What bullets do you shoot & why
General Topic
Contributors to this thread:
First started rifle reloading 42 years ago with Lee tap in tap out neck size dies for my 7 mag. Back then in va you were allowed 3 deer & factory bullets were destroying a lot of meat. I started reloading Speer hot core bullets in an attempt to have a less damaging bullet. Now 42 years later I want deer to hit the ground when I pull the trigger. I've never shot a more destructive bullet than the berger hunting vld period !!! That bullet is absolutely violent inside the chest of a deer. With my old knight .45 disc elite I shoot dead center 175 pure lead bullets behind 120 grs blackhorn209 & they also preform excellent. Just curious what others are shooting & why. I know this is a Archery forum but gun threads have defiantly gotten some interest.
Whatever is in the shells I buy. For as much as I geek out with archery I am the exact opposite with firearms.
Barnes TSX. 100 grn from a 257 Weatherby, 428 yard shot. Exit hole.
Back when Berger VLDs were only sold and considered as target bullets, we were taking a lot of game with them.
Barnes X has flattened deer for me. Get decent if not super accuracy with reloads.
140 grain from a 7-08. I've fooled with 120's but haven't shot a deer with them.
Did you have to get a different breech plug for shooting loose powder in that Knight Disc?
I only shoot fixed bullets, mechanicals suck.
;-)
Matt.
Im a Hornady fan - Interlocks have performed great in 340 Wby/30-06/270/Hornady FTX for a 44 mag
Dana.....I got a Ruger Hawkeye Light 7mm-08 for the wife. It has the 16" barrel. I could not get any grain over 120gr to make anything resembling a group. I tried some of those Hornaday 120gr Lights and those were the best I could do for factory loads. I haven't tried to reload for it. From asking around....the short barrel requires some experimenting to find a good round for it. What was your reload that worked?
If I ever use a rifle again, Barnes TTSX in any cal.
Nosler partition or Accubonds.
Barnes ttsx or lrx are space magic but for sub 3000 FPS slick tricks
JL, my short-barrel Remington Model Seven 'likes' W-760 (aka H414) with several different bullets best. I've fooled with Varget, CE223 and others but always return to it.
It's slightly 'slower' than other recommended powders and seems counter-intuitive for a short barrel, but results rule.
331 gr. Power Belt with 100 gr. of Jim Shockey powder. TMBB
120 grain barnes ttsx out of my 7mm-08, 240 grain precision rifle dead centers out of my muzzle loader.
Dana...how short (or long) is your barrel? I have a jug of Varget.
Accubond 180 by Nosler. Loaded by me for my Browning 30-06 A Bolt.
Currently using Barnes TSX but preliminary results are showing the TTSX to group a little tighter.
Depends on the range and game being shot and the velocity of the cartridge.
Same as some others have said. I absolutely love the 168 berger VLD out of my .308 for deer. I personally haven't shot a deer with it, but that's what my son and wife have got all their deer with. After not being able to find any of the HSM ammo the past 2yrs, I switched to the superpreformance 165 SST. And after seeing what it did to my son's doe lope this year. I think it might be the new one for me. On my 300RUM the best shooting bullet I have found are the old 180gr Corelokts. I would prefer a different bullet, but it by far shoots the best. It got it done on my elk this year.
Missouri woods and shots of 100 yds or less I am shooting a .270 with 150 grain Remington corelocked I got off the clearance rack at Walmart 2 yrs ago for $5 a box. Drops them dead and I have more money for archery!
Nosler Partitions or Accubonds.
25-06 with WIn ballistic silver tip 115gr shot many deer with these have yet had run run off.I used to load nosler partition in this round and killed many deer but they all ran a bit but were dead.Ballistic win none have run.I would not want these for anything bigger than a whitetail though.
Mostly, Remington Thunderbolts. They work the best in my autos. Rare to get feed jams.
“ I only shoot fixed bullets, mechanicals suck.”
You’re not wrong. A muzzleloader needs an expanding bullet like a Sumo Wrestler needs rocks in his pockets on a windy day.
I don’t know what the fascination is with drop on the spot bullet performance. I know a guy from the UK who shot literally thousands of deer with a .270 Win with a 150 gr Hornady Interloc loaded to about 2800 fps. He held double lung or top of heart and fully expected an 80-yard dash from every one. If you want them dropped on the spot, you just make sure you hit the body of the spine. That didn’t work for my friend, because it ruins two shoulders… and a shot-up carcass brings a poor price.
I’ve liquefied the contents of more than a few chest cavities with various highly-frangible bullets from my 7-08, and sometimes they run, sometimes they don’t. At those more modest velocities, nothing fancy is required, though my Rem Mtn Rifle sure liked the 154 grain “Extended Range” load that Big Green offered about 30 years ago. It also shot the early production 140 grain ballisti-bomb very accurately, But I literally had one of those ricochet off of the rib of a white tailed doe at very short range; I have a hide which tells the tale. The bullet went in, fragmented violently, and the core made almost a 90° turn to exit no more than a half inch away from where it entered. The first year that I shot with that bullet had so much damage in the chest cavity that she literally slashed when moved, but after that catastrophic failure, I’ve been saving those for coyotes.
Anyway, for Treestand whitetails, regular factory loads worked very nicely in a .308 class case.
If I were hunting anything larger, I would want a controlled expansion slug, but since I don’t load my own, I guess I would have to find a factory round that fit the bill.
Bottom line for me, though, is that I will tolerate failure to exit if I’m shooting my .54 round ball at quartering angles and short range. Anything else has to guarantee me an exit, and the type of bullets that provide those spectacular “DRT“ kills just tread too fine a line for my purposes.
I don’t like losing arrows, but bullets… I never want to see again.
I've shot deer with 300 WM using ballistic tips, Hot cores, SST's, Sierra Pro Hunters, Amax's and even 225 gr ELDM. They all died. Some were a lot messier inside than others. That ELDM does not let them go very far.
I'm with Corax in that i like to get some usable meat from the front shoulders so I aim like a bow for the lungs. I always chuckle when I see a hunting show and they are dropping them right there. Top shoulder,bottom spine shot. Blows the heck out of a bunch of meat. Maybe if they might fall over a cliff or run on to someone else's ground I could understand.
Trying different bullets and powders is half the fun of reloading. I do not save any money by reloading. I do get custom ammo that really performs and I get to shoot a lot more.
Nosler. Partitions did a good job but the lead tips get deformed in the box and they never did fly like Accubonds. I use 200 grainers and elk hit the ground dead. For deer I’m not to picky. Factory Federal Premium partitions have served me well.
.25/06 with 115gr Winchester silver tips or 150gr Accubonds w/ BL C2 powder for the .308 Deer drop with the 115gr silver tips - accurate and devastating.
Shug 2216, man thats,,, well we'll call it an old caliber. I shot that in like the 80's. I now shoot one of the newer calibers 350's. :) pushing 100g and lets call it an expandable on impact. .
Nos AB and ABLR. Sometimes Hornady.
Never Berger.
I shoot all kinds. Hornady sst and interlocks, lever revolution bullets, Nosler BT, Speer grand slams, nosler partition, and Speer hot core in slow thumpers. It drastically increases the affect. And, defines the Phrase of “knocking one down”.
If you bought a Speer hot core to save on meat damage, you probably got disappointed. They are a violent bullet. And, out of a big caliber gun, moving slow to help with bullet integrity upon impact, really slams deer to the ground.
Lots of great bullets out there. And, I reload for a bunch of different calibers and guns.
My favorite big game caliber is the ‘06. I have several. I used to load a lot of 150 grain loads and push them hard out of those guns.
Then, as powder choices improved, I found options that allow me to push heavier bullets for those guns. At as high or higher speeds, with better accuracy, then those 150 grain loads.
Now, it’s all I shoot. And, the best bullet for me in the ‘06 at 165 grains or less is the ballistic tip. 180 and up I prefer partition or interlock.
I honestly believe that modern bullets are just preference. They all work well if it’s a hunting bullet. From any caliber. Keep them within their designed limits and there isn’t much left for discussion. Except preferences. Accuracy aside.
I prefer Hornady factory ammo so I can use their online ballistics chart. I've shot out to 960 yards accurately using these two. I don't put much thought into it other than that. A Remington Core lokt will kill as fast or faster than anything in my experience. Heck, I've killed bucks with sub sonic ammo that won't expand its going so slow (around 1000 fps) and the deer only ran 60 yards.
Midwest. No I use the original breach plug but did drill the hole very slightly larger ..
Danac...is correct about w760 & short barrels
As far as bullet placement & deer running or not & meat damage or not. I kill enough deer that the meat damage is not an issue I'm on the coast & in some areas I hunt an 80 yard dash will have you out in the marsh up to your butt in muck mud. Or in a cutover climbing over trees or in a briar patch a beagle won't go in. I aim the center of the shoulder unless the deer are close & I have a good rest then I'll shoot em in the neck
50 cal. round balls pushed by 90 grains of powder out of my flint lock are my favorite.
I'm still shooting some 154 grain hand loads out of my 7mm. A friend's dad reloaded about 10 boxes for me years ago and they get the job done on PA whitetail.
130 gr. Swift Scirocco II in my 6.5 Creedmore
165 gr. Sierra Game Changer in my 30.06
170 gr. Hornady soft Nose in my .350 Legend
CCI Mini Mag in my .22 (rifle & pistol)
Hornady Personal Defense in .380 and 9mm.
Why do I use these ammos- as Hornady says, "Deadly, Accurate and Dependable."
I shoot 165 gr Barnes TSX out of my 300 WSM, 142 gr Nosler Accubonds out of the 6.5 Creedmoor, and 50 gr ballistic tips out of the 22.250 (varmints). Main reason is the respective guns like those bullets. For hunting I kind of prefer the Barnes however for retention, performance, and lack of lead particles in the meat.
For myself, I've been shooting Nosler stuff for decades. I've branched out to the Barnes LRX's in 127 for the 6.5 PRC. Haven't loaded them yet but will try. I did try the .270 Hornaday ELD-X's. Very accurate. However....I hit three animals with them. The antelope was a pass thru. Both whitetails fragmented real bad and no pass thru. I had to pick the pieces out (see pic). I had a .270 corelock (deer) and .300WM Winchester Ballistic Silver Tip (big hog) do the same thing. I'm a pass thru kinda guy so I retired those for hunting. The Partitions and Accubonds always passed thru or held retention. Take it FWIW.....
Good performance
Good performance
Here's the 165 gr TSX I pulled from elk shoulder
Different bullets depending on caliber & intended targets... .243, .280, .308, 30-06, 300 win mag, 338 win mag. My go to bullets are TSX or the tipped TSX lately.
I shoot Bergers in all of my rifles. They flat out shoot everything I have loaded before and the shock they deliver is amazing.
3 berger vld & 44 slug from the buck I shot. Most the deer I shoot with the berger vld's the slug or what's left of it will be against the hide on the off side
Back in the day when I rifle hunted with my Father, we always used the good old Sierra GameKing bullets in hand-loaded cartridges. 150 gr Spitzer boat tails in his 30-06s and 160 gr in his 7mm mag, both shooting at around 3000 fps. They knocked down all the deer and elk we hit with them.
My father hated wasting any meat, so we always aimed for the neck of the animals. When you hit them there, they usually drop on the spot. In fact, when I first started bow hunting, I had to retrain myself to not instinctively aim for the neck.
Matt
Most of our handloads over the years used Hornady 100 gr boat tail for .243 and 130 gr Sierra Game King bt for 270. We have been loading them since the mid 80s with various charges of IMR 4831 or H414 and have had great results. We still have enough of those bullets to last several more years. For 30 years, those two calibers along with .35 Rem were our only deer calibers. For years we only used factory loads for the .35, so the old reliable 200 grain core-loct got the nod.
In recent years we’ve added a 7mm-08 and we use hornady accubonds with it.
My dad bought a box of 140 gr .277 accubonds a couple of years ago, so I’ve worked up a mid-range load for it that shoots well, but I haven’t taken a deer with it yet. I think the last deer I killed with the 270 was in 2015. I did kill a doe late last season with the .243 with the 100 gr hornady and 42 grains IMR 4831 and got the typical 50 yd dash and somersault. In keeping this archery related, I think she was the same doe I had missed a week earlier with my longbow :-)
My dad worked up a load for the 7 Rem Mag I bought off him when I was a teenager and I haven't changed it. All I need to do is hit a big Canadian whitetail and they don't ever go far. 139gr Hornady I believe Interlocks. 0-500 yards. Texas heart or vitals I don't track long. I've shot that load so long it's almost boring, but I have never ever had an issue with performance. What's crazy is the meat damage is fairly localized. I don't lose too much but it's also devastating.
Factory ammo Nosler partitions in the 243, 270, 308, and 338. Norma whitetail loads were extremely effective on PA whitetail this season.
T/C Shockwaves in the inline. Maxi balls in the 50 flintlock. Round ball in the 45 flintlock.
Started loading Partitions in 1975 and still do.. Started using the .223 60 grain in my .223 and 22-250 for deer and antelope. It's open here and you can watch them for the 50 yard run I often get with shooting 2-3" behind the shoulder.
Started using Nosler's baliistic tip in my Ruger No. 1 25-06 for deer.
You can kill deer with just about any bullet if you stay away from the front let bones, but a tough bullet is best.
I shoot these for coyotes. Powered by Hodgdon H414 42 grains is perfect coyote medicine. Drops them but rarely tears fur up. For quail and dove I use whatever lead is cheap. For deer I use a titanium chisel tip backed by blades that mushroom out to 1.5”
Been using Barnes 180 TTSX in my 300 RUM, planning to switch to accubonds. I have recovered three of the bullets and two of them completely shed their petals. Never had one with the textbook expansion.
I kinda like Sciroccos. My daughter shot her first deer this year with a .223 and Sciroccos. I think it's a pretty good bullet. I don't really want a .223 bullet to blow up.
I shot a buck this year with a centerfire rifle for the first time since 2007 I think. I also used Sciroccos out of my 300. I was happy with the performance. Blew through one leg and left a decent hole, and stopped on opposite side hide. Didn't just blow up, which is what I don't want
Muzzle loader 100 grains of loose Black Horn 209 275 gr. Parker bullet Extreme the bullet shown was taken out of a 225 lbs plus buck killed at 150 yards.It broke through one shoulder and ribs went through and busted the other side ribs and went through the other shoulder it was just on the inside of the skin I cut it out with my pocket knife it lost less than 10 percent of its weight this load has never failed me Good luck Lewis
Pretty sad when you need politics and rifle hunting to keep your bowhunting site alive.
Time for a fee membership and a member scrub.
"Pretty sad when you need politics and rifle hunting to keep your bowhunting site alive"
IMO.....diverse topics is what keeps things interesting and educational. I didn't know we had that many bow hunters who are also gun and ML hunters here. Why not appeal to these outdoor interests too....it makes business and site longevity sense. I feel single topic or narrow topic websites and membership fees will kill a site. The newest Lumber Pricing thread is a good example of a topic that has nothing to do with bowhunting but is a very useful thread offering good intel.
If you are a "bowhunting only" guy, why would you even open this thread or care if others talk bullets? ... to each his own, but we hunters, all of us, need to stick together.
Yup I could go on a firearms site but would rather just stick to one and besides bow season is pretty much over soon and I don’t know too many people that predator call with bows.
"Time for a fee membership and a member scrub."
I agree, because then I could move on to more productive things. No way in hell I'd pay for a forum membership...
I like the Barnes TSX. The all copper design yields more consistent/reliable expansion. And as copper is lighter than lead, a similar weight all-copper bullet is longer for better ballistic coefficient. (*gotta account for deeper seat and adjust reload data a bit)
Berger VLD are also very good.
I load bonded bullets for my 300wsm. Mostly Grand Slams, 165 gr. I have loaded and taken game with 165 gr Swift A Frames, 168 gr Core Lokt ultras, and 165 gr TBBC.
Up here in the Northwest Arctic, the preferred bullet for caribou is .22 mag or .223 and a .243 is considered a moose gun. And the brand is wholly dependent on what the hardware store has in stock.
I know a guy in Kiana who described his single shot .22 hornet/.410 WWII pilot survival gun as "a good caribou and ptarmigan gun."
At the ranges I normally shoot I don’t need a match type bullet, but my Alamo Precision Rifles .280 Rem will turn in 1” or better groups at 100 yd. all day long with my reloads. Probably would do better with a better shooter. ;-) I load Sierra Game Kings over Reloader 19 in Norma cases with CCI primers. At my age, I shoot for the high shoulder and they drop in their tracks. I don’t want to chase, track, or drag and that bullet ruins way less meat than a lot of projectiles I’ve used in the past.
My 3006, I shoot 165 Hornady Spire point or Hornady SST 165. My 3030, 165 Hornady. Drops the deer in their tracks.
Purchased a 25/06 in the early 80's,I didn't like the Remington factory loads(120 gr.hollow points).,a buddy of mine was a reloader and we loaded 120 gr.Nosler partitions;I have taken maybe 40 deer with that load. Started reloading myself and my 30/06,7mm/08 get Accubonds.Load for the kids and grandkids.
180 grain accubonds in 300 Win Mag and 165 grain accubonds in 30-06
Before you get excited about caribou being killed with .22 rimfire, most of them are shot out of a boat as the caribou are swimming across a river. Legal in certain units.
Easton hexx 330 75 brass incert 100 gr exp. Broadhead
GT woodgrain 500, 50gr brass insert, 125 gr Magnus Stinger. Shoots well off my 50# Osage selfbows.
Just getting back into rifle shooting, and first time reloading. I've been trying to work up a load that makes my 7mm Mag happy, have experimented with Interlock SP, Barnes TSX, Nosler Partition, Nosler Accubond, and Hornady SST, all 175 grain (I was working up for a Moose Hunt, that fell through).
So far, it's between the "Supercharged" Nosler Partition, and the Interlock SP. The rifle seems to like those heavy bullets to come out hot (around 3000 Fps).
Querstion about Barnes TSX vs 'tipped' TTSX - did Barnes alter the bullet body, change the ogive for the tipped version? I load for a short action (Rem Model 7) with a 2.8" limitation on cartridge OAL, and wonder if the tip causes us to seat the ogive further from the lands?
I've always gotten 'ok' accuracy from the X's, been loading them since the mid 90's, but they've never been quite as accurate as the Nosler Ballistic tips. Still plenty good enough for 'minute of bambi' accuracy, just wondering...
"So far, it's between the "Supercharged" Nosler Partition, and the Interlock SP. The rifle seems to like those heavy bullets to come out hot (around 3000 Fps)."
Yep, barrel twist rate and bullet length have a lot to do with bullet flight. The bullet length in this case is the section in contact with the rifling after the ogive. Lighter bullets in the same caliber don't have the length in contact with the rifling to sometimes give the optimal downrange stabilization for good accurate loads.
I'm surprised 74 posts. For yall doofbals posting your preferred arrow & broadhead setup on a gun related thread.
(Grow up)
As for the rest clearly Barnes tsx & nosler acubond are the most popular. I'm very surprised that there was only three mentions of berger bullets myself & two others. To each their own of course. But as I mentioned im my op. The berger hunting vld bullets are absolutely without question the best bullets I've ever shot as far as putting deer on the ground. The shock they deliver to the animal is like no other bullets I've ever used. Yes the others are proven bullets but if ya get a chance to try the bergers I'm absolutely certain you'll be impressed.
Timex no VLDs out here. With these short ranges bigger and slower wins the race. I use 22 Hornet for coyote, 450 BM for bears, and 35 Rem and 308 for deer if I go out of state.
Shug the only reason you post arrows is because NJ outlaws all your guns lol.
Spike I both agree & disagree. The 450bm & the 35 I agree 100% & when I was younger & we drove several fellow's used rem 742's clambered in 308 with 180 gr round nose bullets & that's as good a thick woods brush country combo as anything ever made. But on the other hand the 308 has a huge following in long range competition & m&p sniper platforms and the vld bullets are a great choice for longer range shots with the 308.
308 is both great 'as is' and as a 'parent' case whether necked up or down. Nobody talks about the 358 Winchester any more, or it's rimmed twin the 356 Win., but for thick stuff ? Bomb. I once passed on a BLR in 358 and I've been kicking myself since.
A year ago I figured that with the big rush to the 6.5 CM I'd be able to find a 260 Rem cheap and easy but it never happened. People did the math!
When computing the drag coefficient for your bullet, be sure to know the difference of G1 or G7
^....good thought on the different G's. I do not fully understand the math involved.
DanaC - to answer your question........ yes. So far in my limited experience between those bullets, the shape is slightly different. My COL on the TTSX is a little longer than on the TSX for the same bullet weight.
Dana I’ve been wanting a 358 Winchester for awhile and am surprised it’s not more popular as it is a do all cartridge. Timex yes the .308 can be used long range but here I only have a 200 yard range so it is a 200 yard gun lol.
I shoot Nosler Partitions in every caliber I own. Don't fix what ain't broke.
Kannuck x2, very devastating heads just like the Snuffer.
From my guiding and helping days the Barnes TSX was hands down the best big game bullet. Nozler Accubond was hands down the worst. I don't shoot much big game with a rifle but on all my daughters hunts its a 140 grain TSX out of her 7-08. That little rifle has never let her down.
A number of hunters have taken oryx with my 300 Weatherby and 150 grain TSX. The TSX always performs exactly the way it was designed to.
In the olden days, I used nothing but Nozler partitions and they did alright. I witnessed a few failures later on. I don't know if they had some quality control issues or what. I've had elk hit center lung with the Nozler accubonds and had to track them 400+ yards. More than once.
I shot my son’s 22-250 thru the chrono today.
Some cool results from my Montana mule deer hunt. Shooting a Savage Ultralight in 6.5 PRC. Hornady 143 grain ELD-X ammo. Bullet on the left was from 350 yards. Impact high shoulder, stopped under the skin on the far side. Bullet on the right was a finisher from 10 feet. Also stopped under the skin on the far side. Thought that was pretty impressive.
" I've had elk hit center lung with the Nozler accubonds and had to track them 400+ yards. More than once. "
Interesting; did you get expansion or lack of it?
I can only recall one critter that a Partition didn't pass thru and that was a moose. Hit both shoulders and lodged under the opposite skin. All the Accubonds were pass thru's.
NM......your bullet retention on those ELD's is not very good. It fragmented alot. I experienced the same problem. Any pics of your muley??
My bow doesn't shoot bullets yet ;0)
Nos AB's have specific velocity profiles they perform at. If you are using them above or below these profiles, they will not perform and will seem to be an inferior bullet.
The mistake people make on shooting oryx (in NM) is shooting for the front shoulder the way they tell you to. Nothing could be more inaccurate than that. In order to break that shoulder, where the shoulder blade meets the leg bone at the ball and socket joint, the bullet has to hit it at it's center, otherwise the bullet can deflect. If the bullet mushrooms or peels back anything other than "textbook", deflection is often the result causing the bullet to miss vitals or mostly miss vitals. Simple physics really.
I have successfully killed way too many animals with Nos AB's to say they are not performing bullets. I cannot say anything about Barnes as I have not used any.
JL, I was happy that the bullets opened nice and dumped all their energy in the deer. Here's a pic.
I only shoot monolithic bullets...100gr TTSX in my .257 Weatherby, 127gr TTSX in my 6.5, and 270gr Federal Trophy Copper in my muzzleloader. Great results with all of them!
I've also watched 4 deer get shot with the same Hornady 143 gr ELD-X bullet from 6.5 Creedmore rifles; 2 by my dad, 2 by a friend. None of them took more than a few steps. Good performance in my book.
Dandy buck...congrats! I killed all 3 of the critters I hit with them. I just didn't like the severe fragmentation. My personal preference is a bullet that a high retention rate.
I've recovered 4 Nosler partitions. A 30-06 180 grain: one of the Federal high velocity factory loads on 350 yard shot into a very large (small antlered) bull moose. It hit the shoulder bones. The second bullet exited.
A 250 grain out of a .338 Rem mag. I shot into the lower neck at about 50 yards. Apparently all that neck bone was enough to slow the bullet down.
Last year a 430 yard shot with the 30-06 and the same factory load from Federal.
This year I shot a modest 6 point at about 200 yards. The first shot behind the shoulder was an exit but when he turned and was about to drop off a very steep hill I hit him again in the front shoulder. It hit where the funny perpendicular bone on the shoulder blade meets the joint. Bullet was agains the hide. Thats a lot of bone and this was a home loaded 180 at standard velocities.
Wish Federal still offered the high velocity loads.
Hornady American Gunner, 115-grain JHP: 17.72 inches Of penetration in a 9mm round. Sorry I’ll probably only hunt 2 legged predators with a firearm. But truthfully I’ll be most happy if I never fill my tag! Merry Christmas
140 grain PSP from the .280 Remington, 180 grain RNSP from the .30-06, 200 grain Leverlution from the .35 Remington, 405 grain cast from the .45-70, 150 grain RNSP from the .30-30 240 grain JHP from the .45 ACP (handgun) and ??(can't remember)grain cast hollow points from the .45 LC (handgun), 180 grain Leverlution from the .357 Mag (rifle) ...I haven't taken a whitetail with the .45 ACP yet but it worked well on feral hog...... with all these (except the cast loads) the bullet construction (jacketed, bonded core) is more important than brand.....if it expands well and holds together it'll do the job