I have to agree with mackesr.... The 130 gr remington express core lok i shoot in my 270 have never let me down through probably 30 deer. No shoulder shots for me as there is too much meat damage. I am one to try all the newest latest greatest bullets and by far the 17 dollar remingtons shoot best in my gun. Ive shot ballistic tips and find they explode if you hit anything other than ribs. Im confident in the placement of every shot i take, dont need the extra damage and im only hunting whitetail so i dont use them.
Savage model 110 .270 with a tasco world class - nothing fancy just the first rifle setup my dad bought me 14 years ago

i also aggre with u on that cuz the first deer i shot with a rifle witch i used a 30-06 with the bolistic bullet and it worked great i shot her at about 175 yards and she was behind brush and it didnt move at all and i have now shot deer with just regular bullets and there really ant much diff

sure you can kill deer with ballistic tips,but when you lose that buck of a lifetime because one didn't expand well, don't say i didn't tell you it would happen. i just don't see why anyone would hunt with a hollow point bullet for deer,thats all a ballistic tip is. but then again i know one guy that uses 87grn hp's in his 243 for deer and swears they work great,but i think he's stupid.

I watched a Nosler Ballistic Tip make a crater about six inches wide and one (superficial) inch deep on the shoulder of a quartering-toward muley. Granted, it was a less than perfect shot out of a .243, but it convinced me to take the "better safe than sorry route."

I shoot 165 gr Barnes TSX out of a .30-06 for both deer and elk. Hasn't let me down yet.

sivertips and fed premium barnes mrx

Like some of the others have already said "put the bullet where it needs to be!" One shot one kill,and if you can't make it wait for another time when you can.Any bullet Kills, but I like BT's and never had an issue from 75yrds to 300yrds with a .308 165 grain.Know your gun and better yet know your limits, but don't be afraid to test them you might be surprised!

BSTs aren't worth the extra cost. I only use standard bullets. Why? They're a lot cheaper and work great on deer. I've handloaded the cheapest hornady, winchester, and remington bullets I could get for my 25-06 and 7mm RM. Know what happened? They killed deer. Holy smokes-- I know, right?

"I always try to destroy at least 1 shoulder and prefer detroying both."




I try to eat both shoulders.

The ballistic tip is just a modern version of the old Remington bronze point. That is, a hollow point bullet with a wedge to start expansion. And, I am sure that the plastic tip is a heck of a lot cheaper to produce than the solid bronze point. The knock on the ballistic tip is the same as the bronze point--often overexpands at close range.

A deer is not a very difficult animal to kill. Good shot placement with any decent bullet will kill very quickly. I see no need for the so called premium bullets on deer. A Rem. core-lokt, Win. power point, Sierra pro hunter, Hornady spire point (or whatever it's called these days) will do a fine job, and have been doing it for me for more than 50 years and several hundred deer.

Never shot a deer with ballistic tips but like many others have said if the bullet placement is correct you can kill a deer with just about anything. However, wild hogs are a different story. These critters can be very tuff and we have had many hogs hit with .270 and .308 ballistic tip rounds that we killed but had to track forever to find them. Not to mention they are expensive. After cleaning some of the hogs we shot with them, the ballistic tips seem to do more damage to the area of impact with less penetration.