Which Hunting ammo is the best?

[burgeman]

I have done a little searching and havent really found what I am looking for.
picking up a Ruger American 450 Bushmaster today and want to know which ammo is the best for hunting Deer? What about Elk?

- Hornady Black 450 Bushmaster Ammo 250 Grain FTX
- Remington Premier 450 Bushmaster Ammo 260 Grain AccuTip
- Inceptor Preferred Hunting 450 Bushmaster Ammo 158 Grain ARX Frangible Lead-Free
- UNDERWOOD AMMO 450 Bushmaster 220 Grain Xtreme Hunter

Any i am not listing above?
Thanks.!

[Al in Mi]

welcome aboard.

If elk were in the mix and you only wanted a single load, I'd wait and see what Barnes new offering is like. Or there are a couple places custom loading their 275gr TSX bullet.

Bear Creek Ballistics has a nice 240gr load for bolt guns, but haven't heard any accuracy or performance reports yet.

Personally, I'm not a FTX fan even for deer, but they are accurate.

[Thom28]

Grandson's buddy shot a deer this year with the Bear Creek 285gr ammo.Quartering shot with deer facing him. He was able to recover the bullet and it was mushroomed just as shown in their website. It did the job but a lot of meat lost a point of impact.
I will try and get some pictures of deer and bullet and post on here.
I would think this bullet would be perfect for elk, moose, or buffalo, but may be over kill for deer. I would think that the 240 gr would be perfect for deer.

Here is BearCreek website.

https://bearcreekballistics.com/product ... rain-ammo/

[burgeman]

welcome aboard.

If elk were in the mix and you only wanted a single load, I'd wait and see what Barnes new offering is like. Or there are a couple places custom loading their 275gr TSX bullet.

Bear Creek Ballistics has a nice 240gr load for bolt guns, but haven't heard any accuracy or performance reports yet.

Personally, I'm not a FTX fan even for deer, but they are accurate.

i would be fine with a different load for the elk if there is one that stands out for larger game!
I already have 60 loads of the Black I can just use for Deer. Just want the best for the elk trip if that is even in existence.

[Thom28]

The FTX is very accurate but it's performance on deer is lacking. Numerous reports of fragmentation upon impact, little to no blood trail. There are new loads coming out for the 450 frequently that are much better suited for hunting.

Here are the pictures of the results for the 285 gr BearCreek round:

[teddy_d]

Wait for the 2-3 options Barnes will have soon, should be bonkerz for Elk!!

Winchester has a solid option with a 250 bullet.

Avoid the Remington.

I have not had a problem with the original FTX 250, the new Black FTX250 is supposed to have a different jacket design. I have a few friends that have successfully harvested whitetails without any negative problems from the Hornady ammo.

Enjoy your new Thumper!!

[bhemry]

I tried out some 300 grain Federal Power Shok JSPs prior to Ohio's deer season this year. They shot great on targets, kicked pretty solidly, but unfortunately I didn't find a deer to try them out on.

Edited to add.. while they grouped good, their point of impact was about 6" different than the other lighter bullets at 100 yards.

[coyote wacker]

If you reload go with the Cutting Edge Bullets 250 gr. Maximus it was designed for the 450 BM....a friend shot a 60" Alaskan moose estimated weight 1400 lbs. one shot at 180 yards base exited....

https://cuttingedgebullets.com/45cal-25 ... un-maximus

Myself for the past 6 seasons deer hunting I've only used Cutting Edge Bullets 160 gr. Raptor....most deer are DRT minimal meat loss only retrieved one base....

https://cuttingedgebullets.com/452-160g ... ase-raptor

Black Butterfly has factory ammo called "Screamer"

https://www.blackbutterflyammunition.co ... r-screamer

[Al in Mi]

That's a smoking fast load right there !!

[cljohnson24]

I decided to try the Winchester 250 grain XP's this season after shooting a little tighter 200 yard groups than the Hornady 250 FTX Black/Customs. They chrono'd 35fps less in both of my guns yet grouped with the Hornady's at both 100y and 200yds. The ES/SD over chrono was slightly better than the Hornady's as well.

Took a nice doe @ 150 yards offhand quartering towards me. Entered slightly slightly high of my POA into the forward edge of Right shoulder blade pulverizing it and exited with a 2" hole just behind left shoulder.
My experience with the 250 FTX(in 450BM as well as Smokeless MZ's) lend me to believe that I would've found the bullet on far side separated from jacket(although usually nearby). This bullet(based on my first and only experience)seems to indicate that it remained intact.
My theory why the FTX bullets seem to shed jackets more readily is that the "thicker" jacket they use to limit the expansion, is in turn stiffer and once expanded has an umbrella effect. It's lighter weight grabbing flesh etc, allows the heavier lead core with more momentum to continue forward and pull free of the jacket. Another observation is that with thinner jackets the jacket and lead core become much more entangled and intertwined which creates a better mechanical lock throughout the target..
I pulled a Winchester XP and did a cutaway of bullet. The Win's "tapered" jacket is thinner along sides of bullet and thickens 1/3 before base creating an "interlock" point similar to the Hornady. The Hornady's jacket seems to be the same thick construction along the sides with only a limited taper around tip/nose area. The Winchester skives are longer and shallower and they seem to be crimped or locked into the plastic tip leaving no gaps except below the tip's base. The Hornady leaves open gaps to the sides of the tip as well as below it, and the cavity the tip resides in seems to be a tapered cavity rather than cylindrical like the Win..

I'm going to continue with the Winchester's for deer, but have to start shopping for a Black Bear load now. I'm considering the Federal 300 grain Deep Curl load, the Hornady 245gr Interlock or IF it's released then the Barnes 250 TTSX ammo...
If not, I have a box of 275 TSX's I bought and will work up over my last bottle of H110...