ORIGINAL: The Rifleman
JMO
But an educated person a long time ago set me down and told me that Ballistic Tip Bullets are not intended for hunting.
Their main design was to be used for target practice only.
Most educated people would agree with me on this one.
The lead on the tip of the bullet, usually burns off while it travels through the air after it leaves the barrel.
Now the lead inside of the bullet is what is the greater part of the mass which makes up the main part of the weight of the bullet. The construction of the bullet - determines how much lead it can hold.
By knowing that, it would be determined that a bullet of the proper construction - made for the harvest of big game would be proportionally better than a bullet designed for target practice.
We did tests on Sierra boat tails in 150 / 165 / 180 gr in 30 caliber / .308 and found that they were poor compared to a 150 gr Hornady PSP bullet.
The weight retention of the boat tail bullet was not consistent compared to a spire point bullet - because the spire point bullet held the lead better and retained more of it's weight. Where as a lot of the Boat tail bullets fell apart when it struck a hard object - such as bone / trees / twigs etc...
Ballistic Tip Bullets should NOT be used for hunting purposes.
Are you trying to say that the Nosler Ballistic Tip should not be used for hunting, or just polymer tipped bullets in general?
If the former is true, you would be partially correct. Some of the Nosler BT's are not designed for hunting (big game), as they are varmint bullets designed for instant fragmentation on impact. But many (most really) are designed for hunting deer sized game and up.
If you mean the latter, then I'd say you better tell all the bullet manufacturers that all the animals killed with SST, Interbond, Scirroco, Ballistic Tips, Accubonds, MRX, and others are not really dead, but simply waiting in animal limbo waiting for someone like you to come along and finish them off with a real "hunting bullet"![:'(][:-]
As far as the polymer tip burning off in flight...well, lets just say that that as only slightly more rediculous than the "it was going to fast to expand" fallacy. I've shot metal plates with polymer tipped bullets at ranges out to 300 yards, and the interesting thing is that as often as not you can see the smear of plastic where the tip hit the plate, indicating that it was still intact at impact.
Mike