Originally Posted by
bronko22000
Hunter you should save your money and not worry about buying cartridges loaded with premium bullets for whitetails. Standard Winchester or Remington cartridges will do just fine in the 139-150 range.
Heavier bullets in a given caliber tend to be designed with thicker jackets for deeper penetration on larger game. Deer don't need them.
And don't get caught up in the fictional brush bucking theory because it just ain't so. Any, and I mean any bullet will deflect if it hits a twig. In fact I've read the in actuality that faster rotating bullets recover quicker than the so called brush buckers like the 35 Rem etc. But they still deflect and may miss or worse, wound an animal without a recovery.
Don't know about the "grass/brush bucking" stuff but I do know that the 7mmRM with just your standard cup and core bullet can and often do blow up pretty badly on close range shoulder hits on whitetail. Just seen the results all too often to deny that it does happen. But such is the problem when you over gun yourself for your quarry. Unless you plan on extended, over 400 yard, ranges a magnum cartridge rifle is just overkill for whitetail. You will experience bullet failure much to often at close range. It's just the nature of the beast. Are premium bullets necessary? Not really, as long as you don't mind tons of meat damage from bullets blowing all to hell at close range.
As far as the grass and brush bucking, big and slow bullets like a 30-30 or a .45-70 have a tendency to overcome grass and twigs a bit better than your fast movers. But that is NOT the reason they are called "brush guns". The term brush gun comes from people using a rifle that is shorter, more maneuverable, and you aren't afraid to get it a bit roughed up from traveling through the heavy stuff. It has absolutely nothing to do with the caliber although brush guns are most generally thought of as 30-30, 444, .45-70, 35rem and mostly they are lever actions. Mostly a cheaper cost rifle for use out to 150 or so yards.