Are 100 grain bullets enough for deer stalking at 300yrds?

Longer range shots should only be attempted if the rifle, bullet and - most importantly - stalker are up to the job.

By George Wallace

Thursday, 02 February 2012

You said that it is sometimes necessary to take shots of up to 300 yards while stalking deer in open country.

I’m fairly new to deer stalking and wonder if my .243 with 100 grain bullet is powerful enough to kill cleanly at that distance. Assuming, of course, I can put the bullet in the right place.

DEER STALKING
George Wallace
Bullet in the right place? Aye, there’s the rub! However, if we can assume that you have tested both yourself and the rifle, while out deer stalking at that range, before thinking of shooting at a deer - we can restrict ourselves to looking at whether the ballistic numbers add up.

Received wisdom is that you need about 1000 ft/lbs of energy to kill a deer cleanly, and your 100 grain .243 bullet still carries about 1150 ft/lbs at 300 yards, so that’s not a problem.

If you zero it to group 1½ inches high at 100 yards, it will be about 8 inches low at 300.

After that, it is falling fairly rapidly so you do need to be sure of the range.

For those who worry about such things, I compared trajectories for a spitzer boat-tail bullet and also for a flat base Nosler Partition and at 300 yards there is no measurable difference; so you can use the bullet that shoots best in your rifle without worrying about whether it is shaped like a Ferrari or a Land Rover – either will do the job.