Nosler ballistic tips, love or hate?

B

bamaranger

New member
Spent the better part of two weekends this summer working up a .270/130 ballistic tip load for a pals new 24" barreled Rem 700. The load shot tight and consistently broke 3000 fps.

Guy calls me last week, he'd lost a deer he'd hit, and had same experience last year as well with same combo (different rifle). He was really down on ballistic tips as a hunting load. Some on line surfing shows there are others that think the same way.

Which is contrary to my limited experience with them. Only killed a handful with .270/130 and .30/180 (early version) cal ballistic tips, but dead deer, and they have always been very accurate as well. Definitely a "soft" deer bullet I think, but not a crippler either.

Course placement is everything.

So who hates'em, who likes' em, for whitetails?
 
I've been perfectly happy with them from my 30-06 in both 150 gr and 165 gr bullets. All have given complete penetration with large exit wounds on everything I've shot, including a 260 lb black bear. And that has been with the older versions.

About 10 years ago Nosler responded to complaints of Ballistic Tips failing on larger game such as Elk. The bullets weren't really designed for that, but Nosler did toughen up SOME of their Ballistic tip bullets. The 165 gr and 180 gr BTs made in the last decade or so are essentially the same bullet as the Accubond. I believe they did the same with some others, but those 2 are the only ones I'm sure of.

In my opinion there is nothing wrong with any of the "soft", fast expanding bullets. Or the "harder" bullets such as the solid copper bullets. It is just a matter of knowing what is in your chamber when you pull the trigger. Don't ask a bullet to do a job it wasn't designed for. The "soft" bullets give dramatic fast kills when put in the vitals. Just don't try to shoot lengthwise through a deer to hit the vitals. That is what the "hard" bullets were designed for.
 
I have a friend who loves the ballistic tip noslers, I've never had any problem with just regular partitions. It's my understanding that the ballistic tip causes it to expand more rapidly, at 3000fps that should hardly be a concern. Unless you are wanting to use the same loads on coyotes and whitetail, I would go to a slower expanding bullet. At 3000fps anything short of a FMJ or solid brass bullet should expand just fine.
 
I had some problems with the early version of the .284 in 140 grain and .308 in 165 grain. Both were "soft" but I never had any totally fail to penetrate-they just mangled a lot of meat. The later production .284 in 140 grain seems a fair bit tougher. I can't give an opinion on the current .308 BT since I'm still shooting the older ones in that caliber. I've shot some current production .257 in 115 grain out of my 257 Wby w/o any failures but all shots were at long range(350 yards+).
 
The 30 caliber 150 grain Ballistic Tip at 2900 fps is all you could ask for in a 350 yard deer load.
 
I suspect that jmr40 is referring to the design of the cup and core,and specifically that the metal cup appears to have the same design. When sectioned they look the same. The diff is probably the bonding between the cup and core in the accubond, whereas it isn't bonded in the BT.
 
I use 125 ballistic tip in 300blk because I'm only pushing them at 2200 fps max. For the faster 30-06 I moved to 165 grain gamekings.
 
I've used them on both deer and antelope out of my 7mm Rem Mag. Never lost one and never had one run more 50 yards if they ran at all.

I believe that they are effective and with proper shot placement, as good as any bullet on the market.

A bad shot no matter the bullet is still a bad shot.
 
Love, only because in my personal experience, I've never had a deer, hog, javelina, coyote, etc that I've shot with a Nosler Ballistic tip get away. I've used the the .308, 7mm, .270 and 6.5 all worked well.
 
Love. Accurate. Don't deform like lead tips.
Perform perfectly at all ranges.
I killed a buck almost on top of me once. Perfect expansion and very minimal meat damage. IMHO, they are same/equal in performance to Partitions.
 
603, the base of the lead core in the Accubond is smaller, they do have similar core design but really the performance is different, especially on game. Where the Accubond shines is controlled expansion and the Ballistic-Tip isn't so much controlled, which in turn it will sometimes expand too rapidly on bone instead of penetrating and delivering fatality.

I have taken plenty of deer with both, and the only reason I like the Accubond over the B-Tip, is terminal performance, and really it's only a better designed Ballistic Tip actually...
Riffleman, maybe you had a decent experience with the B-Tip bullet, but Ballistic Tips and Partitions are really like apples and oranges...They're in a class completely by theirselves with the very best flatbase spitzers.
 
I like the 165 grain 30 caliber. I use them in my 26 inch 30-06 running around 2900 FPS. I have shot a couple of deer under 100 yards and they shed the jacket. One was about 40 yards and the exit wound was smaller than the entrance wound. All the deer I've ever shot with them were dead right there.
 
Guy calls me last week, he'd lost a deer he'd hit, and had same experience last year as well with same combo (different rifle). He was really down on ballistic tips as a hunting load.
Click to expand...

Without know where he hit the deer, how the deer reacted at the shot, and what the deer did after the shot it is hard to blame the bullet. Many people have killed deer with Ballistic Tips and have reported excellent results from them.
 
I use a 140 grain in my .270 for Antelope. Works great for me. All were chest shots, and all the animals either dropped where they stood, or took maybe 10 steps.

They do open up quite well, my chest shots obliterated the heart/lungs/vessels.............left just a chunky red soup.

I wouldn't have a problem using them on deer, but wouldn't use them for elk, mostly because I have my .358 Win and it's 250 grain billets for bigger stuff.

They do work quite well on coyotes, prairie dogs, rabbits, and squirrels.............as long as your not trying to take meat home.
 
ballistic tips

love them have used them for many years in all calibers.
But when they doubled the price was 100 count now 50 I QUIT BUYING THEM
now I buy Hornady they are just as good and a lot less price.
 
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