New Ballistic Tip Believer

Okay - I was never sold on the bright colored plastic tipped bullets. They just looked funky to me. Like a toy or something from my Mattel Greenie-Stickum cap rifle when I was 8 or 9 years old.

After hearing so many people talk about how accurate they are, though, I broke down and bought some 150 gr .308 Ballistic Tips. All the loads I shot worked well, but I consistently got 3/4-inch groups from my 1903 Springfield MK1 with the original barrel with 52.0 gr IMR-4064, and they were clocking an average of 3114 FPS with absolutely no pressure signs from the 24-inch barrel.

So guess what firearm I'm bringing to Texas with me?

Rick, Glad you got along well with them. My Springfield 03-A3 and my custom Mauser both like the 150gr NBT in the 30-06. Even of more coincidence is your selection of powder, its weight and the speed you got. Now if you tell me that you used Rem 9 1/2 primers too, this is going to be WAY too much coincidence. All those numbers are almost identical to what I get out of mine.

Sometime when you see them on a shelf somewhere, try the Hornady 150gr SST's. In both of my '06's, they shoot as well at 100yds, and better at 200 & 300yds.

Also, give the 40 or 50gr NBT's a try in that 223 load with the ww748 or H335. It'll take your ground squirrel hunting to a new level. Trust me. WD

Nope, I used CCI 200 primers. I'm pretty happy with the load, all right. Some newer manuals show 52.5 or less as the max, while my older Sierra Manaual shows 53 gr as the max.

Ballistic Tips are the cat's meow in varmint cartidges, providing outstanding accuracy with explosive results.

On big game, I had a bad experience with a BT about ten years ago, and it's taken me a long while to warm back up to them. I had a 165 grain BT out of my .308 Win severely wound a whitetail when it blew up on his ribcage, and failed to penetrate to any depth. I tracked that fellow over a mile, until it got too dark to track anymore. I found his body the next day about half a mile from where I had stopped the night before. He had circled around and was only about 300 yards from where I had shot him. Two ribs were broken, and one lung was full of blood, that was it for damage.

I've been told by numerous people that Nosler has thickened the jackets, made the alloy harder, yada, yada, yada. When Hornady introduced their SSTs a few years back, I thought, "Well, just a BT ripoff, big deal". A friend of mine who works for Hornady assured me they had learned a valuable lesson form Nosler's experiences with the early BTs, and their design will hold together as well as a regular Interlock, but get the accuracy of the BT.

I gave them a try, and they work in both departments. I've killed a whitetail, a moose, and a pronghorn, all with 180 grain SSTs out of my .300 Winnie. In all cases, the bullet exited, and the wound channel was very wide, without being too severe. I'm a believer in them.

I just recently picked up a Ruger Model 77 SS in 7mm Rem Mag. At the gun show yesterday, I bought a box of 139 grain SSTs, AND a box of 140 grain BTs. I'll find out which one my rifle likes better accuracy-wise this spring. We'll see how they do on whitetails this fall.

I too had a bad experience with Nosler's BT. It was was the .308 150 grain bullet going 2900 fps at the muzzle out of an old Rem 721 chambered in 30-06.

I had a nice mature 4 point muley at about 175 yards broadside. I squeezed the shot off and he went down hard, I think "cool!" Then he gets up and his whole shoulder is red. He runs tripod style over the ridge with me in hot pursuit. I finally anchored him with a spine shot. That first bullet was perfect placement, but the bullet completely fragmented with no penetration into the chest cavity.

This was with the early Bal tips. I hear they have improved. But I havn't gone back to them. I've been a long time Hornaday Interlock fan and bought some SST's, but have yet to try them.

Rick, I'm using 53gr of 4064. It seems to have more room to go up, but it is fast and accurate enough right there for me.

Tbone.. the Hornady SST IS an interlock with the boat tail and plastic tip added to it. I agree whole heartedly with Ndak's observations on the SST's as far as accuracy and penetration is concerned.

Ndak. when you get those 139gr SST's and 140gr NBT's, would you shoot 'em both at 100yds, and then again at 200+ yds, and let me know if you see any difference between the two in groups at longer distances. This drove MLM and I half nuts last year for about a month. (him more so than me) WD

Accuracy schmaccuracy! I've used NBT's for the 5 of the last 6 deer that I've shot, all in .270 caliber (no. 6 was MZ). The greatest distance for any of those 5 was about 40 yards, if I recall correctly. I obviously can't talk about long-range performance, but at those distances I can say that the NBT does do a little exploding. None of those 5 shots exited; none of them had much in the way of a bullet to recover. What was left was shrapnel on the far side. Some of them made neat holes between ribs going in, and exploded inside; those deer dropped like they'd been poleaxed. Some hit a rib on the way in, which splintered it and exploded on the way in; those ran for 20 yards, tops. One of those was at a pretty sharp angle, and you could see the wound channel expanding as it went down the rib cage and into the body cavity. It started out .270-sized and by the time it got to the cavity it was probably the size of a silver dollar. But, at those ranges, I can't complain about performance at all-the NBT's did fabulously. These are from 1998-2001 seasons, by the way.

I've heard lots of complaints about ballistic tips over the last 12 years or so. The one that always amazes me is the one that goes:
"..well, it just didn't do what I wanted it to. It's a good thing the animal died within about 20 yards. If I had had to track it, it would have been impossible because there was no blood trail.".. Never a comment on the animal giving up in 5 or 6 or 10 yards.... Just "no blood trail".

Then there's the one about "..It didn't penetrate. It hit the deer in the ribs, and it didn't penetrate. It just exploded."... I ask if they recovered the animal and it's usually, "..Well yes. It died on the spot, but the bullet still didn't penetrate...".

I guess I'm dense, but I keep hearing this older guy in the background asking... "As the animal died, what part of the bullets performance was a failure?"

I love them.

Somewhere around 15 years ago a buddy of mine talked me into loading up some 150gr Ballistic tips for my 7mm mag. Copper fouling SOBs they were. I used them for 3 seasons which was 2 seasons to long. I killed 13 deer with them in those 3 seasons and I don't think any of them went LESS then 200 yards after the hit - most were double lung shots, standing still, broadside. I went back to my 130gr speer hot cores and never looked back. Those 130gr hot cores just plain flattened deer. I still use the 130gr hot core in my 7mm mag.

That was then, this is now.

For the past 4 years I have been using the 180gr ballistic tips in my 300 win mag and I can't forsee using any other bullet, at this juncture. I have my 300 win mag worked out to 650 yards. The 180gr Ballistic Tip is not only accurate but very flat shooting (high BC). Two years ago I killed a doe at a mere 75 yards, caught her while she was in mid air, right behind her right shoulder, at a downward angle (I was in my stand). That bullet never exited and that deer never got up. Dan, I had to laugh to myself when I read your post as I have heard the same BS from others. The bullet exploded inside the deer and it failed, lol. Of course the deer never took another step - and it failed??? lol

This past season I killed a little buck at 420 yards, double lung, the exit wound was at least 2 1/2" in diameter. At impact the deer jumped, spun around, trying to figure out what "bit" it, then fell over dead. At that distance the noise from the rifle has zero affect. I killed a doe last season at 400 yards, again, a double lung shot at least a 2 1/2" exit hole and it reacted in a similar manner as the buck I killed.

When I can locate another bullet that will shoot as accurately, as flat and kill as well as that 180gr BT I will switch. Until then I will continue to use them.

Don

Ive shot quite a few animals at long range ans short range with BT's in .300 mag and .243. Dad use's them all the time in his .270 , my friends use them all the time in there .338's 30-06's 25-06's .243' and 7mm stw. Thye all love them and had no wounded animals and 99% of there animals are one shot kills with NO explosive results. all the animals were shot fom 25 yards to over 800 yards,anything from texas pigs to elk in montana and everything in between..

The Bt's where designed NOT to go thru the animal. Think about it if a bullet goes thru the animal you loose energy when A bullet stay's in an animal you get 100% energy in the animal. Dad recovered most of his bullets from the .270 in pigs and texas whitetales they had between 88% and 95% retention on the weight.
something to know with the .308 dia bullets is the 180 grain and above for the .300 winmag and high.. the 150's 165' where mainly made for the slower cal's like 30-30 .308 30-06 etc..
same goes with other bullet dia's...
Most of my friends shoot alot and can hold 1/2" or less with there weapons and shot placement is dead on with these guys, these guys dont take shoulder shots, the shoot in the neck and or behind the shoulder or back.
My dad on the other hand has a problem holding 1" groups most of his shots are behind the shoulder and a few in the shoulder. he has told me he still gets very little meat damage.
the BT will not only give you excelent groups but it will also give you 100% energy in the animal....

Ive shot litterally 1000's of p-dogs and coyotes with the BT these, here are a couple of reasons you see explosive action in the smaller calls'
1. the 22-250 and 220 swift the bullets are thin and they are going at speeds in excess of 3800FPS. the animal is small and is getting 100% of the bullets retained energy, not to mention that the jackets are thinnner and the expand more quickly. if you take the 55 grain BT and stick it in a .223 shoot a P-dog you wont get near the explosive results dues to the lower speed. I have recovered a few bullets in coyotes and the bullets where in one piece with the .223 and 220 swift they didnt exit in either cal in the coyotes. The wound channel (thru the shoulder) was not as big as I figured but a decent size... I have never recovered a bullet from my .243 in a coyote but i have in my 2 antelope but they were shot at well over 600 yards.and one deer shot at around 10 yards. The bullet mushroomed perfectly and even.


Delw