Premium bullets

[bronko22000]

I've been hearing a lot about the "premium" bullets out on the market these days. (i.e. Barnes X bullet, Swift Premium, Hornady interbond, etc.)
What do you guys think of them? Do you think they are really necessary for deer size game? I can see using them for elk, moose and big bear but not antelope, whitetail, mulies or black bear.
I've been hunting/reloading for almost 40 years now and have taken a lot of critters using Hornady interlocks, Sierra Game Kings and Nosler Solid Base bulets. I see no reason to waste my money on the premiums when the "standard" bullets work so well.
Maybe if I was going for a bigger and/or nastier critter.
Lets hear what you have to say.

[handloader1]

Premium bullets are not necessary for deer, but experimenting with different bullets is what makes handloading fun. Good luck.

[johnch]

No premium bullets are not nesserary ,but if you realy think about it they cost little more and offer several advantages.
1 If you going on a guided hunt of a life time that cost $2000+ ,the extra few $$ a box is nothing or even in state the time off work
2 The one shot at a HUGE buck is at a poor angle ,you want a bullet that will penatrate full length or brake bones and not fail
3 The peace of mind that when I pull the trigger ,even if its on a meat doe there is one less thing that can go wrong

[Steven Ashe]

I have to agree with johnch, nobody needs premium bullets. The old bullets that you have been using successfully will continue to perform, just as they have done in the past. For me, the greatest benefit of premium bullets is getting better performance from lighter bullets. After studying performance, it appears that a 7mm 140gr Accubond bullet will do just about the same job as what I would have expected from a 7mm 175gr older standard bullet to do. That means that I can load for higher MV, which translates in flatter trajectory, which means most of the guess work is removed, in terms of hold over on a lot longer shot! This is real progress for reloaders. Given the time and effort that I put into my reloading, why not test the newer premium bullets and if they do appear to be more effective, use them.
Recently, I have tested Accubond, Interbond and Barnes TSX. In my Winchester M70 Ultimate Shadow 7mmWSM, the Accubond worked best.

[HighDesertWolf]

Sierra Game Kings

I was under the impression that this is one of the highest of premium hunting bullets.

[Vapodog]

I'm with you.....there's little need for premium bullets for game such as deer and pronghorns.....and even black bear.

I use them only because I have them left over from bigger game hunts.

Remington Core loks and Hornady interlocks etc. are still as good as they ever was and they have always been up to the task.

[oldelkhunter]

I think I am going to give those Nosler solid base bullets a try this year in my 7-08, can't imagine a more effective bullet for deer and can't understand why nosler ever dropped them to begin with only to start making them again . My STW will probably only see partitions or accubonds .

For these guns these days going well over 3200fps, the coreloks are just not up to the job. For a 308 going at 2700fps, sure, no problem. What I find is alot better consistency with premiums, especially the Gameking. For under 2900fps, its a great bullet, that I have yet to fail me in the accuracy department or performance. I like to have a bullet stay together better, and keep looking for it. If I don't find it, I always go back to gamekings. I am not sure if I would put them in the premium catagory so much. Pretty cheap relative to other like Barnes TSX, and even partitions. And well you to the Swift bullets which are for the rich folks.

Vapor wasn't you who critised me a tad for dropping swift A-Frames due to cost on my moose trips to use partitions instead? You said, I can't believe you would drop 3-4K for a hunt and worry about 50 dollar for bullets.

[HighDesertWolf]

Well to me the sierra BTHP gamekings are the highest of premium for petes sake they run 22 dollars for 100 bullets. But those "supreme" bullets that go for 25 to 40 dollars for 50 bullets are are not supreme to me they are flat out rediculous. If you like to make reloading expensive or more expensive then fatory ammo go right ahead. The biggest reason i got into reloading was so I could shoot more often with better ammo then I could with factory stuff.

Well, remember that ogive issue you were having? It only gets worse with coreloks. In fact throw a few on you new digital scale and let me know the deviation. I got into reloading for different reasons. I really wanted start competing in lightwieght benchrest shooting. Never happened.