.308 Whitetail Hunting Bullet

Nature Boy said:

Hard to go wrong with the 165 SGK. I took 3 deer last year using them. Accurate and deadly

https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/2020-deer-hunting-load.878826/

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That is a good looking load! @Nature Boy I spent this entire year retooling, fixing what I messed up the last time I batch loaded 308. Anything will kill deer if I made the load I used work. Killed 3 hogs, filled my two buck tags and killed two does.

That hunting load did pretty good! Now listen to this... 150 SP bullet seconds from RMR. It took me half the batch to realize that there were three different bullets in the 1000 bullet batch that I bought. They were all Federal Bullets but seems like 1/3 fusions/ 1/3 bluebox with more lead out and 1/3 non typicals. I was beside myself mad when I caught this. Only 2 of the 3 were the same to the ogive and BCs from .313.-.414! Having my bullets going 1400 fps at 500 yards.

44.5 Grains of Winchester 748 and Blown out LC 07 Machine Gun Brass. This load gave me right over an MOA at 100 yards and kept MOA all the way out to 500 yards. Load only clocked 2570 at the muzzle. And in the peak of the winter it gave me hang fires. I retired this load, pulled the bullets with grip plyers and added them to my scrap lead pile and started over. I had 500 plus of those left.

I was primarily a pistol/ pistol caliber carbine/ bullet casting guy and proud of my accomplishments in that arena and haphazardly threw together my rifle loads. But I had a good season last season and killed a nice buck at 450 yards with that load. Anything will do it almost, but now I have full confidence in ALL of my loads.

Gone Hiking said:

I'm trying to get squared away with a new Tikka in .308 with a Primary Arms BDC scope. I'd settled on either a 180 grn Hornady Interbond or Nosler Accubond bullet, but both are unobtainium at the moment. I have some alternates in mind, but would like to hear suggestions on others that may be similar, ballistically and performance-wise.

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Several years ago I took 3 deer using a 308 Winchester loaded with Berger 168 grain Hunting VLD bullets. All were DRT.

Last year I took 2 deer with a 22-250 using 55 grain varmint bullets.

I don't think bullet weight is that critical as long as penetration is adequate. I'm sure 180 grain bullets would work fine but so will lighter bullets.

bluejay75 said:

44.5 Grains of Winchester 748 and Blown out LC 07 Machine Gun Brass. This load gave me right over an MOA at 100 yards and kept MOA all the way out to 500 yards. Load only clocked 2570 at the muzzle. And in the peak of the winter it gave me hang fires. I retired this load, pulled the bullets with grip plyers and added them to my scrap lead pile and started over. I had 500 plus of those left.View attachment 1016641

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Possibly a combination of hard to ignite ball powder, insufficient firing pin extrusion, weak mainspring, standard primer, too much shoulder set back, and cold weather.

Ball powders are harder to ignite. I am unclear about what you mean by blown out LC brass, but if you sized the brass in a 308 die, and shoved the shoulder back too much, then you will experience misfires.

And example of reaming the primer pockets too deep:



Rounds did not go bang in my M70, but all ignited in my M1a. Obviously the difference was due to the greater ignition power of the M1a, and probably a firing pin that extended further from the bolt face.

I don't like ball powders, they leave a lot of fouling in the gas system of my gas guns, they are peaky in hot weather, and they are hard to ignite in cold. There is a very good reason why the #34 military primer is a "magnum" primer. The military wants their guns to go bang in cold weather, and the military uses a lot of ball powder.

If the shoulder is moved too far back when sizing a case, you will experience ignition issues as the firing pin will not be firmly impacting the primer. Always use a case gauge when setting up your die, and only push the shoulder back, after firing, about 0.003".



Do understand, measuring base to shoulder of a fired case will reveal the exact chamber headspace, but only in bolt guns. Gas gun ammunition gets stretched, so if you want to know the headspace of your gas gun chamber, you have to measure that with chamber headspace gauges. This was fired in an M1a



because gas guns open up when there still is residual pressure in the barrel, the case shoulder moves forward during extraction.



thus a fired gas gun case is not the length of the chamber, it is longer.

My hunting load in 308 is a Sierra 150 Grain ProHunter over a case full of 4064. Its worked well on Mule Deer, Antelope and Whitetail Deer for decades. I've shot a lot of other 150 grain bullets and the Sierra is slightly more accurate than the others.

I may experiment with the Berger 168 VLD Hunting bullet in my new 308 build.

.308 Norma said:

In all truthfulness, I've never killed a whitetail deer, but I've been killing mule deer since I was 14 or 15 (I'm 73 now) and I've never found them all that hard to kill - I can't imagine whitetail deer being all that much different.
That said, until sometime in the early '80s when I decided I "needed" to step up to a 30-06, I used regular old Remington, 150gr CoreLokt factory loads in my .308 Winchester for deer hunting, and regular old Remington, 180gr CoreLokt factory loads for elk. Once I "stepped up" to a 30-06, I started using my own handloaded Hornady 165gr BTSPs for both mule deer and elk. They worked well.
At any rate, I figure any regular old cup and core bullet weighing between 150grs and 180grs, and kicked out of your 308 Winchester between 2,600fps and 2,800fps will work great for whitetail deer. Like I said though - I've never killed a whitetail deer. But they can't be all that much harder to kill than mule deer, can they? Which in my experience, if you put the bullet in the right place, die really quick, if not instantly.

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My first whitetail was with a 117 gr Nosler Partition out of a .257 Roberts. As was my first antelope, and my first elk.

Now, I let my rifle choose the bullet. My Ruger Predator in .308 loves 150gr bullets. I would much rather use a 165gr bullet, or the 178gr ELDX, but I can get 1/2" groups with the 150gr. I consider that adequate for deer, elk, bear, and whatever. I would like a slightly heavier bullet for less deflection possibility in the brush, but, even with a 180gr bullet, you can hit a branch and miss a shot.

All you need to do to kill a deer is poke a hole through the boiler room. (heart and/or lungs) Pretty much ANY bullet will do. The most important thing to focus on, is spending enough time in the woods to know where the deer are, and spending enough time practicing with your gun to be able to make the shot. Bickering over bullet types is purely 'academic'... and is far less than 1% important in a successful hunt. Deer are thin skinned animals. Pretty much any popular centerfire rifle cartridge will poke a hole all the way through the boiler room with a good broadside shot. A .308 is MORE than you need to kill a deer. If you get a good shot at a deer with a .308 and you lose it... It's not the bullet's fault.

For my woods .308 I like Hornady 135 grain FTX bullets . They are designed to perform at 30-30 velocities , I use H4895 to get down to those levels in the .308 . Low recoil is a nice bonus ,

An additional thought I had on this while tweaking the magazine in my vintage M760 .300 Savage yesterday.

In the same vein that running 100+ racing fuel in your lawnmower is at best unnecessary, and at worst may decrease performance, premium bullets are not necessarily an advantage if not needed for terminal effects. The formula of a 150-165gr cup and core bullet at ~2600 fps MV vs. the whitetail deer was figured out a long time ago and still works. I believe it is near the optimum terminal performance for the game, and difficult to improve upon.

If you're shooting extremely long and need the BC (match bullet, SST, or NBT), or taking bad angle shots in the woods (180 partition, monos, grand slam), there may be some room for improvement. If not, find a good cup and core at 150 or 165 that shoots well in your rifle, and spend your time and money on practice. You'll be happier long term than shooting expensive slugs with fancy tips that will likely not perform as well as the good ol' SP when they hit a deer.

My go to whitetail deer 308 bullet is a 168gr Nosler Ballistic Tip. I've shot 4 deer with it and every deer was dead right there and had a huge exit hole (I have pictures that are too nasty to show on the internet, but the deer didn't know what hit them). I don't have my reload data readily available, but let me know if you want it. I remember I was getting 2800fps and like 1/2MOA with either IMR4064 or IMR4895. I keep my Rem 700 SPS tactical rifle sighted in for that load. I can not shoot the rifle for many years and test it with these loads and it is within millimeters of the bullseye. I sight in at 100 yards and shoot most deer under that. Deer are easy to kill and you don't need bonded. Any soft point or expanding bullet 150gr and up will easily do what it needs to do, but the Nosler ballistic tip is so accurate, it is my go to bullet.

I haven't hunted deer in several years, but I will say that I am considering going the opposite direction that you are headed. I was really wanting to try 125-130gr .308 bullets in both my .308 and bolt 30-30. Lower recoil and still DRT if I do what I'm supposed to do. If I hit the deer woods any time soon that is what I'm thinking.

I have only killed 5 deer in my life (gasp/horror), but the first 2 were with an American Mosin Nagant with 150gr Speer .311 Hot Cors over IMR 4350 and the last 3 were with a Handi-Rifle in 45-70 with a 405gr. Lee cast lead bullet over Unique. Put the bullets where they belong and the whitetail will drop.