Favorite Bullet Manufacturer for Non-Dangerous Game Poll

[Safari Dave]

I've never lost an animal when shooting Remington Core-Lokt's. (150, 165 (my favorite) or 180g)

And, I've probably taken over 100 BG animals with them.

At the distances I hunt (100-200 yards, mainly with a .30/06,) there is no reason to spend over $30/box for factory ammo.

My problems come when I start to "overthink" it...

I might as well shoot a miliary FMJ, as a Barnes TSX, because the expansion will be about the same on these 100 lb. deer, if the the bullets were legal.

 

[Safari Dave]

In the U.S., there has been a "push" to legalize cartridges that, ethically, make no sense to hunt big game.

For example, in Georgia, it is perfectly legal to hunt a 800 pound bear with a .25 ACP derringer. (64 ft/lbs. of energy at the muzzle.

But, it is illegal to hunt a 30 pound yearling deer with a .22 WMR rifle that can generate 300 ft/lbs. of energy at the muzzle.

Who knows and does Game Management even care????

 

[BryceM]

If you shoot high velocity rifles (for PG, at least), you will like Barnes. If you short lower velocity rounds, you probably won’t like them.

Personally, I like them. I don’t always use them, and I agree that they foul something terrible in rough barrels….. but they kill stuff. Not every rifle likes them. In those cases, I usually go with what shoots the best. For my rifles intended for long range, Berger HVLDs get the nod. They’re not perfect, but they’ve worked well for me. For the .375, I load A-frames, and I finally have enough in-hand to work with.

All bullets have their strengths and weaknesses. It takes a bit of understanding about twist rate, sectional density, velocity, anatomy, and so forth. For me it’s a kick to take game with ammo that I loaded.

 

[odonata]

Thanks for all of the feedback & useful info. Since yesterday, here's the current tally:

Rhino, Remington Core-Lokt & Winchester Super-X Power Points also got a mention.

 

[375Ruger416]

As I voted, I realized I have taken almost every game animal with a Barnes TTSX or LRX thus far (other than small game and varmints). 160 gr TSX out of a 7 RM for deer and moose and a 208 gr LRX for 8 African plains game in Namibia. Most of these have been inside 200 yds. My one pronghorn was taken with a Hornady ELD-M 147 gr out of a 6.5 CM at an embarrassingly long distance. Collapsed in its tracks. My son took his first (two) deer with a 127gr LRX out of a 6.5 CM. I finished the second deer which had its leg broken by a deflected pass through with a Hammer Hunter 124 gr out of a 6.5 PRC.

My impression is that monometals will penetrate to the vitals and kill very reliably, but that lead core bullets kill faster. This matches up with what I have read from what I consider reputable sources with (much) more experience than me. I am trying bonded bullets with a solid rear shank in my Blaser R8 as a Goldilocks solution. 200 gr Terminal ascent (basically a modern Trophy Bonded Bear Claw but heavy for caliber) for 300 WM and 300 gr Aframes for my 375 H&H. I could only find 50 Aframes loaded by Sako here in Alberta for my 375, but there are TSX everywhere. I have found Barnes ammunition to be consistently available in all of the cartridges I hunt with which is a big advantage. I suspect this is one reason why Barnes TSX is so popular with PG and DG for hunters travelling to Africa.

I expect Aframes and North Forks to live up to their excellent reputation, but their availability in loaded ammunition is nothing compared to Barnes.

 

[SFRanger7GP]

In Africa, we have used the following bullets on plains game:
Barnes 180gr TTSX factory 30-06
Norma Oryx 170gr 275 Rigby handloads
Norma Oryx 285gr factory 9.3x74R
Barnes 350gr TSX 416 Rigby handloads

No lost game and very few recovered bullets. All of our rifles will shoot Barnes accurately and with very minimal copper fouling. I cannot say the same about some older rifles I have tried them in. Almost everything we have shot with a Barnes has ran some distance. Not an issue since there is always a very visible blood trail.

For whitetail and pigs, we will try different bullets but Barnes, Norma and Nosler Partitions are the favorites.

I shot a doe and an old 8pt this past deer season with the Norma Bond Strike 30-06 factory ammo. The shots were at 80 and 95 yards. The doe did about a 25yd dash then slowed to a trot and finally stopped and looked around with the "what just happened?" look. Then she just started shaking and dropped. The buck did the mule kick at the shot. Took a couple steps, hopped the hog panel and slowly walked away. He stopped and started shaking all over, raised up on his hind legs and fell over backwards. On both animals the bullets exited. They left a small blood trail that started about 6-10ft after bullet impact. On both the hearts were destroyed and the lungs were exploded. However, very odd reactions on both deer.

Safe hunting

 

[odonata]

@SFRanger7GP, Thanks for the detailed description. I have one of my 30-06's setup to shoot lightweight 139gr Norma EvoStrikes but unfortunately no deer have appeared when I've been carrying that particular rifle yet.

 

[dogcat1]

I chose Barnes and RWS. I like both a lot. Both meet my needs.
I did not choose Swift because that bunch of Kansas farmers cannot make enough bullets or ammo to justify depending on them. They are a small outfit, managed as a small family business along with cattle. Go figure.
Sell it to someone that can make it into something....
I give up on Swift as there are equally good options with less hassle.

 

[Cooposo]

Since you asked, and since I find these types of threads helpful, here we go…

Mule deer buck #1: Too long ago to remember bullet used.

Mule deer buck #2: 168 Barnes TTSX / Factory Vor Tx / 30-06 - Shot at 85 yards. Deer bucked a few times in a circle and went down hard 2-3 seconds later. Wound was a 2-3 inch permanent wound track through liver to left lung with ping pong ball sized exit hole. Devastating blood loss. Excellent meat preservation.

Antlerless elk #1: 180 grain Federal Trophy Bonded Tip / Factory Load/ 300 WSM- Shot at 50 yards. Intentional neck shot. Dropped in tracks, lights out. Any bullet would have probably done the same.

Antlerless elk #2: 180 grain Federal Trophy Bonded Tip / Factory Load/ 300 WSM- Shot at 300 yards. Shot went too far forward, making an unintentional soft tissue neck shot. Blood trail was like a crime scene in the snow. Elk was down in ~50 yards with tough to find 1” permanent wound track through the soft tissue of the neck and jugular. I appreciated that the TBT was soft enough to open up this much, but take it for what it’s worth on a genuinely bad shot.

Red Stag #1: 150 grain hornady SST / Handload provided to my outfitter by a 3rd party / 30-06 rented rifle- shot at 200 yards. Stag made a 15-20 yard run annd went down hard. Obvious entry wound. Don’t remember exit wound, but I think there was one. Devastating double lung and major vessel damage.

Roe deer #1: 150 grain hornady SST / Handload provided to my outfitter by a 3rd party / 30-06 rented rifle- shot at 180 yards. Double lung, dropped to the shot. I wasn’t involved in cleaning this deer so no comment on internal damage.

Red Stag #2: 150 grain hornady SST / Handload provided to my outfitter by a 3rd party / 30-06 rented rifle. First shot 300 yards. Stag ran forward hunchbacked for 30 yards and froze. Closed distance to 200 and stag took two steps and went down hard at double lung second shot. First shot had grazed along the belly and caused significant abdominal wall damage and small intestine damage. Second shot was similar to the performance on stag #1 above. I was on an extremely solid rest for the first shot, so I’m inclined to blame inconsistent handloads for the accuracy change (we had another round fail to ignite on stag #1 above, despite a dimple in the primer!) but you be the judge, I could have pulled the shot.

Antlerless Elk #3: 180 Grain Hornady CX / Personal handload at 2940 FPS/ 300 WSM. Shot at 170 yards. Elk was quartering away and stepped forward into the shot, so impact was right hip in the direction of the left shoulder. Elk went 50 yards and was found down, stone dead. Bullet fractured the pelvis and destroyed the ball joint, and continued on through the abdomen and into the chest cavity. This was a time I was very glad I was using a tough bullet. Interestingly the elk didn’t travel much further than the elk below.

Antlerless elk #4: 155 Gr Browning BXR “Rapid Expansion Matrix Tip (I suspect this is very similar to the Winchester Deer Season XP)”/ Factory Load / 300 WSM. 170 yards. Shot by my brother within 30 seconds of the elk above, at the same range. Elk ran directly away from us 30 yards and was found stone dead. Perfect behind the shoulder double lung shot. Massive baseball sized exit hole. Lots of bloodshot meat and bone fragments, with meat loss on exit side ribs and a near total loss of the right front quarter. Devastating damage to lung tissue, massive internal bleeding.

Antlerless Elk #5: 180 Grain Hornady CX / Personal handload at 2940 FPS/ 300 WSM. Shot at 210 yards. Slightly quartering away. Elk crow hopped a couple times, made a 10 yard run at most, and went down. Got its head up for 10 seconds then went flat for good. Bullet nearly split the liver in half, bursting the liver capsule with shock, with 2” in diameter bore-hole like permanent wound track. Damage to major vessels of the lungs and collapsed the right lung with obvious entry and exit wound. Massive blood loss. Photo of liver below. Photo of recovered bullet below. Every CX I have recovered looks like this.

Mule deer buck #3: 175 Barnes LRX / Personal Handload at 2712 FPs/ 30-06. Shot at 260 yards. Running/ bounding and dropped to the shot. Kept its head up for a few seconds before going flat. Despite my lead, bullet was a mid-spine shot. Obvious entry wound, broke the spine, and exit hole ping pong ball sized. Destroyed major vessels and offside kidney, which was somehow protruding from the exit wound.

Antlerless Elk #6: 175 Barnes LRX / Personal Handload at 2712 FPs/ 30-06. Shot at 205 yards. Very slightly angled away but overall broadside. Dropped to the shot, but was trying to get herself pushed up on front feet, so shot again, and she collapsed. Both shots formed a single baseball sized entry wound and two quarter sized exit holes. Both were double lung shots that caused the expected massive amount of bleeding into the chest cavity. No bullet recovered but did find two petals trapped against the skin on the off side. See lungs below.

Antlerless Elk #7 & #8: 180 Sierra Tipped Gameking/ Factory Barnes Harvest Collection/ 30-06. My brother was the shooter for these and I was guiding him. First elk was a careful stalk to 50 yards. Off hand shot, dropped to the shot, lights out. This was a spine shot that transected the spinal cord. One third of both back straps was blood shot and lost. Second elk was ~150 yards. Double lung shot that broke the exit side elbow joint. Elk trotted for 20 yards, walked for 20 yards, and went down hard. Large 1” in diameter wound tracks through both lungs and major vessels that i could easily trace. Large exit wound. Near total meat loss of the offside shoulder.

With regards to accuracy:

• Hornady SST has shot good to great groups in normal velocity and Superformance factory loads I have tried in 270 win and multiple bullets weights in 30-06. I have never handloaded it.
• Hornady CX has the widest variation in accuracy of any bullet I have tested. In my 270 and three 300 WSMs and one 30-06, it has been easy to get ~ MOA handloads. One 30-06 shot the worst groups of my shooting life with factory outfitter ammo / Superformance ammo in two different CX bullet weights. Other times it has been middle of the road.
• Barnes TSX (416 REM), TTSX (30-06, 270), and LRX (270,30-06x3, 300 WSM) have shot great to spectacular in everything I have tried them in- in both factory loads and handloads. In my current 30-06, the LRX shot sub MOA at something like 9 different powder charges with two different powders. My brother’s weatherby was picky on ammo and promptly shot Barnes 168 TTSX into a 2/3” group at 100 yards.
• Federal Trophy Bonded Tip and Terminal ascent have had ok to good but not great accuracy in factory load form in everything I’ve tried it in (300 WSM x 3, 30-06 x2, 270)

With regards to bullet construction, the experiences above have led me to the following conclusions. I fully realize this opens me up for criticism. I fully realize I don’t have vast experience. But here it goes:

• Monolithic bullets cause enough shock and tissue damage for my purposes, at my hunting ranges, with my rifles, while at the same time giving fantastic penetration for less than perfect shot angles.
• The Hornady CX and Barnes TTSX / LRX don’t need too much body mass or travel to start opening up. Short of a complete bullet failure, I don’t think they behave like FMJs in small animals. They certainly don’t behave like FMJs in a 100 lb mule deer or in 7-12 pound rock chucks.
• More frangible bullets definitely cause more visible tissue damage, but the meat loss that is a direct result of their frangible nature has been a major drawback. Also, I would have lost at least one elk had I been using these instead of monolithic bullets because I don’t believe I would have had adequate penetration.
• The toughness and alertness of the individual animal might have as much to do with whether it drops to the shot as the choice in bullet construction.
• I shoot a 30-06 better than a 300 WSM. At the range and at animals. It’s not a coincidence that every animal I have shot with a 30-06 has died within my line of sight. Not so with the 300, despite the increased power factor. This is due to shot placement.
• I have 12 hunting days planned for my trip to RSA/ Namibia this year. I’m taking my 30-06 with 175 grain LRX hand loads and my 270 with 150 grain partitions in Nosler trophy grade factory ammo that it shoots super well. I hope this means I can share similar data on plains game.
• Nathan Foster of terminal ballistics research has awesome writeups with extensive real world experience. He addresses the terminal ballistics of almost any cartridge and bullet you would want to use.

 

[odonata]

Since you asked, and since I find these types of threads helpful, here we go…

Here we go indeed! A most excellent list of information to analyze & ponder over. Thanks for taking the time to share. I appreciate it.

 

[steve white]

Truth be told, I never over thought what to shoot a white tail deer with for the first 2/3 of my hunting life. With factory ammo it was often Corlokt. When I reloaded it was initially to shoot cheap so I had lots of Hornady Interlok bullets, partitions, etc. which I WOULD NOT use today on African trophies, but probably would pop a deer with them. I never had any problems with bullet performance until I went to Africa to shoot Oryx, Hartebeest and the like. Never had problems with Cape buffalo because I used A-Frames. I would also use mono metal on a buff. I plan to investigate Federal Terminal Ascent because they still open up at lower velocities if the representatives they had at TTH convention are to be believed. Premium mono metals are probably the future. I did use a TTSX on a bobcat and really blew a huge chunk out of his off side last year, so they don't have to be used on heavy creatures, and really the damage was super excessive on the bobcat.

 

[odonata]

Truth be told, I never over thought what to shoot a white tail deer with for the first 2/3 of my hunting life.

This is the main reason I started this thread. I'm often a guest on friend's leases so I don't try to take the biggest most prized deer I can find. I'm content with harvesting something edible & enjoying the camaraderie around the camp. Because I like to try out different ammo, I wound up with 25 different caliber, weight & mfg combos in my ammo boxes for the 15 rifles I have that can all kill a deer. I need to whittle that variety down to a dependable, compact subset designed for broader usage.

An old friend asked me if I would cull some of the does on his farm. I said "No problem!".

 

[odonata]

After two days, the tally remains fairly consistent with the only noticeable movement from Norma leapfrogging Federal into fifth spot. Otherwise, the positions & percentages have only minor changes. Since posting the tally yesterday, the Browning BXR ammo got a mention in a post for killing an elk.

 

[browningbbr]

I had a PH tell me that he prefers clients to show up with Barnes, Nosler Partition or Swift A-Frame bullets. He claimed that the results were virtually the same.

When developing loads for hunting rifles, I test all three brands in various weights. I go with the one that gives the most consistent groups. Bullet placement is still the most important factor.

 

[steve white]

Since you asked, and since I find these types of threads helpful, here we go…

Mule deer buck #1: Too long ago to remember bullet used.

Mule deer buck #2: 168 Barnes TTSX / Factory Vor Tx / 30-06 - Shot at 85 yards. Deer bucked a few times in a circle and went down hard 2-3 seconds later. Wound was a 2-3 inch permanent wound track through liver to left lung with ping pong ball sized exit hole. Devastating blood loss. Excellent meat preservation.

Antlerless elk #1: 180 grain Federal Trophy Bonded Tip / Factory Load/ 300 WSM- Shot at 50 yards. Intentional neck shot. Dropped in tracks, lights out. Any bullet would have probably done the same.

Antlerless elk #2: 180 grain Federal Trophy Bonded Tip / Factory Load/ 300 WSM- Shot at 300 yards. Shot went too far forward, making an unintentional soft tissue neck shot. Blood trail was like a crime scene in the snow. Elk was down in ~50 yards with tough to find 1” permanent wound track through the soft tissue of the neck and jugular. I appreciated that the TBT was soft enough to open up this much, but take it for what it’s worth on a genuinely bad shot.

Red Stag #1: 150 grain hornady SST / Handload provided to my outfitter by a 3rd party / 30-06 rented rifle- shot at 200 yards. Stag made a 15-20 yard run annd went down hard. Obvious entry wound. Don’t remember exit wound, but I think there was one. Devastating double lung and major vessel damage.

Roe deer #1: 150 grain hornady SST / Handload provided to my outfitter by a 3rd party / 30-06 rented rifle- shot at 180 yards. Double lung, dropped to the shot. I wasn’t involved in cleaning this deer so no comment on internal damage.

Red Stag #2: 150 grain hornady SST / Handload provided to my outfitter by a 3rd party / 30-06 rented rifle. First shot 300 yards. Stag ran forward hunchbacked for 30 yards and froze. Closed distance to 200 and stag took two steps and went down hard at double lung second shot. First shot had grazed along the belly and caused significant abdominal wall damage and small intestine damage. Second shot was similar to the performance on stag #1 above. I was on an extremely solid rest for the first shot, so I’m inclined to blame inconsistent handloads for the accuracy change (we had another round fail to ignite on stag #1 above, despite a dimple in the primer!) but you be the judge, I could have pulled the shot.

Antlerless Elk #3: 180 Grain Hornady CX / Personal handload at 2940 FPS/ 300 WSM. Shot at 170 yards. Elk was quartering away and stepped forward into the shot, so impact was right hip in the direction of the left shoulder. Elk went 50 yards and was found down, stone dead. Bullet fractured the pelvis and destroyed the ball joint, and continued on through the abdomen and into the chest cavity. This was a time I was very glad I was using a tough bullet. Interestingly the elk didn’t travel much further than the elk below.

Antlerless elk #4: 155 Gr Browning BXR “Rapid Expansion Matrix Tip (I suspect this is very similar to the Winchester Deer Season XP)”/ Factory Load / 300 WSM. 170 yards. Shot by my brother within 30 seconds of the elk above, at the same range. Elk ran directly away from us 30 yards and was found stone dead. Perfect behind the shoulder double lung shot. Massive baseball sized exit hole. Lots of bloodshot meat and bone fragments, with meat loss on exit side ribs and a near total loss of the right front quarter. Devastating damage to lung tissue, massive internal bleeding.

Antlerless Elk #5: 180 Grain Hornady CX / Personal handload at 2940 FPS/ 300 WSM. Shot at 210 yards. Slightly quartering away. Elk crow hopped a couple times, made a 10 yard run at most, and went down. Got its head up for 10 seconds then went flat for good. Bullet nearly split the liver in half, bursting the liver capsule with shock, with 2” in diameter bore-hole like permanent wound track. Damage to major vessels of the lungs and collapsed the right lung with obvious entry and exit wound. Massive blood loss. Photo of liver below. Photo of recovered bullet below. Every CX I have recovered looks like this.

View attachment 740450

View attachment 740451

View attachment 740452


Mule deer buck #3: 175 Barnes LRX / Personal Handload at 2712 FPs/ 30-06. Shot at 260 yards. Running/ bounding and dropped to the shot. Kept its head up for a few seconds before going flat. Despite my lead, bullet was a mid-spine shot. Obvious entry wound, broke the spine, and exit hole ping pong ball sized. Destroyed major vessels and offside kidney, which was somehow protruding from the exit wound.

Antlerless Elk #6: 175 Barnes LRX / Personal Handload at 2712 FPs/ 30-06. Shot at 205 yards. Very slightly angled away but overall broadside. Dropped to the shot, but was trying to get herself pushed up on front feet, so shot again, and she collapsed. Both shots formed a single baseball sized entry wound and two quarter sized exit holes. Both were double lung shots that caused the expected massive amount of bleeding into the chest cavity. No bullet recovered but did find two petals trapped against the skin on the off side. See lungs below.

View attachment 740465

Antlerless Elk #7 & #8: 180 Sierra Tipped Gameking/ Factory Barnes Harvest Collection/ 30-06. My brother was the shooter for these and I was guiding him. First elk was a careful stalk to 50 yards. Off hand shot, dropped to the shot, lights out. This was a spine shot that transected the spinal cord. One third of both back straps was blood shot and lost. Second elk was ~150 yards. Double lung shot that broke the exit side elbow joint. Elk trotted for 20 yards, walked for 20 yards, and went down hard. Large 1” in diameter wound tracks through both lungs and major vessels that i could easily trace. Large exit wound. Near total meat loss of the offside shoulder.

With regards to accuracy:

• Hornady SST has shot good to great groups in normal velocity and Superformance factory loads I have tried in 270 win and multiple bullets weights in 30-06. I have never handloaded it.
• Hornady CX has the widest variation in accuracy of any bullet I have tested. In my 270 and three 300 WSMs and one 30-06, it has been easy to get ~ MOA handloads. One 30-06 shot the worst groups of my shooting life with factory outfitter ammo / Superformance ammo in two different CX bullet weights. Other times it has been middle of the road.
• Barnes TSX (416 REM), TTSX (30-06, 270), and LRX (270,30-06x3, 300 WSM) have shot great to spectacular in everything I have tried them in- in both factory loads and handloads. In my current 30-06, the LRX shot sub MOA at something like 9 different powder charges with two different powders. My brother’s weatherby was picky on ammo and promptly shot Barnes 168 TTSX into a 2/3” group at 100 yards.
• Federal Trophy Bonded Tip and Terminal ascent have had ok to good but not great accuracy in factory load form in everything I’ve tried it in (300 WSM x 3, 30-06 x2, 270)

With regards to bullet construction, the experiences above have led me to the following conclusions. I fully realize this opens me up for criticism. I fully realize I don’t have vast experience. But here it goes:

• Monolithic bullets cause enough shock and tissue damage for my purposes, at my hunting ranges, with my rifles, while at the same time giving fantastic penetration for less than perfect shot angles.
• The Hornady CX and Barnes TTSX / LRX don’t need too much body mass or travel to start opening up. Short of a complete bullet failure, I don’t think they behave like FMJs in small animals. They certainly don’t behave like FMJs in a 100 lb mule deer or in 7-12 pound rock chucks.
• More frangible bullets definitely cause more visible tissue damage, but the meat loss that is a direct result of their frangible nature has been a major drawback. Also, I would have lost at least one elk had I been using these instead of monolithic bullets because I don’t believe I would have had adequate penetration.
• The toughness and alertness of the individual animal might have as much to do with whether it drops to the shot as the choice in bullet construction.
• I shoot a 30-06 better than a 300 WSM. At the range and at animals. It’s not a coincidence that every animal I have shot with a 30-06 has died within my line of sight. Not so with the 300, despite the increased power factor. This is due to shot placement.
• I have 12 hunting days planned for my trip to RSA/ Namibia this year. I’m taking my 30-06 with 175 grain LRX hand loads and my 270 with 150 grain partitions in Nosler trophy grade factory ammo that it shoots super well. I hope this means I can share similar data on plains game.
• Nathan Foster of terminal ballistics research has awesome writeups with extensive real world experience. He addresses the terminal ballistics of almost any cartridge and bullet you would want to use.

Very comprehensive, thank you!

 

[steve white]

I had a PH tell me that he prefers clients to show up with Barnes, Nosler Partition or Swift A-Frame bullets. He claimed that the results were virtually the same.

When developing loads for hunting rifles, I test all three brands in various weights. I go with the one that gives the most consistent groups. Bullet placement is still the most important factor.

I think the A Frames are designed to set up in tougher game, at which they excel! One might make the argument that ALL African game is tough--I had a smallish hartebeest tear apart a Hornady bullet. For American deer, the A Frame is probably a little too tough?

 

[WyoBull]

As an avid reloader since the late 1970's. I have used many different bullets over the years. For big game, over the past 12 years I have exclusively reloadeed Barnes bullets. I have found their consistency, accuracy and performance to be very high so because of that I have stayed with them.
There are a lot of other bullets that perform very well and maybe just as good as Barnes but in reloading you can easily go down the rabbit hole chasing all kinds of different performance metrics and I quit doing that once I found what works for me.
Now, if you are talking varmints like coyotes etc., I use different bullets depending on the varmint caliber I am shooting.

 

[Art Lambart II]

If I could only pick one bullet to use for all of my hunting it would be the Trophy Bonded Bear Claw or one of its current varients the Trophy Bonded Tipped or the Terminal Accent. I like and use other bullets but my personal favorite it the TTBC family.

 

[odonata]

I like and use other bullets but my personal favorite it the TTBC family.

...and Federal jumps back in front of Norma again for the 5th spot on the list with a couple of extra votes.

 

[MS 9x56]

As an avid reloader since the late 1970's. I have used many different bullets over the years. For big game, over the past 12 years I have exclusively reloadeed Barnes bullets. I have found their consistency, accuracy and performance to be very high so because of that I have stayed with them.
There are a lot of other bullets that perform very well and maybe just as good as Barnes but in reloading you can easily go down the rabbit hole chasing all kinds of different performance metrics and I quit doing that once I found what works for me.
Now, if you are talking varmints like coyotes etc., I use different bullets depending on the varmint caliber I am shooting.

What is your experience with copper fouling in your barrels?