Deer & Nosler Ballistic Tips

Bitumen said:
I wasn't aiming for the eye. The deer walked straight into me on a path. It didn't notice me until about 30 yards away. I put the crosshairs on the head and pulled the trigger. It went in the eye.
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And if you can't hit what you're aiming at, don't use head and neck shots.

Head and neck shots are very hard to make cleanly, and an "almost missed" can shoot off a jaw, or wound badly but leave the deer perfectly capable of running like a deer. Non-fatal hits can be very hard to detect. You just told us you don't always hit what you aim for, so pick bigger targets. A Ballistic Tip is designed to be shot into the chest cavity. Do so. Do not shoot the meat parts (as others think is obvious) and you won't ruin meat parts.
 
The Nosler Ballistic Tip bullet has a history and/or reputation of mixed results when used on big game.......I believe the bullet is now in its fourth or fifth generation of design.....One feature that has never changed about the Ballistic Tip bullet is its superb accuracy....a guy could always brag about the groups on paper targets.......However, the downside of the early Ballistic Tips were both spectacular kills and spectacular failures.....Now, the original poster spoke of massive exit wounds and meat destruction......I believe it was O'Connor who wrote; "Better to lose some meat and recover the animal than to lose a wounded animal".....I could not agree more.....
Another statement was from the long time gun scribe Warren Page, who asked, "at what point in the animals demise did the bullet fail..?" while other old savvy scribes such as John Wootters and Layne Simpson have hinted at the limitations of this bullet....that of course being its highly frangible design and its habit of blowing up on a deer's rib cage when driven to muzzle velocities of over 2,900 fps.......I have not tried the lastest batch of Ballistic Tip hunting bullets, and have not tried any of them for many years, ever since I had a 130 grain Ballistic Tip loaded to nearly 3,100 fps at the muzzle of my 24" barreled .270 Winchester, blow up on a whitetail buck's rib cage at a distance of under 100 yards.......That made for a lovely day of tracking.....

My two cents; If you are going to use a Ballistic Tip bullet for hunting deer or antelope, keep muzzle velocities under 3 grand, use a bullet of heavy for caliber weight, or, use them only at long range, as recommended by Layne Simpson...

Given my druthers, I would go with a bonded core design or a TSX or a Nosler Partition bullet---dependable as taxes...

rojogrande
 
I've gone back to the ballistic tips. I the past I loaded them in my 7mm mag. I took deer both close 60yrds and far 300 yards and a few more in between. In each case the deer did not go far ( like a step or two max) however, the meat damage was up there. I switched to hornady interloks. Simply put they suck. On a mule hunt two years ago I filled two tags with them. However, the first one did not go down even though the shot went right through the boiler room. I the offside leg hadn't been broken she would of got away. At least I had a chance at a neck shot and that planted her. The second doe was hit twice in the chest and finally I put her down with the third.

I'm back to the ballistic tips. I guess the best bullet type arguement will never be resolved but a bullet that dumps all its energy in the chest cavity rather than just zipping through is a no brainer for me.
 
I'm thinking about trying the Hornady Interbonds 130 gr in .270 cal for next year. Any opinions on those?
 
Its difficult is find a bad bullet for a .270 Win, if the varmint weight bullets are avoided.That aside, I've had the most dismal luck getting the Interbonds to shoot in many different calibers.
 
Dad and I used them on two white tail does out of a 7mm Wby. Too much damage for my tastes. I can't make myself shoot a deer far enough behind the shoulders that I would feel good about using them. These were older 140 grain NBTs. Maybe the new ones would perform better but I don't know. Both shots were decent pokes, 150 and 220 yards but they were whistling right along.

All in all, they're fragile bullets. When driven hard they're going to come apart even if they don't hit something tough like a shoulder. I wonder if the Accubond would hold together better? Sciroccos? Interbonds? or go back to the bullet that worked for the Old Man in 1960 when he had the rifle built...the Gameking? The cartridge obviously killed things well enough in 1944 when it was introduced and there was no such thing as a "premium" bullet. Perhaps we deer hunting fools have been sold a bill of goods since John Nosler's bum moose hunt?
 
Bitumen said:
When I was doing head and neck shots, I either had the deer instantly down or a total miss.
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Many deer hit in the head or neck do not go down immediately. Hits in the jaw, nose, windpipe, gullet, etc, often allow them to run off with what appears to be a total miss, but end up a lingering death.


Bitumen said:
I wasn't aiming for the eye. The deer walked straight into me on a path. It didn't notice me until about 30 yards away. I put the crosshairs on the head and pulled the trigger. It went in the eye.
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You missed your aiming point at only 30 yd. That is exactly the point of my paragraph above. If you switch to lung shots, rather than shoulder shots, you will have the answer you are looking for; easy hits in a vital area, very little trailing, and minimal meat damage.

Good hunting,
Ted
 
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My Ballastic Tip experiences match some of the others, specifically that of tracking an animal that didn't go down. I used them on multiple WT at ranges of 125 yds or less from a 30-06. All were through and through hits hitting either one or both lungs. Each deer went for a long run. Only thing worse that I've used has been the bronze point ammo. Went back to Partitions and get decent wounds instead of pencil holes in and out. Maybe the BT's might have opened up on a longer shot at the same deer (less velocity at the longer distance) but I have moved away from them for now.
 
Used them on 3 deer....didnt' hit anythin hard like a shoulder and the result was always a quick death and no more exeptional meat loss. The one recovered bullet (head on spine shot) weighted around 77 gr out of orginal 130gr. I load them to 3000 fps and only use them on deer.
 
I stopped using BT's ev en though they shot extremely well in several of my guns and are certainly priced right and very deadly. Unfortunately, if you even nick a rib, they go off like a grenade! Too many better choices of bonded or monometal bullets that are much more meat friendly. I still use lots of BT's but for practice rounds.
 
Drove one through a big old BC moose the other day.You wouldn't think a moose could hit the ground as fast as that one did. Then theres the enviable string of one shot, dropped on the spot kills my kid put together with a .257 Bee before he was even considering shaveing.

Hard bullets have their place, but assumeing that you need buffalo hard bullets to kill a scrawny deer is wrong.
 
Not sure if i posted in here previously, but here goes.

Noslet BT for DEER or smaller. I dont reccomend it as a first or 4th choice for that matter, on anything larger than Deer.
thats just from my experience with an exploding pill causing a shallow wound which bled for 400ms then dried an never to be found... elk sized creather
 
Barnes TTSX.

2 Elk from 300 Win Mag 180grains and 6 WT from 30-06 150 gr taken this year.

All recovered even with not ideal shot placement and with minimal meat damage.

I've stopped using BT after session at Range with those results

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Andrzej said:
Barnes TTSX.

2 Elk from 300 Win Mag 180grains and 6 WT from 30-06 150 gr taken this year.

All recovered even with not ideal shot placement and with minimal meat damage.

I've stopped using BT after session at Range with those results
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Just my opinion but the pics you show are that of a poorly designed bullet in that the jackets separated from the core.
Try good old Speer Spire Point Spitzers. Many head of all North American Big Game over many years, and 75 to 80 percent weight retention from all recovered bullets with none of that BS.
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Dogleg said:
Right on the first guess.
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Because, as I am sure you already know, the 180gr Ballistic Tips are actually tough bullets (so are the 150gr 7mm versions). I've used the 180 BT too, and would not hesitate to take moose or elk with them.
 
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