Is the extra expense of premium ammo necessary?

Stalking
GEORGE WALLACE says: No, it is not usually necessary to use fancy and expensive bullets in a .308. The advantage of ‘premium’ bullets is they are much tougher and expand in a more controlled manner, which only really becomes a factor, certainly in the deer world, when using a very high velocity round at relatively short range.

At velocities of 3000fps and higher, an ‘ordinary’ bullet may disintegrate on impact with the target animal, particularly if it hits bone, and may also do considerable meat damage. At lower velocities, any modern bullet will perform perfectly well.

By all means use premium bullets if it makes you happy and your rifle shoots tiny groups with them, but, if on the other hand, you use an adequate calibre at a sensible velocity – and the .308 is one of the best – with bullets of sufficient weight, which means 150, 165, or 180 grains in .30 calibre, there is no need for anything other than ordinary bonded-core bullets.


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