Hunters, what bullets are you using?

[Lost River]

165 Grain HPBT Game king. I used to run this a bunch in .308s, due to great accuracy out to mid ranges. That said, it really started to get blown around at anything past 600, so I switched to 155 Scenars in the .308.

That said, I took a bunch of deer and a few elk with the 175 grain SMK. The SMKs shot very well in a number of different .308s I have had over the years, but oddly enough my standard load did not do well in my Tikkas, but would in the Sako TRG. The SMKs were a bit erratic in performance. Sometimes they would open up, but every once in a while they would just pencil through. That said, due to being picky about placement, it never seemed to matter, and I never needed a second shot, even on elk.

While I still have a decent supply of the projectile set back, I have pretty much switched to running the 155 Scenars exclusively in the .308s due to combined accuracy and terminal performance.

This year I used a 165 grain HPBT Game King in my .300 for elk, and it worked quite well. Due to it's blunt nose profile, it worked well within the limitations of the Tikka T3 magazine. However, I intend to have that rifle sent to CDI, and have it modified to accept AI mags, so I can run much higher BC projectiles like the Berger VLDs.


As far as handguns go, in the .44, I normally run a 240/250 cast SWC for most things up to Mule Deer, if bigger critters such as elk are a possibility, the 300-320 Cast SWC gets loaded.

In .45, I normally run 230 Gold Dots, as well as some old 230 grain Hydra-shoks. They old Hydra-Shoks, every now and then don't open up, but it really has not seemed to make much of a difference on the game.

[Crash41984]

270 win: Up north rifle- 150 or 130 Nosler Partition. I use the factory stuff from Federal.

50 Beowulf: Lower Michigan brush rifle- Only shot them at whitetails under 100yds, but the standard 335gr Rainer HP drops em like a bad habit. 2 in 2015, and 3 in 2016. Not one step.