Ballistic Tips?
 

How many hunters out there use ballistic bullets and how do you like them? Do you like them more than shooting just regular bullets? Is their a substantial difference?

bigger bullet hole easier knocked off track by brush

bigger bullet hole easier knocked off track by brush


Ummm.....no.
Bigger bullet hole? Lots of times yes. The Ballistic Tip is a faster expanding bullet than many others, especially at close range with high velocity rounds. If you're shooting a larger caliber like a .270, .308, .30-06 they work great on deer. I've used them a good bit in a 06' with 165gr. Nosler Ballistic Tips and it really drops the deer. If you're talking about a smaller caliber like a .243 or such, I personally would want serving that held together a TAD better.
What caliber are you going to be hunting with?
You'll find lot of good and bad opinions on Ballistic Tips, but Nosler made them for light, thin skinned game...also known as deer.

They won't resist deflection off brush and worse or better than any other bullet out there.

I've used ballistic tips since I've owned my .270 wsm. I have had great success with them. There are many here that hate them, but they will kill a deer just as quick as any other bullet. I use the Win. ballistic silvertip in 130 grains. It's been great at short and long distances.

I shoot a Browning 30-06

great bullet for deer, would not use it on anything bigger...

I use Accubonds now for all critters...

This is the first year I have used ballistic tips and shot a doe this morning with one. Dropped her right in her tracks at about 70 yards. I have Hornady 140 gr in .270

I use bt's in a couple of rifles and have used them for many years. I load 165gr over 56.5gr of IMR 4350 in my 30-06. In my 7mag I load 150gr over 78gr of H870, both of these loads are very accurate and have performed well on game. I use the 165gr accubond in my 300 win mag, I went with the bonded because of the higher velocity with the 300. All I hunt is whitetails, IMO it would be hard to find a better more accurate hunting bullet for whitetails than the bt.

BT's have been my deer sized game bullet of choice for years. In a variety of chamberings they just plain worked on antelope and our canadian deer (mulies and whitetails). My experience is no matter what the range they will open up a bigger hole(s) then most other bullets. Thats how they are designed. Just so happens I like that in a deer bullet!! The faster they are moving on impact the greater the expansion. Yes this can produce some devasting holes in tight but at long range that intiated expansion is a big benefit to opening up the wound channel. While I feel the BT is a great deer bullet, I also say you must pick the bullet based on your needs/situation. The BT is really a longer range bullet, even though it works on closer shots. Had I hunted deer in a place where my shots were 200ish on the long side and 100 being more the norm then I doubt I would have ever tried the BT.

Now a days we have bonded bullets which give security on both ends (pentetration & expansion) and I have used them with very good results as well on deer through moose. However my dedicated deer sized game rifle is my 7mm rem mag and 150 BT load is supremely accurate in that gun and has never given me a reason to veer. Which leads me to my question to you! Why the change? New Gun? Old bullet leaves you wanting more? I can tell you I have played with a lot of loads over the years, while fun and valuable. Dad's words rain true "if ain't broke then why fix it!"

Good Luck

yeah ,until you hit a big bodied buck on the shoulder instead of behind it and the bt bullet blows up . a 3 legged deer will get away in most cases.

there are way better bullets out there than ballistic tips for deer .

i used to load 140grn bt for a friend and i told him they would someday cost him a big buck,well they did . the biggest buck he had ever seen in the woods ran off on 3 legs after being hit with a bt. he got to see the deer after another friend killed the hude 10pt a few hours later.

want to buy a half box of bt bullets ,they've been laying in my bullet cabinat for over 10yrs now after he switched to the hornady 140 btsp.

I never lost a deer to a Bt nor has any body else I know that hunts with them. The ones I hit in the shoulders never went to far and the damage was devasating.

X2 , I've been using Nosler BT's since they 1st hit the market as component bullet only and I had to load my own. Never had one fail.

IMO it's the best deer hunting bullet available bar none. I've used them in everything from a 115 gr(might have been a 117) in a 257 Roberts to a 200 gr in a 338-06. Same result evertime.... dead deer.

I love BT's. Every deer I hit with one the damage is very severe. They really do a number on what they hit.

You couldn't give me a box of them. When myself and the group I was hunting with first started rifle only hunting we all had to get a box or two of them. Right now I don't think any of us would use one. Lots of better bullets, IMHO, out there. I use nothing but Hornady BTSP bonded bullets.

never lost a deer with them But there is alot of meat damage.
i have switched to barnes x bullet & like it
tom

For you guys who say I would never use them, that's fine, but you put any bullet in the right spot, bt or not, and that deer is dead. I've never had trouble with a deer going down hit in the shoulder with a bt. Just about every deer I have shot with the bt's have dropped in their tracks. The others didn't go far. As for the comment "your going to lose a big buck one day for using bt's", hell that could happen with any bullet.

I wouldn't shoot a BT at a shoulder blade on purpose, like you might with a A-frame or Partion. BT's weren't designed for maximum penetration through bone. Just too much chance of it not fully completing the job.
If you use BT's I'd only aim just behind the shoulder, or a good, lower neck shot if that was all that was presented(yes I mentioned a neck shot).
The wounds are wicked. I shoot them in 25-06. So far no mishaps, with the above locations.

Just to throw in a different perspective, I have always used the old Remington Core lokt bullets and have never found a reason to switch over to those other more expensive bullets. My 7mm Rem Mag shoots the 140gr very well and I have never lost a deer to date. Like the man said...if it aint broke.....

I agree 100%.

My Dad has lost 1 deer with his 300WSM and it was with a balistic tip bullet. Knocked the front shoulder darn near off, but never found the buck. He hasn't shot one since. My biggest reason for not using them (other than what mackesr said above) is the damage to the meat. I place my bullet where it is supposed to be, use a lighter grain bullet and don't have an issue with getting a kill.

I always try to destroy at least 1 shoulder and prefer detroying both. I've never had any problems.

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.

No Good for hogs
 

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.

I used the 180 grain ballistic tip in the 300 winmag for a while. Very accurate. Way too fragile for my liking. Tissue damage was extensive. One 5x5 whitetail was coming in at a dead run straight at me, and I hit it twice in the sternum. Neither bullet penetrated into the chest cavity. They were in pieces on the bone. The Speer hotcores, grand slams, partition, and the hornady cup and core are a much better option.

If I had a nickle for everytime I heard "lost a buck" to that bullet never use it again..wow i'd be rolling in dough! My thinking is always the same if you lose the buck, how the h#ll do you know what happened with the bullet or shot??? I've seen animals lost to partitions,etc never once did it enter my mind this bullet isn't worthy! I have seen 2 actual bullet failures in my life, shooter failure is a whole other matter!!!!!

No other bullet takes the flack the BT does.

Hey use what you want but not all of us have seen these failures with the BT and some of us actually don't believe any angle isn't a good angle even on a deer!

Cheers all

Poor tracking
 

I hate when people say they lost a deer because of a bullet. I tried shooting 100gr Remington CoreLokt bullets in my .257 Robers, they grouped 4", switched to 100gr Sierra Game King bullets and was very happy until I had a jacket separation. I found the deer, but I had to track it for over a mile. Everyone said that Sierra bullets are awesome. I switched to 100gr Nosler ballistic hunting bullets and have not had a single issue. I might never have had a failure of a Sierra, but I did and I switched. If I have a failure of a balistic tip, I will probably switch, but don't blame the loss of a deer on the bullet failing. I would blame it on poor tracking skills.

Mark

you hit a deer with a .300 win mag 180 grain bullet and it doesnt penetrate...there are some serious issues!!!

I have knocked down bull elk (350+ class bulls), dozens of deer, etc. with ballisitic tips...As I mentioned in previous post, I have switched to the Accubonds now as I think they are a little better, and clearly safe for elk...Several bulls down this last year wit them, and several cows...( I reload for most of my friends)

I am with Skeeter, 99% of the time it is not the bullet...especially on a deer...I could completely understand an older BT hitting shoulder on elk and not penetrating fully, but a deer...

have watched corelokts not do their job, have watched and shot barnes 3x not do their job...but all that is tongue in cheek, as it was not the bullet failing, it was the hunter not taking a reasonable shot with the equipment he had...quartering to you, with a highly frangible bullet it not the smartest thing...nor is quartering to you with a bullet like the Barnes 3x if you dont place it in the right spot...

bullets go and do what they are made to do...but it is easier to not blame ourselves for getting excited and screwing it up...

Don't know if that was in response to my post or not, but my hunting partner did get the buck with a good follow-up shot. That's how I know what happened.

As for shot placement, I couldn't agree more. But the fact is, stuff happens...why not take as many variables out of the equation as possible?