The ammo upgrade that could make or break your big-game hunt

By V. Paul Reynolds

Although a die-hard deer hunter, I never paid much attention to the brand of ammunition I used or my long-range marksmanship. Guns were simply tools of the hunt. Any old ammo would do. As for sighting in the deer rifle, if I could put three holes near the bull at 50 yards, that was good enough.

Shopping for ammo today is like finding a breakfast cereal at the supermarket. The choices overwhelm. There are soft points, boattails, Supershock Tips, Power Point Plus, Ballistic Silvertips, Fail Safes, Partition Golds, Spire Points, Round Nose, Nosler Partitions and on and on.

What to do?

A few years ago we put the question to St. Albans gunmaker Jud Bailey and Buckfield ballistics expert David Walker. Both men have hunted dangerous big game in South Africa.

I figured anyone willing to face a charging Cape buffalo would have confidence in his gun and his ammo. They had done their homework on the ballistic details that never much interested me, like muzzle velocity, bullet penetration, expansion and retained energy.

Both men spoke the same language. Both offered the same advice: “Use Federal High Energy ammunition. It’s the only way to go.” Although the Federal High Energy, or HE, loads cost more, they may be worth the extra outlay.

This fall, gearing up for my second moose hunt, I started thinking more seriously about ammo choices and did some digging.

“Is factory ammunition really different? What’s so special about Federal High Energy ammo?” I asked myself.  

Here’s some of what I learned. According to outdoor writer Ron Spomer, Federal HE ammo “is the elusive free lunch. For no gain in pressure, you get up to 200 feet per second gains in velocity.”

Spomer says Federal accomplishes this by combining special cool-burning ball powder with special loading techniques. The powder compresses better than conventional smokeless powder. 

Before it is loaded into the cartridge, it is “dropped from an undisclosed but significant height so as to pack it tightly,” Spomer reports. Part of the special loading technique involves careful layering of the compressed powder.

The result is gun performance downrange. For example, take a .30-06. Comparing conventional ammo with Federal HE, the difference is a muzzle velocity of 2,800 feet per second against 3,000 feet per second. The bullet’s hitting power is 2,870 foot-pounds against 3,300 foot-pounds.

Deer hunters may argue that the added energy is inconsequential or academic and not worth the extra money, and they may be right. But big deer have been wounded or lost by hunters whose first and best shot did not do the job. Moose hunters and especially bear hunters need a cartridge with lots of hitting power and retained expansion.

Aroostook moose guide Dave Hentosh is a big believer in what he calls controlled expansion bullets for big game. Controlled expansion bullets expand reliably, retain a high percentage of their weight and penetrate deeply even through bone and muscle. These include Federal Fusion, Nosler AccuBond, Swift A-Frame and Barnes TSX.

But there is always an exception to the rule. A friend of mine this fall shot and killed a nice buck after his bullet first penetrated the center of an eight-inch spruce tree before making contact with the deer. 

He was shooting a .308 with Federal Power-Shok bullets, which are not technically controlled expansion ammunition. This round is a cup-and-core soft-point bullet with no engineering for depth control once it hits the game.

But what the heck? The proof is in the pudding. Any ammo that will take out a deer after ripping through a tree can’t be all bad. And it’s a lot less expensive. Your call.

The author is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal. He is also a Maine Guide and host of a weekly radio program “Maine Outdoors” heard Sundays at 7 p.m. on The Voice of Maine News-Talk Network. He has authored three books. Online purchase information is available at www.sportingjournal.com, Outdoor Books.