All this talk about bullets and cartridges kinda has me thinking...We have 13-15 guests a year that come to our farms to hunt whitetails...I've decided that most hunters really don't know what their gun is capable of, or what bullets are most effective on whitetails...I'm hoping most guys on here are a little more knowledgeable....

With my .243 I've tested and killed deer with the following:
100gr Remington CoreLokt
100gr Remington Premium SPBT
100gr Federal Premium Nosler Partition
100gr Federal Premium Sierra GameKing SPBT
85gr Federal Premium Sierra GameKing HPBT
100gr Federal Classic HotCore
100gr Nitrex Grand Slam
100gr Winchester Power Point
100gr Winchesterr Supreme Power Point
100gr Hornady Custom InterLock

I also tried the 100gr Hornady Light Mags and the 95gr Winchester Supreme SilverTips, neither grouped well in my gun....The rest were pretty good, with the exception of the Hornadys, they were 1 1/2 to 2 inches at 100 yards...

My requirements for a good deer round is for it to give reliable expansion and exit wounds on lung shot deer...On high shoulder shots, I expect to find it under the hide on the off side, if it goes through both shoulder blades and the spine...

I did notice quite a bit of difference in size of exit holes and internal damage...In addition, on lung shot deer the 100gr Federal Premium Sierra GamKing SPBT and the 85gr Federal Premium HPBT would drop the deer a little closer to the shot than the other loadings...All of these bullets had enough penetration to use on high shoulder shots, even inside 50 yards...

I have also shot all of these loads with my current scope setting to see where each one hit...The 85gr Federal loadng hits 3 inches high and dead on left to right, the 100gr CoreLokts hit 2 inches high and dead on left to right, the 100gr Federal Premium Nosler Partitions hit one inch high and dead on left to right...The rest would shoot anywhere from one to three inches left or right...I have decided to use these 3 loadings in the future as my primary loadings...The Federal Noslar Partition and CoreLokts in close range woods/swamp settings and the Federal Premium 85gr loading over open fields...

One other point...I have also tried different loadings at longer ranges...Using the 100gr bullets and sighting in 2 inches high at 100, I then shot 3 shots at 250...I was suprised to see that some bullets were 2-3 inches low, but others were as much as 8 inches low...Point is, don't trust the loading data until you have tried that round in your gun...