BT's and brush?
 

I am a hardcore Nosler BT believer but my father doesnt like the concept of ballistic tips he believes if they hit brush they will be thrown off worse than a soft point? Is this true? i have never heard anyone say how a BT does when it may contact a little bit of brush? Will they expand prematurely? Or do they perform like a normal soft point when they contact brush?

RE: BT's and brush?
 

From published tests and what I have found in non scienctific tests .
NO bullet will punch thru brush and not deflect ,not even 12 gau slugs.

IMO the BT are no worse and maybe a little bettter than a soft point in not deflecting on brush.
The soft point has more nose area to impact a branch and dig in compaired to the sharp point of a BT.

If you hit a branch or heavy weeds any bullet will deflect regardless !

RE: BT's and brush?
 

YES!

A bullet that is slipstream designed to buck wind will probably be a bit less effected by brush as well.

It will probably vary. I've heard of soft point bullets fragenting and/or mushrooming when hitting brush giving poor performance when hitting an animal. Best bet is to not shoot through brush with any bullet.

RE: BT's and brush?
 

I have never had any luck shooting though brush with the exception of a Winchester Power Point soft point 180 out of a 30-06..but this was at a range of bout 15 yards. No bullet is gonna do anything predictable in brush. Without a doubt a heavier bullet will be better but its not a shot ya wanna make a habit of.

RE: BT's and brush?
 

Not necessarily.A test published a few years ago had a 250gr -.338 bullet do the best but a 50gr -.223 bullet actually did better than many much heavier bullets.

RE: BT's and brush?
 

I am guilty of brush bustin. With success. But I try never to do it. I usually use a slug gun. What I noticed on my own tests with a bunch of brush and a target 10ft back, is the bullet can keyhole or tumble. So if you have a bT or a softpoint probably won't matter. Its going to make the bullet unstable. If you ever shot an arrow at a buck, and hit a little twig, you see what happens. I have had arrows shoot 20 degrees or more out of line of shot with little twigs I couldn't see in the early season.

RE: BT's and brush?
 

yeah with brush busting your best bet is deffinately a slug, A friend and I tested several calibers the same way as bigcountry did, even tested two of the quote best brush busting calibers 44 mag and 375 winchester both with poor results, had the best results with wolf 200 grain SP 7.62x54R out of a mosin nagant and winchester 64 grain power points in .223 rem out of a mini-14. and the best results with 12 ga. 1 oz rifled slugs.

RE: BT's and brush?
 

Quite a few years ago I believe Jim Carmicheal did a test to see if big slow,heavy bullets or fast,boatailed bullets would shoot through brush. he made a box that held wooden dowels to shoot through. The end result was that there was no bullet any better than the other and that included 12 ga slugs. All bullets were deflected. The further in front of the target the brush, the further the bullet was off the target. I believe he recomended if the brush was more than 2 ft in front of the target you stood a good chance of wounding or missing a deer completely. With the brush 1 ft away most of the time you would stay in the kill zone.

RE: BT's and brush?
 

That is the test I refered to .
If I remember right the winner for best results was the 223 with a 55gr FMJ.
Not a hunting bullet.
I saw a nice buck shot in the ass by a guy shooting a 12 gau slug ,he hit a 1/2 diamiter branch 10'-12' from the deer .
It took us 2 miles and 8 hrs to recover that deer.

RE: BT's and brush?
 

THere is NO bullet out there that will give CONSISTANT results through brush, impact will vary every time so there is absolutely no way to compensate or justify for a shot through brush.

RE: BT's and brush?
 

Even if you do deflect a bullet or slug, I believe the damage caused by a 1oz slug tumbling would be much more satisfatory than a 270win 130gr. The 130gr may be made to expand or mushroom and can't do it with it tumbling. A slug will cause a monster hole anyway.

I highly suggest everyone do thier own tests with real brush. Don't worry about reading about it or with dowls.

RE: BT's and brush?
 

A friend of mine used to carry a shotgun loaded with slugs for following up on wounded black bears.I have always used 00 buckshot.After seeing just how easily even slugs can be deflected and how their effectiveness is reduced in heavy brush,he also uses 00 buckshot now.A few pellets may not get through,but enough do to put down any black bear at close range.

RE: BT's and brush?
 

Takes all kinds I guess.

RE: BT's and brush?
 

If you had ever faced the job of tracking a wounded bear through thick undergrowth at close range you would realize that buckshot has it's advantages.You have a larger margin of error especially on moving bears and a better chance of some pellets making it through the brush than with a slug.We use rifles to actually hunt the bears but if someone wounds a bear we trade the rifles for our short barreled shotguns.

RE: BT's and brush?
 

Actually I have had that job in Newfoundland on bigggg black bears. It wasn't my shot, but one of the guys in camp, and I wanted to go along for the track. I understand where you are coming from but I opt for slugs and my guides prefer them too. They do it for a living on 100's of bears, so I will have to trust them. But if you ever saw what I have from 00 and lack of penetration in whitetail, I think you would change your mind quickly. The underbrush in newfie is unreal. How much penetration are you getting on a blackbear at close range? Going all the way thru them.

RE: BT's and brush?
 

We use copper plated and buffered shot and penetration is adequate at the very close ranges that we are talking about which are usually within 20 yards or so.