LBRB45

I was reading on one of the forums here a while back, and a guy had shot a deer withNosler Ballistic Tips bullets at a close range. ( 50 yrds)He said the deer ran about 75 yards and he saw it fall.He went to where he shot the deer and followed the trail the deerran. Hesaid that there wasn't much of a blood trail.
One of my friends shot a deer the other day at close range and said there wasn't much blood. I was wondering if any of you guys might know something about this?

stubblejumper

I have taken about three dozen head of big game with the nosler ballistic tip and not one has covered 50 yards after being hit.The vast majority of the bullets exited leaving a generous exit hole which would have provided a blood trail if the deer had actually travelled far enough to make one.These were taken with the 257wby,7mmstw,and 300ultramag so muzzle velocities were from around 3400fps to over 3500fps.In other words most of the bullet impact velocities were as high or higher than the muzzle velocities produced by the average cartridge.

Rootsy

i've shot a number of critters with the Nosler BT's... 2 deer i shot with the BT from a 280 Rem were exceptions.. the rest have been anchored pretty well... without fanfare... so i was on the bubble with them... i detest ANY chance of wounding or losing an animal... i never have and i am not about to start...

one doe i took at 30 yds broadside, lungshot.. the 150 gr BT went striaght through... and i found it in a sapling along a trail 2 days later... it'd split the sappling and i managed to dig it out.. that doe ran well over 100 yds.. into a dense swamp... she was dead on her feet... but the bullet just passed through and made a hole... not expending it's energy... or really doing a whole lot of damage...

the 2nd doe i shot from the top of a ridge... so the shot was downward from an elevation of about 60 feet and a horizontal (gps'd) distance of 123 yds... she was quarting away... i took her in the left side behind the shoulder high on the ribs... figured it'd punch out the brisket... but the 150 BT hit a rib.. abruptly turned and followed the ribcage... it clipped EVERY rib to the interior of the shoulder.. and it filleted the lung wide open.... i never found much other than fragments of copper... bullet was probably in the lung... she ran 30 yds... but it was sure a mess and the performance was very disturbing...

i now shoot nosler partitions from the 280... no issues since... pick my shots to pretty much stop a deer in it's tracks... has worked well so far...

been loading my 35 Whelen AI with test loads... using 225 gr BT's cause they are "cheap" compared to the partitions... probably use them this year... cut one open and i cut a 7 mm open... the 35 is significantly "beefier"... i feel it'll perform pretty well since i am flinging them at the same speed as i'm flinging the 175 partitions from the 280... and all things told... they are friggin accurate with 59 gr's of IMR 4350...

we'll see how it goes with these... but for the 280 i've gone away from them unless i am loading light varmit loads... for coyote and such...

J

Highpower

The 'last' generation of BT's could be driven too fast to be effective. I was pushing 140 grainers out of my 7mmMag pretty hot and during one particular doe season, shot several does and only recovered one. I contacted Nosler and was told that this was a noted problem and they were fixing it. I later received 200 'new generation' BT's in the mail from Nosler to try. They have proven to be very effective.

Roskoe

Awhile back, this subject was tossed around quite a bit. It appears Nosler has made a number of changes to this bullet since its introduction back in the mid 1980's. I used the original ones in the green/red box, and thought they were pretty explosive. I understand the bullet has gone through maybe four "improvements" over the years with some of these Ballistic Tips. Unless you pay attention to the five digit number Nosler assigns to its bullets, you could wind up with "apples and oranges" without realizing it.

crimedog

Never had a problem with blood trails and BT, I've had a problem with too much blood from BT though. I have shot deer at 20 yards with the 308 and the blood was enormous, and so is the damage, even at 300 yards with my 300 win mag th damage is enormous. I'm tryng the Sciricco this year for this reason. I have seen a little difference between the every day BT and the ones from Combined Tech, seems the cap they place on the base causes the bullet to deform more rapidly but not fragment like the normal BT is known to do.
The matter of blood trails is very subjective, depending on where you hit you could have very little or tremendous blood, Hit high and fur could absorb alot of the blood, hit a little higher and it could hit the artery below the spine and could spray like a sprinkler. Hit in the middle it can pool up in the chest cavity, perferate the diaphram and it will pool in the lower abdomin. Not a very good measure of effectivness or bullet perfomance.

stubblejumper

While the CT partition does had a steel insert, the ballistic silvertip from CT does not.See for yourself.
http://www.nosler.com/ballsilvertip.html

bigcountry

Just curious. You shot several doe and only recoved one shot bullet? Or only recovered one doe? I mean I have shot some crappy ammo in my time, and never lost too many animals with a gun. From Coreloks to even Full metal jackets. Even though the Full metals went thru without much damage, they still dropped when hit in low and thru the lungs or heart. And never lost but one or two.

Highpower

Recovered one deer. Lots of blood, but no penetration. Bullets were exploding. Tracked the wounded deer for hours, with assistance. Ran into several hunters that day who reported seeing the deer with large blood spots on them. Talked to Mr. Nosler himself regarding what I had experienced and he concured that it was happening other places as well.
I never used FMJ for hunting (illegal most places I've hunted), but they were pretty effective in the M14 and M16. Live and learn I guess. You're right, it did turn out to be pretty crappy ammo.

bigcountry

To each his own, but I would have stopped after losing the 2nd one. There is not too much to a deer broadsided and lungs are basically air filled little balloons.

Hey too bad you lost em.