Nosler ballistic tips, love or hate?

I've seen probably 30+ deer shot with the various iterations of the ballistic tip design, and all the deer dropped exactly like the are supposed to.

I would be hesitant to use them on a texas heart shot, or try to punch through the shoulder on a big buck, but they work very well if you put the bullet where it is supposed to go - through the ribs just behind the shoulder.
 
Yea, I like em. I want to drop deer in their tracks. I could care less what the bullet looks like at recovery. If its a bang-flop, its a successful bullet.
 
I hit a Pronghorn at 429 yards with a 7mm 120 grain Nosler BT. It spun around 180 degrees without moving it’s hooves and dropped like a rock. I wouldn’t hesitate a bit to use it on a white tail.
 
NBT fly true. I found the 165 grain to be a very accurate bullet in my 30-06. I used to zero at 200 yards and I could lay them in one on top of the other. When I first started hunting and knew no better, I used them as my all purpose bullet. "Core-lokt? Ballistic tip? Whatever!" Yeah, I was that guy. I shot a cow elk broadside with one from about 60-80 yards away. She laid right down. Couldn't find her heart in the chest soup. Found the base of the bullet and the gliding metal under the far side skin. It was effective, but I've come to think it's too light for elk. I've moved to copper solids. It would probably work okay for deer as long as you didn't try to bust through a shoulder at extreme ranges.
 
I've shot white-tails and 4 antelope over the years with a 140 gr. Ballistic Tip out of my 7 Mag. No problems, I also heard that the early versions (which is what I had) were a little thinner in the jacket and that Nosler thickened it up on later versions. I gave them up due to cost except for my .22-250 Rem (I LOVE them in it and it loves them). I even have a friend who has me load 55 grain 6mm for his .243 loaded pretty hot, it ain't a shoulder busting load but when put through the lungs they no longer work and the deer isn't far away.
 
Been shooting them since they came out. Killed hundreds of critters with them from .243-.308 in various weight ranges. I've had one issue in all that time and it was a fluke, everything else is either DRT or not far away.

My experience is you get better results from them at modest velocity than at extreme velocity.
 
Nosler BT in varmint bullets was to replace the Solid Base Expander/Solid Base Spitzer. I had mixed result shooting varmints with the BT and I quit using them and I knew some that used them on big game again mixed results. That all happen more than 20yrs ago.

I haven't shot lot of them since then did pick up couple boxes 150gr BT for the 270Wby and shot pretty nice maybe this year give them a try hunting.
 
Years ago I bought a couple boxes of 180g Nosler ballistic tip bullets to hunt with in my .30-06 before I could use too many of them the local guys were saying they blew up on elk when fired from an '06 or better.

Since I had only loaded 20 of them to sight in, I shot those then loaded the rest of them using a medium load in my .308Win. They've been a good performer in this load and rifle. I don't load my .308 hot since it's my in between rifle from .30-30 and .30-06...

Anyway the couple deer I got with them didn't complain. I've shot more verifying my rifle was still sighted in than at deer and I'm just about out of them. I'll probably switch to partitions like I shoot from the '06 when these are gone.

Tony
 
I love ballistic tips for punching paper and shooting thin skinned game. My favorite deer load is a 140 Ballistic Silvertip in my 7WSM. A 6mm ballistic tip is very marginal for deer hunting.
 
so far so good

Well this has been pretty positive so far.

I've shot exactly four deer with them, (3-.270/130, 1-.30/180) all deer recovered, animal bolting 15-50 yds or so. And I recovered one .270/130 and one .30/180 slug. Both of those were quartering shots. (away and to). The .30 was at about 50 percent weight loss. The .270 was jacket and fragments.

I suspect that none of my pal's hits were well placed. But....there is a good bit of flak on the BT in other places.

No complaints from me other than the price, which doesn't really matter these days.

Thanks all for replies thus far.







Thanks all for the replies.
 
good bullets but..

They obviously are very good bullets. They expand reliably at lower velocities but I'm sure they can also blow up faster at higher velocities and on tougher targets. For old school moderate rounds they're probably pretty good choices. For faster rounds in the 2800 fps and up range I'd choose a tougher bullet in case I shot a tough shoulder at 25 yards.

My bullet of choice is Barnes TTSX right now and I'll be surprised if that changes over the next couple of years
 
In my youth I have shot many deer with my old Savage in 30-06.
I always used the Federal Premium with the Nosler Ballistic Tips.

Always performed well. Never had to track a deer. NEVER!!!

One I had shot was about 100 yards away. I didn't notice that he was somewhat quartering away. Took the shot. Muzzle brake let me keep the scope on him. I SAW him get picked up, and the white of his belly as he was thrown to the ground.

On examination, nice small entrance hole right behind the right shoulder.
Left shoulder wasn't there anymore. You could literally put your fist through it.
 
I've been using the 130 gr Ballistic tip for about 15 years on White tails and haven't had one run over about 25 yards. They will shed the jacket but I've never hasd one fail to penetrate even when it went through shoulder bones. If you have one run off, 99.9% it was a bad shot.
I wouldn't choose it for elk or bear but for deer it's my go to. Let's face it it don't take much to kill a white tail, I've killed a bunch with a .243.
 
Started using 140gr in my 7STW, absolutely no problems...killed a caribou with my 7 Mag at about 60 yds, through and through. My only problem is when I started buying them, price was about $12.00/100!!! Performance is no better than the 140 Sierra Pro Hunters that I used in my 7Mag for about 30 years. BT now are $25.00?/50 and the Sierra's are $22.00(usually sale prices)/100. Good, but not at twice the price!!

Another comment, tried some 160 AB in my 7STW for an AK moose hunt. Found several in the box with the white tips broken off. And while in the field had several more break, polymer seemed to be brittle. Never saw this with the BT....anyone else experience this??
 
Hey thekyrifleman, I've used Nosler Accubonds for the 7mm rem mag in both 140 and 160 grain, and never had a tip come off or break off... that's kinda weird..
 
recovered slugs

Well bamaboy shot a very nice 6pt yesterday evening with a .308/180 early version(solid base-100 pack) b-tip. Quartering to, and we recovered the slug. Weight, not counting assorted fragments, 93 grains. Same slug from my deer this year, 88 grains (also quartering to). That is about 50% retention, which is about what I read they were intended to do. These recovered slugs went through about 20-24" of deer, entering just behind the foreleg and recovered just ahead of the hip on the off side. Not the best shot for ease of cleaning, I'll admit. I simply blew it,.... 'boy shot his deer on the move. Two very dead deer irregardless. Much internal damage in the lung cavity, the liver/entrails were not that bad, I guess the slugs had slowed.

I understand the early .30/180's were "soft" for elk and such and the current .30/180 is a bit tougher. Too bad for me, 'cause the performance of those old 180's on our our whitetails seems ideal, and the Savage Hog rifle REALLY likes them.

I'm on the lookout for some of the early slugs, but do not hold high hopes.
 
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?
Click to expand...

Liability reasons aside, this is the main reason why I will always refuse to work up a load for anybody but myself. When somebody loses an animal due to a poor hit (or their inability to make a hit), it's always your ammo they'll blame first.

I'm not saying that's absolutely what happened to your buddy, but it is a possibility, I have some good friends that I hunt with that never do own up to taking a bad shot, they just blame everything LOL

.
 
One shot, one kill

270 130 gr Ruger rifle
7-30 Waters 140 gr Contender
243 95 gr Weather Vanguard youth20" barrel
Many deer downed with the Ruger and Contender, a few with the Weatherby.
I am superstitious about the Ballistic tip! Accurate, never need follow up shot. Even dropped a cow elk when hit in the vitals, mistake as I meant to use partition. Shot placement and familiarity with gun are essential for clean kills!
MikeB
 
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