Slow an heavy versus fast and light.

First post so go easy on me , who prefers a slow heavy bullet something like a 150 grain from a 308 over a 55 grain from the likes of a 223/243 for deer . I shot a 22/250 for years mostly shooting roe deer , then went with a 308 shooting 150 grain soft points actually find a lot less meat damage with the heavier calibres.

Depends more on bullet construction. 150 grain in 308s usually moving pretty quickly still. Pair that with a soft bullet and you'll have a big mess and probably only half a roe deer left. But fire a 130 gr mono bullet at 3000 fps plus and you'll have a much smaller hole.

For all-round medium game hunting (pigs, red deer, etc) to 3-400 metres I prefer the 150 grainer, but with smaller animals and shorter range the 130 grain hollow points are deadly in situations where the 150's zip straight through. I don't know if you have calibre restrictions on Roe deer but the 69 grain hollow point in a .223 would flatten them. I have had good results with that load on goats to 500 metres. 55 gainers in .223 and .22/250 are not so good with a lot of meat damage and poor penetration.

My slow and heavy is 286gr at 2260fps from a 9.3x62.

Both have their merits. Slow and heavy sure smashes stuff and penetrates well. And often they have good BC's which helps retain the velocity.

Fast and light tends to fragment a lot more and leads to shallow penetration. But sometimes you don't need much and don't care about meat damage, so the more pink mist the better.

I'm launching 75gr Gold Dots at 3500 from a 22-250ai. They're holding together even up close and that gives a bit of the best of both worlds - lots of shock but still punches through.

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Originally Posted by Edinburgh

First post so go easy on me , who prefers a slow heavy bullet something like a 150 grain from a 308 over a 55 grain from the likes of a 223/243 for deer . I shot a 22/250 for years mostly shooting roe deer , then went with a 308 shooting 150 grain soft points actually find a lot less meat damage with the heavier calibres.

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Look at the recent post by Tikka shooting his 308 at a reasonable distance.

180grn in .308 is better still....
but I will also go light and fast..depends on which game Im after.

To the original poster:
Thelight and fast (ie Sako 123 gr factory load in 308 and 30-06) has done marvels in Scotland for years.
But now that you guys are forced to go with non lead projectiles the whole thing might have to be re thought in some of the calibers.
Although the 100 to 130 gr in projectiles like Barnes in 308 will still perform reasonably well on your deer.

speed kills

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Originally Posted by Edinburgh

First post so go easy on me , who prefers a slow heavy bullet something like a 150 grain from a 308 over a 55 grain from the likes of a 223/243 for deer . I shot a 22/250 for years mostly shooting roe deer , then went with a 308 shooting 150 grain soft points actually find a lot less meat damage with the heavier calibres.

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I went from a 243 shooting 80 gr to a 300BLK using 125gr. I noticed a difference (mostly on fallow), a more noticeable primary (?) wound channel, far less meat damage.