Any whitetail hunter knows that choosing a firearm to hunt with is a big decision. First you have to settle on a caliber, then pick out a cartridge with enough power. Once you search up matching rifles, you will see dozens if not hundreds of matches. After you pick the perfect rifle, you have to pick out which loads you want to shoot from it for your particular game. The design of the bullet in that load can have more of an impact on the outcome of your hunt than which rifle or cartridge you chose, so getting it right is crucial.
Like anything else in hunting, there are quite a few bullet designs to choose from. Thankfully, we can sort them into about five main groups. I plan to give you my opinion on which type is best after 20+ years of whitetail hunting, but there is no correct answer. Some bullets perform better than others in one area, just to be outperformed in another. To keep it simple, let’s start with looking at how bullet design actually impacts your hunt.
Why Bullet Design Matters
As hunters, we have to make a lot of decisions on how to hunt and what gear to use. However, everything we do is just in preparation for our bullet coming into contact with our target. No matter what your hunting strategy is, how much corn you have poured out, how often you tended your food plot, or how much you spent on your pretty camouflage, none of it matters after your bullet leaves the barrel. What does matter, is how that bullet behaves in the air, and what it does when it hits the target.
The shape and composition of your bullet have a huge impact on how it flies through the air. Nowadays, nearly all of your hunting bullets use either a G1 or G7 aerodynamic design, with G7 becoming more popular. We are tending toward longer and narrower bullets, which pierce through the air. Although you should keep in mind that copper is lighter than lead, so the composition of the bullet matters. If you have more copper than another bullet, your bullet is going to fly further, but hit lighter.
Copper is lighter, but also harder than lead; generally, the more copper you have the further your bullet is going to penetrate your target. On the other hand, the more lead you have the more your bullet is going to expand on impact. Expansion is a good thing, we want most of our energy to dump into our target, not the hill behind them. We just do not want our bullets to be so fragile that they completely fragment on bone or in the first few inches of flesh, not causing a mortal wound.
Your bullet strategy is fairly important, many hunters say it’s more important than your cartridge or even caliber choice. Whitetails are tough, but they are not as thick as elk or moose, so we don’t want a soft lead ball, but we also don’t need the hardest bullet on the market either. There are a lot of different ways to look at the terminal and impact ballistics of a theoretical bullet, but let’s look at some tried and true designs.
What You Can’t Use
If you have ever spent any time in the military, you will know that the USA uses Full Metal Jacket (FMJ) bullets in most of their cartridges. These bullets are cheap to manufacture, but they are also great at penetrating. The encapsulating copper keeps the lead intact and prevents it from expanding very much. This results in a projectile that is going to punch a hole in its target and keep going. The bullet is certainly deadly; plus, if your target is behind some concealment, your FMJ will punch right through it and them.
It isn’t the same story with hunting, especially with whitetail deer. If your bullet is too hard and doesn’t expand on impact, you are going to zip through your target, and many deer will not even know they have been shot. This results in an animal with an often mortal wound that nearly always runs a long way before succumbing to its injuries. It goes without saying that your recovery rate would be quite low.
Although I am not writing a controversial opinion here; it is generally agreed upon that FMJs are not ideal for hunting. So much so that they are actually illegal to hunt with in many states. Although they are readily available on ammo store shelves. So just know that if you have a box laying around, it is best to use it at the range instead of in your deer stand.
The Common Cup & Core
Cup and core bullets are likely the most popular bullets on shelves for whitetail hunters. They have been around a very long time and are the most cost effective option. Basically, cup and core bullets have a soft lead bullet surrounded by copper with an opening at the tip. The tip could be a lead soft point, a polymer tip, or an open hole. The weaker material in the tip allows flesh to enter the bullet on impact and aid expansion, creating that classic mushroom we have all come to know and love.
The important thing to know about cup and core rounds is that the copper is mechanically attached to the internal lead. You can often pick these out because they will have some sort of crimp looking band around them where they were pressed together in the factory. Due to the mechanical connection, we are not limited by chemistry. This means a lot of these bullets use a gilding copper, which is a copper alloy with 5 – 10% zinc, and it is harder than pure copper.
The result of this mechanical connection is that the copper and lead can separate on impact. I have cleaned many deer and found a hunk of lead in the opposite shoulder that I shot, with the copper staying behind on the entry shoulder. Oftentimes, you will only find copper and the lead penetrates both sides and keeps going. I would say that the cup and cores I have shot stick together on average, but separation is not uncommon. There is not a real down side to this other than not wanting stray copper or lead in your meat, obviously if I can recover the animal and find part of a bullet in it, it was a mission success.
The most recognizable cup and core bullets on today’s shelves are Remington Core-Lokts. First appearing in 1939, these G1 bullets have laid down millions of deer. Personally, I have taken no less than two dozen deer with a Core-Lokt. My favorite flavor is the .308 Winchester, which routinely drops deer with less than a 20 yard blood trail. In my mind, the eastern deer hunter will struggle to find a more trusted and affordable round than the Remington Core-Lokt.
Another popular cup and core on shelves is the Hornady Interlock. I have only used these to take two deer so far, but I certainly like them and they tend to be easier to find in .308 than Core-Lokts in my area.
The Better Bonded Bullet
Bonded bullets are great for deer hunting, but they are more popular among elk, bear, and moose hunters. Instead of a mechanical connection, these bullets chemically bond (hence the name) the lead core to the copper jacket. This leads to a much stronger connection between the two, keeping them together more often after impact; you usually get about 90% weight retention. Since the lead and copper stay together, you tend to get more penetration from a bonded bullet than you do a cup and core.
Improved penetration is a good reason to use these bullets on game that is larger than whitetail deer. You will not have any problems using a bonded bullet on a whitetail, but they do tend to be more expensive than cup and cores that do a fine job. After cleaning a few deer I took with bonded bullets, I have always found the bullet mushroomed out as it should be. Although, due to the increased penetration, I find far fewer bonded bullets in deer than cup and cores.
A lot of bonded bullets you find will have polymer tips so they can still expand, unlike FMJs. Plenty of hunters refer to these as Ballistic Tips, but that is a brand name from Nosler; this is like calling a bandage a band-aid or a cotton swab a Q-tip (but who doesn’t???). Anyways, the lack of exposed lead from a soft point reduces lead fouling in the barrel, which is a plus.
The last thing to know about bonded bullets is that since the lead and copper are chemically bonded together, they need to be 100% lead and copper respectively. Other bullets will use tougher copper alloys, so if you hit bone, do not be surprised to see some jacket left behind. Still, a whitetail deer doesn’t stand a chance against a well placed rock, much less your bonded bullet going Mach 2.
I am still a sucker for a good soft point though, so here is one in 308 Win by Speer. The Speer Gold Dot 168 Grain Soft Point is a great cartridge; it’s made for law enforcement so it can certainly pass muster in your deer stand.
The Fancy Nosler Partition
While some hunters think the nosler partition bullet is a feat of engineering, I imagine there was a group of guys there at nosler trying to figure out a way to prevent early fragmentation and one guy leaned back in his chair with a coffee cup in his hand and said “why not just *whistles and makes a line with his finger* some copper across the middle to break up the lead?” Thus the Nosler Partition was born.
Stories aside, you can think of a Nosler Partition as a cup and core bullet with a layer of copper in the middle, separating two hunks of lead. Once the bullet impacts, the lead north of the copper layer expands, and the lead south of it stays encapsulated in the hard copper, penetrating further than cup and cores. Whether or not they penetrate further than bonded bullets depends on your cartridge and who you ask. While they penetrate well, they only retain about 65% of their weight since that front lead core is usually lost.
The downside to these bullets is that they can be hard to find, especially in common whitetail cartridges. When you do find them, be ready to pay for them. If you do get your hands on a box, they should do exceptionally well at taking down whitetail. You will probably get complete passthroughs most of the time in a whitetail. This bullet is more ideal for larger game like elk, moose, or bear that take a little more power to bring down than that spike you’re bound to take this year.
If you shoot a 270, we normally carry Nosler Trophy Grade 130 Grain Partitions that are perfect for whitetail. I really suggest these bullets to the hunter that has more than one type of big game tag to fill. If you are in the situation where you might have a black bear tag and a deer tag, a partition could be a good way to ensure plenty of penetration on a bear without being completely overkill on a deer.
The Solid Monolithic
The last type of bullet I have for you is a monolithic; coming from the Greek “monos” meaning single, and “lithos” meaning stone. Simply put, the bullet is made up of a single metal, which is almost always copper. Unfortunately, this is the one bullet that I am going to flat out recommend you not use for whitetail hunting. They certainly have their place, but they will zip right through a whitetail with very little expansion or energy transfer. Some hunters report they are also inaccurate, but at whitetail hunting distances of often less than 100 yards, that may not apply.
As we have covered, copper is harder than lead. So with the entire projectile being copper, it is going to go through a lot more material. Copper is also lighter than lead, so your monolithics are generally lighter than any bullet with lead in it. To compensate, manufacturers will make these bullets a bit longer, but there is a limitation to that if they want to pair with standard rifle barrel twist rates. So you are going to have a lighter and harder bullet with higher velocities; which is the ideal scenario for deep penetration.
These longer bullets can also increase barrel fouling, and barrel pressures. To remedy this, manufacturers began putting relief grooves along the body of the bullet. This immediately reduces barrel pressure and fouling, and you will see nearly all monolithics on the market today taking advantage of them. Better pressure control has also improved the accuracy of monolithics, alleviating some of the initial worries about their performance. Of course, it all depends on how your rifle likes them.
G9 Defense Super Match Solid Copper 6.5 Creedmoor
These bullets will either be pointed at the tip, or have a small opening. Bullets with an opening will expand more, but monolithics in general are not designed to expand very much. Your actual expansion depends on your target distance and bullet velocity, but it is common to see “petals” of copper peeled back when monos are shot in ballistic gel. It’s also possible to get 100% weight retention after hitting your target, but sometimes those petals can rip off and be left behind.
While you won’t get a crazy amount of expansion, monolithics reportedly produce a pretty good wound channel and blood trail. Although that is going to be required if your deer runs as far as expected. The next downside for the hunter is that these bullets are expensive; you will find yourself paying twice as much for a monolithic than you would a cup and core.
One perfect use case for monolithic bullets are states or areas that do not allow hunters to use lead bullets. Now, I think this may be a bit extreme in the woods where your bullet is either going to bury itself in a deer (which you are sure to find) or tree behind it, but California doesn’t surprise me anymore.
California is the only state that has a complete ban on bullets containing lead, but other states are partially implementing this in state parks, Scientific and Natural Areas (SNAs), and in other special cases. Here is a quick table summarizing the main talking points for lead bullet bans; where you may want to consider using a copper monolithic bullet.
| Jurisdiction | Lead Ammo Status for Deer Hunting |
|---|---|
| California | Full ban (statewide) since July 1, 2019 |
| Minnesota | Required in state parks, SNAs, and select hunts |
| Iowa | Required in some wildlife management areas (shot only) |
| FWS Refuges | Phased ban by 2026 on specified refuges |
| Maryland | Proposed ban rejected |
| New York | Voluntary, with incentives but no mandate |
| AZ / UT / OR | Voluntary incentive programs |
Which is Best For You?
For the whitetail hunter, I would nearly always suggest a cup and core bullet. They do a fine job on deer-sized game. Although if you are using a lighter cartridge like .243 or .30-30, having a bullet that penetrates a bit more may be better, so bonded may be the way to go. I like Nosler Partitions for any deer hunt, but they can be hard to find and expensive when you do. Monolithics are good to avoid on deer sized game; you are likely to over penetrate and you will spend twice as much on a box as normal.
Your bullet choice is important, but let’s remember that they are all deadly. Don’t stress too much about making the wrong decision if you are stuck between two choices. If you still have no idea which one to choose, go with a cup and core; it will likely be the first one you see on the ammo shelf.
