View attachment 391109Arkansas whitetail taken at 304 yards with 125gr Deer Season factory ammo. Bullet expanded and stayed together with a good wound channel. Stopped in the other side of the hide without exiting. Ran 45 yards but didn’t spill much blood until the last 5.
The 125gr Winchester Deer Season XP is a very good bullet that kills very well. Its performance kind or reminds of a cross between a frangible and a bonded bullet (I know it isn't bonded). My somewhat limited sample of six showed almost exactly the same performance on each deer. The bullet entered, started creating a
very wide wound channel almost immediately (similar to Bergers or TMKs) which lasted for several inches then held together as velocity dropped and drove on through to the other side. Two had about 1/3 of the bottom of the bullet resting against hide on the off-side and four had quarter-size exits. These slight variations were to be expected based on impact velocities and on what type of bone was hit. The shortest shot has been around 40 yards and the longest 325 but I see the exact same thing regardless of distance.
All have been dramatic bang/flop kills, which leads me to believe that the initial grenade on impact is throwing fragments forward 360 degrees for shock but then tough jacket catches up and holds the bullet together once it slows down from the initial upset of its jumbo-size polymer tip.
The fact that it has been so very consistent from deer to deer indicates to me it's a brilliant design that uses a tough jacket for penetration but incorporates an extra-wide tip opening to start violent expansion to ensure a large wound channel.
I really like it. It has been very accurate and you just can't argue with the performance. I choose to use it when I know shots will be under 300 yards (the places I use it a 200 yard shot would normally be about max), as I prefer the wind-bucking ability of the 140gr ELD-M if the shots might be longer. But as far as I'm concerned, the Deer Season XP is a no-brainer easy button for 6.5 Creedmoor owners who shoot factory ammo at about 90% of the ranges most deer are taken.
