.243 round for rutting bucks / stags

E. Fudd

Gents,

Last year I used Hornady .95 gr sst's all season long, but found that they were somewhat lacking during the rut especially. I had one instance where I necked a big fallow buck and he took off running, luckily I got the opportunity to take a follow-up.

I'm wondering should I move away from the ballistic tips and towards a soft point round. If so, what do you recommend?

I'm shooting a tikka t3 lite.

Ta.

garv123

Federal 100gr is what the lad I stalk with used all last season. dropped all the fallow bucks on the spot with no problems. 29euro a box isn't bad either.

This was the third biggest of last season.

clivej

E. Fudd wrote: »

Gents,

Last year I used Hornady .95 gr sst's all season long, but found that they were somewhat lacking during the rut especially. I had one instance where I necked a big fallow buck and he took off running, luckily I got the opportunity to take a follow-up.

I'm wondering should I move away from the ballistic tips and towards a soft point round. If so, what do you recommend?

I'm shooting a tikka t3 lite.

Ta.

No I'd say stay with what you have.
That one that ran off was just an off shot that didn't hit anything to make the head expand on impact.

Or try a shoulder shot where the bullet head will hit the shoulder blade, expand and hit the spine behind the should balde. You may loose a little meat but the deer will drop on the spot.

Grizzly 45

Dropped two of them last season with that round no trouble.
Both however were chest/heart shots.One ran about 30 meters uphill before he discoverd he was missing a heart and shoulder bone.The other walked 10 meters and fell down.:) Both reds as well.
So for good center mass hits,it does the job no problem.

ssl

One runner is no reason to change ammo

German pointer

E. Fudd wrote: »

Gents,

Last year I used Hornady .95 gr sst's all season long, but found that they were somewhat lacking during the rut especially. I had one instance where I necked a big fallow buck and he took off running, luckily I got the opportunity to take a follow-up.

I'm wondering should I move away from the ballistic tips and towards a soft point round. If so, what do you recommend?

I'm shooting a tikka t3 lite.

Ta.

I had 2 "runners" this year, 1 Fallow stag (70 yards) with no lungs and 1 kid goat last week (30 yards) with no heart.


And I use a Hornady 130gr SST in .270

You will always get the odd "runner" no matter what roound you use and no matter what the quarry.

rmnrgn

I use RWS 100 grains T Mantels which do the job nicely however they can be a bit expensive (35-40 euro per 20) and hard to source. I dropped my one and only buck with a heart shot at 75 yards. At that distance I suspect any good round would do the job. The saying goes "one swallow does not make a summer" and as has been mentioned previously you'll always get a runner or two so see how you go next season with what you're used to.

4200fps

They never run with a head shot and no meat is lost either. RWS and Norma would be the best of the softpoints. Them 95 gr sst would be a cracking good round