I am a deer hunter from finland. My question is. Are bonded bullets like hornady interbond, swift scirocco better than no bonded hornady sst and nosler bt. My caliper is .308 win and now I use nosler bt 165 grain in speed 2600 f/s. Noslers bt bullets seems to blow up at low ranges.

It is seldom that a bullet blows up from 308 velocities, but Bal Tips are noted for rapid expansion.

The bonded bullets should be perfect in the 308, and should expand and exit nicely.

I use nosler J4 target bullets in my 308 168 grs at 2600 get perfect bullet preformance from them. small entry hole about a 2 in exit hole. The last two I shot with it was a 125 yards and 143 yards lasered took both front shoulders out of them. One dropped in its tracks the other ran a whole 5 feet or maybe jsut flopped there.

Range is irrelevant as velocity is what is important in bullet performance.The same 165gr bullet out of a 30-378 would still be travelling faster at 350 yards than at 50 yards out of your 308win.I personally launch the 180gr ballistic tip at 3400fps out of my 300ultramag and have taken five elk and two moose with no bullet performance problems.I have taken a total of between 30 and 40 animals with ballistic tips all with muzzle velocities of 3400fps to 3500fps and have never had a problem.These were the 100grout of the 257wby,the 140gr out of the 7mmstw and 180gr out of the 300ultramag.With a muzzle velocity of only 2600fps the ballistic tips should work very well for you.

Range is irrelevant as velocity is what is important in bullet performance.The same 165gr bullet out of a 30-378 would still be travelling faster at 350 yards than at 50 yards out of your 308win.I personally launch the 180gr ballistic tip at 3400fps out of my 300ultramag and have taken five elk and two moose with no bullet performance problems.I have taken a total of between 30 and 40 animals with ballistic tips all with muzzle velocities of 3400fps to 3500fps and have never had a problem.These were the 100gr out of the 257wby,the 140gr out of the 7mmstw and 180gr out of the 300ultramag.With a muzzle velocity of only 2600fps the ballistic tips should work very well for you.If however you choose to use a bonded bullet they should also work very well.

Markkur, The bullets you use now are plenty enough bullet for deer, I've never had a deer get away from me using a non-bonded bullet, the fastest RE:instant kill I've ever had was from a 150gr. Baltip launched at 2300fps from a 7mm08, paced off at 110yds. Save the Bonded bullets for really big game Jay

There are a couple of "definitive" pieces of writing about bullet performance. One is the 1998 "handloader" bullet comparison by Gary Scuzietti (I know that's spelled wrong, but I suspect it's not the first time...), the other is Harold's "wounding ballistics website (http://www.mindspring.com/~ulfhere/ballistics/wounding.html).

In the end, a conventional bullet impacting at 2500 fps or a little more, will not stay in one piece. In your 308, you can go to the 180 gr. bullet (which will slow it down enough), or go to a "premium" bullet. If you do go to a premium bullet, you can actually drop down in weight and maintain performance. HTH, Dutch.

I have used most of the bonded bullets out there on on many 1000's of deer size game and they all work very well indeed. The Bal.Tip. is okay at reduced at very reduced velocity on very light game. The nosler bonded is a little more for giving but does open
-BIG-. Why not use the partition?? The federal/speer line up like the trophy bonded or the grandslam are very good.
If you don't want the small extra expense of a bonded bullet use 1 with a mechanical lock like the Hornady interlok or the awesome and cheapy Remington Corelokt.

ED

Why not use a partition? That is one good question. Great point.

As to the original question, IMO, these bonded core bullets are a good bullet for deer sized game. For anything larger, why not refer to EO's question again. Why not use a partition?

Chuck