Thread: Norma Bondstrike

Fellas, I didn’t really intend for this to be a “look at this long-range thousand yard deer bullet” kind of thing.

I’m not really into shooting deer that far out, but by all means debate it if that’s what floats your boat. I think most of us know that once you get into the properly out their ranges then you probably need a softer, weight shedding bullet. But that said there’s been some metallurgical development in the premium bonded bullet products in the last couple of years, that suggests maybe that logic can be re-assessed.

I was looking at it more from the typical New Zealand long-ish shot at big deer / tahr with a light or standard magnum such as, 7mm RM, .300 WSM, .300 WM etc. For most guys, that’s a 400-600ish metres shot. The heavy magnums are a different kettle of fish and not really my scene.

I recently shot a very heavy, beaten up old red stag with a fucked rear leg at 580m with a .300 WSM. Solid hit right on the upper humerus. Smashed the leg completely, bullet passed through with a geyser of blood spraying out the exit all over the place. Poor old bastard made some ground downhill, staggering on pretty much on 1½ rear legs, one front leg, before giving up and rolling into the shit in the bottom of the gully. I was glad of the bonded Federal Fusion, because with hindsight I’m not so sure how well a thin jacketed cup & core bullet would have dealt to him, having clearly struck the leg bone on the way in.

First time I had used that bullet (factory ammo) and I have no complaints at all about how it did the job. But ballistically it’s very much in the middle ground and there are much sleeker tipped bonded bullet options now, with higher BC and retained energy. That particular experience has got me thinking about what I would choose if I became a regular Magnum shooter. I’ve pretty much decided I would go for the highest BC, rapidly expanding bonded bullet that shot well in the rifle. From what I remember of bonded bullets back in the day (Africa), they tended to be pretty hopeless once they had shed velocity. These days, the metallurgy has improved and we have much better expansion over a much wider range from point blank to waaaayyy out there.

This is a good thing.