I was asked to post into this thread and mention not only close range-woods deer bullets, but also pointed bullets vs round nose bullets. As mentioned before by several posters velocity is very important in determining a good close range deer bullet. Not only velocity, but also stability and potential to retain stability.
There was mention of the old "brush buster" bullets vs some of the newer premium bullets. Our fathers and grandfathers were not dumb when it came to bullets and hunting rifles. A good majority of them hunted deer as sustenance, not sport. As such they wanted meat, not antlers on the wall. Heavy bullets at moderate velocities were used for game animals and light bullets at higher velocities were used for varmints and pests. This was due no only due to the makeup and shape of the bullet, but also due to the speed of the bullet and it's potential to retain stability. This has remained true to today, BUT there are exceptions. Take most of your bullet manufacturers and ammo makers. Their heavier bullets are intended for hunting and their lighter for caliber bullets are for varmints, at least in the majority.
Should the bullet be pointed, round nosed, flat nosed, or a combination of these. It depends.....we could have a long discussion and arguement on this one and still not have a solution. As is my typical routine, I always come up with some off the wall example to try to get my point across. For this discuss, lets use hammer, nail, and wood. Use a small nail and pound it into the wood. What kind of displacement do you get into the wood? Goes in pretty easy doesn't it? Take a grinder and take just the tip off of that nail. Now poiund it into the wood. How much wood is displaced? Goes in a little bit harder? Now grind the tip off of a nail and make it a flat tip. How much wood is displaced? How hard is that to pound in? Now try it with a bigger nail. What happens? Eventually the wood is going to split. Same can be said of a bullet. A pointed bullet will initiate the energy at a small point and as it begins to mushroom, it will begin to dissipate the energy over a larger area. A round nose bullet is displacing more energy due to it coming into contact with a larger surface area. As it too mushrooms, it is disspating energy over a larger area.
Lets take the nail again and see what happens if we hit a knot. Pointed nail will still dissipate some of the wood, but the nail could go crooked, it could just bend, it is really hard to tell what it will do. Now take the point off of the nail. Hit that knot. HOow does the nail react? It's gonna bend. You will have to try to make it go in crrooked. In this case, the flat point on the nail is making it more stable. It is less likely to go where you don't want it. Same is true for a bullet. That nice point is good for displacing the wind and for displacing tissue, but it is a more prone to goi in an unwanted direction at the least amount of "knot".
Take a look at the "dangerous game" ammo produced by all manufacturers. You will see that most of it is round nose or flat nose. This is no accident. These bullet types are more stable. Look a little closer and you will also see that this ammo is using a bullet on the heavier end of the caliber spectrum. Heavier bullets maintain more energy than lighter bullets on a given mass. Even in your ballistic tables for typical guns. Your heavier bullet is going to eventually surpass a lighter bullet in speed and retained energy.
So, what is the best close range deer bullet? It is a bullet in the legal caliber of your choice that is on the heavier side. It is loaded at a moderate velocity and it is accurate in your gun.
Steve
