There's NO mystery here to me, "if" the bullet doesn't exit the animial 99.9% of the time there's very little or NO blood trail. That's aparently what happen in those two cases, and i've seen it happen many times with bullets that are on the "soft" side includeing with some BT's.

Drilling Man

today i shot buck with Nosler ballistic tip 140gr useing a T/C encore pistol 7-30 waters at 91yd that buck went down like a ton of brickes hit him ,my self i like them ,that would make it number 4 and counting,the other 3 were shot at 106 &110yds only 1 ran about 20yds and all shots were passthrou with smalish exet holes about 1 in. in size.so it must have something to do with speed

You are exactly right!!! The same bullet pushed faster will expand faster, and pushed faster yet will explode without going deep enough to do the job properly.

You HAVE to keep the bullet in the velocity range it was built for, and also match it to the game it will be used on.

Drilling Man

I've taken about 25-30 whitetails with Bt's out of my .280 Rem. with a handloaded velocity averaging about 2940 fps. The results have all been about the same: put the bullet in the ribs, you'll find the deer. That's from ranges of 30 yds. all the way to mylongest kill of 425. I did learn one thing however: if you're trying to knock a deer down with a BT bullet with a solid shoulder shot, you may have issues.. I haven't personally, but I've seen it happen to hunting buddies.

I’ve used BTs since the late 90s loaded in a 30-06. Used weights 125, 150 and 165 on whitetails and coyotes. Never lost a animal and never had one go more than 20 or 30 yards. I don’t load them too hot, but even so a shoulder hit at close range will have A LOT of meat damage. As far as penetration, I once took a doe with the 150s at about 60 yards quartering away from me with her head held horizontal to her body. The bullet entered at her last rib and traveled through her chest cavity hitting most vitals, than continued to travel through her neck and exited with a quarter size whole about 6 inches from her head. They’ve worked for me.

If I could sound off o this topic, I would just mention that I just got done with a deer hunt in oklahoma and used a nosler ballistic tip. I took a 7 point buck with it, the bullet is in no way bonded and fragmented in the animal retaining little weight. Destroyed a bunch of meat in the shoulder but did effectively stop the animal. This was with 165 grain in 30-06. I then reverted to my .243 for he doe with a 100 grain hornady interlock boat-tail. It worked much better. It held together and destroyed much less meat. So, nosler ballistic tips will certainly kill if you put them in the boiler maker, but I reccomend a bonded or locked bullet. EJ

If your situation dictates 150 yards shot being long their is simply no need for a polymer tipped/boattail design bullet. While i have taken many animals from 30 out with the NBT with no issues, I do expect damage and fragments may result when striking the target at such high velocity. As such I always aim behind the shoulder and plant it in the lungs first. When achieving this goal I have yet to see a lack of blood or an animal make it 100 yards. Simply put match the bullet to your uses and understand the design/purpose of that bullet...this way bad results don't happen.

BTW this season with my 7mm rem mag I shota mulie doe with 140 gr TSXapprox 150yards she left a meager trail and actually ran +100 yards. Ithen switched to my pet 150gr NBT for whitetail hunting and took a wtbuck at 100 yards which he literally folded in his track. Both shots were identical double lungs. I'll stick with my NBTs for deer and use Barnes forgame that requires such bullet construction (elk and moose).

If your looking for a comprimise maybe try the Accubond or Nosler Partition, both make a good wound channels but designed to retain more weight than the likes of NBT.

Dont get me wrong on the NBT's, they work! I wouldnt have used them 2 years in a row if they didnt. I am just to the point that I wouldnt mind a bullet that holds together a little more. EJ

Today's NBTs seem to perform better than the earlier ones. They were always accurate in my 270 but the earlier ones did seem to fragment more anddid a lot of damage possibly because of the jacket design or whatever. The 'newer' ones tend to hold together a little better. I've taken a good bunch of deer with this bullet and only once did I have trouble (bullet seemed to disentegrate on impact). But this could have been a faulty one that slipped through.

I shoot the 140 BT's in my 7mm. Took2 deer this year with them, one at 200 yards the other at 325 yards. The impact velocities were approx. 2950 and 2700 respectively. Both shots hit bone including part of the spine, both shots exited with a .75" to 1" hole. No need to track, both were DRT. I have no complaints about their performance.

My brother also uses the BT's in his 270 (150gr version). He shot a buck at 200 yardsat the same time I shot mine at 200 (both were standing together), his bullet did not exit and was just under the hide of the off shoulder and somewhat fragmented. The deer dropped immediately. His MV is only about 2700 to 2800 fps. He likes the BT's and has taken dozens of deer with the over them years.

A friend uses basically the same load I use in his 7mm and a few years ago he harvested a cow elk at 200 yards with it. It was a complete passthru just behind the shoulder, it dropped and only kicked once, again, no complaints.

With all that said, I'm in the process of working up a load using the 160 accubonds. I think the 160 is just about the perfect weight bullet for the 7mm and will work well for most anything I will ever hunt with it. Having one all around load will make reloading much simpler and efficient.