I'm a newbie to the rifle world. Just bought my first deer rifle (at 40 yrs old) last week - a Rem 710 in .30-06. Have hollow-points fallen out of favor in the general hunting world? While I'm no historian on firearms, seems that most of what I see now are soft points. Seems like growing up that hollow-points were the bullet type of choice for hunters. Or am I just ignorant of basic history of hunting cartridges? If HPs are now "old school", what was the reasoning behind the change.

Hollow point ammo has very fragile jackets and aren't recommended for game hunting purposes - expansion is too fast and normally results in a nasty nonfatal wound. They are used pretty much for varmit hunting and for competition shooting.

Soft pointed ammo has tougher jackets for both penetration and controlled expansion.

Plastic tipped ammo is used both for varmit and for game hunting. The smaller calibers (.223, .243) plastic tipped are generally for varmit hunting and have thin jackets. Getting into the heavier bullets for .264, .277, .280 and above, the bullets have sufficient strength jackets to be used for game hunting. A careful read of the manufacturer's information on them is advised to determine which is which.

Full jacketed ammo is illegal as a hunting bullet in most states. It is used primarily as target ammo.

Crushert,

Welcome to the wonderful world of rifle hunting! I'll toss out my two cents, understand this is just my opinion.....

Hollow points are generally considered suspect for big game due to the unpredictable nature of how they'll react upon impact - how far they'll penetrate before fragmenting into small pieces. If you're basically hunting deer, a good 150-165 grain bullet for the .06 will do anything you need - if you're hunting mulies, you might want to consider the 180-grain. There are a passel of good bullets out there, from the Remington Core-Lokt to the Nosler Partition, Barnes X, Winchester Failsafe, etc. What type of deer are you hunting, and what might typical shooting distances be?

Off the shelf softpoints should be fine for deer. Good luck with your hunting!

Of course the zeppy has to respond to this line of answers. Hollow points are just fine for hunting depending on who/what/where/when/why. TYPICALLY one uses a non hollowpoint for hunting as you want controlled expansion and penetration. However if you want to load up your 44mag with 240g hollow points as a close range deer gun you will drop the deer.

KDUB
Where did you get that full metal jacket is not legal for hunting?

Zeppie - If you're hunting in Arizona, you'd better read up on Commission Rule R12-4-303!!!!

You can't use tracer ammunition, armor-piercing or FULL-JACKETED BULLETS designed for military use.

crushert:

And then to confuse things even more, a company like Sierra markets a "Hollow Point" rifle bullet, that is actaully their toughest game bullet.

Good luck on keeping it all straight.

RSY

KDUB
As with anything its open to interpretation and this is one of the funny laws.

Most .45acp's are full metal jacket yet nobody will complain if you take out a rabbit or coyote with one. One could say that only .223 and 50bmg's fit the "Military" bill. Wait, what about military from other countries?

What they dont want is a jacketed bullet that does not expand. But then a solid does not fall under a Jacketed bullet and it does not expand.

Interpretation

P.S.

If you hunt a deer or elk with a non expanding bullet your a foo!

I think what the message is, Zep - is that any and all military hard ball or full metal jacket ammo is a no-no. Including the 45ACP hardball use on jackrabbits!

If you have commercial solids and choose to hunt with them, that's a personal choice. I know speer makes some semi-spitzer .22 fmj's, and as you say, the solids used in dangerous game ammo. Handgun ammo loaded with solid lead projectiles and shotguns shooting solid slugs are permitted, also.

Just lay off the military stuff, according to the regs! :eek:

I think what the message is, Zep - is that any and all military hard ball or full metal jacket ammo is a no-no. Including the 45ACP hardball use on jackrabbits!

If you have commercial solids and choose to hunt with them, that's a personal choice. I know speer makes some semi-spitzer .22 fmj's, and as you say, the solids used in dangerous game ammo. Handgun ammo loaded with solid lead projectiles and shotguns shooting solid slugs are permitted, also.

Just lay off the military stuff, according to the regs! :eek:

Odd...I hunt deer with non-expaniding cast lead bullets. Except for the big flat nose 9and you could make a FMJ that shape) giving gomd disruption, there is no expanison...but they kill deer well.

NO reason that a FMJ of the same shape would have the same effect when launched at the same speed....but FMJ's of that shape are pretty rare.

Military type FMJ's (domestic or not) are about as unreliable as a bullet gets. The ones designed to tumble after contact don't penetrate in a straight line...so even if you tag the deer in the perfect spot, may end up putting holes in internal areas that aren't all that vital.

The FMJ's designed to tumble early can actaully fragment rather badly...if it swings to base-forward while velocity is still high enough, often will fragment.

Sporting FMJ's...the ones with the round nose profile at least...do tend to penetrate straight ahead (a good quality for a bullet) but don't offer much in energy transmission (unless the critter is thick enough to contaion the entire bullet path).

Softpoint vs. hollow point has gotten more complicated..can be desinged to expand qucikly or to expand slowly. Jackete thicness, construction, temper...core hardness, amount of expoded lead (in soft points), size of the hollow point,...bonded cores, mechanically locked cores, partitions, dual hardness cores...thaere is a bunch of things that can change the terminal effects.

Won't make any blanket statements about either soft points or hollow points..can find some of either than have been designed to give whatever level of performance you are looking for.

Agreed. A lot of the hunting regulations were written after WWII to prevent people from using cheap military surplus ammo. Unfortunately, that leaves a bit of a grey area with hard cast handgun bullets, depending on how regulations are written.

Stick with Core-lokt bullets (they are Soft points) and you should be fine. If you really want, spend the extra couple bucks and get the Nosler Partitions, or Speer Hot-Cors.

Hornady bullets are my choice for price compromise. They have given in to market demand and ate making the designer, sexy bullets of today now too. I have even loaded some Nosler Partisions for the first time lately in 30 cal. I can't wait to give them a try on a little 60 pounder next week. All it needs is antler above the hairline.

Hornady bullets are my choice for price compromise. They have given in to market demand and ate making the designer, sexy bullets of today now too. I have even loaded some Nosler Partisions for the first time lately in 30 cal. I can't wait to give them a try on a little 60 pounder next week. All it needs is antler above the hairline.

Yep, its hard to beat a Hornady bullet for cheap shooting these days, we buy em by the case.