Nosler Ballistic Tips, Noticeable Changes
 

First of all, I am not trying to start a bullet war just wanting to point out some noticeable changes to the Nosler Ballistic Tip and some of my observations.
When the Nosler Ballistic tip came out and up until recent times they were known as a quick killer, but many complained they were "soft" and came apart too easily. I never had a problem with these characteristics but put them on the same level as the Sierra bullets being accurate, quick kilers but soft. I preferred the Hornady Innerlock bullets due to performance on game and that they displayed a bullet with a "tougher" construction. In the past few years it seems Nosler has thickened the cups on several models(usually using the same blank to draw cups for different bullets in the same caliber). This produced "tough" bullets like the ever more popular 120gr 7mm BT. These bullets seem to perform better than they should. Recently, I have no clue when, it seems Nosler changed the cup and core shape of the BT and thickened the cup and base which in my opinion is a good thing. I cut a few Accubonds and some 308 cal BT to see the construction recently. I noticed that most of the BT I cut shared the same internal shape as the Accubond. My pictures did not turn out well but this picture was posted on another site so I stole it.

From left to right
7mm 120gr BT, 7mm 150gr BT, 7mm 140gr Accubond, .308 168gr BT, .308 180gr BT
Here is a picture of some Nosler bullets with the older internal shape I was refering to.


You can see in this picture some of what I have been witnessing with my own bullet dissections. The 7mm 120gr Bt has a thick cup and traditional style core. They perform very well on game and are known as a tough bullet. The 7mm 150gr BT has the old style cup and core construction. The Accubond and newer BT has a noticeable different shape. The .308 180gr BT is known to be a tough bullet and has a very good reputation.
I have always been a big fan of 165gr bullets out of my 30-06 rifles. Recently I have been looking at the new 168gr BT and after cutting one apart and seeing it shares the same design characteristics as the well respected 180gr BT I am excited. I hope I can find a load that shoots as well as the 165gr BT and 165gr Accubond and I am expecting it to perform very well. Enough of my babbling, what are your thoughts and observations?

I believe that you have to compare apples to apples and that you have to use bullets designed for harvesting big game for harvesting big game and not target bullets.

Sierra shows in their reloading manual - in big print - that the Sierra GameKing is a hunting bullet and that the Sierra MatchKing is for target practice only. It is not designed or intended to be used as a hunting bullet. Its only purpose is to fly as straight as possible and hit the paper. Once it hits the target - its job is done.

I suspect that the other bullets you are talking about falls into the same category. For the most part - all bullets that are a pointed nose design will hit the target in the exact same place out to 200 yards as long as each bullet weighs the exact same amount and has the exact same case, powder charge and primer regardless of manufacturer.

Its been my experience that the cheaper bullets actually does a better job then does a premium bullet on whitetail deer at that range due to the fact that they open up quickly, retains most of their original weight and does a lot of internal damage.

It is not the point of the bullet manufacturer to make a bullet that does not open up and penetrates the deer from one side to the other but does not do enough internal damage to stop the deer in it's tracks.
If the bullet stops on the other side of the cape - it really doesn't matter if there is a exit wound or not because the internal damage has already been done. Once a major organ is hit - the deer is not going to go very far. That puts the majority of the blame on the person pulling the trigger and not the bullet manufacturer.

Interesting find. I wonder if select BTs are being beefed up now, or across the board?

I feel I did just that comparing earlier versions of the BT to the updated versions. Nosler Bt are made for hunting and varmint, they are clearly marked which bullets are for what application. I really am not sure where you are going with the post but thanks for the response.

Looks to me that the bullets in the pics aren't cut down the dead center of the bullet thus making them appear to have thicker jackets than they actually do.

If they were cut dead center they would look a lot more like the Nosler picture.

I heard they beefed up the BT. But I do not know if it is true or not. I really like the 165 BT in a couple of my 30-06's for deer. They do a great job on deer. about 4 years ago I found a close out on the 165's and bought 40 boxes for my hunting load. So they will last me the rest of my life on deer. I really like them. I also load them with RL22 in my 30-06 with a load I got from the Nosler web site. Tom.

I jumped on the BT band wagon when they came out .Shooting them in my 7 mm's.Over the years that have gotten noticeably tougher.But I have since went back to the old reliable Hornady interbond or interloc which ever they still make.Don't know why I ever changed anyway.IMHO the Hornady is in every way a better projectile. Also this is from field conditions.I forgot " If it ain't broke don't fix it".

I find the newer BT to be very good and much tougher than those of 10 years ago myself.

So this writeup makes sense.