# What Bullet brand do you use?



## muzzlehutn (Oct 26, 2007)

What Bullet Brand and design do you like best and on what kind of big game? (you can pick up to 10)


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## Springville Shooter (Oct 15, 2010)

Nosler Accubond should be named the king in my opinion. Others are very good, these bullets are just a cut above. I don't use them exclusively, but that's more due to my liking to mix it up than anything to do with performance. EVERY single Accubond that I have shot into an animal has performed flawlessly and at the range, they fly true across the spectrum of ranges.------SS


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## Mr Muleskinner (Feb 14, 2012)

Agreed with the nosler accubond. I am also a big fan of the swift a-frame. I have not used many of the ones listed but fact is with modern bullets they do their intended jobs. My favorite bullet will always be a broadhead though.


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## Al Hansen (Sep 7, 2007)

Hornady A-max 105's in the .243 and Hornady V-max 32's and Hornady Z-max's 32's for all the .204's for those darn Zombie P-dogs.


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## Squigie (Aug 4, 2012)

If I had to pick just ONE for North American game, it would be the Nosler Partition.
Along with the Swift Scirocco II, they are the most consistent 'controlled expansion' bullets available, and have extremely reliable terminal performance. Even when they're "too tough" for the animal (like Pronghorn), I often still choose the Partition for its fantastic accuracy and reliability.

But, I still use a lot of different bullets. I like to have a load tailored to the different types of shot opportunities that will be presented in a particular area.

Rifle bullets only:
(Of course, a couple of these cross over into predator/varmint use.)

Nosler Partition - 6mm, .30 cal, .27 cal - Pronghorn, Deer, Elk.
Swift Scirocco II - .30 cal - Pronghorn, Deer.
Woodleigh WeldCore - .30 cal, .32 cal - Elk and larger.
Norma Oryx/Vulcan - .30 cal, .27 cal - Pronghorn, Deer, Elk.
Berger VLD-Hunting - .30 cal - Pronghorn, Deer.
Berger Low Drag HP - 6mm - Pronghorn head shots.
Hornady Interlock - 6mm, .27 cal, .30 cal, .32 cal, .35 cal, .44 cal - Anything that bleeds.
Hornady SST - 6mm, .27 cal - Pronghorn, Deer.
Speer Varmint HP - .27 cal - Pronghorn head shots.
Remington Core-Lokt - 6mm, .27 cal, .30 cal, .32 cal, .35 cal - Anything that bleeds, but with caution on Elk or larger animals. There are a few "bad" bullets in there (like the 100 gr 6mm and 165 gr .30 cal), but it's a great bullet, overall. In particular, the 130 gr .277", 170 gr .308" (.30 WCF), and 180 gr .308" are amazing performers, and tend to have expansion and penetration between that of the Norma Oryx and Nosler Partition. A wolf in sheep's clothing...

I've used a few TSXs, but never found the results to justify the cost.
I used to use a lot of Sierra GameKings, but got tired of jacket separations and unpredictable fragmentation.
I'll never touch another Accubond. It's a worthless excuse for a "premium" bullet - particularly one that gets so much hype. On a trip to Africa, the Accubond was used on 17 Antelope, and one Zebra. Two had explosive expansion - one on a soft target (Lechwe). _Thirteen_ of them failed to expand at all and had folded tips, or were not recovered but showed no signs of expanding. The two that did expand were disappointing and veered _wildly_ off course, due to fragmentation.


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## sawsman (Sep 13, 2007)

Squigie said:


> If I had to pick just ONE for North American game, it would be the Nosler Partition.


Nuff said!


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## Kevin D (Sep 15, 2007)

I've ventured in to premium bullets a time or two but I always end up back with Hornady Interlocks. Why?? Not because they out perform these other bullets, but because they are cheap and available.......and they still work. I like shooting at least 3 or 4 boxes of shells before every season to gain confidence in my rifle at various distances. Because premiums are twice as much, I find myself skimping on my preseason shooting workouts. Thus, I don't feel as sharp when it comes down to shooting them at game.

Also, premiums like 160 gr 7mm Accubonds seem to be hit or miss at the local sporting goods stores. I generally buy my reloading supplies as needed (much to my detriment lately) so I have no use for hard to get or backordered bullets. Almost every reloading retailer sells Hornady Interlocks, so finding the one I need is not so much a problem.


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## James (Oct 7, 2007)

> I've ventured in to premium bullets a time or two but I always end up back with Hornady Interlocks. Why?? Not because they out perform these other bullets, but because they are cheap and available.......and they still work.


Hey, I am with you. I have shot more Hornady bullets than anything else in my rifles. Inexpensive and available. They sure do the job too if your rifle is sighted in so you can hit the target. I cast for handguns in 44 and 357 but have shot some Hornady bullets in my handguns too.


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## Longgun (Sep 7, 2007)

Springville Shooter said:


> Nosler Accubond should be named the king in my opinion. Others are very good, these bullets are just a cut above. I don't use them exclusively, but that's more due to my liking to mix it up than anything to do with performance. EVERY single Accubond that I have shot into an animal has performed flawlessly and at the range, they fly true across the spectrum of ranges.------SS


++1, its the bullet the _Scirocco's_ wished they were. (sorry, my rifle despises_ them_)


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## Bax* (Dec 14, 2008)

Mr Muleskinner said:


> Agreed with the nosler accubond. I am also a big fan of the swift a-frame.


Too bad those A Frames aren't a little more affordable. I never found a load that shot those bullets well. Too expensive to practice with IMO


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## Squigie (Aug 4, 2012)

Longgun said:


> ++1, its the bullet the _Scirocco's_ wished they were. (sorry, my rifle despises_ them_)


If that's how you look at the Scirocco and Scirocco II, you're approaching them the wrong way.  
The Scirocco was designed to be a tipped, secant-ogive bullet that performed like the Remington Bronze Point or Nosler Ballistic Tip - rapid, almost explosive expansion, but just tough enough to get to the vitals in Pronghorn and Deer-sized game.

However... a lot of Swift's customers complained that they didn't get full-body penetration with the Scirocco, or that they had undesirable results on large game like Moose and Elk. In the spirit of my 4 year-old niece: Well, duh! It wasn't designed for that. :roll: 
But, the complaints just kept coming. Swift's customers were adamant that the Scirocco should perform like the A-Frame for big game.

To stop the complaints, Swift beefed up and changed the contour of the jacket, increased the hardness of the core alloy, and came out with the Scirocco II. For a while, they still maintained that it was not meant for penetration. But, they eventually surrendered to what customers were actually using them for, rather than its designed purpose. They stopped fighting, and (to some extent) even market the Scirocco II for moderate penetration, now. Even so... It wasn't Swift's desire to go down that road. It was idiotic customers, using the wrong bullet for the job, that _drove _the Scirocco to be what it is today.

There's another important difference between it and the Accubond, as well: Form factor.
The Accubond uses ogives that allow loaded ammunition to conform to standard SAAMI 'form factors' (throat and magazine dimensions). Nosler chose that path so anybody with a reloading set up could use the Accubond with acceptable results, and factory loads would give acceptable performance in a wider variety of rifles.

Swift, on the other hand, stuck with the less friendly, non-SAAMI-conformant, secant ogive for accuracy reasons. Their bullet wasn't designed to be slapped into any old rifle, to print minute-of-vitals groups. It was intended, from the very beginning, to be used by reloaders that desired absolute precision (beyond the capabilities of competing bullets) and had the time and motivation to adjust seating depth until they found the load that met their strict standards.

The two bullets might be used for the same purposes now, and may even appear quite similar in cross-section, but they were designed for completely different types of users.
The Scirocco was meant for shooters that liked hunting with a bullet that would print 'bug hole' groups, while the Accubond was meant to provide reasonable accuracy for the masses.


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## Springville Shooter (Oct 15, 2010)

I have extensive experience with both the Accubond and Scirocco bullets. In fact, I have spent time on the range with one of the Swift executives. I started shooting the Scirocco bullets way before they were ever mainstream and killed several animals with them. They were a great bullet and set the trend for hybrid premiums that matched the performance of the Partition with the flight characteristics of the Ballistic tip type bullets. While Squigie makes some interesting observations, I believe that the last couple of paragraphs are somewhat misleading. From my understanding, the folks at Nosler designed the AB to be an improved competitor to the Scirocco. I find it hard to believe that they ever had "mediocre" accuracy in mind when developing these projectiles. I had such good results with these bullets that I actually used them in a sanctioned 1000 yard match where I shot a 15 shot aggregate that was MOA! This was not nearly good enough to place but turned some heads when I announced that I had replaced my Matchking load with hunting bullets. I know some on here have had mixed results and I don't doubt what they claim. As far as my own experience, I have had only perfect performance on a dozen or so animals ranging from Blacktails at less than 20 yards to Mule deer, antelope, and elk out to ranges far enough to prove the sustained accuracy and performance of the Accubond at range. I have recovered 2 bullets and both looked very similar to the Partition bullets that I have recovered over the years. I can honestly say that I have loaded, shot, and hunted with all of the available premiums and I do not hesitate to promote the Accubond as the best overall. This truly is a bullet that flies like a Ballistic Tip, then acts like a Partition upon arrival. How can you top that? Maybe my next kill will be an epic failure and I will have to rescind my opinion, but until that happens, I am a believer.----SS


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