Quilly, stubblejumper
My understanding is the balistic tips were designed to protect the nose of the soft-point bullets in magazines of the larger bore/magnimum calibers. After a couple of shots and a reload or two the bullets in the bottom of the mag had damaged tips which did cause accuracy problems. The hardness of the balistic tip did not deform after repeated firings and that was the design.

As far as which is better I don''t believe there is a significant differance as long as we are talking hunting bullets vs hunting bullets and not the varmit bullets vs hunting bullets.

My 2 cents


Greg

"Getting close to the game is the joy of Bowhunting for me, the harvest is a bonus."

Live 15 ft Python after eating a small Antelope!

All I use is Sierra Boatails and Ballistic tips out of my hunting rifles. I currently only have a 270 win, I shoot 130 Ballistic tips at our Canada Monsters (our deer are no skinny 110 lbs, many tip in the 275 plus range on the hoof) I can think of only one true tracking test and that wasn't the bullet fault but the shooter (who remains faceless) put it smack in the shoulder. In this case the bullet came completely apart, it busted up the shoulder and screwed a lot of front end meat. But again it wasn't the bullet, but the guy who put it their in the first place. All other lung shots it was minimal and I have had always complete pass throughs, with good blood trails. Most of my deer come down either on the spot or less than 50 yards.

I hunt some wide opens, but a lot of big bush as well....either situation no problems.

I would feel confident with ballistic tips in, but if your Sierra's are yielding you good groups why bother!!!!!

skeeter 7mm...

so on some occasions that these ballistic tips break up on the shoulder?
my buddy have had the same problem. using 130gr. win ballistic tips.

Quilly- Almost all bullets will cause a lot of meat damage on shoulder shots.The sierra's are actually some of the worst for this.Shoot your deer in the lungs and don't worry about it.

This reminds me of the ongoing debate between Elmer and Jack years ago. P.O. Ackely chimed in his views as well in a number of publications. O'Connor and Ackely always contended that it was the mark of an unethical slob hunter who wouldnt wait for a game animal to "pose" for them in the clear. Elmer's view was that any killing shot was a good one. Hence the argument over bullet size and design. Some of the requirements are dictated by the terrain a person hunts in. People who sit in little houses on open cut corn fields are faced with entirely different shot possiblilties than the guys who have to hunt in thick cover like clearcuts or swamps. Where I personally hunt, you wouldnt shoot very many deer if you waited for a broadside shot at the ribcage. Often times, the neck, back, or some other segment of a deer is all you will get a clear shot at. Seldom a view of the whole animal. If you can wait for a deer to pose in the wide open, then there is no chance that any style of bullet made wouldnt kill well on broadside lung shots. If you are faced with having to make shots from other angles where you might have to break a shoulder or the spine, or make a head on neck shot, then a bigger and tougher bullet makes sense. I use ballistic tips in my 338 for deer hunting because the 200 gr will penetrate enough even though it usually turns inside out. I have seen smaller ballistic tips fail to reach the vitals though on shots of angles such that a tougher bullet would have dropped that deer in its tracks. So, its true enough, that if you will always wait for that perfect broadside shot, the ballistic tip will kill every time. If you think you might have to shoot through some bone or lots of meat to get to the vitals, then I say use a heavier or tougher bullet.

Larry338-I have shot the 180-gr ballistic tip through the offside shoulder of a bull elk after passing through the chest and lungs so I wouldn't be worried about any deer shoulder stopping them.I have done the same with 140gr ballistic tips out of my 7mmstw on our large canadian bucks and they did exit.If they work on our deer they would not have any problems with the miniature deer in the south.

the deer in maine are not that minature as you think.

Quilly-I was referring to the southern deer as in georgia where larry 338 is from.I realize the deer in the northern states are similar in size to our canadian deer.

Sure your 300's & 338 with those bolders will do it through the shoulder, but it ain't happening on a regular basis with a 270 and 130 gr. bullet. So Larry if I had to deal with that situation with my weapon and 130 Ballistic tip I would be eating tag soup before I attempted to place my shot in the shoulder, in the hopes I may find paydirt! A neck or spine I wouldn't think twice.

One more thing few people realize about ballistic tips is that they have been changed several times over the years.The first ones were very soft but according to nosler they were toughened up several times especially in the larger calibers.I have used them since they came out in cartridges such as the 257wby and 7mmstw (which are very demanding on bullets due to the velocities they produce) and I have really noticed that the latest ones hold together better and penetrate much more than the early versions.