.30 cal deer bullet suggestions?

by Jared, Wednesday, September 24, 2014, 08:16 (3654 days ago) @ Slow Hand

If your rifle is sighted in for and shoots 168gr well, I would probably go with a 165 gr Hornady or Speer SP. Some love the Nosler BT but they are pretty soft. I am not a huge fan, but have used them with success. The remington CL is a good bullet but Remington has about priced themself out of the component market in my opinion.

I have shot a pile of deer and hogs with several .30 calibers from .30-30 to a ..300 Win Mag. My rule of thumb is I will use a standard cup and core bullet up to about 2700- 2800 FPS above that I like it go with a premium bullet. Since I am just as apt to run into a large hog as a deer I normally use Partitions in my .308 or .30-06, I like complete penetration if I can get it. I buy most of my partitions from shootersproshop.com they have blems and overrun partitions for cheep. I just ordered another 500 150gr this weekend! And they have a decent supply right now. Some say they are too tough for deer, but I haven't seen it. A while back I was using a 180gr partition at a MV of 2500 out of my 18" M7. It smacked the deer and hog I shot hard, with complete penetration.

Another interesting premium bullet is the 130gr Barnes TSX at 3000+.