The Columbian whitetail that Editorial Director Adam Heggenstaller killed in southwestern Oregon was the first deer to fall to the new Nosler Whitetail Country ammunition. (Photo by Justin Moore)
October 16, 2024
By Adam Heggenstaller
Whitetail ammunition requires a careful balancing act on the part of the manufacturer. Deer hunters need reliable performance, of course, but they also demand affordable ammo. A bullet that could fly around a couple trees, automatically home in on a deer’s heart and immediately drop a buck in its tracks would do most deer hunters no good if the price of a box of ammo cost more than a tank of gas for their pickups. They still ain’t buyin’, not when Dad has killed 16 deer with the same box of shells he bought 23 years ago for $11.99.
Thus, ammo makers have to produce loads that cleanly kill whitetails in a variety of situations and, just as importantly, are sold at attractive prices. In today’s economy, this isn’t an easy task, but Nosler has pulled it off with the company’s new line of Whitetail Country ammunition . To top it off, Whitetail Country is built around a bit of tradition, an aspect of whitetail culture as celebrated as a kid’s first buck.
Nosler Whitetail Country ammunition is offered in six popular bottleneck rifle cartridges from 6.5 Creedmoor to .30-06 Sprg., as well as the straight-wall .350 Legend and .45-70 Govt. (Photo courtesy of Nosler) Nosler is known for premium (deer hunters read that as expensive) ammunition loaded with slick, high-tech bullets such as the Ballistic Tip and AccuBond. But before those came the Solid Base, which founder John A. Nosler introduced in 1972. The Solid Base quickly developed a reputation for accuracy and reliable expansion, and it paved the way for more advanced designs. Six of the eight Whitetail Country loads feature an improved version of the Solid Base bullet (more on the other two later), and because of Nosler’s efficient method of manufacturing this projectile, have a suggested retail price of less than $35 per box. For the .308 Win., this is $20 cheaper than a box of Ballistic Tip Hunting ammo and almost $50 less than a box of Trophy Grade AccuBond loads. Whitetail Country falls solidly among the price range of other deer-focused ammo on the market.
The Nosler Solid Base bullet, which is loaded in six cartridges in the Nosler Whitetail Country line, has a thick, heavy base to ensure weight retention and penetration. (Illustration courtesy of Nosler) Fittingly, the Solid Base is ideal for whitetails, which don’t require a tough bullet to penetrate thick hide and heavy bone to reach vitals like larger game and are typically taken at close to moderate ranges, making a high ballistic coefficient unnecessary. The bullet consists of a lead core, a tapered jacket and the hallmark thick, solid base from which it got its name more than 50 years ago. Developed by Nosler for improved accuracy as well as terminal performance, the jacket is the fifth iteration of its type and used in some of the company’s other premium bullets. While the Solid Base isn’t constructed as stoutly as the Nosler Partition or bonded like the AccuBond, the bullet’s heavy base ensures weight retention to reach a whitetail’s vitals when making quartering shots. The bullet also has a boattail, which aids in wind resistance for more precision at longer ranges.
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Topping the .350 Legend and .45-70 Govt. Whitetail Country loads, the Nosler Straight-Wall bullet features an exposed lead nose and thin jacket to aid expansion at lower velocities. (Illustration courtesy of Nosler) I witnessed the performance of the 165-grain, .308 Win. Whitetail Country load last week in southwestern Oregon while hunting Columbian whitetails with Jody Smith Guide Service. The first Whitetail Country round I fired from a Seekins Precision Havak Element drilled the bullseye at 100 yards, and the next two bullets hit about an inch from the first. When an excellent Columbian buck presented a quartering shot on a steep hillside at about 250 yards, I didn’t hesitate. The bullet entered the deer behind the ribcage, and we later recovered it just under the hide several inches behind the opposite shoulder. It penetrated 18 inches or so through the body cavity, and although the buck showed signs of a lethal hit, I fired another round to be sure. The deer was almost perfectly broadside for the second shot, and the bullet entered tightly behind the shoulder and passed through both lungs, dropping the deer where it once stood. A few days later, another hunter in our group shot a buck standing broadside at about 150 yards with the same .308 Win. load. That bullet coursed through the lungs near the heart, and the deer went about 100 yards before rolling down a hill.
This 165-grain .308-caliber Solid Base bullet was recovered just under the buck’s offside hide after penetrating about 18 inches of body cavity during a quartering shot. (Photo by Adam Heggenstaller) Besides .308 Win., Whitetail Country is available in 6.5 Creedmoor (140 grains), .270 Win. (130 grains), 7 mm-08 Rem. (140 grains), .30-30 Win. (150 grains) and .30-06 Sprg. (165 grains). In addition, the ammo line includes loads for two straight-wall cartridges: .350 Legend (180 grains) and .45-70 Govt. (300 grains). Nosler loads both with its new Straight-Wall bullet, which has a flat base, lead nose and thin jacket at the tip to ensure reliable expansion at the lower velocities produced by these cartridges. The nose of the Straight-Wall bullet is truncated to ensure smooth feeding in lever-action and bolt-action rifles. Suggested retail price for the .350 Legend load is about $35 per box; for the .45-70 Govt. load, it is just under $40 per box.
Game & Fish Editorial Director Adam Heggenstaller took this Columbian whitetail buck with the 165-grain .308 Win. Nosler Whitetail Country load at about 250 yards. (Photo by Justin Moore) With the new Whitetail Country line, Nosler gives hunters just what they need in deer ammo and nothing that they don’t—including a high price tag. The name Nosler chose for the ammo is spot-on, as Whitetail Country should be at home in deer camps, treestands and ground blinds across the nation.
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