it's been a LOOOOONG time since I've had to buy ammo for hunting. (Dad was a reloader)

don't need anything too fancy....whitetails, usually @ 100 yards or so.

Might someday make a try on black bears, but mostly whitetails.

what do the experts say?

.308 winchester

I love my Corelok's for my 270 but started shooting the Barnes Triple Shock on my other rifles, with great performance.

I've been shooting Core-Lokts for decades and love the performance. I've recovered several from just under the offside skin of whitetail deer and all were perfect mushrooms with very little weight loss. I shoot a 30-06 and a .35 Rem.

THE DEADLIEST MUSHROOM IN THE WOODS.

For deer you can use any ammo thats designed for deer and up. Today's technology and the competition between makers if your rifle likes it shoot it. My wife killed her cow elk with a .308 and 165 grain Winchester load. Tried several different loads and that gun shoots most of them well but these were the best.

I second the core-locts.

No need to get fancy for Whitetail at that range, and core-locts do a fine job.

Same goes for black bears.I also like Nosler partitions and would recommend 150 gr for deer.

^ X2 on the Nosler partitions. Or Hornady SST would do well on deer also.

Hornady SST for deer and Speer gold dot for bear would be my choice in that caliber. Thats what I load for the 30-06 anyway and they are close enough to be compared.

A lot of our group uses .308 auto's. We have always used Federal 180gr. soft points. If I pull out the bolt action then I have switched to the 165gr. Premium shells.

Just about anything out of a 308 will make a whitetail die. Just find something that shoots well out of your rifle.

I've had a couple rifles that won't pattern well with core lokts. They always killed good though. Federal cheapo blue box power shock ammo has consistently patterned better for me with the same killing results

+1 for the federal blue box...
Tried'em in several cals. and they've worked.


Donnie

Rifles can be fickle about brands of ammo ( and bullet weights ; 150 gr vs 165 gr, etc. ). I would hope you would be able to find someone who reloads and would reload for you. If not, then try a brand, any of those mentioned already will perform just fine, assuming your rifle likes them.

at 100 most anything will do but you may want to go 180 so that you don't have to change for bear.

in my 308 , Win , Fedral and PPU 150s all shot about the same 2 1/2 inches at 100 yards plenty fine for deer but 2X what my hand load shoots.

store bought ammo? remington core lokts hands down for me. I wish they offered them as a reloading component. Now that i reload only im using nosler ballistic tips and combined technology ballistic silvertips(basically the same thing) just aim behind the shoulder as anything near the bullet track will be destroyed. Next to try will be the speer gold dots, videos ive watched they show promise for accuracy and performance. Ive come to trust about anything nosler makes. Barnes is also a great company but a bit pricey and can be finnicky with the solid copper construction, lots of rifles wont shoot them very accurately. I had some bad experiences with hornady bullets terminal performance about 15 years ago and they left a sour taste in my mouth. The bullets are very accurate and always have been. I doubt i will ever load any hornady to shoot at game because of that bad experience. Also had some bad winchester bullets back in the day, one rouond one would be full power and the next would be half power. Those burnt me on winchester too. off the shelf i reach for remington first, federal second, and then grudgingly winchester.

possum man , have you tried Sierra game king 165 BTSP they shoot well I have not gotten one in game yet but they are loaded in several premium hunting factory ammo oferings and I have heard good things.

For many years my dad used Remington core-loks in 180.

On occasion he used 220 grain in the brush. He always figured that much more push in brush.

All that in his Remington semi-auto that he got in 1950. I have it now.

He killed a lot of deer with the 180's on the run. He knew how it shot and collected more than one bet.

I've shot a lot of deer with core lokts in my .243. I've recently started shooting winchester deer seasons in my creedmoor. I've been very impressed with them.