2020 Deer Hunting Load

This is the first year in many years that I am hunting with factory ammo: 30 Remington AR. I have dies but need to shoot up some more factory to have brass to start working up a load. Opening weekend was last weekend, but only saw one small spike buck. Shoot 150 gr Core-Lokt at 2400 fps.

Good luck!

Good luck. I missed opening day here and by the following weekend, the deer were already in nocturnal mode. Out to the blind 90 minutes before sunrise and nothing to be found.

Mine is 6.5prc, 140 Speer hotcor, 57.0 h-1000 2.850" hdy brass wlr primer fl sized to just close on easy bolt. Should be 2900 ish fps from my 24" m18 mauser . Sub 1/4 moa 3 shots.

Good luck nature boy.

Mine was 110 grains of black MZ, an over powder wad, and a .530 round ball. Only got a Texas heart shot as the season was winding down, but it penetrated almost 3 feet of the animal after bouncing off the rear thigh bone. Have another "lottery ticket" tag for where we stomp around for jacks and occasionally see deer. If I get lucky and see one, I will be using Hornady factory interlocks in 350 legend since I haven't had time to work up a load yet.

It was hard for me to best Core-Lokts in my .270’s for accuracy and bullet performance. 52 grains of 4350 and 130 gr. Speer Grand Slams seated a few thousandths off the lands gets the job done. I killed an 8 point buck two weeks ago with a heart shot at 212 yards. The Speer bullet mushroomed and stopped just under the skin on the off side without hitting bone. I believe those plastic tipped bullets would have passed through.

Not sure if were doing any deer hunting this year, but IF we do Im gonna run the 190gr A-tips out of the 28Nosler I just paid for......IF it shoots...otherwise its 162gr ELD-Ms from the .280AI

My "handload" this year is .452 300gr hornady xtp, in front of 2 pyrodex 50/50 pellets and a musket primer, 1580 fps. Technically a handload I guess.

Good hunting all

Working up 30-30 here this year
179 gr flat nose boolit
16.0 gr 2400
Haven’t finished yet!

Shot the same load as last year, with good results on 2 deer. 280 rem, 154 Hornady old stock RN over 47 IMR 4350. Haven't tried to tweak the accuracy. It's sub 2 MOA which is gut genug for the 150 yard maximum range I can encounter

Good luck to all of you guys with your hunts. Regular visitors in my back 'yard' are a scraggly little 8" spike buck, a little better 6 pt. and a nice 9-10 pt. Also 5-7 does at any time. Unfortunately the wife won't let me kill any of them and makes sure that I feed them daily.

I used a 460gr Easton FMJ with a Slick Trick Razor Trick on my doe...

We loaded up some 308s using the 150gr RN CL for 30-30 and a reduced load of H4895 running about 2350fps for the younguns to use. The youngest at 12 got his first deer with one at about 60yds. The load preformed flawlessly.

I have to admit, I've run the CLs through multiple calibers and velocities and they always do as expected. Hard to think they might be done away with for the handloader.

kelbro said:

Good luck to all of you guys with your hunts. Regular visitors in my back 'yard' are a scraggly little 8" spike buck, a little better 6 pt. and a nice 9-10 pt. Also 5-7 does at any time. Unfortunately the wife won't let me kill any of them and makes sure that I feed them daily.

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We too have a a small doe herd in our front yard we feed daily. My wife and I enjoy the arms length interaction we get watching them and their new fawns antics.

Every rut we have one or two of these show up This year
Last year I have other places I hunt.

Catpop said:

Working up 30-30 here this year
179 gr flat nose boolit
16.0 gr 2400
Haven’t finished yet!View attachment 958840

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Curious as to why such a heavy Bullet in a 30-30

You missed out on doe season, at least in my county. I still have a group of does coming to the feeder and a couple of bucks. Only one of the bucks are legal, due to antler restrictions. I don't hunt, but by brother does, he got a very nice 8 point buck on opening weekend. So my freezer is already stocked and I don't need to shoot another one.

Good luck, all. Another year not deer hunting for me. I’m not going to pay a lease fee to shoot scrawny white tail over bait here in TX. I’ll hope to hunt NY and or PA again next year.

I’m hunting this year with everything I have never hunted with. 12ga slugs, 30 carbine, 6.8 spc... I just want to get these guns into the rotation and use them more. The little marlin 62 30 carbine is light and honestly is just about ideal for one spot on the lease where it’s a long hard hike into really thick woods. I tried to sight in the scope on it but the old fixed 4x died a blurry death. Iron sights are as on as they get, but for close range shots which is all I would take with that rifle, the POI is about 4” above POA with the elevation slide in its lowest setting. I can’t use that in the woods because it is very likely I would be trying to thread a needle with a shot and I would almost certainly hit a limb.

Funny, I reload everything I shoot and haven’t hunted with a factory round in nearly a decade. This year it’s all factory loads. I have dies for everything, but like @mcb im emptying cases for reloading this year. I may not ever bother loading 12ga but I am minimally prepared to do so, and if I do slugs and buckshot would likely be the only thing I would consider loading.

mcb said:

This is the first year in many years that I am hunting with factory ammo: 30 Remington AR. I have dies but need to shoot up some more factory to have brass to start working up a load. Opening weekend was last weekend, but only saw one small spike buck. Shoot 150 gr Core-Lokt at 2400 fps.

Good luck!

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When you start reloading for it use a 125 Accubond and Benchmark powder. That is a deadly combo in my 30 Rem AR and a friend of mines rifle. We have shot 4 deer and 2 coyotes with that load and all the animals have went a combined 10 yards.

My handload this year is my 7mm08 140 Accubond with 43gr Varget and a CCI BR4 primer in Lapua brass. 2870fps and very very accurate. Put one through a large bodied spike that needed to be culled.

My other handload is for my 350 Legend AR. 170 Hornady SP, 27.6gr Lil Gun, Starline Brass 2325fps. Haven't shot one with this one yet.

I'll not be hunting deer very hard this year. I shot a bear and am having him butchered now, plus I still have some moose meat in the freezer. I did go out on opening day, but took my cross-bow. I actually spent much of my day pushing for my boys and helping one get his buck out of the woods.

I still have a doe tag and might try for one in the late archery season. I love hunting in the snow. I'll probably donate it to hunters sharing the harvest if I'm lucky.

For years 41.5 Varget and 140gr Sierra GK in the 7-08. Accurate and just flat out works. Opening day this year 120gr sierra GK and 43gr varget in the 7-08. 2 shots 2 nice whitetail down so far...May just stick with those 120s...

I got my first deer ever this year using some factory Hornady 450 bushmaster. It wasn't a big one, but I was still excited. I had passed on a few bigger ones earlier in the week because of high winds and not feeling confident that I could get a good, clean shot on them at 185 yards or so in the 20-25mph winds. Ended up with a small 65 or so pound doe from about 135 yards. From what I have eaten of it, it has been damn good so far. Bullet entered left side, smashed through one rib, annihilated the left lung, shredded the top half of the heart, ripped the right lung in two halves, punched through another rib on the right side, and made a decent size exit wound. Somehow, it still managed to run about 75 yards. I thought I must have jerked the shot and not gotten a very clean shot on it when I saw it dart off, but I sat for a couple minutes and then followed the blood trail and found it. While my neighbor was teaching me to field dress it properly, it blew my mind when I saw the carnage done to the vitals, but how far it still managed to run(especially after the same neighbor called me over to his house to help him field dress one he had just gotten so I could get a bit more practice and so he could be sure I had learned and correct any mistakes, and I saw how little the damage was on the one he took, but it dropped DRT). I had always heard they are "fragile" little creatures, but this one was apparently a tough little thing. Even the neighbor didn't believe me when I said how far it ran until I showed him where the blood trail started and where it ended.

Now I am looking forward to the December portion to try to fill the other two tags I got with my property. Again, I plan on going with the 450 unless I plan on taking a headshot with a 223, but I don't really feel good with my bullet selection for that(Hornady 55gr vmax which is a tack driver, 55gr fmj which is not an option, Hornady 55gr soft point that would probably be a perfect choice if it were more accurate, and then a few different grain sierra match kings that I don't use for anything other than punching paper or squirrels).

I plan on doing some load development in the next couple days to see if I can tighten up the groups any with the 450bm.

My 308 Deer load for the last 3 decades or so has been a 150 grain Sierra Flat Base Spitzer over a case full of IMR 4064. I think Sierra calls that bullet the Pro Hunter now. I've used several different case and primer combos but currently I'm working through a batch of LC-64 National Match brass with CCI Bench Rest primers.

Nature Boy said:

I’ll be in the woods next week so I did my annual hunting load work up.

This time I’m going with the 165 SGK and VV N140, .308 win.

View attachment 958817

Results were great. Load is 44.0g N140, Nosler brass, Fed 210 primers, 2.810” OAL, 2,725 fps

View attachment 958818

Now I just need a good one to step out in front of me

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You tend to always shoot such nice groups.

Took a spike on Sunday, with a 7mm 139 gr hornandy interlock spbt over 49.8 gr h4350, hornandy 7mm08 case and cci 200 primer 60 yds drt.

That load shot well at 300 yds, 3 shot group under 1 in., the rifle, load and I had a good day .