Venison harvesting ammo?

[NF1E]

Looking through some old ammo on the shelf, I was thinking of how many times over the years ammo for venison harvesting has taken different directions.

From 30-06 to 280 to 30-30 to 444 to 7.62 Russian to .308 and now .450. Then of coarse the 7.62 x 39 and .223. Talk about fickle. No wonder I gave up hunting. I always liked the instant put down of the larger 240 and 250 gn projectiles. 444 and .450 bushmaster in the second photo.

[Quak]

Avid avid hunter here. I’ve used a 308 for most of my hunting but recently switched to the 7.62x39. My longest shots up here are 200 yards and many more are taken at less than 100. For whitetail and black bear the 7.62x39 in a fast handling mini 30 with a low power scope is perfect.

flat to 200 yards and zero recoil

[m14brian]

What kind of ammo are you using? Factory loaded soft tips?

I have an older friend who experimented about 15 years ago with .223 for deer, I thought he was crazy and said something about it. He said the type of bullet matters there, I can't remember what it was but it was something relatively newer and cutting edge he handloaded. He said it's heart was like hamburger where the bullet hit, sorry for the graphic image but I was concerned the round wasn't enough and the animal would suffer but he said it was more than adequate, it's the selection of bullet that matters more at moderate distances like 200 yards or so for hunting.

Wondering what they have for 7.62x39, my only experience was crappy combloc ammo and cheap import hollowpoint ammo back in the '90s when I had AKs.
m14brian

[Smokey]

Before the 30-30, the 44-40 was the main deer hunting cartridge. It's not exactly a bone-crushing powerhouse but worked well enough at less than 100 yards.

[Quak]

I hand load 150gr soft points designed for the .303 at an average 2050 FPS from my 16.5 inch barrel. I can shoot from off the muzzle to 200 yards without having to worry about drop compensation. Beyond 200 yards low velocity and expansion become concerns. In my mind it’s a solid 200 yard performer. I’ve never recovered a bullet.

in factory ammo both Tula and Wolf offer 154gr soft points very inexpensively and they have proven extremely effective as well. I’ve not only shot game with them both but have seen even more game shot and fired them into ballistic gel. Very good stuff. There are videos online with gel tests as well for reference.

I would not use the Russian hp ammo as it’s not designed for hunting. Reports show it either doesn’t expand at all or goes to pieces.

the 7.62x39 compares very favorably to the 30-30. Some people are quick to point out the 30-30 is listed with higher velocity in factory ammo. They obviously have never fired it across a chronograph. 30-30 published velocities are some of the most inflated out there. I tested several loads for a friend with a 20 inch lever gun some years ago...it was eye opening. Subsequent tests have been similar. In reality it has almost no actual velocity advantage over the x39 and the projectiles used are flat nose (due to tubular mag)with poor retained velocity down range