Winchester superX 100gr PowerPoints. Very few take a step when my son shoots one with these..

Federal 100gr sp in the purty blue box for me…

Pretty much any factory ammo loaded with a 100 grain soft point worked good for me before I started reloading. Since I've started reloading I shoot 100 grain partitions in my 243 and been happy with them so far.

Barnes 80gr ttsx hand loads were always excellent for us back when my son was younger.

That is THE bullet to use IMHO. Whether it is handloaded or factory. Any bullet will work for the broadside TV shots but on a big deer at a not so broadside angle, the Nosler Partition will punch through and leave a bomb cavity inside. In the thick stuff with a rain threatening, a good blood trail is the difference if finding and loosing. No, I do not work for Nosler, LOL.

Hornady 95 grain SST is all I buy. Neck or Lung Shot if possible.

they stopped making the best . hornady 100gr light magnums were the best ever made . why the stopped i dont know .

Another vote for 100 grain Core-Loks. Never had an issue with them.

CNC put eva one of you on his, "not man enough, gun" list.

All I know is when my son shot that 250# buck in the shoulder with 243 corelokts it fell over and acted dead for 10 minutes. Then it got up and ran off with little to no blood trail. I have lost all confidence in that caliber/ammo combo.

Sure I screwed up and now he is ruining meat with that 350 legend with 180 gr bullets, but at least we wont get deer playing possum on us again after a pretty good shot.

That was likely shot placement🤷🏼‍♂️

That happens with every caliber. I’ve seen deer do the same thing with larger magnum calibers when hit in the high shoulder. Unfortunately they’re rarely recovered. 😞

I've seen more deer lost by high shoulder shooters than any other group.

It's a small target that if executed properly is quickly lethal. But it's no bigger than a softball and just being a couple inches off will result in a lost deer.

Good bullets in the crease behind the shoulder are dead and the target is basketball sized with room for error. .

You are probably right. But I bet I have tracked 90-100 deer and have never seen so little evidence of a hit. Ive tracked a bunch of high shoulder 30-06 150 gr corelokt hits and they had way more blood and stumble marks. This deer didnt even look like he was limping and it was steep terrain.

I watched the shot and saw the deer laying there and saw the entry hole it sure didnt look too high. Looked like it was maybe 2 inches higher than perfect placement.

Dang I hate that. Strange things happen. Got a friend right now who’s getting pics of a buck he shot in bow season with a complete pass through. Looks like double lung exactly where we would all aim to kill a buck 100% of the time. Explain that one.

That is funny/strange.

A gentleman who hunted with us from 1982 until he passed a couple years ago told a story about killing a big buck on Mingo NWR in the 70s and he couldnt cut through the brisket while gutting. Finally figured out he was hitting an aluminum arrow that somehow missed the heart, liver, and lungs but otherwise was perfextly placed. It had healed over and no signs of wounds externally on that deer.

Deer are strange in that you can take every precaution in trapping and transport and they will still die from capture myopathy. Meanwhile. you can blast them with high powered rifles and they walk around like it was nothing.

^^

Dang

We shoot FP Nosler Partition in all of our rifles. My wife’s .243 shoots 100gr, my .270’s shoot 130gr and my -06 shoots 165gr. Never had a deer travel more than 100ft after being hit. Shot placement is key

.270 😁

This was good information (see my post under classified/Looking for scope) I will have to buy a couple of boxes once I get a scope mounted