DPV - Federal Premium, but which bullet are you using. They load about 3 or 4 different bullets in the premium line.

I buy the cheapest ammo that Walmart has. Look, all obcession about the perfect bullet is absolute crap. You are shooting a white tailed deer. It is a thin skinned animal with a slight anatomy. Shot placement. That is what matters above everything. My son shot a doe this year...his first deer. it was a low chest shot that went completely thru...but it created enough hydrostatic shock or rib fragmentation to devestate the lower 3 inches of the lung and cause the animal to bleed out in about 70 yds of running. I shot a nice thick necked buck last year with this round and he died where he was shot. dropped and gone. Shot placement is more important than the composition of the bullet. A soft nosed bullet is going to expand and maybe even fragment. The more energy transferred to deer, the better.

Barnes TSX
 

I have shot a bear, Elk and last week I shot a 242# Buck in Saskatchewan with TSX bullets. If your rifle shoots them well you are in luck. There is no better bullet for hunting.

I use to like the federal premiums but they are a lot more expensive. A box of the Fed Prem Hollow Points was like $32 and the Winchester Hollow Points were $24. I figured save the $8 and buy another bag of corn to put out. Also since I was sighting in a new scope, which I have never done before, I didnt wanna shell out $30 a box for bullets I was about to blow through in 30 minutes.

The TSX and the tipped TSX are great bullets.

Have to agree with ridge runner and night crawler, I have been using 308 silvertips for years, never a problem, dime size 5 shot groups at 100 yards , never lost a deer , they usually pile up in sight

Federal premium Sierra gameking. I shoot it in my 30-06. Not ballistic but best results I've gotten on stopping deer quick.

I'm going to disagree with you, there. And I'm confused, because you said you buy the cheapest but you also said the Federal Premium has proven to be a very effective round for you.

Anyway, while shot placement is the most important, bullet quality and construction is right next to it. I love shooting a muzzleloader because you can try such a wide variety of bullets very easily. Deer are amazing animals. I have read report after report of people putting good shots on deer and the bullet failing to expand for one reason or another and the deer being very difficult to track due to a lack of blood trail, or just being completely lost. I'm talking about good shots here.

One season, I had a point blank shot (10 yards max) on a very cool buck. He was a steer-style spike. Just two super-long antlers. I saw the crosshairs on his heart. The gun went bang. No deer. No a single drop of blood and I looked for hours after giving him time to expire. Came back the next day and the same. Found out later that the bullet I used had a reputation for not expanding when fired at close ranges.

And while I would never argue that being an accurate shooter and having good shot placement is first and foremost, an excellent-performing bullet will help you out if you make a not-so-excellent shot. They happen. To everyone. I don't know what happened yesterday, but I had a chip shot (15 yards) at a buck I took. I think that it was a combination of not having eaten for like 8 hours and being a little shaky or something, but when I pulled the trigger, I knew that my shot was bad and that I hit him way back. This was a total gut shot in every sense of the term. Didn't hit a single vital. But he ran only 40 yards, crashed and was DRT.

So, thanks to the Speer DeepCurl (and no thanks to me!), I had a recovered and field dressed animal within a matter of minutes of shooting him instead of a having to leave him in the woods overnight and recover a nasty gut shot deer the next day.

So, I think bullet choice does matter.

I said Federal Premium but what I have been using is the blue box federal power shocks. for 243 we go 100 grn. For 270 we go 150 grn. Performance on deer has been superior. Coyote have also gone down to these. Each time, place the round where it's supposed to be and it has been a one and done.

Cool. And that just might be an awesome bullet; I don't have any experience with it. I'm just saying that a quality bullet matters. It doesn't have to be expensive. I will likely never use anything other than Speer DeepCurls in my muzzleloader and they are actually very inexpensive.