Last year I took an 80 yard quartering-toward shot on a good sized muley buck. My bullet, a 117 grain Speer Hot-Cor out of a .25-06, "exploded on the deer's shoulder, causing minimal damage. Long story short, the deer got away (luckily, we got another shot at it the next day and were able to put it down humanely), but I don't want to go through the exploding bullet ordeal again.
What factory loads do you recommend for large deer from a 25-06? I will also be using the load on a cow elk hunt this year.
I do not handload, so some of the choices I've looked at are:
Federal: Nosler Partition, Trophy Bonded Bear Claw, Barnes Triple Shock (100gr)
Remington: Premier Core-Lokt Ultra
Hornady: Interlock (L. Mag)
Any others?