Guess the bullet.

9.3mauser said:
I shot my buck this year with a .270 using a 140gr. Accubond. Broadside shot, clipped the spine just behind the shoulders, and found the bullet under the hide on the far side. About 55% weight retention. So they don't always exit.
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The only one I ever found was a 140 from a 7mm wsm shot into a buck lengthwise. Buck was facing me almost straight on but at a slight angle. Shot when he had his head down. Bullet went in the lower neck area. Broke the shoulder went right over top of the heart and was found right in front of the opposite side hind quarters. Well over 2 feet of penetration and the bullet weighed 94 gr I believe. If you had it stay in on a broad side hit then it must have been severely slowed down by the spine. Which I can see happening.
 
It just goes to show that basing an opinion (in this case, mine) on a limited sample size of personal experiences can sometimes close your mind to other possibilities. In my case, I cursed the 115 grain Ballistic Tip and expelled it from my reloading bench forever after two bizarre experiences. The first was a small whitetail shot with that bullet launched from a .257 Roberts at a 2800 fps muzzle velocity. The deer was hit in the spine at a range of about 90 yards, and the bullet came completely unglued. All that was left of it was 27 grains of jacket material flattened out against the bone, which did not break. There was sufficient shock to the system the deer went down and was subsequently dispatched with another round. But it left me shaking my head.

The second experience was later that season when I shot a medium-sized whitetail with the same rifle and load through the lungs at about 35 yards. A .25 calibre hole went in, through, and out the other side. No signs of expansion, and the lungs looked like a pencil had been poked through them. Again I shook my head.

Two completely contrary experiences with the same bullet fired from the same rifle -- and neither of them acceptable results. And yet, however bizarre that all was, it's simply two examples that are probably quite statistically insignificant. If you're getting good results from that bullet, then good results are exactly what you're getting. As for me, I gave up on them and switched to Hornady's 117 grain BTSP in that rifle, and have never had a bad result since. But somewhere on this site there's probably someone else who hates that 117 grain pill because it blew to pieces on the two occasions he used it. :)


'Boo said:
You and Pickles got it.

In my opinion the Nosler Ballistic Tip has gained an undeserved reputation for being so frangible that some would call it explosive. My experience with the hunting Ballistic Tips is that they often produce much less damage than the bonded - yet "softer" - Nosler Accubond.


115 grain Ballistic Tip in the 25 WSSM (far right)
115 grain Ballistic Tip in 250-3000 (centre)
60 grain Nosler Partition in 22-250 (far left)
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Interesting, I shot two blacktail deer within 10 feet of each other this Oct, with a 150gr Ballistic Tip in 300WSM, both 80yd shots, both devasting and dropped the deer in their tracks. Clipped the offside shoulder on the larger of the two bucks and lost a significant amount of meat. Chalked it up to the bullet being a bit on the light side to be hitting tissue at close to 3200fps, but everything I've shot prior has been with GMX bullets in my 308, so no first hand experience with tradition lead bullets.
 
that's interesting.
people down here r claming the Ballistic tip a good deer bullet!! I advise against this very strongly. but people say they are getting pass throughs...

got me stuffed... not my cuppa tea though, without prior testing.

WL
 
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