The load I will be developing will be a "budget" load that I can reload cheaply, but still will be a good deer round out to about 125 yards. Any bullet suggestions? I have some H335 on hand, so I will likely use this as a starting powder.
In selecting a Deer bullet for the 7.62x39 you need a bullet that will both expand and penetrate at slower velocities. In the .308 size bullet, that puts you in the 30-30 class or a Ballistic Tip class. Most other bullets are just to hard for the 7.62x39 and will not expand, they will most likely just pencil trough. If you go with the .310(7.62x39) bullets you should be fine. Just make sure they are for the 7.62x39 and not the 303 and 7.7 Jap. These are to hard.
A few years ago I worked up a very accurate load for my Mini-30 with Sierra 125gr Pro Hunters. This was going to be my Deer hunting load. That is until I talked to a few techs at Sierra. Turns out that the 125gr PH was designed for very fast velocities and is ultra hard. I was told that this bullet would not be a good choice and would just pencil through at 7.62x39 velocities.
I also talked to Hornady about their 110 and 130gr .308 SP bullets. I was told that the 130gr would be a good choice for Whitetails. While the 110 would be a bad choice, he said that the 110gr SP was designed for Varmints and may to too soft. I have worked up loads with both of these bullets and they are very accurate, just haven't tried them on game yet.
For a Mini-30 Deer bullet out to 125 yards I have found non better than the Hornady 150gr 30-30 RN. This bullet will knock em dead and is extremely accurate in my Ruger. I have also had good luck with the Speer 130 and 150gr 30-30 FN, another excellent Deer bullet, just not as accurate as the Hornady.
If you need to increase that 125 yard max, I would give the 125gr Nosler Ballistic Tip a try. Very accurate and deadly on Whitetails out to 200 yards.
If you have H 335 then that is a good place to start. You may find that H 335 requires some serious compression, 31.5gr of H335 is a lot of powder to cram into that little 7.62x39 case. Don't get me wrong, I like compressed loads, I'm just not a fan of heavily compressing ball powders when there are better choices out there.