I couldn't agree more. I'm always hoping for a broadside shot to avoid damaging the front legs. In his book, Larry Benoit called it "One in the boiler works", which meant a double lung and heart shot. Even if it's just the lungs the deer can't go very far. In my case, these small Florida deer are no match for a double lung hit from a 12ga. Hornady SST slug. Not one of my deer in recent years has gone more than 40 or 50 FEET ( not yards ) and follow up shots are never needed.
My go to rifle all day long my trusted old 30-06, I asked the question a few days ago, what's the 411 on these new copper bullets, I'm a old school guy, being that said in know technology grows in leaps and bounds, but if my fire arms aren't used by our military no matter what era they gave service I won't touch them,Folks, I like to think deer season is just around the corner, (but I really think it’s because it’s 96* outside and forecast is for 100*+ all next week) We need something to take our collective minds off the heat and drought so I thought it might be a good idea for everyone who wants to participate to tell us about your favorite deer hunting tool, whether bow, rifle, shotgun, or handgun. Post a pic if you have one handy.
I’ll go first ! This would be my custom .280 Remington on a Remington Model 700 action with a Bartlein barrel, Timney trigger, and HS Precision stock, the only custom rifle I’ve ever commissioned. It wears a Nikon 2.5x10 scope with the BDC retical. I figure an old guy should have at least one custom gun in his lifetime.
Lots of guys love them and I can only give my experience with them. In my 2 guns I tried them in a ruger77 RSI in 250 savage and a custom Mauser 98 in 7x57. The accuracy was not as good as my cup and core handloads (I hand loaded the Barnes copper solids also). Not terrible but not as good. The deal breaker for me was the level of copper fouling left in the bore. After 30 rounds accuracy went right down the crapper and required extensive scrubbing of the bore to remove copper residue. Performance on game was good but again not any better than my old cup and core bullets. In addition to get maximum expansion with copper bullets you must drive them fast in comparison to lead. When they fall under about 2500 fps expansion suffered. Just one old hunters experience. Oh almost forgot. They are about twice as expensive as cup and core bullets.
Thank you for replying, that's what I had heard and understanding that it leaves a lot of copper residue or copper in the bore, I'm going to stay with good ole ball amuniton, thanks again again
