Hunting with tipped match bullets

[Dead Center Miss]

Hoping to use my Grendel for deer this year.

In the past I've always avoided match type bullets for hunting because the ones I grew up shooting (Sierra HPBT usually) were not known for expanding.

Are the newer Tipped match bullets like the Hornady ELD or the Sierra TMK suitable for hunting, meaning does the tip work to help the bullet to expand, or are they just on there to help raise the B.C. of the bullet?

Only asking because I already have a few boxes of the bullets I mentioned in 100 and 107gn.

[A5BLASTER]

If put in the right place any bullet will kill a deer.

From my hunting experience if you put it throw the heart or low lungs it will be dead in under 100 yards.

Now days I prefer copper bullets because I'm a head/neck and highshoulder/spine shooter and want a very hard bone smashing bullet to break it down and drop them where they stand.

With a 100 grain bullet I wouldn't go past 300 yards on a heart/lung shot with a target bullet in that weight class.

The old amax 12e grain has shown to be a great expanding bullet on game animals with the grendel and I would expect the eld-m to be as well.

[VASCAR2]

The 123 grain A-Max was used successfully on medium size game before the introduction of the 123 grain SST. Hornady states the only difference between the ELD-M is the polymer composition in the tip (being more heat resistant). I can’t remember reading where the 107 or 123 grain TMK’s have been used for hunting with the 6.5 Grendel.

I have loaded some 100 grain A-Max but never have tried them on critters. From reports on the A-Max the disadvantage to the 123 grain A-Max was at close range where velocities are high the A-Max tended to expand/fragment and generally dispatched the game. At close range the A-Max usually failed to exit producing only small entrance wound. With only a small entrance wound there wasn’t much of a blood trail.

Some forum members liked using the A-Max/ELD-M because they got better accuracy than with the SST.

[Londerko]

Heavy for caliber ELD-M/ Amax Bullets are spectacular killing bullets in my experience. They are soft and expand well at low velocity (long range) and have a high enough SD to make it into the boiler room on high velocity (close range) shots.
I despise all copper bullets. Especially in low to mid velocity cartridges like the Grendel

[Frontier Gear]

They work fine. I took a small buck at 230 yards last year with the 123 ELD-M and this year a 125 pound (approximate) black bear at 265 yards, again with the 123 grain ELD-M. The deer was with an 18 inch BCA barrel and the bear was with a 20 inch Howa. The bullet pictured was recovered from the deer, just under the hide on the opposite side. The bullet on the bear passed through the heart and lungs, split and exited in two locations. I did find a small fragment of bullet in my heart and eggs breakfast this morning...

Both animals were one-shot clean kills. I can't complain about the bullet performance in either instance. Bullet placement is more important than bullet construction IMHO, and the ELD-M have proven to be more accurate in all my rifles than the SSTs.

[zzrguy]

Well I use hunting bullets for hunting a match bullets for target.

I did shoot a buck two years back with a SMK 308 at 200yards. He didn't go dowm and we track him for 2 hours only to dispatch him with a 45lc from my Rossi lever actoin

[A5BLASTER]

Well I use hunting bullets for hunting a match bullets for target.

I did shoot a buck two years back with a SMK 308 at 200yards. He didn't go dowm and we track him for 2 hours only to dispatch him with a 45lc from my Rossi lever actoin

That's because of the bullet construction compared to the velocity of the 308 compared to the grendel.

Your 308 was moving at a speed at 200 yards to not make that bullet work correctly for hunting.

The grendel is going much slower and as such some target bullets have shown to mushroom very well and work great on game.

The old amax and the new eld-m being two such bullets.

I myself prefer copper bullets but if all I could get was eld-m,amax or tmk target bullets in the weight range of 100 to 130 grains I wouldn't hesitate to shoot a deer or hog with them.

[Dead Center Miss]

Well I use hunting bullets for hunting a match bullets for target.

I did shoot a buck two years back with a SMK 308 at 200yards. He didn't go dowm and we track him for 2 hours only to dispatch him with a 45lc from my Rossi lever actoin

The match king is also not a tipped bullet. I can't think of a single Match type HP I would try to use on big game.

[Kswhitetails]

Berger hybrids? IDK, but I've been wondering if they'd be pretty effective.

[1Shot]

With the tipped match bullets you have the tip to initiate expansion and depending on the impact speed the bullet will go from exhibiting varmint bullet like explosion with high velocity down to perfect hunting bullet expansion. With the plain HP like on the non tipped Sierra Match King expansion is a crap shoot. While doing crop damage control of deer my buddy and I got to do a lot of experimenting with different bullets. The only tipped match bullet that was available back then was the Hornady A-Max of which I shot a few deer with the 155 gr out of a K-31 7.5x55 rifle with a muzzle velocity of 2700 fps. Really could not tell much difference in terminal performance between the 155 A-Max and the 150 Nosler Ballistic Tip at these same velocity. I shot a number of deer with the 168 HP Sierra Match King out of a 308 Win running around 2650 fps. Most of the time it expanded violently like the Berger VLD but then every now and then it acted like a FMJ. I have had the same results with the 69 gr HP Sierra Match King out of a 223 on ground hogs. Sometimes it would almost cut one in half and then every now and then act like a FMJ and just pencil through. I have not shot any game with the 6.5 Grendel but intend to give the 120 Sierra Pro Hunter and 120 Speer Gold Dot a run on some deer this Oct and Nov. I did see on YouTube where a girl shot a deer with the Grendel using 120 Sierra Match King and it dropped the deer and looked like it blew a golf ball size exit. But then again the next one might pencil through, Who Knows. I guess it all boils down to use what you want and live with the results of the decision.