New for 2025, Nosler has brought back their famous Solid Base bullet in their Whitetail Country ammunition line. First released in 1972—in component form only—the Solid Base bullet is a cup-and-core boattail spitzer bullet, with a bit of lead exposed at the nose, designed for reliable expansion. All of my experiences, though there weren’t many, handloading those projectiles were positive, with impressive groups; the bullets were consistent. Nosler has brought them back, in their factory-loaded cartridges, using their proprietary headstamped brass cases, in many common deer cartridges.
Testing the 7mm-08 Remington 140-grain load in my Tikka T3X Lite, I saw a series of three shot, ½-MOA groups. The .308 Winchester 165-grain ammo and 6.5 Creedmoor ammo printed slightly bigger groups, but both stayed inside of one MOA. Feeding and extraction posed no issue, and velocities were within reason of those advertised. I grabbed my battered and well-loved Ruger M77 MKII in .308 Win. for our New York deer season, and on the morning of the second day put the ammo to work when a mature eight-point came down the trail, working his scrape line. One Nosler Solid Base bullet put that buck down in his tracks.
Nosler offers the Whitetail Country ammo in 6.5 Creedmoor at 140 grains, the .270 Winchester at 130 grains, the 7mm-08 Remington at 140-grains, the .30-30 Winchester at 150 grains, and the .308 Winchester and .30-06, both at 165 grains. In addition to the Solid Base bullets, Nosler has released two cartridges with their Straight Wall projectiles; these are a flat-base semi-spitzer with a skived jacket designed to function properly in those lower velocity cartridges. Both the 350 Legend at 180 grains and the classic .45-70 Government at 300 grains are offered in this line.
Nosler has some fantastic bullet designs in their catalog, but for those who hunt deer at moderate range, the Solid Base will have no issue feeding your freezer. Whitetail Country has a price tag of $34.95/box of 20 (the 45-70 Government stuff costs $39.95/box). Learn more at nosler.com.
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