What happened to Mono bullets

[Jason Snyder]

I hunt with hammers and 90% of the rest of my shooting is with lead primarily due to cost


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Same.

If less than ideal is falling over dead within a few steps, then I’ve had less than ideal results the majority of the time.

 

[Robobiss]

Monos are “fine” and are definitely no worse then they were 10 or 15 years ago when the marketing hype on the outdoors channel was in full swing. They work. I use them in certain applications. Up close? Who cares. They kill stuff and don’t make a mess.

A lot of the popularity of products comes from the marketing machine behind it. Look at leupold scopes and Barnes bullets as prime examples. Are they the best ever? No, they aren’t, but they are marketing genius’ and just about every hunting show for the last couple decades had a guy with a leupy scope, leupy rangefinder, leupy binoculars, shooting a Barnes TSX. That’s where the majority of the hype came from. It wasn’t so much from guys using them and seeing increased performance, it was because “insert hunting personality here” endorsed them. And “you need a big tough bullet for big tough animals” per every gun writer ever. Monos dominated outdoor entertainment for decades

Bring the year 2024, or the last few years at least. “Long range” hunting and shooting is more accessible and popular now than it ever has been. It’s never, ever been easier to get into than it is today, and it will be easier to get into tomorrow than it was today. Think about all of the technology, the killer rangefinders that measure exact distances and angles that don’t cost obscene amount of money anymore, kestrals and similar, the numerous ballistics apps and solvers that are just a click on your smartphone away from being downloaded. Guys that wouldn’t dial a scope 15 years ago that were hitting the woods with a 200 yard zero and “X amount of INCHES of holdover at 300” are full on ballistics nerds today, and it’s easy as heck to become one.

Think about the free content on YouTube from guys like Cortina (and numerous others that have thousands of hours of free content and instructionals on long range shooting and hunting) that can legitimately take a guy from not being a shooter and not knowing a sizing die from a small pipe bomb into guys that can smack steel at distance and be able to load their own benchrest quality cartridges in their basement. Not unlike some posters here (you know who I’m talking about) these guys do all of the work and all of the research, and give it to the rest of us for free. Thank you internet.

As longer range hunting and shooting becomes more popular, monos become less popular. Due to external and terminal ballistics for sure, at 300 yards you can shoot an animal with *just about anything* for a projectile and it will die with little drama. BC’s don’t matter much either because wind is not a huge concern 300 and in.

As average shot distances grow, impact velocities gets slower, the projectiles that become more and more obviously the better choice are the high BC, violently and rapidly upsetting bullets.

Not only that, to be effective at long distances, you need to shoot a LOT. Why would I load and shoot Barnes LRX for example, for hundreds/thousands of rounds of practice a year at $1 a pop (current midway price for .30 cal 175 LRX) when I can get 168 ELD-M’s for literally half the cost ($.47/piece right now on midway).

If I go with the ELDM’s I’m out the door with a bullet with better BC’s, better terminal performance at distance, and to add insult to injury I can shoot twice as much in a year for the same money.

I’m not a mono hater by any stretch of the imagination. But it’s not hard to understand “why” with the high popularity of precision long range shooting and long range hunting today, they are less popular than they were yesterday.

 

[wyosam]

I've been very fortunate with monos in Ca. Typically on cervids I take a heart shot, on pigs, a shot just behind the ear. Thus far, 99% have been DRT, or dead within a couple seconds. But yes, in states that permit lead, lead is the way to go. Either 2 zeros, or 2 guns, 1 for mono, 1 for lead.

I just put the zero offsets in my ballistic calculator. I have guns that I shoot 3-4 different loads in regularly. Like a mono hunting load, a regular load that I shoot for fun/positional practice, maybe a cast lead load in the 1800 gps range for bang and clang, now working on subsonic loads for a couple since I finally got around to ordering a centerfire can.


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[S-3 ranch]

It's mostly just this forum.

Yeah lots of people here want a bullet that expands at 500-1000 yards
That means super thin flimsy jacket
Mono is made for 3400 - 1800 fps sub 500 yards
Lack of control or poor hunting skills = LDH which mono isn’t engineered for

 

[LeftyWilbury]

for me, i dont think monos went away or haven't progressed or the interest has vanished. now every manufacturer has a multiple match bullets, soft points, bonded, lead-free etc. different bullet design leads to different performance. some hunt with a handgun, some shoot farther than i can see.

determine where you hunt, how you hunt, and what performance you desire. "luckily" for me my max hunting range is <500 yards (more like 50-300) so BC matters little to me. my rifles are wonderfully accurate with barnes, GMX, & hammer bullets and most importantly, i don't like lead in my food. that narrows my options, i work with those options and i'm satisfied with the results when combined with some salt, pepper, and grilling on both sides.

i've put holes through lungs, hearts, necks, a liver or two. sometimes they bang flop. other times they run. other than a lost bear from a core lokt, they've all died and been recovered. works for me.

 

[Macintosh]

I practice with lead 99% of the time, but been hunting pretty much exclusively with barnes ttsx, lrx and their solid muzzleloader bullets since 2017ish, so going on 7 years. Switched specifically for better terminal performance, which to me means dead within a reasonable distance with minimum meat loss. I had been using mostly nosler ballistic tips and sst’s and was getting too much meat loss. So far about 18 animals down during that time plus involved in taking several others, ranging from pronghorn and small wt deer, to a couple bull elk, using 300winmag, 3006, 308, 7mm08, and 6.5cm. All animals have been down quickly, I have been universally happy with terminal performance.
I have not seen any decrease in prevalence of mono bullets. If anything I see them in shelves more now than I did 10 or 20 years ago, and there are a lot more options now. Thats a good thing.

Folks here are big on hunting at longer range but often lose sight of the fact that most hunters (measured by number of tags per state) don't have any need for long range performance. A mono needs more velocity, and coupled with a usually lower bc, longer range is a tough fit. If you really want to be capable past 400-500 yards a traditional mono probably isnt the right answer. But for most hunters in the US, especially east of the mississippi where shots are pretty much never past 400 and usually not past 200, and I think the vast majority of hunters would do just fine with monos without any complaints.

I’ll probably try some of the DRT or similar bullets if I can find them factory loaded at a reasonable price. Given my rationale for going to monos in the first olace Im not sure I wont switch back to a traditional mono though.

 

[Ringbill27]

I’ve pretty much switched all my rifles over to monos. For the ones I haven’t I either haven’t had time, money or they are not hunting rifles. If monos are going out of style I should be able to start finding them cheaper.

Folks here are big on hunting at longer range but often lose sight of the fact that most hunters (measured by number of tags per state) don't have any need for long range performance. A mono needs more velocity, and coupled with a usually lower bc, longer range is a tough fit. If you really want to be capable past 400-500 yards a traditional mono probably isnt the right answer. But for most hunters in the US, especially east of the mississippi where shots are pretty much never past 400 and usually not past 200, and I think the vast majority of hunters would do just fine with monos without any complaints.

I agree with what you’ve said here. There definitely seems to have been a shift in this platform from hunting big game to sniping at long ranges. All that gets talked about is the 6UM and the 223 with the 77 TMK. Ope forgot to mention the PRCs.

I makes me think I’m wrong for hunting somewhere where I can’t see past 70yds. But as you said 50% of us are in the same boat.

There is no point in using a “long range” bullet at 50yds. They grenade on impact and the hunter says it did preform as designed. Well no I wouldn’t. It’s designed to expand at slow velocities not Mach Jesus.

If I want to use the 6.5 creed and the 143ELDX I’d have to down load it or it’ll just grenade.
I need a bullet that’ll expand and punch all the way there every time at 100yds. Monos have done that for so far.

Whenever I’m able to get out west I’ll have to look at bullets that will work at longer ranges for the 30-06.

Dang it how’d that turn into a rant.

 

[FredH]

I’ve pretty much switched all my rifles over to monos. For the ones I haven’t I either haven’t had time, money or they are not hunting rifles. If monos are going out of style I should be able to start finding them cheaper.

I agree with what you’ve said here. There definitely seems to have been a shift in this platform from hunting big game to sniping at long ranges. All that gets talked about is the 6UM and the 223 with the 77 TMK. Ope forgot to mention the PRCs.

I makes me think I’m wrong for hunting somewhere where I can’t see past 70yds. But as you said 50% of us are in the same boat.

There is no point in using a “long range” bullet at 50yds. They grenade on impact and the hunter says it did preform as designed. Well no I wouldn’t. It’s designed to expand at slow velocities not Mach Jesus.

If I want to use the 6.5 creed and the 143ELDX I’d have to down load it or it’ll just grenade.
I need a bullet that’ll expand and punch all the way there every time at 100yds. Monos have done that for so far.

Whenever I’m able to get out west I’ll have to look at bullets that will work at longer ranges for the 30-06.

Dang it how’d that turn into a rant.

Same here in fact a considerable amount of my hunting is done with a smoothbore slug gun, a muzzleloader or a bow. I have had considerable success using regular cup and core bullets, the Nosler Partition and the Ballistic Tips. I have been playing with some target bullets but still prefer a bullet designed for the task at hand.