Copper bullets and whitetail

[gjs4]

Ny is talking about making them law-I don’t like the lack options if forced.


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[Berksbowman]

I’ve killed many deer with 100gr ttsx 257 weatherby mag. Most are DRT. I’ve never recovered a bullet yet.

 

[H80Hunter]

I’ve had great results with the Barnes TTSX 80 grain .243 Win ammo on deer. Found a bullet in my doe this season and it still weighed 80.0 grains on my cheap grain scale.

 

[WDE]

I'm going to give the 150 gr TTSX a try next year. Pushing it 3000 fps out of an 06. I'm sure it will perform well.

 

[Ron.C]

I shoot 140gr Barnes TTSX from my 7mm-08. Use this rifle bullet for everything (black bear, elk, goat, blacktail, mule deer, whitetail, hopefully moose and caribou next year).

maybe a bit boring but when it works..............

 

[Hoopleheader]

I’ve been happy so far with 150gr TTSX factory ammo in 30-06 since switching ~ 4 years ago. The thing I was worried about, expansion, has been fine.

In .308, I would go with 150 or 130 if you can find the latter.

 

[Hoopleheader]

In reference to the wife being afraid of lead ingestion, I spoke to a retired game warden last year. He said they use a light (similar to a black light) to inspect carcasses of deer that were suspected to be poached. The light makes the lead glow. He said you’d be amazed just how far the lead spray or spatter spreads throughout the meat. I’ve always used lead bullets, but it makes me wonder...

Studies show a fairly dramatic dispersion of fragments well away from primary wound channels.

As such, I switched to copper before starting a family. Lead is bad for kids, well established science.

 

[Tedhunts]

Speed kills with copper in my experience. I’d be looking at the 130 TTSX is .308

X2... my "in woods" go to round!!! MZ velocity @3,125 fps hit them hard.. Killed 15-20 whitetail with this bullet.. all pass through...no question bullet opened and makes for easy tracking if they arent DRT.

 

[gjs4]

While I have nothing but the sincerest of support for environmental improvements- this lead consumption for hunters is grossly blown out of proportion. We need to be careful as a group because it would be easy to sway a crowd who loves kids and condors that all bullets need to be free of lead and if you think ammo is hard to find now…. Lead is in so many things and offers a much higher ingestion potential than with bullets.

Personally I shoot all copper deer rounds for their retention not their attempt to limit metals ingestion. 45 cal ML, 257wby 100gr ttsx and want to learn more about Hammers and others when components are more easily available.


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[Macintosh]

Ttsx 120gr from 7mm08 has been all bang-flop for me on deer and antelope, all pass thrus with a golf ball size exit, between 50 and 220 yds. 168gr ttsx 3006 shot an elk twice at 70 yards, 1 pass thru and second shot lodged in off-side femur joint, he landed 15-20 yards from first impact. Bullet expanded and lost 1 petal for 96% weight retention. Shot a smaller deer with same 3006 load this year, 1st shot at about 100 yds was a pass thru, he was struggling on the ground so I put another thru his sternum and out spine—that bullet passed through spinal bones and was protruding from skin on his back. It expanded, lost a petal and a half, 95% weight retention. In all cases meat damage is much more localized than lead. Im sold, no reason to shoot lead aside from practice that I can see.
edit: the two recovered 3006 bullets below. Darker one is from an elk, lighter is a sternum-to-spine shot on whitetail.

 

[Zappaman]

I choose the bullet on where it's being used. I've shot Barnes (243) one year and it dropped everything from 80-200 yards (doe in Kansas- meat deer). But more deer ran further with the mono's until they indeed dropped stone dead. But it was a small caliber so limited data here for sure.

If it were a big horn hunt, I'd go back to the Partition or better bonded bullet that seems to "splay" less internally that cup and bore bullets I stopped using many years ago (because of not just lead, but meat loss). I also just KNOW those bonded bullets- especially out to ranges past 300 yards in larger (elk) calibers.

I also would run bonded lead in thicker areas where tracking is difficult given my limited experience with Barnes. I had a buddy lose a 325ish bull in Wyoming on a hit with a Barnes (it was MAYBE a bad hit). They tracked for a few miles of hell (thick mountain terrain- straight up hill) and finally hit the fence where the bull jumped over to not be seen again- end of hunt. To this day he won't shoot a copper bullet (this guy has about every head- some Africa- on his walls too).

If in a stand anywhere- copper. If you make a good hit, there is no question the bullet is going through, they won't run far, and you're lead free But when you have that running shot and placement isn't perfect, I'm probably going to stick with lead-- again, especially if horn hunting.

Pick your poison