Why/How do you pick the projectile to build your load around?

[David F]

This is why I love this forum! Tell it the way it is! Honestly the post about you are either a drop in it in it's tracks or blood trail kind of person hit home. I'm a drop it in its tracks kind of guy! I hunt mainly brushy areas as I'm from western Oregon. I don't like tracking animals. I've shot a lot of bear with a 300 rum and 200 grain accubond. They don't go anywhere but to the ground. I hit them so they can't go anywhere. Maybe my expectations were to have the same results with the Eldx and that is my fault. I plan on hopefully drawing tags in other states sometime soon. Thanks for all your responses!

 

[MagnumManiac]

The bullets from Hornady are specific to application. If it only has a Target Icon, then it is not designed for hunting. The Match bullets are designed for concentricity with the copper jacket designed as thin as possible to carry the lead and isolate the lead from the barrel and to be concentric as possible. Yes, some people may have good results, but the mean deviation of the good results, is the bullet has slowed to a point to where the softness of lead allowed it to expand correctly. Hunting bullets have a lot of design hours put into them, to have a thick enough copper or alloy sleeve to be stiff enough to not expand too fast at close range when the bullet hits the hardest and to expand enough down range when the bullet has slowed, thus not having as much frontal force on the bullet. It is a balancing game designing the hunting bullet to have a range of impact velocities and the bullet to function across those parameters. A hunting bullet for a 30-30 Winchester will have a thinner jacket than a bullet for a 300 Winchester Magnum.
Best Regards

Preaching to the choir.
All this was known, but seeing as Berger target bullets performed admirably, not perfectly, these were available.

Cheers.

 

[Andrew Massi]

Interesting. Wonder what all that middle of the middle stuff was?

Because It's the most effective way to kill them. Their lungs are much larger than depicted in that cartoon(geared for archers- likely sitting over bait, probably shooting some light 100gr whitetail expanding broadhead instead of a nice heavy cut on contact but I digress.
The heart sits lower towards the sternum and the livers back between the lungs and rib. Hits to any of those will kill the bear obviously....
Guys who shoulder shoot bears are responsible for the myth that black bears are hard to kill- they aren't
Shoulder shooters miss the vitals entirely, bone and bullet shrapnel from the shoulder has trouble reaching the vitals so they are left having to put one in the vitals after the fact or like the op- blaming the bullet for poor shot placement. There isn't a black bear alive that's going to shake off a 200+ gr 30 cal "middle of middle" because they will die shortly from oxygen deprevation to the brain.

 

[Reelamin]

All depends on what I am hunting and with what cartridge and at what anticipated distance. I want a quality bullet that has proven itself to me to consistently perform in the cartridge and animal. So I seldom do the "oh i am going to shoot this bullet no matter what and do everything including build a new rifle for that bullet". Nope don't have anything set it stone just have some favorites I start with. Core Lokt, Interlock, Power Point, Bronze Tip (oh the dream of it still) but Ballistic Tip replaced it, Partition, Accubond, Accubond Long Range, ELDX, covers about 90 percent of what I shoot.....for animals I'm going to eat.

 

[Reelamin]

But I do like light and fast for a given caliber

Been there done that.......now just on the upper side of heavy for caliber not extreme. 243 100-105gr, 257 120gr, 264 6.5 CM sucks...at least 140gr, 277 130-150gr, 284 160-165gr, 308 180gr, 338 250-275gr, and that is the extent of my hunt for food calibers.

 

[ORCON]

I have found that shooting cartridge/bullet combinations with high bc bullets leaving the muzzle at 2700-2800 fps has been very effective from close range to the maximum distance the bullet will expand at. I had issues with a Hornady ELD-M at ranges under 400 yards and good performance at ranges past 550 yards. For me that didn't work like I wanted. So I stopped using those and went back to moderate velocity 6.5 and 30 cal stuff. For me it works great again.

I'm with Kurt. I look for the highest BC bullet that I can expect to push to 2800 fps or so. I prefer the ELDs for game because they just flat out work for anchoring shots out on the open country of eastern MT.

 

[jaspepp]

Massi hit the nail on the head about middle of the middle

 

[mnoland30]

I'm a poor retired guy, so I look for inexpensive bullets. Luckily, when I find a bullet I like I stock up. Also, all of my hunting rifles and pistols are 7mm. It simplifies things a little. I also look for the most accurate bullets I can find. I used to shoot A-max for practice and Barnes X for hunting. They shot to the same POI out to about 200 yards. Then I found Bergers, and they did everything I wanted and shot as well as the A-max. I shoot the Bergers right off the lands, so it makes my rifle a single shot. I load the magazine with the Barnes X bullets for emergencies. My 100 Barnes bullets may last the rest of my life.

Shooting muzzleloaders convinced me that big heavy flat nosed bullets (405 gr.) designed for the 45-70 would drop elk in their tracks, where lighter bullets would not. I give up a lot of BC, but it doesn't matter as much at my max range of 220 yards.

Terminal Ballistics Research is a wealth of information, well worth the read.

 

[Evilsports]

My criteria for selection begins and ends with what species I will be hunting. Unfortunately with availability constraints I do have to weigh a few options sometimes. Unless I'm hunting small thin skinned game I will invariably opt for a deep penetrating round.

TTSX, A-Frame, Hammers, CX and GMC and even a partition. With a strong preference for the monolithic projectiles.

I don't plan for ultra long shots. I work up a round for the hunt, zero myself with a large of a window as possible to avoid dialing, and figure out my max effective shot distance before I leave to hunt.

 

[Paladin300]

Every rifle I own has its own intended purpose, twist rate, and barrel length. Depending on that primary purpose I then chose the appropriate bullet weight and type. For example all my long range rifles sport 26"-27" barrels and fast twist barrels so that we can shoot heavy for caliber bullets at max velocity. When I build or buy a rifle, I usually build it or purchase it with a certain use and projectile weight in mind and then develop the load based on the barrel harmonics, looking for accuracy nodes. My 338 was built around shooting 250-300 grain bullets with max powder capacities. We throated it extra long in order to seat bullets out further to gain extra capacity. We went with a 27" Bartlein barrel with a 1/10 twist (I wish I had gone 1/8, so it would stabilize the 285 grain flatliners from Warner). That gun was built to like and likes Berger 300 grain OTMs at .010 off the lands over 91 grains of H1000 producing an average velocity of 2775 and groups 1/2 moa or better. The other pill it likes is the 265 ABLR over 91 grains of IMR 4350 seated .050 off the lands which allows them to be loaded in the Wyatt's box. Velocities are in the 3100+fps range. I say all that, to say, determine the primary use of the rifle first. Then pic the best projectile for that intended use; weight, sectional density, bullet construction and then develop your load around that projectile by looking for accuracy nodes and adjusting the seating depth. Hope that gives some direction to your question.

 

[MZmoose]

I tend to pick a bullet for the game and type of hunting I'm doing. If it won't shoot well, I pick another bullet that will do the job. I tend to shoot bonded or monolithic bullets as I some times have close range or less than ideal broadside shots in the thick stuff. I always pick a "plan B" bullet because perfect broadside doesn't always happen. Use enough gun and the right bullet and your freezer will be full.