Deer load?

[BuckMan101]

What would be the ideal bullet weight for deer coming out of a .300wm?

[j-ROC2]

i use 180 gr in my 30 06 and my 300 wm i duno some people say its over kill but it works fine for me. cheers

[JustinC]

I would agree 180+ gr. It will be good for long range and with go throught a little bit of bush if you are hunting in heavy timber.Depends on what bullet man you are going with.

[220swifty]

Whatever your 300 likes the most, as long as it was designed for big game.

To clarify, V-max bullets, or anything designed for match shooting is out, but the rest are good. Find one that the gun likes and it will bring down deer.

[Fox red lab]

I have used 165gr Federal Vital shock with Nosler partition with my .30-06 on the last 3 deer. One shot at 50yds, 1 at 150yds and one at 205 yds. All had such a huge hole in them I was thinking of going to 150 gr when I finish the box.

[HunterDave]

I bought a 300 win mag a few years ago to hunt moose and elk. I usually use a 3006 for hunting deer but I decided to use the new 300 win with 180 grain pointed soft point bullets just to try out the new rifle.

I shot the first deer at about 50 yards broadside right behind the front leg through the chest. The deer went 50 yards and dropped dead. The second deer was the same shot from about 200 yards and it went about 30 feet and dropped.

Both bullets went right through the deer easily and the exit wounds were about the size of my fist! Unless you have a perfect shot I wouldn't recommend that caliber and bullet for taking deer. It'll make a hell of a mess of a deer that is quartering away or forward and you'll likely waste alot of meat.

If the 300 win mag is the only rifle that you have to hunt deer with then go with a lighter grain bullet - 165?

[Atex]

I've shot a deer few years ago @ 50 yards with my buddy's 300 WM, 180gr bullet (don't know what brand) and it totally pulverized the opposing shoulder Nowadays I use a 270 with 130gr XP3's for deer.

[ACKLEY ABE]

Well this is deffinatly the spot for "pick the right bullet". A 300 with the right bullet is a great cartridge.

I've shot scores of Whitetails, a few Mule Deer with 180's. Never have I seen "fist size" wounds. I use Remington corelokts 180 gr although I have used Speer and Hornady 180's as well. In the few cases where I have recovered the bullet (most pass through), the Corelokts retained over 80 percent of their original wt and opened to a perfect mushroom. The reason I load Corelokts is...when I got my first 300, I also came into 12 boxes of loaded ammo ...rem 180 corelokts. I bouth it to use as brass, but soon found out that it shot very, very well. So.... I tried to duplicate Remingtons load. Rem brass, Rem mag primers, Rem bullets...and a load that I believe to be Remingtons factory powder for this cartridge. Results: Even better groups, of course.

180's have always been the bullet of choice for the big 30's, as have 165's for 30.06 and 150's for 308's. Now that being said, every rifle has it's preferences. If your's likes 165's then so be it, but hope that it likes 180's. In fact One of my 30.06's happens to like 180's as well as does my 30.06 AI.

There are tons of different bullets out there these days. Some claim to be "PREMIUM" bullets...perhaps they are, but dead is dead and I have had good success with what I'm using. Of the deer that I've shot with the 180's, only once have I had to shoot the animal more than one time and that was due to a poor shot made by me, not due to any problem with the bullet. (Running deer that I shot in the spine ).

Out of my Sendero I'm getting 3145 fps, and with my Sako 75 a little less. Ive had a cpl of other 300's over the years and they have all digested the 180's just fine.

If you really want to see meat damage go to a light bullet and push it hard, then you'll see damage. Although, is that bad??? Not much meat on the front end of a whitetail. So if your 300 likes 150's have at er.

300, Overkill????? I don't think so. You may not need one, but they sure do work well in the right hands.

[Tracker34]

I've had my 300 wm for 4 years now, and always use 180 gr. (ballistic silvertip and Nozler accubonds) These have worked really well. Like any other deer rifle, I try my best to keep the bullet from hitting the shoulder. I've had just as much meat damage with a poor shot from my 32 spl as my 300.

[rmk800]

180 grain federal vital-shock nosler partition

-leaves loonie sized exit at 75 yrds.

Lighter grain Bullets with less weight retention (soft tipped, non-bonded) are more likely to cause damage than a well constructed, heavier bullet.

[HunterDave]

Never have I seen "fist size" wounds.

Yep, you're right. I stand corrected. As I recall the actual hole itself, the part that was gone, was about the size of a twoonie and the trauma around the hole was about the size of my fist. We were all shocked at the size of the wound when we skinned the deer.

I agree that you will have no problem taking deer with a 300 win mag and a 180 grain bullet, that's for sure! My point is that for myself being a meat hunter I would much rather have a bullet that might deflect off the inside of a shoulder and bounce around the inside than have one that is going to blow right through it destroying everything in it's path.

I'm no expert on ballistics, etc but I checked the chart for a 300 win mag. Using the Remington program with pointed soft point (PSP) Core-Lokt rounds 150 grain bullet versus a 180 grain bullet is as follows:

150 gr Velocity@200 yds = 2566 fps Energy@200 yds = 2193 foot lbs
180 gr Velocity@200 yds = 2496 fps Energy@200 yds = 2489 foot lbs

I'm not sure if it would make much of a difference in which bullet weight you use because there is an awful lot of energy hitting that deer with either one. I can't say from experience what a 150 grain bullet will do but I'm guessing that there's enough Energy to go right through a deer.

My advice is, if the 300 win mag is the rifle that you're going to use to hunt deer with and you're concerned about saving as much meat as possible, use whatever sized bullet that you want but wait for a perfect shot.

Happy Huntin'!

[6.5 shooter]

Don't shoot a 300 but do shot a 30-06 at 2840fps. and it just loves hornady 190gr. btsp. I have taken a few deer and most holes are 30 cal. going in and quarter going out never found a bullet yet...and on moose they are awesome.

[ACKLEY ABE]

Hunter Dave: Look at the jacket thickness on 150's as compared to 180's and I think that you will find that they, in general are more frangible.

Always, of course, wait for the shot that YOU are capable of making, no matter what your shooting. Of all the deer that I've shot with my 300's I don't recall any that had serious meat damage, unless you consider the heart/lungs ..meat. I've seen far more damage with a deer shot with a 130 gr bullet, which could be one reason that I use 150's in my 270.

[HunterDave]

Agreed, there's no disputing that a well placed shot will make all the difference. If only all my deer would turn broadside to me.

I've always hunted both moose and deer with a 3006. The only sized bullet that I used was a 180 gr because I could grab my rounds and hunt either animal. This year I shot a nice buck that was quartering towards me. I had a good shot behind the left front leg but the bullet traveled through the deer diagonally and broke the right rear femur. Although I was happy with getting a nice buck it was a little disappointing to waste some of the meat on the rear quarter.

Given the same shot, it makes me wonder what a 180 gr bullet coming out of a 300 win mag with over 500 ft-lbs more energy at 200 yds would have done to that back leg.

My thinking is, and I may be wrong but, if I had used a lighter bullet I could have minimized some of the damage to the deer. Now that I have a 300 win mag for moose and elk, I am going with either a 165 gr or a 150 gr bullet in my '06 for deer and I will use 180 gr in the 300 win mag for the big boys.

So, although I am going with a lighter bullet for deer in my '06, my opinion is that if you are hunting deer with a 300 win mag, there is so much energy behind both the 150 gr bullet and the 180 gr bullet that it won't make much of a difference. If that was the only rifle that I owned, I would use a 180 gr bullet and use the one round for everything that I hunt, similar to what I did with my '06 before getting my 300 win mag.

PS I have a couple of boxes of 180 gr 3006 rounds up for trade on the EE if you're interested.

[ACKLEY ABE]

PS I have a couple of boxes of 180 gr 3006 rounds up for trade on the EE if you're interested.

I saw that..... I handload, but...thks..


Abe

[Ice Fishing Maniac]

180gr Accubonds with RL-22 gets my vote then 165-180 TTSX's

If you shoot smaller bullet, go with smaller caliber IMO