What bullets do you recommend.

I've had great success with Barnes and Nosler Accubonds with body shots, mostly out of 375 H&H and 308 back in Africa. For me success was measured by the "killing"power as well as minimising the amount of blood trauma resulting in less meat that needed additional work or ultimately ended up in the bin. You do sometimes hit bone which results in some spoil, but I hate working meat with blood trauma everywhere. What is your go to hunting bullet in NZ for game and any experience you guys would like to share, especially hunting thick bush with a 6.5mm to .308?

If you're talking factory ammo, Federal blue box has a pretty good rep from what I have read.

I use Hornady Hornady superformance atm just cause it's all I've got and it hasn't let me down . . .yet.

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Originally Posted by Allizdog

If you're talking factory ammo, Federal blue box has a pretty good rep from what I have read.

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Although I will most likely reload, lets go for both reloading as well as factory ammo.

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Originally Posted by 300LRH

Although I will most likely reload, lets go for both reloading as well as factory ammo.

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Ooops sorry lol. Over to the reloaders now. Signing off.:thumbsup:

For our deer especially at bush ranges most of the standard cup and core types from Hornady, Speer etc will be fine. If you are into longer range the LRAB, ELDX type bullets would fit the bill better.
I use the ELD X mostly for all my hunting but they can be a bit messy and you do lose a bit of meat.

Depends on velocity. I like Accubonds above all others for anything that starts at 3000 fps or more. For slower calibres the cup and core are ok.
I measure the damaged trim and an AB will be 2-3 litres of trimmed meat and something like an SST 8 litres in a bucket.

And then you have the other school of thought that wants as much internal chest damaged as possible, so they shoot the likes of Berger VLD Hunting, the older Hornady A-max or newer ELD-M etc.
In NZ we are not hunting dangerous game with the exception of the odd scrub bull.
Hence a frangible bullet in just behind or in-front of the fore leg will destroy heart and lung and given the large radius of damage they don't require pinpoint accuracy.
Down side is a higher shot into the foreleg or shoulder will damage a lot of meat.
Z

I'm an Aussie and have very limited NZ experience, but advice I had for a chamois hunt, is you want a bullet that will anchor them fast or else you might have a lot of work with the recovery on steep slope. Hornady SST was recommended to me.

When it comes to factory, esp in bush ranges too many people get carried away with bullet selection . A good old straight soft point is all you want and need. They do the job very well.
All the main brands and others will all do the job.
Longer range is a different story. Re loading is prob better and /or better projectiles than soft points work better.
On the super perforance ssts hornady rounds i know they been classed as a all rounder and a good longer range bullet.
Longer range they are good, but i personally after using 165gr SST in my 308 whicj i use for longer range and lots of bush hunting i have found this.
In the bush a soft point will blow these 165sst away. I have found them pretty average to crap in the bush.
I suspect they going to fast (i do use a 24 inch 308 thou). Yes, the animals go down but they all run, some a distance compared to a soft point when hit in same spot will just drop them.

Yes, havnt lost one with the SST but esp for bush a soft point will out do it all day long.
Only because i have bulk of them and a CDS set up for them on my 308 i continue to use them but i be going back to straight dial up as soon as i use the ammo out
As i tend to still be shooting way more animals at close range than longer range.
On a Bull Tahr at 305m the 150sst i was using just totally poled axed it and thats prob the only decent range shot iv used in the 308 so far.

My advice if bush stalking a factory round soft point is all you need and not much benifit doing re loading but fine if you do and dont need a barnes spec or some fancy projectile to do the job.

Longer range, re loading would be the way to go and a fancy projectile will be good as well but there are a range of options and factory, like a feed fusion, SST etc will do the job.

Deer243 covered it well.
There is no one bullet for everything. With 22 to 30 cal for short range hunting then yes a standard bullet will work as well as anything
The premium bullets come into their own at lower velocities and are useful for extending the killing power of lower powered cartridges, ie, 223, 243, 6.5cm, 7M08 etc.
Short range and anchoring shots in through a foreleg or shoulder require a tougher bullet than a bullet going in through the ribs and having to open up quickly into the chest lung cavity.
Z

One thing I do find kind of frustrating is when a projectile is rated negatively or written off because it “damages” or “wastes” meat. To me this is just the wrong attitude. Look at a projectile based on how well it kills. If you wanna save meat then shoot it in the neck or the head and let your projectile decision be based on the most efficient killer for the application you are using it in.

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Originally Posted by stagstalker

One thing I do find kind of frustrating is when a projectile is rated negatively or written off because it “damages” or “wastes” meat. To me this is just the wrong attitude. Look at a projectile based on how well it kills. If you wanna save meat then shoot it in the neck or the head and let your projectile decision be based on the most efficient killer for the application you are using it in.

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Couldnt agree more. Im just interested in the animal down and as i bush hunt i dont want them running. My go to is the 243, using Fed Powershok 100gr.
I nearly always just aim for the shoulder,heaps of room for error and the animals just go down or hardly go more than 20 yards, ever.
Im not worried about one stuffed shoulder, im normally a distance from the 4x4 in thick bush, im not carrying it out. It gets boned out, i take what i can and those Fed 100grs are awesome.
Yes, ive heard they cause too much damage(yjry do a fair amount)....for me thats what i want, they work and secures the animal and thats all i want.
If i wanted every piece of meat i neck shoot, or behind the shoulder but im happy to wipe out as much error as possible. Most shots are free standing, im just not doing a head shot or neck.
Seen stuff ups in the past and have had them myself, Always the engine room, shoulder first etc and if be it a neck or head shot is fine but thats last resort.

Obe thing i can say, i hardy ever lose any animals and they go down quick....but each to your own and you go with what you like and the projectile you like

Those powershoks sure do work well alright. They were the go to bullets we used when I was hunting with Dad growing up. Shot plenty of deer with the 100gr 243 and it put plenty of big stags on their ass.

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Originally Posted by stagstalker

One thing I do find kind of frustrating is when a projectile is rated negatively or written off because it “damages” or “wastes” meat. To me this is just the wrong attitude. Look at a projectile based on how well it kills. If you wanna save meat then shoot it in the neck or the head and let your projectile decision be based on the most efficient killer for the application you are using it in.

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I disagree with some of this. Firstly not all animals are the same size or shot in the same place. Secondly there is commonly an incorrect understanding of how bullets kill. Bullets dont have a lot of energy on impact ( less than a cricket ball ) to 'dump' in the animal. Big animals are lost with soft bullets when the bullet disintegrates and the energy is dissipated into the tissue without penetrating, and smaller animals have a big area destroyed. Projectiles are the lowest cost item on a hunting trip so is there a good reason to use cheap ones ?
A bullet like an Accubond or Partition that opens immediately but holds the same diameter and fully penetrates is better. The animal will often run a few metres but is always found with a 40 - 50 mm hole cut right through. They never run off with a smashed shoulder and escape.

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Originally Posted by 300LRH

I've had great success with Barnes and Nosler Accubonds with body shots, mostly out of 375 H&H and 308 back in Africa. For me success was measured by the "killing"power as well as minimising the amount of blood trauma resulting in less meat that needed additional work or ultimately ended up in the bin. You do sometimes hit bone which results in some spoil, but I hate working meat with blood trauma everywhere. What is your go to hunting bullet in NZ for game and any experience you guys would like to share, especially hunting thick bush with a 6.5mm to .308?

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Hi 300

Pretty much most of what we got used to using back home in SA is not that suitable here in NZ, and not that necessary either to be fair.
The bullets we use back home are often too hard for the game here in NZ.

Things to consider here (for me anyway) thin skinned game so need a bullet that opens up quickly especially on fallow. One spot i hunt has mainly reds but has the odd fallow too so its worth being good to go for both, another is the bush being very thick so i prefer to just sacrifice a bit of meat if the tradeoff is a deer that drops on the spot because a deer that runs 100-200m will be very hard to find, especially in thick bush and when its raining so i prefer less meat over no meat.


In short, for all round hunting say 0 to 300m in a 308 or 6.5 of some sort and all the other similar cartridges i would just go to the Hornady interlock or sierra game king (sierra getting expensive though)
For longer ranges just use something like ELD-M

to be fair, most of my deer nowadays gets shot with 16" 243 loaded with 85gr sierra varminter, or a 270 loaded with a 150gr berger VLD that i use for long range deer out to 800 yards.
The 85gr sierra goes clean though a red, i even shot a hind at 10m or so and it went through on a high shoulder shot.

Good thread. Yeah what's with the game kings getting expensive?I've found the speer btsp to be much like a game king and cheeap

Speer hotcore or Nosler partitions are top of my list. But any of the cup n core projectiles will work in bush hunting.

I used the 168gr eldm for the first time on a good sized yearling last weekend, quite impressed with how it performed and surprised it's not as explosive as the sst.

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Originally Posted by Moa Hunter

I disagree with some of this. Firstly not all animals are the same size or shot in the same place. Secondly there is commonly an incorrect understanding of how bullets kill. Bullets dont have a lot of energy on impact ( less than a cricket ball ) to 'dump' in the animal. Big animals are lost with soft bullets when the bullet disintegrates and the energy is dissipated into the tissue without penetrating, and smaller animals have a big area destroyed. Projectiles are the lowest cost item on a hunting trip so is there a good reason to use cheap ones ?
A bullet like an Accubond or Partition that opens immediately but holds the same diameter and fully penetrates is better. The animal will often run a few metres but is always found with a 40 - 50 mm hole cut right through. They never run off with a smashed shoulder and escape.

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I’m not really sure what you are disagreeing with? You basically supported my statement around choosing the correct projectile for the job.
Soft or hard, you choose what you use based on the application you are putting it in to most effectively kill the animal.