What is the best hunting bullet ?

[Music] you we could talk about calibers cartridges guns and scopes all day long but the reality is that those things don't kill animals in reality bullets do the actual killing so bullets are arguably the most important choice you can make for your hunt unfortunately many hunters are so caught up in sexy new cartridges and the latest and greatest scopes that they completely underestimate the importance of a simple bullet I'm going to start this video by giving you a spoiler there is no best hunting bullet that's right I said it there is no best hunting bullet although a few bullets are very versatile most bullets are actually more specialized than you think there's so many hunting bullets on the market today that a video covering all of them would be like three or four hours long and you wouldn't even watch it also I won't be covering that highly specialized bullets like varmint bullets and dangerous game solids so to simplify things for the purposes of this video I plan on breaking down bullets into three categories basically fragmenting bullets controlled expanding bullets and deep penetrating bullets any bullet can kill any animal with perfect shot placement in the right spot but in this video we're talking about the right tool for the right job so let's further discuss attributes of some of these hunting bullet categories fragmenting hunting bullets became super popular about 15 years ago basically with the war in Iraq and full stride Americans became absolutely infatuated and obsessed with the sniper civilian sniper and long-range shooting schools popped up by the hundreds all over the country and soon millions of bolt-action rifles had heavy barrels and night force optics and we're shooting hand loaded match grade ammunition you know it it didn't take long for these guys to transition these skills into the hunting world and before long instead of stocking prey in using your skills against the animal senses to get in close people started shooting deer at a thousand yards away this spawned a huge market for anything related to long-range shooting and hunting bullets were no different most popular and dedicated hunting bullets at the time lacked the proper BCS and the proper design necessary for shooting at long ranges so naturally folks begin using in hunting with vlds Ciara's and a maxes out in the field you know because at low velocities these dedicated hunting rounds really didn't expand well at distance but these rebranded target bullets and other fragmenting bullets did a great job at low velocities but basically if you plan to knock a deer on its ass at 800 yards these bullets are your best option the attributes that make these bullets fragment which is basically a thin non bonded jacket also makes these bullets extremely accurate and easy to load for vlds Sierra's ballistic tips and a maxes are some of the easiest bullets to get consistent loads from as a rule when you move up to the bonded or monolithic bullets it takes more work to get accuracy out of them but these type of bullets these rebranded target bullets are very easy to get accuracy out of which is another big draw to these bullets just be mindful that these bullets have mixed and inconsistent results at higher velocities on tough targets you know a few years ago at a hunting lodge in South Africa believe was three years ago a couple guys in camp showed up with these custom seven millimeter magnums with those huge husky mas scopes on them these guys lost two games box with shoulder shots they shot him at about 60 70 yards but basically these bullets fragmented early and didn't penetrate deep enough after going through the shoulder for a kill you know after that they almost lost the kudu the following data took four shots to bring it down you know one of the guys finished out his hunt using the PHS 30.6 that was shooting you know old-school Nosler partitions you know I saw the same thing on an out ad hunt with a Sierra game King about ten years ago you know basically did the same thing it blew up on the out ad shoulder and he didn't get that thing you know but these bullets have an absolutely horrible reputation in Africa mainly because all the shots are shoulder shots on large animals at close range and that really wasn't what these bullets were made for when these bullets do get a clean kill on an animal at close range they also tend to do massive meat damage you know which I don't really like I've actually tried to like bullets like veal because they shoot so damn good out of just about every rifle I own but I was less than impressed with them on the pigs I shot with these at close ranges so you know I still use these bullets for long-range target shooting but I basically retired them as hunting bullets expanding bullets are considered premium hunting bullets most hunters with a lot of experience know that a bullet that reliably expands and retains its weight gives the best balance between shock tissue damage and penetration most hunters prefer an expanding belt bullet that expels most of its energy inside the animal yet will also give a complete pass-through velocity is the key to these bullets you know high velocity hits with these bullets resultant adequate shock from the impact adequate expansion to do tissue damage and adequate penetration to pass through the animal and leave a good blood production because also extremely tough and reliable these are probably the most reliable of all the hunting bullets these types of bullets are basically for the hunter who stalks animals and kills game at reasonable hunting distances but be mindful that these bullets can be very poor performers at low velocities with lightweight bullets there's been many attempts over the last few years to turn these premium expanding bullets into long-range hunting bullets bullets like the a-cube on long-range and the barns lrx are marketed as a long-range hunting bullet you know they do have improved BCS and a more streamlined profile but you need to be mindful that these bullets are still made the same way as the rest of the lineup and they still don't expand well at really low velocities so don't think they do other than having poor performance at low velocities another drawback to these premium expanding bullets is that usually they're more temperamental to load some are worse than others you know unlike the fragmenting bullets these bonded bullets and can be very picky to load you know load development on these things can be very painstaking trust me on that and some barrels just won't like these bullets at all you know I find the nozzle or a coupons in particular to be really tough to find a good load for you know a coupons perform very well on their target I mean it's a great premium honey bullet that always expands but be mindful that they could be very picky when it comes to powders barrels and seeding debt the monolithic bullets are now mandatory in places like California where lead bans are in effect you know I actually live in California and I've been hunting with these things from the beginning for about 15 years now so you know at first I was very skeptical of these bullets you know I didn't want to give up my nozzle or partitions or anything for these types of bullets but after using especially after the TT SX came out and then the lrx you know I was immediately impressed by these bullets the real fact is that these mono bullets killed just as well as any other premium expanding bullet and they're actually not a compromise at all you know you get expansion like that I mean that's that's perfect ninety nine percent weight retention - I mean this is what I want especially I shoot through the shoulder and that's perfect you know this is about a 200 yard shot on a pin right there I recovered it from the pig spine and that's perfect just be mindful that these things do not perform well at really low velocities this is a about an eighteen nineteen hundred feet per second hit and that's not good so as long as you keep the velocity up on these mono bullets they're actually not a compromise at all and they work fantastic now a couple of these expanding bullets are known to be extremely deep penetrators you know these bullets are expanding bullets by nature but retain almost a hundred percent of their weight and drive really deep into hard targets you know these bullets are made to kill the biggest and the baddest creatures on earth you know the old-school TSX the federal bonded trophy bear claw North fork's you know in the venerable Swift a-frame you know are the most widely used deep penetrating bullets and it's no surprise that these are also the most utilized bullets for dangerous game in Africa these types of bullets will just pencil through a soft skin antelope or deer but they're almost mandatory on animals like elephant and cape buffalo now I know what you're thinking isn't there a more versatile bullet that performs well at both high and low velocities well the answer is yes but there's very few that are reliable at doing this you know the hornaday interlock and the original core lock bullets are good examples of a bullet like this that you know will reliably open at those middle velocities but won't totally disintegrate at a high velocity and you know you'll get a little bit of the mushrooming at low velocity too so these are actually a good compromise bullet but then you have the king of the do it on bullets the bullet that all other hunting bullets are measured against the venerable and versatile nozzle or partition the nozzle or partition has a forward section on it see if you can see that diagram on their box right here the partition has a forward section on it that fragments shortly after impact and a rear captured core that keeps driving a perfect mushroom all the way through the animal basically these are fragmenting and expanding bullets all in one package you know these bullets have been used for 72 years now and still today they're the gold standard by which all other hunting bullets are compared to no other premium hunting bullet performs across high and low velocities like the nozzle or partition does and no other bullet has as many one-shot kills probably as the nozzle or partition you know in a world where ammo companies now care more about ballistic coefficients then terminal effects when designing honey bullets you know the old nozzle or partition defies the odds and keeps doing its job you know older experienced hunters don't buy into all the marketing hype they know that B C's don't matter when you have the skill of the stock and kill an animal within yards in any environment you know in a world where the partition should be outdated it continues to be the most widely utilized hunting bullet because it flat out works in the real world the durability of an animal is also a very important aspect to consider fragmenting bullets like these will absolutely destroy a pronghorn antelope I mean especially with that classic behind the shoulder heart/lung shot on soft tissue it'll just liquefy the insides of those things and just drop it right there but you know fragmenting bullets like this won't even reach the vitals on an animal like a cape buffalo a you take a lot of big Plains game there and you really need a tough controlled expanding bullet that will retain energy and keep driving through tough hide and bone better than these fragmenting bullets will meet damage is something that few novice hunters consider before choosing a bullet fragmenting bullets like these can produce some of the most instant and dramatic kills you've ever seen on soft targets I mean I've seen these bullets completely turn the inside of deer and pronghorn to mush after the bullet explodes and the tiny fragments tear through all the soft tissue the problem is that huge amounts of meat are bloodshot and basically destroyed as a result also you know who wants all these tiny chunks of lead inside their meat when they eat it you know basically if meat yield is important to you and expanding bullet is a better choice here personally I'd rather have a deer run 25 yards and die with little meat damage then have them flop dead right there and die instantly and lose precious pounds of delicious venison for many years a lot of hunters hated really fast rounds like the 257 Weatherby and even the 25 on 6 because with the bullets available at the time they just obliterated the meat on small deer and antelope you know but then came bullets like the tsx and T TSX that absolutely thrive at these high velocities and all of a sudden hunters fell in love with the barrel burner cartridges again because they can get quick kills still with these high-velocity cartridges but they were no longer destroying large amounts of meat I used to shoot bullets through water jugs and homemade gelatin blocks a lot I stopped doing that for one big reason though and that's that in reality it proves very little gel tests have become nothing but a marketing tool for bullet manufacturers to prove their own bias points basically if you set it up right you can make a gel test say whatever you want you know it's no different than a political poll on CNN a lot of manufacturers of target bullets found out that they can shoot their target bullets into gel and get these huge explosive wound channels that are two to three times wider than expanding bullets you know hey it looks cool on a slow-motion camera but the fact is that it doesn't always translate well into real world hunting bullet manufacturers found that they could play with gelatin formulas or pick the best-looking test out of hundreds of attempts in order to advertise their product better in the end gel and water duct jug tests are only useful for one thing you know multiple tests of the same bullets can give you a good idea if it's of it's a reliability or failure rate bullets like a Q bonds and sure ACOs and TTS X's and Swift a-frames you know they're super reliable as long as the velocities in the right range form if you do perform gel or water jug tests make sure you do them at the distances you plan on hunting in you know I do almost all of my gel and water jug tests at a hundred yards in my old videos because that's where most of my shots were taken you know when I did a lot of these gel tests back on my old youtube channel you know bullets like the VL d and the Sierra game King or all over the place I mean sometimes they pretty much explode in the tiny fragments like that so matter fact that's what they usually did at a hundred yards you know sometimes a large portion of the bullet would actually form into a nice mushroom and get some penetration you know and sometimes they almost didn't come apart at all and would look like little bananas sitting in the gel you know in my mind at close ranges these bullets just aren't reliable at high velocities in my opinion you know and even though these gel tests and water jug tests you know are fun to watch you know these videos will tell you very little about real-world performance on live animals I mean there's so many unknowns and so many variables that go into bullet performance on a living animal that you can't possibly replicate it in real life you know so you know these videos of gel tests and blowing up water jug and exploding watermelons and other pieces of fruit you know they're fun to watch but in the end take it with a grain of salt because they don't tell you a lot about real-world performance on live animals and also don't get hung up on concepts like hydrostatic shock which has more to do with velocity the size of the animal and quite frankly luck your main goal is to cause rapid and massive blood loss of the animal you know even if hydrostatic shock knocks the animal down instantly it's the actual blood loss that really kills the animal so put that bullet in a spot where it's gonna cause the most rapid but blood loss you know and and make sure the impact velocity is in the right range for the bullet to work is design now I want to kind of specify what I meant when I talked about hunting bullet hype know basically you turn on any hunting show on TV or you read any hunting or gun magazine and you're just inundated with constant ads about bullets like the île DX you know they're gonna tell you this is a better bullet because it's got these fantastic BCS and it has a special tip on it that won't melt in flight you know and you have to have this bullet this is the greatest bullet ever invented but you know these attributes that make this almost a match grade bullet really don't mean anything when you're shooting an animal at 300 yards or less as a matter of fact this LDX bullet is not even a bonded bullet I mean it's basically for all intents and purposes a glorified interlock I mean they basically have the same bullet construction so you know I've shot these things in to jail and to real animals too and these bullets if at 200 yards you're lucky to get thirty 40 percent weight retention on these you know you shoot these things out to 400 450 yards and you're lucky to get fifty maybe sixty percent weight retention on these so as a hunting bullet at real hunting practical hunting distances I'll tell you the truth I think the old-school inter bond is actually a better hunting bullet than the Yale DX's not just my opinion and just remember and keep this in perspective the best hunting bullets weren't designed by scientists and laboratories or ballast ditions taking Doppler radar readings of bullets at long ranges the best bullets were designed by hunters like John Dazzler and Randy Brooks that knew how a bullet needed to perform in the real world we're pretty lucky today and that we have so many great options for hunting bullets you know we have bullets that perform well at long ranges bullets that perform well at closer ranges you know bullets for big tough animals and bullets for a soft light skinned game you know and bullets that do a little bit of everything 99% of hunters are gonna be happy with premium bonded expanding bullet or a nozzle or partition this is because most shots on game are taken well within 250 yards and your typical expanding bullet is going to perform exceptionally well within that distance you know I'm an experienced competition long-range shooter and for decades I've been competition shooting and long-range shooting you know a thousand-yard shot is pretty easy for me and I was doing it long before it became the cool thing to do and everybody became an armchair sniper but when I hunt I try to harvest my animals on their terms which means using my skills against the animal senses and instincts to get as close as I can you know at these distances good expanding bullets have performed exceptionally for me without destroying large amounts of precious wild game meat either but for those who have the skill equipment and desire to kill animals at long distances there's a number of fantastic bullets to choose from nowadays you know especially from companies like burger you know not only will these bullets perform well at lower impact velocities but they'll also have attributes that help mitigate wind drift at these extended distances you know there's a bullet to fit every need nowadays but there's still no best hunting bullet for everything so bullets are still specialized hardware so remember you can have the most expensive honey in the world you can have the best optics money could buy you could be an expert at shooting and have unmatched skills of shooting but in the end it's the bullet that kills the animal there's really no excuse not to use a good quality and hunting bullet to stack the odds in your favor and ethically get a quick clean kill on your prey well I want to thank you for enduring another one of my videos I hope you enjoyed watching and enjoyed the content and as always good hunting [Music]

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Views: 56,975

Rating: 4.8393011 out of 5

Keywords: best hunting bullet, hunting bullet, best bullet, VLD hunting, nosler partition, eld-x, swift a-frame, barnes ttsx, tsx bullet, bullet for deer, big game bullet, long distance bullet, bonded bullet, monolithic bullet, hunting bullets, interbond, expanding bullets, partition bullet

Id: 83dO67_Ax0g

Length: 28min 11sec (1691 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 02 2020