6 TCU Bullet Choice for deer hunting

[Jay HHI6818]

W Va is offering three days for youth hunters this year. My son age 9 and daughter and 13 expressed interest in going. I have a 21 inch Contender 6 TCU barrel that would be good for them (low recoil). I loaded up the Sierra 85 HPBT recommended by Sierra's hotline and went to the range yesterday. 25 gr of N135 produced a velocity of 2550 FPS and groups were 1-1.5 inches.

Thx,
 

[Graybeard]

I never actually got around to taking either of mine deer hunting. I had a 15" handgun barrel and 23" rifle barrel both at one time. I worked up loads with Nosler PTs and Barnes 85 grain X-Bullets for the chore tho I never used them on game. I had to work hard to find a load with the Barnes that was accurate enough but finally found one that would stay inside about 3" at 100 yards and since I had no intention of using it beyond that range felt it would do OK if I ever took it out.

With the Nosler bullets both PT and BTs in those barrels I was easily able to get sub inch three shot groups at 100 yards. Personally if I were working up a load again with deer in mind it would be with a Nolser PT.

[Lone Star]

The Nosler 85-grain Partition was made for just such use.  I would think that you might get a bit more velocity, the very similar 6x45 gets 2700 fps in a 24" tube with Sierra's 85s.  But I bet that no deer would notice the difference...


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