New York Hunter

We're looking for a bullet type that will work well on whitetail deer, black bear and wild boar. A bullet that will work good for hunting all three species. We don't want to have to re-zero our rifles with different ammo/bullet types when going from one species to another.

Our rifles are;
Two Remington 700's, a 270 Win. (son's, w/24" bbl) and a 280 Rem. (mine, w/22" bbl).
Two Remington 30-06 Carbines (18.5" barrels), a 7600 pump (son's) and a 750 Woodsmaster semi auto (mine).

My 280 Rem. and 30-06 shoot Federal Fusion's pretty well, 140 gr. and 165 gr. respectfully. We haven't tried the Fusion's in either of my son's rifles yet.

Would the Fusion's be a good choice for hunting all three?

Thanks, NYH1.

hardcastonly

do you intend to use only off the shelf ammo, or are you open to handloading for your rifles?
obviously, hand loading opens a huge increase in potential ammo choices , not easily available to non-handloaders
and will over time save you a significant amount of cash
yes it adds to the expense up-front for hand loading tools but the greatly reduced cost of ammo,
that results will over time greatly offset and amortize the initial cost,
youll also find you can use bullets not available in off the shelf ammo.

https://www.speer-ammo.com/products/.../rifle-bullets

https://www.starlinebrass.com/

https://www.hornady.com/bullets/rifle/#!/

https://www.nosler.com/bullets

https://www.barnesbullets.com/components/

http://www.reloadinginternational.com/search.php?s=Berger+Bullets&mid=2

New York Hunter

I plan on getting into hand loading. However, I have a few other things to take care of first. So for now it's factory ammo.

NYH1.

TN Lone Wolf

My focus would be on something tough that would penetrate the thicker bones and muscles of bear and hogs, either something bonded or solid copper. I'd personally go with a Barnes TTSX or similar bullet, whichever weight shoots best.

Ridge Runner

you don't need a premium bullet for any of the game mentioned, just a mid weight cup core bullet where it needs to be, if your shooting close you may want a bullet that holds together to try and reduce meat damage, but I would shoot what shoots well in the rifles.
RR

vapahunter

New York Hunter

IIRC, the Federal Fusion bullets are fused or bonded, not sure which or if there's a difference. I figured they'd be a step above the regular Core-Lokt, Power Point and/or Power Shok type bullets. Without going with premium bullets.

I forgot to mention our rifles will be used for deer hunting far more often the black bear or boar hunting. Just want to try and stick with a bullet that will with all three.

Thanks, NYH.

rogerstv

Accuracy is more important to me than bullet design. I realize some bullets are labeled by the manufacturer as "target only". I would take that recommendation into consideration. However, I prefer to have confidence knowing the bullet will hit my aiming point each time I do my part.

I would be surprised if you find one bullet make and model that shoots accurately from all four rifles across three calibers.

rogerstv

It is my opinion you need to buy multiple boxes of ammunition and test each with each rifle. Hand loading should be a big improvement over factory loads. But, hand loading is a deep rabbit hole not for the "faint of heart" i.e. wallet.

For example, I recently bought a new to me Tikka T3X in 6.5 Creedmoor. I bought two boxes of Hornady ammunition. One Precision Hunter and one Precision Match (I believe). Both were in the 143 to 147 grain bullet range. Going from memory, so may not be 100% accurate. One shot less than 1-MOA at 100 yards. The other bullet shot over 2-MOA at 100 yards. Same gun, same conditions, same shooter. Guess which one I would take to the woods no matter how the ammo shot out of any other firearm I own.?.?.? Fortunately, I reload. Hopefully 1-MOA moves towards 1/2-MOA.

Bocajnala

This is an unpopular opinion these days....

Aside from the difference between accuracy and precision.

And I admit, it sounds bad saying it.... But hear me out.

How much accuracy (precision) do you need? In the not so distant past if a deer rifle shot 4 moa it was plenty good to go. And people killed allot of deer that way. I wouldn't be satisfied with a 4moa rifle as my primary deer rifle.... But I could certainly kill deer every year with it if I wanted to.

Now... HUNTERS strive for an extra half moa. That's great stuff off a bench in prime conditions. It's necessary for competitive shooters. And there's certainly NOTHING wrong with being more accurate or precise.

But is there a difference between 1" and 2" under hunting conditions at standard ranges? I'm guessing, and this guess is backed by observation at plenty of ranges and in the woods, that if you set allot of these guys up to shoot under field conditions that their 1/2" moa rifle is suddenly a 6moa rifle.

And you can probably guess how well they'll shoot by how they hold the rifle and their body position behind it when they get set up. Allot of guys have no idea how to fire offhand, sitting, kneeling, etc. They have no idea how to fire when they're breathing hard, or when they're shivering. But they'll spend thousands of dollars squeaking out another 1/4moa and think they're good to go. But if the rifle isn't in their "lead sled" it's about worthless to them.

I'd much rather see a person spend time practicing field position shooting, and lots of it, over shooting boxes off the bench to find which one shoots 1moa vs 1 1/4 moa

Obviously the best answer is to find the load your rifle shoots best and then practice practice practice.

But that is not realistic, financially or time wise, for many people.

That's a long post to not say anything really related to the OPs question. Other than don't necessarily get caught up on chasing that MOA need. If you have a load that shoots "well enough" in each rifle, buy a bunch and practice, then go kill some deer!
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-Jake