Changing Bullets Yearly?
 

The last 4 years I have been changing the bullet I use to deer hunt with every year. I haven't been doing this in search of a "better" bullet but mainly out of boredom. It gives me something to play with during the summers and something to get excited about during the hunts.

Most who only hunt with MLs to extend their seasons do not do this of course, but I was curious as to how many of you change bullets frequently? Or perhaps, do you have several different loads worked up for the same animal each year?

I have hunted with Nosler's for most of my life, but when Nosler dropped their line of bullets that would fit a ML, I was required to find another, which I did - Lehigh/Bloodlines...

I do how ever shoot tons of different bullets in the testing mode but for hunting I do not switch very often if ever... If I were foreced to make another switch it would not be very difficult because from my testing the Deep Curls have shown they can perform...

I don't get bored easily. I'll use a PRB in a sidelock, and a Thor in an inline.

Nothing but a Partition in a CF.

I use the same bullet to hunt with year after year. I did switch from my TMZ to a Lehigh about a year and a half ago. I feel once that I have found a proven bullet, I don't like to try and fix something that isn't broke. I did go up in grain size on my Lehighs from 275 to 300, but other than that, If I adjust something it might be the powder? and that is even debateable.

I often change projectiles for each hunt because I change guns; 300 grain Deep Curl for one hunt, .58 round ball for the next hunt, then a .40 caliber XTP, then a .54 ball, etc.

In the bullet line, I pretty much stick to Deep Curls or XTPs.

This is interesting so far. I figured I would see more people who experiment with different bullets.

I will say, the last 4 years I have almost identical results with .430 300g XTPs, .400 200g XTPs, .452 300g Deep Curls and 250 T-EZs. If nothing else, I'm starting to see that bullets may not play as big a role as what I previously thought.

True, when the game is deer. They don't really care what you shoot them with.

I've done a bit of experimenting, I've shot:

250gr Barnes MZ
300gr Barnes MZ
295 HP PowerBelts
300gr Hornady .451 XTPs
250gr Hornady .451 XTPs
240gr Hornady .430 XTPs
300gr Hornady .430 XTPs
250gr .45cal Shockwaves
300gr .45cal Shockwaves
260gr lead Knights
260gr .45cal DeadCenters

I think that about covers it.... :)

300grain Barnes from my Savage smokeless and NOTHING else.

Boredom is for marriage, NOT deerhuntin! :biggrin:
HL

Are you what you would consider "done experimenting" or do you swap out what you use each year or every few years?

As for the boredom, legally I can shoot a practically endless amount of deer in a year. So I only shoot does with a bow or flintlock and my inlines are left to buck hunting. For who knows how many years, I shot 250 and 300g XTPs and after a while, you know exactly what is going to happen to it’s interesting to me to try new bullets and see what different outcomes I may or may not get.