150-grain NPs) a 180-grain Nosler Partition at 2400-2500 fps should do the job efficiently and with modest meat damage out to point blank range.

I would back off the velocity or go with a heavier bullet.

Sounds like you were close when you shot it. I go back to being a fan of the 180 grain round nose or the 220 grain round nose.

Never had any blood shot meat with the 180 and especially not the 220 grain RN. Both are excellent for 225 to 250 yd loads.

I agree with the slower 180 grain crowd. I use 180 hornady round nose bullets for my usually close range shooting where light fast bullets might do lots of meat damage. Velocity for my loads run around 2650 and the slugs usually punch through, leaving a good blood trail. Good hunting.

I have used a 30/06 for years for deer. I find meat damage to be more a function of shot placement than caliber. Especially with a bullet like a Partition. A 150 gr. Partition is a good deer bullet IMO. Partitions are built for the front to mushroom quickly with the rear built to hold together for deep penetration. A shot through the chest is going to result in very little meat damage. If you hit the shoulders you are going to damage meat simple as that because you are dealing with not only the bullet but bone shrapnel as well. I don't like the idea of going to a more strongly constructed bullet for deer. You may reduce meat damage a little on an end to end shot but on a chest shot you run the risk of a long tracking job because the bullet doesn't open up sufficiently. If you want to change bullets because of the confidence factor go right ahead. There are lots of good deer bullets out there. I would look at Hornady interlocks if it were me but I would primarily concentrate on shot placement.

Jeff

I would suggest any of the 150 grain bullets and a hit in the middle of the ribs!
Deer don't go far when hit there! If you get careless with your hit, you'll damage some meat, comes with the territory!
Then again, the shoulder of a whitetail only weighs 10-15#, bone and all, so I'd say there is about 4-8# of meat! Even if you lost the whole shoulder, you wouldn't be losing a lot of actual, usable meat!

[ 12-01-2003, 17:42: Message edited by: Chuck White ]

The "meat damage" question is an old one. The truth is, there are a great many factors that influence tissue destruction besides cartridge selection and bullet selection. As Jack O'Connor so coyly and correctly observed a generation ago, animals are killed via tissue destruction, and it's pretty hard to ask for convincing, decisive kills on deer or anything else without the sacrifice of something.

Most often, it's hard to tell exactly which cartridge or bullet was used to kill a specific animal based strictly upon the inspection of wound channels, distrupted/destroyed tissue, etc. Most wounds look remarkably similar, regardless of cartridge or bullet, except for a solid, and even then, if bones are hit the wounds can be massive.

For example, last week I shot an excellent Texas whitetail buck with my favorite, familiar .300 Winchester with my standard 180 gr. Nosler Partition handload at about 3100 fps. MV. The shot was a fairly long one, and the deer went down instantly. The wound look about like countless others I've inspected on deer over the years that were made with .243s, .30-30s, 7mm Rem. Mags., .30-06s, .270s, .338s, .375s, etc.

In the .30-06, for deer hunting, I've had my best luck with Nosler Partions and Hornady Interlocts. I've mostly used 150 gr. or 165 gr. bullets for deer with this cartridge. The last selection of deer (Texas whitetails and Oregon mule deer) I shot with the '06 was with the 150 gr. Hornady Interloct loaded at 2950 fps. or so out of a 22" barrel. In every case, the deer went right down and tissue destruction was certainly within acceptable limits. Normally, I prefer Nosler Partitions for hunting, but in that particular .30-06 rifle, the Hornady's were shooting best, so that's what I used. I didn't have anything to complain about!

AD

My experience with 30-06 is limited, as I've only taken 1 animal with one; however, it is my wife's choice as well as several friends and relatives. They have all settled on the 180 Gr. bullet either Partition, Core-Lokt, Interlock, or A-Frame. My wife took both a big antelope and a big Whitetail this year with her '06 and several African animals. All but one were taken with the 180 Gr. Partition with minimal meat damage, except the Whitetail. The Whitetail was shot too far back on a quartering away, running shot. She got her Buck, but she destroyed both hind quarters. The damage was mostly caused by the bone from the first hindquarter exploding.

The best way to avoid meat damage that I know is to try not to shoot the part you want to eat. At close range neck shots waste no meat. At longer ranges a shot low and behind the shoulder will not ruin any meat. Not always possible of course but any cartridge I know of that is adequate for a clean kill will surely ruin a lot of meat on shoulder or ham shots.

Speer has made a wonderfull little 150 grain bullet for years called the Mag tip that should suffice. It features a fluted tip that helps with a tight even mushroom as opposed to a fragmented frontal core, and a thick jacket to hold the rest together. Place one of those behind the shoulder and eat the rest..

Head shots solve the problem, too. Wherever possible, of course.

Have to throw in my $.02 worth as well. Will agree with all of the above, but I don't prefer neck or head shots since I want the animal to bleed out for better tasting venison and a good blood trail. I also don't want to shoot ones jaw off if I can wait for a better shot.

I know you mentioned .30-06, but I would recomend less gun. I switched to a 7mm-08 this year for antelope and deer and have been very satisifed. It shoots a 139gr bullet 2750fps (approximately 150fps slower than the .30-06 and 150gr combo) taking it out of the explosive range of big game bullets that can start when you get close to 3000fps.

Deke.

I normally use 150 gr Core-lokts, and I haven't experienced anything I'd call excessive meat damage. If you shoot through the shoulders, its going to tear up some meat, but just behind the shoulder, almost no useable meat is lost. I've always been satisfied with Remington factories and 150 gr bullets.

I bought a bulk box of 1000 Rem 165 pspcl from Midway. I load them with RL22 in the 06 and get around 2730fps. They seem to work great on deer and elk with acceptable meat damage and quick kills. Plus they shoot under an inch in all my 30 cal rifles that I've tried them in so far.