Gm54-120

Sierra markets this bullet as being reliable at even old trapdoor speeds. Ive seen no reason to doubt this. They shoot very well sabotless which leads me to believe the lead is soft by jacketed bullet standards. Im fairly certain the jackets are thin and thats not necessarily a bad thing.

One of the guys on the MoWhitetails board (who is actually in Mich) swears by them vs the XTPs.

SHulion

Would the XTP Mag 300's be a better choice as a replacement. Anyone have any experience with this bullet?

Semisane

Those (or the regular non-mags) are the go-to bullets in my .50 in-lines when Deep Curls aren't available. I've had excellent results with them for both accuracy and performance on deer. I typically shoot both varieties over 85 grains GOEX.

miketodd58

While I think the Deep Curl is as good of a bullet as any in its class I think all of the .458 bullets are better because they are designed to be fired at the speeds muzzleloaders are shooting them at.

I may use XTP and other .452 and .451 bullets on Coyotes and stuff but on big game I am going with the .458 from here on out.

Gm54-120

If it was me and i was looking at the XTPs in 300gr, i would just use the regular XTP. A regular 300gr XTP should exit most if not all the time on deer broadside shots and expansion will be more reliable as velocity drops at longer ranges.


Hornady 45 300gr XTP Retained 190g .792" expansion 100gr BH209 torture test


Weight retention could have been better but there was no jacket/core separation.

7.62NATO

I have not been able to find the DC's in 300gr for some time. I also like the 270gr soft points in .429 but have been unable to find them as well. This goes back to spring of 2014 when I first started running low on DC's and have not been able to find them since. Who knows how long before that they became unavailable.

Though the 300gr have never failed me, they have broken apart on the last three deer I have taken with them (15 yards, 20 yards and about 75 yards all with a charge of 110gr BH209). I was very surprised by this as it has never happened before with the 300gr, 250gr or 270gr, so I wonder if I have a bad lot. The last one (75 yards) was very strange. I was on the same plane as the deer and the shoulder was the only thing I had a clear shot at. So the entrance was huge as usual but the exit very small…couldn't stick my finger in it. But I also had an exit wound between the shoulder blades directly on the top of his back! Found several pieces in the hide, too.