Thread: Match bullets for hunting deer

This seems to be a topic that is difficult to navigate, with all sorts of opinions;

1. No, they only shoot paper.
2. Depends, some companies can't sell them as game bullets so have to call them match bullets.
3. Depends, what is the bullet.
4. Sure, my Pappy has been using them for 40 years and has shot a bazillion deer and they all died upon bullet impact.

Choose your number and there is information out there to suit that narrative.

What I thought I might ask is if there is anyone who uses match bullets for hunting deer and if anyone does, what are the terminal results?

I am particularly interested in the Sierra TMK (I have 95gr 6mm), because I have some and it would be nice to hunt with them. I am also open to any first hand experience saying they do not work.

What about HPBT, apparently they are not all created equal, does anyone use the Hornady #3039?

Or does anyone have any first hand accounts just in general to help guide people?

I use eldm in both .223 and .308 in my work guns and highly rate them

It's not that complicated - heavy-for-calibre ELDMs and TMKs work really well for killing stuff. HPBT match bullets are inconsistent. That's it.

If you’re slinging ELDMs at light speed you may have a blow up at close range but personally I’ve never seen it. They have a very thin jacket. Out at long range with lower impact speeds they perform exceptionally well.

Originally Posted by gimp

It's not that complicated - heavy-for-calibre ELDMs and TMKs work really well for killing stuff. HPBT match bullets are inconsistent. That's it.

Hmm so what about the Targex projectiles? they seem to do very well across the board on deer sized targets? The targex is widely used in the target shooting and benchrest disciplines.

Originally Posted by zeropak

Hmm so what about the Targex projectiles? they seem to do very well across the board on deer sized targets? The targex is widely used in the target shooting and benchrest disciplines.

I've been running 69gr hollow point rebated boat tail projs in the 223 for about a year now. They shoot well and are very expansive down range. Thats on goats and fallow deer.

If you hit somewhere absolutely vital and penetrate deep enough you'll drop deer with .22LR. If you do it with a match bullet it will still do it too.

Where it gets flaky is if you hit something on the way to the deer that you didnt see that starts the bullet upsetting or expanding - match bullets can do weird and unexpected things. It's a bit like FMJ, can hit bone and depart at 90deg to where it hit and take out the back steaks and scotch fillets on the way through the arsehole - ask me how I know this haha (seen it first hand, took out one of the shoulders, the backsteaks and scotch fillets and destroyed the spine, and stuffed the arsehole and the top of both rumps on the way out and a bloody nice condition yearling reduced to dog tucker basically).

It's probably better to use a hunting bullet, if you have one weird event you start second guessing yourself and that's bad...

Originally Posted by zeropak

Hmm so what about the Targex projectiles? they seem to do very well across the board on deer sized targets? The targex is widely used in the target shooting and benchrest disciplines.

3. Depends, what is the bullet.

On HPBT bullets, the hollow point part isn't necessarily a design feature that's there to promote expansion, it's an artifact from the way the jackets are drawn up around the core during manufacturing. They can be as small as a pinprick so it's hardly a gaping "hollow point" like you'd think of in pistol rounds.

On *hunting* HPBT's, the jacket is thin enough to be fragile, or the tip will have a cavity underneath it... or some other design tweak meant to better ensure you get some expansion.

It's not a consideration on bullets like the SMK and so they might not have it. Look at 30cal - Sierra do a 175gr Match King and then a 175gr Game King - they have identical outside geometry - the differences are on the inside.

When an SMK expands, good chance it will work much like any other ELD or TMK. But there is a higher chance that it won't work. The polymer tips over the large hollow points on the ELD's and TMK's basically guarantee they will do something useful.

The only projectiles I use for anything are tipped match projectiles. ELD-M or TMK, end of story

Originally Posted by zeropak

Hmm so what about the Targex projectiles? they seem to do very well across the board on deer sized targets? The targex is widely used in the target shooting and benchrest disciplines.

The guy who makes them is smart (Bryn). Consistent target jackets (Berger), hand pressed for precision, core formulated for reliable hunting performance.
They are a NZ product we can be very proud of.

The last ten deer I shot with a 308 168 gr smk all ended up in my freezer . But yes an sst or a more basic soft point would work as well or a bit better in some cases.

I've used the 155gr Scenar for many years on Sika and Fallow. I've never had a problem with them, they flat out kill, a decisive deer killing device. They almost all pass through, with a reasonably bulky retention found on a recovered bullet from a Sika hind shot in the butt,taking out the pelvis,a back steak, lungs and heart. There is a mountain of discussion online about this target projectile and it's excellence in hunting deer and other large game.

Originally Posted by zeropak

Hmm so what about the Targex projectiles? they seem to do very well across the board on deer sized targets? The targex is widely used in the target shooting and benchrest disciplines.

Within the group of "HPBT Match bullets" that is overall inconsistent, the Targex do work well in my experience

Originally Posted by No.3

If you hit somewhere absolutely vital and penetrate deep enough you'll drop deer with .22LR. If you do it with a match bullet it will still do it too.

Where it gets flaky is if you hit something on the way to the deer that you didnt see that starts the bullet upsetting or expanding - match bullets can do weird and unexpected things. It's a bit like FMJ, can hit bone and depart at 90deg to where it hit and take out the back steaks and scotch fillets on the way through the arsehole - ask me how I know this haha (seen it first hand, took out one of the shoulders, the backsteaks and scotch fillets and destroyed the spine, and stuffed the arsehole and the top of both rumps on the way out and a bloody nice condition yearling reduced to dog tucker basically).

It's probably better to use a hunting bullet, if you have one weird event you start second guessing yourself and that's bad...

ELDMs work consistently.

Many "hunting" bullets work poorly. Any non-lead hunting bullet, more or less, works much worse than an ELDM. Just because it says "hunting" on the box doesn't mean it works well. Even the ones that work relatively well, like Makers and Etips - have a smaller functional impact V window, and don't work as well inside it CF an ELDM

Hitting intermediate barriers between you and the target animal produces inconsistent results with any bullet.

Originally Posted by gimp

Within the group of "HPBT Match bullets" that is overall inconsistent, the Targex do work well in my experience

Yep Fair call. The interesting thing is that the common denominator which relates to poor performance of the HPBT bullet is not the actual hollow point. We have Targex and Berger bullets with a hollow point design working very well on game, then we have the ELDM's and TMKS which are not hollow point but are primarily designed as a "Match " bullet. So we can safely say that construction and/or match specific design with regard to poor performance do not somehow appear to be consistent across all bullets.