I did a few trades and purchases in the EE in the last few months trying to find a few different bullets to try in my new Browning X-Bolt Carbon Fiber chambered in 300 WSM. I ended up with a box of 165gr and a box of 168gr Nosler Ballistic Tips. I'm just wondering how close they are to the same bullet and why Nosler would make two bullets so close to the same wieght in the same caliber. The BC are so close to each other that would one really offer an advantage over the other.
30cal Nosler Ballistic Tips
- Thread starter B-78
- Start date
I am super new to the whole reloading deal but it seems from what I can tell that 168gr is a common match grade weight for .30cal ammunition. I have heard old timers say the selected 165gr ammo for hunting because at the time it was the closest they could get to the performance of their 168gr match loads. I recently did a little testing with some ballistic tips. My hunting partner (shooting a R700 SPS varmint .308) and I (shooting a R700 SPS tactical .308) were making our first attempt at hand loading. We selected 165gr accubonds for hunting but he bought a box of 165gr ballistic tips hoping that with the same BC and weight they would fly the same so he could create both a target and hunting load interchangeably....rookie mistake. He found he could shoot approx. 0.75" groups with both but the BT used 45.5gr of varget while the AB used 42.6gr of varget to achieve max accuracy. Both were seated to 2.818 (length of his mag), both used once fired fed brass necked to .306. We shot into some saturated phone books in a bankers box and found the AB made it a couple phone books farther than the BT and the BT didn't have a grain of lead left on it. Just a jacket turned inside out. Fun to plink with but I would hold off on shooting at anything you plan on eating.
gunrunner100
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- NW Ontario
I made the mistake of using a 165 Ballistic Tip during a deer hunt some years ago.
Won't do it again. They made too much of a mess on game.
Won't do it again. They made too much of a mess on game.
If I do load some and use my 300WSM for deer hunting I would not be concerned about spoiling some meat on a big buck that I would shoot with it as long as they where able to make a clean kill shot. I do have some 200gr Accubonds and some 180gr Interbonds waiting to see how each will group once the wind stops. Which ever groups better will be the one I use on this years moose hunt. I don't think I will use the 300 for deer hunting although as I have a 6mm and a 25-06 that I carry when deer hunting. I might have to load the BTs and use them on a gopher shoot just to get rid of them.
