Best premium bullet

[Dr Ray]

Ha! Talk about a wildfire topic?!! You looking to start a rumble? We have thousands of members, you will get at least a hundred different answers after 25 pages. You should probably narrow your topic to what game what size, where, etc. Good luck!

Exactly

 

[CoElkHunter]

So far the only "premium " bullets ive used are nosler partitions (1 elk) woodleigh softs (1 grizz), barnes tsx (1 caribou) and hornady eldx (1 bou). Everything else ive ever shot has bern with cheap bullets

Winchester Power Points
Winchester Silver Tips
Remington Core Lokts
Nosler Partitions
Hornady DGX or DGS
Swift A Frames
North fork
Kynoch
Barnes TSX or TTSX
Woodleigh
Colorado Custom Bullets
Sierra Game King or Pro Hunter
Sledgehammers
Bonded Bear Claws
Lead Hard Cast
etc., etc., etc.
Pick one and go kill something!
Then report back here on AH with your results!
Ha! Ha! Ha!

 

[Ray B]

BEST can only be one and as long as there are still a few around, that title goes to Bill Steigers' Bitterroot Bonded Core.

 

[sgt_zim]

Even a Speer Grand Slam is a terrific bullet in the right circumstance. So is NP. But the right circumstance for those bullets excludes potentially close-range shots which start out at magnum velocities.

Swift, Norma, Woodleigh, and Barnes, likewise, are terrific bullets in the right circumstance. But the right circumstance for those bullets will mostly exclude shots from non-magnum cartridges where shooting distances might exceed 300 yards.

However, the metric changes a bit for hunting at high elevation.

A 308W, firing a 180 gr Speer GS at 2600, and an elevation of 10K feet (assuming elk, mountain mulie, etc), should reliably expand (and penetrate) all the way out to about 600 or 700 yards (not advocating shots like that, just looking at the physics).

Fired from a 308W with the same conditions as above, a 180 gr SAF, OTOH, probably won't provide much expansion past about 500 yards.

A TSX probably won't give much or any expansion past about 400 yards.

The latter two would be an excellent choice for a 300 WM at that altitude, but the Speer GS would probably be a poor choice for shots under 300 yards.

It really comes down to "what is the expected impact velocity?".

 

[Frederik]

Best premium bullet is the one that killed your animal.

But this question is too vaque for example a woodleigh bullet might work in a 30-06 but not in a 300 Weatherby speed too fast.

Beter to ask what would be a good bullet for my ______ rifle planning to shoot elk at max 300 yard distance?

 

[Hogpatrol]

If I want to hit what I'm shooting at, anything but the most inaccurate bullet on the market, BARNES.

 

[grand veneur]

Best premium bullet is the one that killed your animal.

I agree with that.

A good bullet is a bullet that has penetrated very deeply or even is gone trough the game , on the right place , and killed it.

Many bullets in various calibers do that , even older ones , but unfortunately sometime not always those , premium , where it would be expected.

 

[Nyati]

From my experience...

Swift A-Frame

Trophy Bonded Bear Claw

 

[Mike Van Horn]

If I want to hit what I'm shooting at, anything but the most inaccurate bullet on the market, BARNES.

Barnes shoot fine out of the 3 big game rifles l use them in. All sub-moa
Are you looking for a few pointers on reloading with a statement like that

 

[Ryan]

Do you like Toyota, Ford, Chevy, or Dodge?

Barnes TTSX in 30 caliber of your choice for anything including elk, moose, and eland. It's proven itself well for me and many others.
For bigger I'd go to my 375 Ruger with Peregrine Bushmaster.
I might go to Peregrine bullets more for other calibers if they were more available.

If I was inclined to go to leaded bullets I'd go with Swift A-Frame or their Scirocco II depending on game, caliber, and distance.

 

[Hogpatrol]

Barnes shoot fine out of the 3 big game rifles l use them in. All sub-moa
Are you looking for a few pointers on reloading with a statement like that

Yeah, I need some load info on these Berger VLDs I want to use.

 

[Mike Van Horn]

Yeah, I need some load info on these Berger VLDs I want to use.

The only info l can give on those is, don't load them!!!

 

[Hogpatrol]

It's funny. Guys that won't use a Berger VLD swear by ELDs of various stripes, Hornady's "We better hop on the bandwagon and copy Berger if we're going to sell any bullets to the guys that want accuracy". Go figure.

I give Barnes a lot of credit. They've proved it doesn't take a marksman kill most animals.

 

[Pheroze]

I have found the Woodleigh reloading manual to be the most accurate in terms of charge vs velocity. Apparently they used various rifles and combinations to come up with the recipes. With that volume of testing, I have total confidence to use them within their advertised limits.

 

[Frederik]

I have found the Woodleigh reloading manual to be the most accurate in terms of charge vs velocity. Apparently they used various rifles and combinations to come up with the recipes. With that volume of testing, I have total confidence to use them within their advertised limits.

3 x Woodleigh HD bullets 300gr .375 @ 2470FPS
Left Blue wildebeest frontal range 110meters
Middle Buffalo cow Side on entry shoulder and found under the other skin opsosite shoulder range 70 meters
Right Blue wildebeest side on shoulder to shoulder found under skin range 140 meters

What I love about the bullets is that they all stopped at the canelure they all opened nicely yes they don't have 100% retension but those bits and pieces that broke up made more damage all energy was trasfered inside the animal and this loads hits like the hammer of Thor. The one wildebeest ran only 30 meters the other dropped on the spot without hitting spine or neck. Buffalo cow only managed 25 meters before going down. All one shot kills what more do you want?

 

[Divernhunter]

Swift A-Frame

 

[Dr Ray]

I have found the Woodleigh reloading manual to be the most accurate in terms of charge vs velocity. Apparently they used various rifles and combinations to come up with the recipes. With that volume of testing, I have total confidence to use them within their advertised limits.

I hear your hound ate the Woodleigh manual !

 

[Art Lambart II]

If I had to pick one bullet for everything I hunt or would like to hunt it would be the Trophy Bonded Bear Claw. If I wanted to stir to pot and cause an uproar on this forum I would say the Hornady DGX.

 

[fourfive8]

Just curious what everyone opinion is on the best premium bullet for hunting big game like elk and bigger

For empirical, scientifically valid data without all the "one of" anecdotal drama you can do a simple google search. I saw one test, outlined on another popular forum, spanning the 2012-2013 time frame in 2 parts that covered a very large group of popular 30 cal bullets loaded in hunting type ammo. The investigator used cow bones and wetpack paper for the test. The test was well documented and very consistent in parameters and measurement techniques. IMO, that is the best type of test and info to use for making an informed, bullet choice decision. I use a very similar type test for a wide variety of bullets and calibers but use wood instead of cow bones and bundled water saturated phone books instead of bundled newspaper then record results then compare to actual field performance of the bullet. This info would also apply over in the other thread on '300 WM options' under the "Up To 375" heading.

 

[chashardy]

After trying most of the ammo recommended on this thread, I found that for my rifles (Mod 70 300 winmag and Chapuis 375H&H) Federal Premium was the most accurate and the Trophy Bonded Bear Claw and Swift A-Frame were the best performing on African plains game and Cape Buffalo. I also liked Fed. Prem. Nosler Partition.