I look for bullets a few times EVERY day. More often than not, target bullets can be had, but hunting bullets have been much more difficult to come by. A good example, many of us have said Hornady A-Max works very well to hunt with. And some have argued it is a target bullet and shouldn't be hunted with. It might be time for some to get more flexible with this. The Sierra Tipped Match King has also done a good job as a hunting bullet for me.

If you're worried about not recovering your animal, maybe up your shooting and blood trailing skills.

I have hunted with amax bullets with good success. One deer and several pigs. All out of a 308 win so mild velocity. Maybe at higher speeds the target bullets will break apart more but wasn’t the case with my experience.

They've done really well for me. 162 gr, 7mm-08, 2640 fps MV. Also in .260 Rem, 140 gr at 2800 fps MV.

Gonna find out, I have 500 sierra match king on the way.

I haven’t gotten to where target bullets are my only choice, but I have worked up a very accurate 7-08 130 SMK load with AR Comp that’ll work in a pinch.

This situation has benefitted me in the sense that I’m not being lazy with experimenting. I wasn’t interested in VV powders or heavier 7-08 bullets before. Now, 160 Sierra BTHP Gameking 7mm bullets and CFE 223 are my new favorite load. N140 is showing potential. I also wouldn’t even consider other primers beside CCI 400 and 200 before. Now, I have a brick of CCI 34’s to try.

Luckily I got 8 lbs of CFE 223 yesterday and 12 lbs of Big Game last week so I can plink more.

Before the V-Max and other ballistic tip varmint bullets even existed, I loaded 53 and 52 grain Sierra Match King HP bullets in my .222 and .22-250 rifles. They were probably the best all round performers in those two rifles for coyote hunting that I ever loaded.

The one deer I shot this year was at about 255 yards with a 6.5 Grendel and 123gr amax started at t 2550fps, She made it about 30 yards on her mad dash entrance just inside onside shoulder broke 2nd and 3rd rib, out through the 3rd to last rib. I have used that bullet more than the others for the Grendel and it has never failed to work well, she went the furthest of any animal I have shot with it. The only reason I went with the A-Max load on that outing was the stand had possible 290 yard shot and I knew exactly were that bullet would go out to 300 yards.

I have used 168gr 308 Sierra match kings in the 308 with good results.

Those are the 2 "target bullets" I have used hunting and know they have worked well for me

I wish they still made amax...I liked it a lot better than any of the eld's.

Call me silly but I guess I like my tips melting

take what we can get

1st year using the 139 gr Lapua Scenar (6.5 PRC) 1 mule deer buck, 1 axis buck, 2 cull whitetail bucks and 4 axis doe.....all of them died quickly. Behind the shoulder or in the shoulder. Performance was very good.

I had good luck with the A-Tips from Hornady on deer. I see them in stock most stores just because they are expensive.

The 30 cal 168 grain Sierra SMK HPBT out of a 30-06, 300 WSM, and a 300 WM is a target bullet I’ve used to kill a lot of deer with. Large exits, easy to follow blood trails, and easy to make shoot are what keep me loading them. I can’t argue with them being too destructive for the taste of some though so don’t shoot the part you want to eat. There is a group of us that hunt a large MLD that load and shoot a lot of deer with the 30 cal 168 matchkings every year.

[quote=kmon1]The one deer I shot this year was at about 255 yards with a 6.5 Grendel and 123gr amax started at t 2550fps, She made it about 30 yards on her mad dash entrance just inside onside shoulder broke 2nd and 3rd rib, out through the 3rd to last rib. I have used that bullet more than the others for the Grendel and it has never failed to work well, she went the furthest of any animal I have shot with it. The only reason I went with the A-Max load on that outing was the stand had possible 290 yard shot and I knew exactly were that bullet would go out to 300 yards.

I shot a buck at 60 yds with that same round but just clipped the on side shoulder and DESTROYED the other side. Got a lb or two of grind meat off of it and that was it. Bone chips everywhere. Never shot another meat animal with it.

That being said, had I put it in the right place, would have been fine.

Me too, they flew better too.

I wish that I shot enough deer and hogs every year to make bullet acquisition a problem.

Down to 400 of the 162 A-Max and I don’t have any more secret sources. I do have a lot of SMK and SST though. Been saying I’m going to load some SSTs for hunting and quit using my A-Max, but I haven’t done it yet.

I bet I've killed nearly 50 hogs, 40+ whitetail does, and a couple of big muley bucks in the last 2 years with the 139 Scenar/6.5CM/2720 FPS at muzzle from 100-400 yds. Every deer had an exit, and 50% of the hogs did as well. It is a very effective killer, I'm convinced.

Animals just aren't that hard to kill. Any accurate round will do.

Some do it a whole lot better than others, and some animals aren't necessarily that easy to kill.

True.

Elk and larger is what I think of, in that case.

Whitetail, even Mule deer, pronghorn (especially), hogs in the head or neck, a whole lot of "target" labeled bullets do just fine.

I actually talked to a guy at Barnes yesterday about a specific question I had and then ask him about the inventory problem. He said by April they should have a good amount of inventory out to distributors.
Fingers crossed !!

Elk go down easy with a 168gr Amax.

I’ve heard people recommend Lapua Sceners for hunting.

At this point a bullet is a bullet no matter who made it and they will all kill if you do your part..

Even before this bullet scare I shot Match168 BTHPs for deer and hogs. I always hunted with a HP before they became a match bullet and the ammo companies tried to one up the others with a new name or cooler look.