Deer bullets terminal ballistics

Bullet choice is crucial for any sporting rifle because it’s the only part of your rifle, scope and moderator setup that actually connects with your quarry. You can have the best kit available but if you choose the wrong bullet type for the game you are shooting, you can have poor or ineffective results. All bullets are not the same and their interior and exterior construction greatly affects the way they perform when they strike your quarry, penetrate and expand. Too fast and it will not penetrate to the vitals and cause surface wounds, too little expansion and the bullet sails right on through the beast, departing little of the energy to the vitals. It’s a balancing act to get penetration, expansion and lethality from any projectile, let alone accuracy issues caused by such factors as weight, rifling twist and general compatibility.

The other really crucial issue is that bullets do not expand the same at different ranges, as the yardage increases the characteristics can change dramatically! Which is why some projectiles hit hard at 100 yards but barely expand at all at say 200 yards. Despite what manufacturers say you need to test your bullets you shoot in your rifle to see how they perform so you can make a fully informed shot at range.

TEST REGIME

People get all het up about the cartridge they are using but what really matters is the bullet and the speed it is travelling, the case is the propulsion unit, as it`s the bullet that really does the hard work! Therefore I used one calibre to illustrate what I mean about expansion at differing ranges, this being the .30 cal with two differing 150-grain bullets and three velocities to simulate the differing ranges. I used a .30-47 Lapua but it could quite easily be a .308, as it duplicates this round with less powder consumption, what is important is the actual bullet performance at a certain velocity at a given range.

I used my trusted ballistic wax for gauging performance – penetration, wound channels, possible fragmentation and strength, or lack of it, in construction. I then shot it using three differing loads with each bullet at progressively slower velocities that will correspond directly to the velocity - feet per seconds (FPS) it would be travelling at downrange. Try shooting Ballistic wax blocks at ranges of over 400 yards accurately and squarely! This is a tried and tested system and it works.

The 150-grain, .30”calibre bullets I chose in this initial test were the Nosler Ballistic Tip and Hornady SST (Super Shock Tip), two good performing deer bullets that I use regularly. In the future I will test more makes and types to expand (excuse pun) the testing. This gives a flavour and illustrates what I am trying to say.

 

RESULTS ANALYSED

Right, where do we start? As best I could, I loaded the Nosler and Hornady to the same velocities, give or take a bit for a direct comparison, note the different powder charge to achieve same velocities; this is because tolerances of bullets between manufacturers differ, thus altering pressures within the bore.

Firstly, total penetration, you can see that across the board the SST penetrated as expected, it’s a tougher bullet, designed for big game use with its Inter Lock ring construction and 19% thicker jacket compared to the Ballistic Tip. However, here`s the really important part; that as the velocity decreases the bullet penetrates more, which a lot of people do not understand. Surely with less velocity the bullet penetrates less, NO as the bullet does not expand with such force at the higher speeds the bullets stay ‘as a pointed volume compared to the SST`s 32mls. This is what we expect; the BT causes instant and dramatic initial energy transfer from bullet to tissue and internal organs but with less overall penetration. But at beyond 150 yards or approx 2450 fps the SST has a big advantage. At 2413 fps, the SST has a wound channel of 27.5 ml compared to the Nosler’s 16ml, with a bigger max wound diameter of 0.65 compared to 0.5”. Then, at 1956 fps, the Hornady SST again has 18.75ml wound channel compared to the 10ml Ballistic Tips.

What this tells you is the SST does indeed have a stronger construction, that expands and then maintains that expansion and larger wound channel at nearly all velocities and penetrates deeply too.

That’s not to say the Nosler is less good, which is not the case, it just expands very quickly for instant energy transfer and knock down power; what you have to figure out for your type of shooting, do you want this or the more controlled expansion of the SST, I use both so have no preference other than the venison damage or species size might be an issue to you.

 

CONCLUSIONS

Hopefully this gives an idea how individual bullet types and even makes of seemingly similar build can perform differently down range! Obviously faster velocities with the same bullets, from say a 30-06, .300 H&H or 300 Win Mag, will give different expansion but the level of deterioration of expansion will be proportionate to these tests.

When choosing ammunition, it’s not just a matter of buying what the Gunsmith gives you or has for sale, think about what quarry you are stalking and adjust your bullet choice accordingly. Reloading your own ammunition certainly can make the best combinations of components but the majority of factory ammunition these days is so good, if you only shoot occasionally, then that’s the way to go.

If you look at the bullets offered for sale and loaded in factory ammunition, there is usually a helpful guide to their use and actually they are pretty accurate in their designation. The range at which you usually shoot your quarry will also have an influence, as will whether you just want instant kills regardless of meat damage or whether you want one shot kills with less venison spoilage but deeper penetration. The choice is yours.