Deer season is coming up, or archery season has started already in some areas. I thought it would be appropriate to review a hunting bullet I have used a lot, and now after seeing what this bullet can do I can't rave about it enough. I will say I cannot personally speak about the off the shelf ammo, as I handload but even if you don't you will get a great idea of what this bullet can do.
I have used Nosler Partitions, and Hornady soft points with success out of my .308 here in Missouri. I was going hunting in Wyoming though, and knew I would be taking long shots, and be really pushing the velocity to keep expansion proper. You can always adjust for drop, and wind movement when hunting, BUT you cannot adjust for loss of velocity. When it comes to shooting targets having velocity for proper expansion is irrelevant, and you want bullet stacking accuracy. While hunting you want to keep at 1 MOA or less if possible, but its not always possible.
Hunting in Wyoming will put someone to the test who are used to just shooting out of a blind or stand in the Midwest. Even if they're used to shooting long range across corn, and bean fields. Shooting conditions can be very rough. High winds, fast temperature snaps, low vision due to fog or snow just to name a few. When hunting on the plains for Speed Goats (a.k.a. Antelope) you are doing lots of glassing, and moving. You also can't just go plowing in to take a shot. There are areas in Wyoming where you Antelope hunt that there is nothing but a sad looking bush here or there, and the ground is so flat you can see for miles. I knew I was going to need a high B.C. bullet, and push it. Luckily I had a friend give me a copy of the Nosler manual as I already had several Hornady manuals, and Modern Reloading II. I tore through the Hornady ones, and the Nosler one looking for the just right bullet. I stumbled across the Nosler E-Tip the 168 grain boasted an extremely high B.C., and 98% weight retention. With its B.C. being higher then a lot of match bullets on the market. I then started looking at powders. I had received some reloading supplies from a gentlemen who passed away, and low and behold even though IMR4350 is a slow burning powder used for a lot of magnum loads that had a great load with the 168 grain E-Tip that used IMR4350.
So I developed my test loads, and off I went to the range on a finally decent temperature day. I started testing my ladder loads, and was blown away. My tightest 3 shot grouping was a very satisfying 0.458" at 100 yards. So I shot some other rounds I had brought to try out, then packed up and left with a smile on my face.
I went home, and the next day ran down to Graf's to pick up another box of the bullets. They come in boxes of 50, and aren't the cheapest, but I was going to load them up, and be ready for all my hunting trips the next couple years as I was planning on hunting several species in a couple states. (We are still working on getting that done as my wife was hit by a drunk driver, then had complications with the birth of our first daughter, I had some freak strokes which really took a toll on me, and my wife almost died during delivery of our youngest daughter last year. So all the deer, antelope, goat, and hog hunts were cancelled.)
So the end of September rolls around, and make the drive to hunt in Wyoming all DIY public land hunting. Started out in the mountains hunting white tail, and mule deer. Snow storm rolled in, and pushed us out of the mountains. Tried another spot down in some canyons, but nothing was going on so we decided to call it quits for a couple days until Antelope season started. It was only 5 days we were going to be able to hunt antelope so we did a little scouting, and found some nice spots but the antelope hovered right on property lines, and I am not going to shoot an animal directly on the property line.
So we scout, and find some. Opening day comes, and the weather goes nuts wind, and temperature wise. So we head back to my buddy's house on base, and we see an antelope with a broken leg walking around on base. The conservation department up there came up to put him down. We asked if we could take him because all they did was throw them in the nearest dumpster. We even offered to punch one of our tags. I am a meat hunter, and cannot eat store bought meat so if it took that for me to come back with meat for the freezer it was fine with me. He gave us the antelope, and even took our numbers and said he would call us if he got more, and we didn't have to punch our tags.
So we go out the next day. We scout some spots, and glassing. Stop by a brush, and rock pile, and decide not to walk around it for the fact of spooking a goat. Instead we go sit on top of the hill glassing all over, and waiting to see what happens. A guy pulls up at the brush pile, jumps the goats, and starts blasting away with a magnum. He didn't hit anything. Then we see in the distance a goat running, and just stops and stares at us 300 yards out. I shoulder my rifle, look through my scope, look at my buddy said "buck" and laid flat back on the ground as I only had doe tags. He slowly sits up, and drops a nice trophy buck now hanging on his living room wall.
So here comes the last day I have to hunt before heading back. We drive, and glass. Finally come up on some goats, and see a couple walking our direction. A doe, and her boyfriend. So we get low, and half crawl through a dry creek bed to get on the opposing hill they will come down. The wind is blowing fierce, like painful fierce. We wait, and then they come across the hill, my buddy uses his range finder, and calls out 230 yards. I get my shot lined up, pull the trigger not really taking into account the wind because it is the last day I can hunt, and here is my chance. First shot was blown way off in the wind. They look, but don't move which I think is mainly in part due to I had the barrel threaded on my hunting 308, and put a flash suppressor on it. So I aim at her tail, and slowly squeeze the trigger.
Now as a hunter when you see the legs especially the animal go limp right after the trigger pull you know it is a dead animal down. Here is where it gets mind blowing to me. Her legs, and body went limp. She didn't fall to the ground though. She went limp, and spun 900 degrees before hitting the ground. So get up to her, and there is a 308 size entry wound, and a decent size exit wound. Look at the ground behind her, and you could see where the bullet pulled the heart, and lungs out as it went through. They are a monometal bullet, and aren't going to fragment like our normal cup, and core bullets. so the exit would was a clean pass about I would say a little bit smaller then a baseball. The bullet just flat out kills stuff, and with power in reserve. It is also a great bullet for those of you stuck in places that only allow lead free bullets or shot.
So in the final verdict is buy these, and you won't be disappointed. With a side note. I shoot a lot, and spend sometimes more time at a range in a weekend then people will in a year. Without that regular shooting, and working on my shots there is no way I would have been capable of making an ethical shot at that distance with those winds. I cannot say enough PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE your shooting regularly. From different positions, and different angles, off hand, from a bipod, shooting sticks, etc, There are always changes or things you have to adapt to. Especially when doing a DIY public land hunt 17 hours away from home.