Hello! So I'm from the Midwest where straight wall rifle cartridges were only recently allowed for deer hunting. I bought a .45-70 right away, and with Buffalo Bore Full Power Low Recoil loads, dropped my deer within 100 yards all with pass through shots and big holes, no surprise.
This year, I moved to AK, a lifelong dream, and I killed a beautiful double shovel caribou bull with my .308 Win. I shot him 2-3 times at circa 300 yards. Once I started taking him apart, I noticed one of the bullets passed through the kill zone, low, without striking a rib, and left a pencil hole in and out, with no apparent expansion. I was using Hornady GMX 165 gr bullet in their Outfitter range. The lack of expansion concerned me, and I've finally got around to investigating.
Some have posted elsewhere that the GMX is infamous for not expanding at lower velocities. What!? So I called Hornady, and they straight up said that the Outfitter is not a long range round, and that 2300 fps is necessary to get full expansion. A quick look at their own velocity tables showed less than that at 200 yards and even less at 300 and 400. Plus, I'm shooting a Ruger GSR with a 16" barrel, so I'm shooting even slower. Getting a straight answer to "welll, what percent expansions am I getting at 2000 fps and 1800 fps" proved unattainable. He even told me to shoot for the shoulder to get better expansion, which seems totally crazy to me -- passing on a boiler room shot for a shoulder just to manage my bullet? I had no idea that a bullet that was being advertised with 95% weight retention came with a tradeoff, and that's poor expansion at longer ranges; I would also learn that even bullets with high weight retention at longer ranges could dip to 50% weight retention at closer ranges with no pass through as the bullet comes apart with all that energy suddenly being released.
All this makes sense, right, in terms of the physics. So, the question is: what's the best big game bullet for all ranges? I'd like to be able to shoot from 25 yards to 300 yards and keep the 300 yard drop under 10 inches. I don't care about grains, as long as it's heavy enough for moose. I'm not interested in larger calibers, and I'm not interested in hydrostatic shock. I want a bullet that holds together, flies straight, and can put holes through both lungs. What do you think? What's the best big game bullet for all ranges?
This year, I moved to AK, a lifelong dream, and I killed a beautiful double shovel caribou bull with my .308 Win. I shot him 2-3 times at circa 300 yards. Once I started taking him apart, I noticed one of the bullets passed through the kill zone, low, without striking a rib, and left a pencil hole in and out, with no apparent expansion. I was using Hornady GMX 165 gr bullet in their Outfitter range. The lack of expansion concerned me, and I've finally got around to investigating.
Some have posted elsewhere that the GMX is infamous for not expanding at lower velocities. What!? So I called Hornady, and they straight up said that the Outfitter is not a long range round, and that 2300 fps is necessary to get full expansion. A quick look at their own velocity tables showed less than that at 200 yards and even less at 300 and 400. Plus, I'm shooting a Ruger GSR with a 16" barrel, so I'm shooting even slower. Getting a straight answer to "welll, what percent expansions am I getting at 2000 fps and 1800 fps" proved unattainable. He even told me to shoot for the shoulder to get better expansion, which seems totally crazy to me -- passing on a boiler room shot for a shoulder just to manage my bullet? I had no idea that a bullet that was being advertised with 95% weight retention came with a tradeoff, and that's poor expansion at longer ranges; I would also learn that even bullets with high weight retention at longer ranges could dip to 50% weight retention at closer ranges with no pass through as the bullet comes apart with all that energy suddenly being released.
All this makes sense, right, in terms of the physics. So, the question is: what's the best big game bullet for all ranges? I'd like to be able to shoot from 25 yards to 300 yards and keep the 300 yard drop under 10 inches. I don't care about grains, as long as it's heavy enough for moose. I'm not interested in larger calibers, and I'm not interested in hydrostatic shock. I want a bullet that holds together, flies straight, and can put holes through both lungs. What do you think? What's the best big game bullet for all ranges?