Old Ballistic Tips - The Stories Are NOT Exaggerated!!!

BigUglyMan

BigUglyMan

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I just got back from Saskatchewan where I was hunting whitetails. This year I decided to borrow my Dad's custom BSA in 7mm Weatherby, to keep the Year of the Mauser going strong and because life's too short to hunt with an ugly rifle. I looked at the choices of ammo and decided to use handloaded 140gr Nosler Ballistic Tips (instead of 154 gr Hornady Interlocks). I took the rifle out and despite having the scope taken out of the rings and put back the rifle went perfectly to zero at a hair over 2" high at 100 yards. I figured that with the load details we would be running about 3300 FPS and woudl give me a 270 yard zero.

After a few days of hunting my dad got a crack at a nice big-bodied doe at a hair under 100 yards. The shot flattened her and on driving up we found that he had hit her high in the shoulder and dropped her on the spot, paralyzed (but needed a shot in the head to finish her). The bullet had expanded so much and so fast that the bullet didn't penetrate past the spine...maybe 1.5" deep and destroyed a swath of upper shoulder meat 8" long and 3" wide. The bloodshot meat was almost all of the front quarter (lost all of the top half of the shoulder) and the all the meat back to the front of the backstrap. Sorry but there were no pictures (some dummy remembered to pack everything but the camera:mad:).

We gutted that deer and tossed her in the back of the truck. Since there was ample daylight left and I still had a tag we headed over to my Uncle's place about 4 miles away. My brother and I abandoned the truck and headed to a nice spot overlooking my Uncle's pasture and coulee. As we were just about to where we wanted to set up a couple of does jumped up and headed up the far bank of the coulee. As we hadn't seen anything bigger than a pickle-fork all week (which I refuse to shoot as it destroys genetic diversity) I decided that a doe would be just as tasty as anything. I got seated and steady over my shooting sticks. The doe got up to the top of the hill at 220 yards and stopped full broadside. I held behind the story but didn't allow for the wind which was full value from left to right (this gets important later). I took the shot and heard the bullet hit home. The doe did a short death run, maybe 25 yards and piled up without a twitch.

We finally caught Dad's attention and he picked us up and headed around to the other side of the coulee. We found the doe easily enough and saw the result of the wind. My bullet had drifted about 3" to the right and punched fully through both shoulders. We got her gutted and loaded and headed home. Once both deer were in the garage and hanging we skinned both before they were cool. The bullet from the second doe had punched through both shoulders and taken out her heart and lungs. The entry would was about the size of a goose egg and the exit wound was bigger than an MLB baseball!:eek: We lost most of both shoulders on that one too.

Further examination of the ammo showed that it had been loaded in 1995 so they were definately the old NBTs that were pre-improvement. Needless to say I wouldn't use them on game again, though they would be a devastating coyote load and good for off-season practice.

So the moral of the story is that if you've hoarded a few boxes of those bullets, aim well back behind the shoulder or use them for predators. For once the bullet companies did not "improve" a product just to sell something comparable under a different name. These bullets needed improvement and got it. Sadly, I don't think that I would even try the Ballistic Tip Hunting bullet after seeing this performance and the CT Ballistic Tip in Africa last year. Maybe once all those bullets are shot off we'll give the Accubond a try. Should work nicely in that rifle.
 
I shot a bull moose at 307 yds. and a 5x5 whitetail at 25 yds. this fall using 154 grain Hornady ballistic. They worked awesome dropped both animals in their tracks and not a whole lot of damage.
 
The bullet from the second doe had punched through both shoulders and taken out her heart and lungs. The entry would was about the size of a goose egg and the exit wound was bigger than an MLB baseball! We lost most of both shoulders on that one too.
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Since the bullet went through both shoulders, penetration was obviously not an issue.

I used the 140gr Ballistic Tip out of my 7mmstw to kill a few dozen animals, but I avoided shoulder shots whenever possible. If you are making shoulder shots with them at high velocity, you can expect to lose a lot of meat.



I shot a bull moose at 307 yds. and a 5x5 whitetail at 25 yds. this fall using 154 grain Hornady ballistic. They worked awesome dropped both animals in their tracks and not a whole lot of damage.
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He is referring to the Nosler Ballistic Tip, not the Hornady SST.
 
If you are unsatified with your current load for game you owe it to them to get the best out there to complete your harvest... don't cheap out and wait until your supply of what you deem unsuitable is exausted....
 
It boggles my mind that with the technology we have (CDS dials, laser rangefinders, kestrels, synthetic hunting clothes, gore-tex, carbon stocks, custom barrels) that people still run cup and core bullets. Im as guilty as the next as I ran C&C's this year too....never again though.
 
The point was the 'old' NBT's are explosive. I have a similar story. I bought a box of these things for my 7mm Rem at a gun auction. Old red and green box. Long story short, I shot a mule deer to doll rags with the dang things. Blew up on the shoulder and took 3 rounds to finish the deal.

Gave the whole box to a friend for varminting. The new BT are alright.
 
After 2 shoulder shots with blow up results from 140gr BT's from a 7mm RM, I gave up using them. Probably would have worked better at 400 yards than 40 or 100!
 
I've used the old BT in the 338 WM, with no issues on moose. I've heard that these bullets were constructed heavier than the smaller bore BT's from the beginning.

I understand that after consumer complaints on the issue with smaller bores, Nosler redesigned the jacket making it quite a bit tougher. But I've not used them in years.
 
I'm batting 1000 with Nosler Ballistic tips and 1000 with Nosler Accubonds on about 90 animals...........the other 35 big game were taken with Sierria Game Kings and Barnes TSX with less productive results.
 
It occurs to me that if many on here had the same attitudes to ### as they had to hunting and shooting, there would be a lot less ###. Way too often, one bad experience makes people swear that some gun, bullet, camo, scent blocker, shot placement, knife, or whatever is no good and should never be tried again.

Is one blood shot deer a big enough sample? Are there any possible explanations other than the bullet? Are two examples a big enough sample? Three?

Ballistic tips (or their design equivalent of other names) are designed to expand quickly on game. If they do that, and you don't like the results, who's fault is it?

Any bullet you use will be designed to provide specific terminal performance. If you buy a light, fast expanding bullet and shoot it into the shoulder of a large buck, what should you expect? If you want to make shoulder shots, don't buy light for caliber, fast expanding bullets. Duh....

Inappropriate use does not make something inappropriate for other uses. One, or even three, examples of inappropriate use and bad consequences does not make something a bad design. It indicates bad choices.

Now, I think Ballistic Tips are quite predictable in their performance, and that makes them a good bullet in my books. Predictability is the key. But I do not use them on moose, and I use only the "heavy for caliber" ones on deer.

Actually, through experience on game and actual testing in various media, I have found better bullets for both applications, but we need more science here and less anecdotal evidence of bad choices that have created what are nothing more than unfair prejudices. How else but "prejudice" can you explain the "love/hate" threads about absolutely everything from caliber, to gun actions, to bullets, to whatever we discuss?
 
Nice story Big. You must have many freezers!!

I just bought 6 more boxes of Nosler ballistic tip 270 cal 130 grain. My rifle really likes them. They performed well in whitetails. Entered the dot on the chest, went through the lung and the bullet was laying under the hide outside the ribs, 20 inches from entry point.
 
tigrr said:
Nice story Big. You must have many freezers!!

I just bought 6 more boxes of Nosler ballistic tip 270 cal 130 grain. My rifle really likes them. They performed well in whitetails. Entered the dot on the chest, went through the lung and the bullet was laying under the hide outside the ribs, 20 inches from entry point.
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Same experience, but didnt' measure penetration (butcher gave me bullet back :D) Bullet weighted 77 gr. - no meat loss.

Deer fell like it was hit by lightning.
 
I have several boxes of the old Nosler BT's that I use in my 7x57--loaded to around 2900fps muzzle velocity which I use for a mule/whitetail deer load. Usually get through and through penetration and not an excessive amount of bloodshot meat. Shots generally for 125 t0 250 yards.

ymmv, 44Bore
 
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