50 cal bullets for deer: solids or HP?

[atl5029]

Ohio has finally legalized all straight walled cartridges 357 to 50 cal for deer hunting. This makes using an AR in 50 Beowulf now a legal possibility! If I were trying to take deer out to 300 yards with the Beowulf, would I be better suited with a heavy (350-400+ grains) wide meplat bullet moving slower, or an HP moving a little faster? My thinking is that the hard cast flat point, even at 300 yards moving about 1000 FPS, would be a better killer than a lighter HP moving about 1100 fps at the same distance. Does anyone have any experience to support or disprove that?

Lets skip the conversation about whether I can hit a deer's vitals at that range, or what the drop is on that bullet. I practice a lot, and I'm using an AR with a good scope. Drop is only 4.5-6 mils at 300 yards, so lets assume I can hit it.

Thanks for the input!

[dondiego]

I would go with the wide meplat to get better penetration at any angle.

[Ateam]

Even with alot of testing and tinkering, I have never been able to get HP's to perform well consistently, and if you do at 100 it will not open at 300. So my vote is for wfn.

[Outpost75]

A .50 cal. flatnosed bullet doesn't need to expand!

[Elkins45]

A .50 cal. flatnosed bullet doesn't need to expand!

This has been my experience as well. Neither does a .45 or .44 for that matter.

[reed1911]

Echo-echo. My first though when reading it was that with a .50 you may as well 'help it' with penetration. If we are talking about a 6mm bullet then we 'help it' with expansion. Depending on range a well suited WFN will not have a higher exit probability than any HP design will. If you so decide, you can also cast them a little softer and gain some expansion from them as well.

[Lloyd Smale]

on deer sized game it isn't going to matter much. both will kill. Only thing I will say about the beo and hps is not cast related. I shot a couple deer with my beo using the renier hp bullet and it did massive damage. Now both of those were with full power and at around 50 yards. Ive also shot a couple with the renier solid and it killed just as well and did much less meat damage.

[475AR]

Either will kill as mentioned but I would suggest a LFN LBT style bullet as it has better accuracy at longer distance then a true WFN. I stopped using WFN cast bullets if shots are going to be longer than 100yds. Under 100yds they are great and under 25yds they are awesome. I would also look at the drop of what ever bullet you choose because out past 100-150yds it is going to drop like a rock I would bet 45+ inches depending on the gun and load. And if you can make a 300yd shot with the 50 Beo in the vital zone of a deer you are a much better shot then I am.

[GrayTech]

FN for less damage. But I wouldn't go too hard.

[sundog]

The American Bison was almost driven to extinction with large caliber, solid, soft lead bullets traveling at modest velocities - some at rather long range.

[Lloyd Smale]

yup and most of those bullets were like sundog said made of pure lead and most of them were round nosed.

[Doggonekid]

I have a .50 mold from NOE. It comes with the option of approx 400 Gr HP or you can change the pins and get about a 430 grain RNFP. Everybody's guns and reloads are different. NOE gives you a fun chance to play with both HP and RNFP. I hunt with a hand gun and I haven't killed a deer at 300 yards yet. So I could not tell you how they work. But for shorter distances both boolits work good for me. No favorites.

[buckshotshoey]

It could be either depending on your hunting conditions. Do you shoot a .50 cal muzzle loader? The performance should be similar .
Actually the .50 muzzle loader is probably faster depending on grains of powder used. Think about the kills you have had with the muzzle loader when you make your choice.

Use the most accurate and consistent bullet,whatever it might be. Especially if you intend on shooting at 300 yards with it. Boy.... A deer looks damn small at 300, doesn't it fellas? They look small to me at 100. But I don't use a scope. My muzzle loader likes the .370 gr Maxi Ball so that's what I use. I can consistently, more like 50 percent of the time, hit a golf ball at 60 yards with it....open sight. But My eyesight isn't what it used to be.

[Ironduke]

My concern is the diameter of the meplat when it comes to feeding. I have shot lots of the Hornady 500 gr JFN, and it always feeds well, but the shorter 300 gr Speer Gold dot doesn't like to feed relaibly. So for me, the question isn't about whether a HP or FN is better, it's a question of what feeds. a half inch Pb boolit will flatten a deer and penetrate from any angle, so feeding is the issue.

[35remington]

I would suggest that if 300 yard shots are possible you pick a cartridge that
has other that a dropped rock trajectory.

Bison were much much larger than deer. The longer a bullet takes to get to a living target, the more time the target has to move out of the way. They move when they want to, not when you want them to.

[skeeter2]

My only experience is shooting elk with a 370 gr TC pure lead maxi-ball. They form a perfect mushroom when striking the animal. I don't think a hollow point would improve anything.

[flint45]

Solid, no hollow point