The Right Bullet For Your Hunting Needs: Part 2 (Match)

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Cup and core (Match) bullets are made with a copper or copper alloy jacket and have a lead or lead alloy core. These bullets can be either tipped with a type of polymer or other materials such as aluminum, or they can be hollow points. This category would include bullets like the Hornady ELD-M, Hornady A-Tip, Sierra Tipped Match King, Sierra Match King, Nosler Ballistic Tip, Berger Hunting and Target bullets, and others like it.

I'm including Sierra’s Tipped Game King, Nosler Ballistic Tip, and Hornady ELD-X bullets into this category because these bullets blend the similar design of Match bullets but also have some features that control their rate of expansion. These three bullets have tapered bullet jackets. They are thinner towards the tip and increase in thickness as you go towards the bearing surface. This allows them to upset at lower velocities but also retain more mass when impact velocity is higher.

The ELD-X bullet also has Hornady’s Interlock Ring towards the bottom end of the bearing surface like their SST Bullet. This Interlock ring is a mechanical bond between the bullet jacket and the lead core, which helps hold the two together, preventing jacket and core separation.

Match bullets are known for consistency and accuracy. This lends itself to shooting good groups not only at short range but at distance as well. These bullets are cheaper to buy and often come in bulk packages. This is important to me as a handloader because I intend to shoot my hunting rifles a lot and do not want to worry about where I can source another 50 bullets for the season. These bullets are loaded in factory ammo, and you can often find them on the shelves at your local store.

Ballistic Coefficient and Terminal Performance Tendencies

Match bullets generally come with best BC in their weight class. This will help the bullets retain their velocity down range as well as have less wind deflection. Most shooters can dial a turret to an accurate trued data calculation, but the wind is what gets people in trouble. Having a bullet that will deflect way less at distance can mean a hit or a miss. In the game of shooting living things, shot placement always is the number one factor for whether the animal lives or dies.

Match bullets are known for rapid upset (notice I did not say expansion) and have less weight retention. These are often referred to as fragmenting bullets. These bullets usually have uniform jacket thickness throughout the bullet jacket. They are filled with lead or lead core alloy and are known for accuracy. Traditional boattail hollow point match bullets do not always “expand” like you would think of a hunting bullet. These bullets (depending on a lot of variables) will often upset in a non-uniform fashion. They will usually cave in from the side (or the front) and cause the bullet to upset rapidly when it encounters resistance in the animal. If you find the upset bullet inside the animal, you might think the bullet “failed” because the upset bullet won’t have the perfect “mushroom."

Bullets like the Berger Hunting and Match bullets have long had a reputation called the Berger “J Hook." When these bullets upset, they often do not take a straight path through the animal. I have personally seen this on multiple occasions. When they upset from the side (as they yaw inside the animal), the bullet takes a path through the animal that is not always predictable. This can be a problem for some people who are reliant on or expecting a certain path through the animal. This often makes people think that the bullet failed as well. I blame this on a lack of knowledge on how these bullets perform. If you expect and know that the bullet can do this, you will not see it as a bullet failure.

Tipped match bullets like the Hornady ELD-M and Tipped Match Kings tend to be more explosive on impact due to the tip assisting with the bullet upset. They also tend to have a more straight-line path through the animal as opposed to the “Berger J Hook” type of path. The tip aids in the expansion/upset of the bullet and they tend to have more of the front-to-back expansion/disruption. The ELD-X and Tipped Game King also follow this type of upset.

Minimum Expansion Velocity

For reliable upset, I figure on 1600fps for tipped bullets (ELD-M, ELD-X, Tipped Match King) and 1800fps for the boattail hollow points like the Bergers. Coupled with the great BC’s, this usually gives people reliable performance well past their own personal shooting limits.

With these match bullets, you will not always get an exit hole on the animal. If there is enough velocity on impact and the bullet encounters a harder medium (bone), the bullets will disrupt rapidly and send fragments in all directions. Some people are worried about the fragments in the meat, but I have personally never had an issue with this. Even when placing my shots on the shoulder (as I normally try to do), the bullets will enter the chest cavity prior to the massive disruption. I have never found bullet fragments in the shot-side shoulder. I have found fragments in the chest cavity, which is what I want. This leads to a quick death for the animal and little to no tracking job needed.

When the bullet does make it to the offside hide, it is often the base or shank of the bullet that does, and it is in one piece and not fragments. With Hornady ELD-M and ELD-X bullets, this is usually where I find what is left of the bullet. From shots from 110 to 600 yards, I have caught all the bullets in the backside hide. With Berger bullets, I have found that more likely than not, they have an exit hole.

This is especially true if you do not strike a bone with the bullet upon entry.

First Hand Results on Game With Hornady

While my testing on animals is still a small sample size, I have used Hornady’s 153gr A-Tip on a few different animals. I shot a buck in Idaho in 2022 at 440 yards with a 20” 6.5 PRC (2820fps out of the muzzle). This buck was at a hard quartering-away angle and steeply downhill. I was very impressed with the massive cavity that bullet produced and the amount of penetration I still got with the bullet shank. That bullet entered a few inches behind the front shoulder, decimated about 5 ribs, and was caught in the skin on the backside of the neck.

A few weeks later, I shot a coyote at 100 yards with that same 153 A-Tip load. To be honest, I was not sure what to expect on a thin-skinned animal like a coyote. Coyotes are also not very wide, so disruption in that thin chest cavity was an unknown to me. I put that bullet mid-body on that coyote and was extremely happy with the performance. That bullet opened rapidly and blew a massive hole on the backside of that coyote. That answered my question of if an A-Tip would expand in that type of an animal.

The following week, I shot another buck at 110 yards. This buck was quartered away slightly. I put that bullet just behind the front shoulder. That buck took two hops and was dead in a matter of 5 seconds. I was shocked at how quickly that buck died from a behind-the-shoulder shot. That bullet went through the backside shoulder blade and was caught in the skin on the backside.

To say I was impressed by the performance of the 153 A-Tip on game is an understatement. I would put the A-Tip between the ELD-M and Berger bullets as far as toughness goes. I have a friend who has used that bullet a lot in the culling of animals, and his experience has been like mine. Do not write off that bullet because it is labeled a “match” bullet. This bullet is only offered in a component bullet for reloaders, but you can find some boutique ammo manufacturers that will load that bullet if requested.

Bergers and Naysayers

I have had similar impressive results with Berger Bullets. From 400 to 1007 yards, the 215 Berger Hybrid Target in my 22” Long Action 300 WSM has been impressive. I have not been able to catch a bullet in an animal though. I have gotten passthroughs on every shot with a massive hole on the backside. On each of the four animals I have shot with that bullet, I have experienced the “Berger “J Hook”. I have used other Berger Bullets in the past and in the words of a guy in our hunting party, “It looked like the deer swallowed a grenade.”

Some people say that the problem with match bullets is that they are weaker bullets and if a bullet is shot at high velocity at close range, they will just “blow up." Being in law enforcement, I have studied ballistics when it comes to law enforcement sniper ammunition. These projectiles are rigorously tested by the FBI to perform on multiple barriers. To pass these tests, the projectiles must go through the barriers and get a specific amount of penetration. That is usually 12 to 16 inches after the barrier. These bullets are shot through the following barriers individually: four layers of heavy clothing, two pieces of 20-gauge steel placed 3 inches apart, two pieces of 1/2 inch sheet rock (wallboard) spaced 3.5 inches apart, one piece of 3/4 inch plywood and one piece of 1/4 inch laminated automobile glass that is angled like your car windshield.

Other than the heavy clothing, after the bullet passes through the barrier, it must go 18 inches prior to reaching the ballistics gel, then it must go roughly 12 to 16 inches into the gel. These shots are taken at basically muzzle velocity as they are shot at 10 feet away. That is a tall order for any bullet.

Now if a “match bullet” was going to blow up on a deer’s shoulder, do you think it would pass these tests? Well, if you look at most law enforcement sniper ammo, it is comprised of match bullets. This is for accuracy, reliability, terminal performance and not over-penetrating. Sure, there are some barrier-specific rounds like bonded bullets or copper solids that they will use, but in very specific scenarios.

Common Loads and Bullet Weight Offerings

For the 6.5 Creedmoor and 308 Win, Hornady loads their 147 ELD-M and 168 ELD-M bullet in their Law Enforcement TAP ammo. I know Hornady does not market the ELD-M bullet as a hunting bullet, but should they? Take some time and look up the FBI Barrier testing for those bullets in those cartridges and it will help ease some of the apprehension you might have with using a match bullet.

Likewise, Federal loads the 168 and 175 Tipped Match King and Match King bullet in their 308 Win Gold Metal and TRU Law Enforcement Sniper ammo. They also load the 140 Tipped Match King in the 6.5 Creedmoor TRU ammo. To be fair, Hornady and Federal do offer law enforcement ammo in a bonded bullet and copper bullet but again these are for very specific shots that snipers must take.

For me, I really like shooting and hunting with the Hornady ELD-M bullets and the Berger Hybrid Bullets. They are easy to find, great BC’s, economical, and have performed great on animals for me. If I am feeling like spending the extra money, I will buy Hornady A-Tips. These match bullets will cost you way less to shoot. On average you can expect to pay between $.50 and $.90 for a good match bullet. Sometimes you can find them on sale for even less.

As a closing thought, think about Match bullets as being like the large expandable broadheads in archery. They might not be able to get through a shoulder knuckle, but any other placement will be devastating. Here's a link to "Part 1: Bonded" of this 3-part series.

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