Win Ballistic Silvertip good load?

[tealboy]

I have shot the .308 Win Ballistic Silvertip with good groups but have been told it is not necessarily that great of a bullet for deer hunting. At this point, I don' t exactly remember why the guy told me it was a poor choice, but he was pretty strongly against this particular bullet. He is a pretty knowledgeable guy, so i am sure he has a good reason for comment, but i am interested in your opinion. Assuming I can get other brands to group equally well, should i consider a different bullet for deer hunting?

[TREEDOG]

I think it has something to do with bullets exploding and not penetrating much?

[bigbulls]

The ballistic tips are just fine for deer. The 308 is not an extremely fast cartrige so you don' t really need or want a bullet designed to hold together under magnum velocites.

If it is shooting good for you then keep using it.

[Pro-Line]

Some prefer the ballistic tips for deer...some don' t. I' ve used them, and didn' t care too much for the results...but the deer went down. I just found them to be overkill on the " expansion" side.

There' s nothing wrong with them, in my eyes. A lot of guys use them. I' m going to stick with the cheap core-lokt' s, though. They' re not pricey...but they' re effective.

[montex]

I have heard alot of views, good and bad. From my personal experience I used that bullet for the first time last season out of my 270. Shot a deer at 75 yards, at that distance the bullet would be at a pretty high velocity. I had no blow up on the front side and an exit hole the size of a 50 cent piece. Don' t know if it was luck, the bullet met no major obstruction or good performance but I was very happy with it. I' ll continue to use them as they are very accurate out of my gun. Only thing that concerns me is the molley coating, can' t seem to get a good answer on if it is really harmful to the barrel, I guess only time will tell.

[stubblejumper]

I have taken in excess of thirty head of big game including over two dozen deer(most at least 250 lbs with several over 300lbs live weight) with ballistic tips.Not one made it fifty yards and most dropped on the spot.The bullets used were the 100gr ballistic tip out of my 257weatherby and 140gr ballistic tip out of my 7mmstw.In both cases muzzle velocity was 3500fps.The vast majority did exit even at these high velocities.

[skeeter 7MM]

For deer Ballistic Tips are my favorite bullet. I have never seen a bullet put the spins on a big canadian buck faster than a NBT. Yes they are explosive but very effective when placed correctly. 9 out of 10 guys say they aim for the boiler room, keeping with that and assuming you can hit the pie plate they are a terrific choice IMO.

I would say if they group the best then use them. As far as the moly coating I have been told by many reloaders that they do nothing to your barrel as long as you clean and maintain it regularily. However I don' t believe the factory Win Ballistic Tips use actual moly coating, rather a paint dip ( I may be wrong but that was my impression!)

[stubblejumper]

Ballistic silvertips are lubalox coated.

[Nomercy]

I' ve used them for years, and I' ve enjoyed them a lot, especially when they let me drop a 217# fat gal out there at 383yrds with factory ammo. BUT, then I shot a doe at 45yrds last season, hit her behind the shoulder so hard that she rolled over, then got up and ran, and ran, and ran, we never found a blood trail after a whole day of searching (four of us), but a buddy of mine said he heard a shot about the time I figured I had hit her, then about 5min later he said a limping doe covered in blood came trotting at a pretty good clip through his area, he downed her just to put her out of her misery. I posted on here at the time, and got a lot of similar stories from others, the bullets will pop like balloons upon impact, making a great big flesh wound on the surface, but strangely they won' t drop blood for a long way. Like I said, I love them, they' re great rounds, but oddly enough, you have to keep your shots at around 100yrds, no less than 55-60 would be my minimum (as I' ve taken deer with them at 60yrds with good results, but LOTS of bullet fragments in the meat). Out there where their velocity drops around 2250-2500, they' re great, but when you' re close to 2750-3K, you' re throwing an egg at a brick wall. In a .308, you' ll be about the same as my .30-06' s, but a little less, so maybe you' d never take a shot that short that it would explode on you?

At ranges of 200-400yrds, they' ve given me awesome results, doing about the same damage as a typical soft point at 75-100yrds, at 100yrds, the BALI-SILVERS aren' t doing a terrible amount of damage, but I like to hit the shoulder, so they get broken up and stopped before they destroy too much meat, the exit wound is sometimes only as large as the entry. I' ve gone back to Win. Super-X silvertips for factory loading on deer, they' re not quite as accurate down range (ok, not nearly), but they give me good results, I' ve just stopped taking those long range shots that I used to love, saves me the walk and the drag, since I' m usually between the deer and my truck.

They should really call it what it is, it' s not a deer cartridge, it' s a varminter bullet that' s a little too hard, so instead of scrapping the project on such an accurate round, they call it a long range deer cartridge, which it does like no other!

[bspittman]

I' ve had no problems with the Win BT. They' re great rds and I shoot them out of all my rifles. I especially like them in my .22-250. They' re killer on yotes.