# %*^&%^&$% ballistic tips



## CoastalOutfitters (Aug 20, 2004)

well, it was bound to happen.

Son shoots a doe broadside out of a tree stand at 60 yards w his 270 and my 130 gr sierra ballistic tip handloads.

hit her right behind the shoulder and flipped her. deer kicks a bit and he gets out of stand to cut her throat.

doe runs off badly wounded blood all over the ground.

doe crosses our property and the neighbors into a heavy cedar thicket, never found her.

best he could tell, no exit wound and blood about stopped at the border fence


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## CHARLIE (Jun 2, 2004)

Well it was a ballistic tip and it did what it is designed to do, blow up.

Charlie


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## deebo (May 22, 2004)

yup, i switched before it happened to me. shot a big 8 last year, and didnt get much penetration, and not even close to an exit, so i switched after that. from the deer i have taken this year....man what a difference. 

sorry you lost the doe


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## CoastalOutfitters (Aug 20, 2004)

i'm the first one to say don't shoot em, saw bad results on my lease in Trinity a few years back.

i thought he was out of those or I would have said something.


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## THE JAMMER (Aug 1, 2005)

Accubond !!!! or Barnes tsx.

I only use BT's now for accuracy, which they are very good at.

THE JAMMER


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## foxtrot07 (Nov 5, 2010)

+1 on the Accubonds!!
I also like the Berger VLDs, i shoot them in my .308 (168gr), and my .300win (210gr)....excellent performance!


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## Jungle_Jim (Nov 16, 2007)

Barnes TTSX!!!


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## Dueck (Nov 21, 2010)

I have only shot two deer, both one shot kills. The first was a small
hill country buck shot at about 140 yards, ran maybe 75 yards and
piled up with massive exit wound, right through the lungs.
The second was a good sized east Texas doe shot just before dusk.
I hit her high and behind the ribcage, basically gut shot. She did a back
flip and DRT thank God. No exit wound. Both shots were from a .270 with,
Federal Premium Nosler ballistic tips. This maybe good results, and I'm no expert, but I
don't like the inconsistancy even from just two kills.

Dueck


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## Capt. Sandbar (Jun 12, 2004)

I have shot handload ballistic tips for a long time and shot many deer with them and never had one run until a few years ago. One day while at the range we decided to break out the chronograph; I found out it was only about 2800. We bumped it up to about 3300 then played with the load until it shot. Now, after speeding it up, about 1 of 3 or 4 deer want to run about 50 yards.


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## twang56 (Nov 21, 2010)

I'm new here but i agree with capt. Sandbar. I began shooting handloaded BTs back in the 70s in 7MM with great success. Somewhere along the line the ogive changed (had to readjust the loading die) and i believe they got a softer jacket. I still have some old ones and the new ones do appear softer. I have shot them in 22-250 since the 80s and loaded down rather than hot have performed well on deer. Hot loads are great for varmints if all you want to do is take them out of the food chain and see some red vapor. In the 25-06 i've used the new Accu bond BTs and Combined Technology moly coated. The Accu bond are loaded hot and perform like a spear where as the CT moly seems to be erratic. IMHO if i were going on a big hunt a factory loaded Nosler BT in any caliber would not be my first choice. I truly love how they shoot but they are not what they use to be.


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## Texas T (May 21, 2004)

Didn't know Sierra made balistic tips. Nothing on their website or in their books about it. All they show in that weight is their hollowpoint boat tail and a spirepoint.


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## CoastalOutfitters (Aug 20, 2004)

Texas T said:


> Didn't know Sierra made balistic tips. Nothing on their website or in their books about it. All they show in that weight is their hollowpoint boat tail and a spirepoint.


sorry , brain fart

it was the yellow nosler ballistic tip , not sierra which i usually load


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## Texas T (May 21, 2004)

Had me wondering if Sierra had something secret out. LOL


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## bayourat (Jan 7, 2005)

Me and my brother have shot over 25 deer with 90gr BT's out of a 243 and none of them have made it further than 50 yards. Without recovering the deer it sure is hard to blame the bullet......


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## THE JAMMER (Aug 1, 2005)

My son has shot 4-5 deer with his model 7 243 very effectively as well. I think the problem with ballistic tips is when they run into something substantial- like bone. If they don't hit bone, they will zip right through, expanding and doing lots of damage making two holes. It's just when they hit bone, that they blow up, and don't exit. I have experienced this 3 times now in the last 3 years.

The accubond is almost as accurate as the bt, within .25-.5 moa in my experience, and will hold together better when encountering bone.

THE "DON'T LIKE EM RUNNING AWAY" JAMMER


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## flatsprowler (Jul 1, 2008)

I shot a 180# cull six point couple of weekends ago with 130 Grain Federal Nosler balistic tip and the deer dropped dead forty yards from impact. No complaints so far but maybe it was lucky.


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## CoastalOutfitters (Aug 20, 2004)

it was a 60yd standing broadside shot w a 270 , my son is 20 and an excellent shot BTW and dropped 7-8 deer w that same rifle already, it is a tack driver and dead on.

He and my brother both saw the side of the deer later, hit right behind the shoulder.

Sure I blame it on the bullet, most likely caught a rib on the way in and scattered. I don't hot-rod loads, this was a solid load a few gr.s from max in the book.

Funny thing about it is we always head or neck shoot does, he was mad at me for telling him to do otherwise this trip out of that tall tree, oh well.............


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## Rine_Everett (Jun 3, 2004)

I shot 2 bucks this year in the neck with .223 55 gr BT and both where DRT with exits. My cousin shot a buck in the shoulder with the same .223 60 gr Partition and got a through and through. He also shot a doe in the back of the head at 100 yds with 55gr BT. She was DRT and no exit. A 270... i dunno, i would have thought it wouldn't have blown up before getting to something important.


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## THE JAMMER (Aug 1, 2005)

Flats,

Did it leave a blood trail, and did you get a complete pass through?? Just finding one 40 yards away doesn't necessarily mean it's a good "killing" bullet. It just means you found the deer. There are places where 40 yards away with no blood trail is a lost deer.

THE JAMMER



flatsprowler said:


> I shot a 180# cull six point couple of weekends ago with 130 Grain Federal Nosler balistic tip and the deer dropped dead forty yards from impact. No complaints so far but maybe it was lucky.


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## 27contender (Dec 22, 2008)

No offense fellas but the BT are what they are, and 40-50 or what ever yards is a long way for a deer to run. No doubt BT will kill a deer (so will a 22 rimfire), but there are SO many other better bullets to shoot deer with and personally I do not like mine to move much less run 50 yards after they are shot. I have the same standard for my pistol shooting too.


R


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## bigfishtx (Jul 17, 2007)

My dad taught me to always sit tight and let the deer bleed out for 15 minutes before you go look for them. If you had done that, the deer would have been dead right where she layed down.

If you had shot here with a 300 mag with a Barnes XXX bullet and walked up on her she would still run off. in fact, she would probably go further since she would have had less internal damage than she had getting hit with a BT.


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## rhammock (Aug 11, 2005)

This October in Wyoming, I shot a buck Mule deer @ 200 yards. The first shot I wasn't quite sure I hit him so I put a second round in him. I definitely hit the second time because he hunched up and ran about 30 yards before piling up. Well upon cleaning the deer, we discovered I had hit him twice. Both bullets had hit a rib upon entry and blew up. There were a couple of tiny exit hole on the off shoulder. This was from the peices of the lead core that had exited. We also found one of the copper jackets too. Next time I'll be using TSX's.

270 with 130 gr BT


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## 3chucks (Feb 5, 2010)

a long time ago before the ballistic tips there were the solid base boat tails in the red box. then nosler came out with the bt. the solid base bullets blew up everything they hit. the ballistic tips in 130grain 277 caliber blow everything up. i went to nosler 277 caliber 140grain bullets and everything workes perfect. but then again my rifle would shoot all these loads to the same point of impact at 100yards. 54grains imr 4350 br2 primer 130gr partion 130gr and 140gr ballistic tip 90gr sierra and 57gr imr 4350 and 110gr sierra pro hunter with 56gr imr 4350. use a heavier bt and they work great


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## phil k (May 8, 2007)

jsut got back from a nalghi hunt..took 2 of -em 1 bull -1 cow .both shots where around 180-250 yards..dropped -em bnoth with ruger -280,shooting 139 grain hornady bt's..neck shot both of -em.dropped in there tracks .....little gun & bullets did GREAT !


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## spurgersalty (Jun 29, 2010)

Hornady bt's? You talking bout the V-Max?


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## goatchze (Aug 1, 2006)

spurgersalty said:


> Hornady bt's? You talking bout the V-Max?


The SST is pretty much a ballistic tip. The V-Max is its little brother.


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## Tailshot (Jan 23, 2010)

Barnes Bullets...like a Hallmark card: when you care enough to send the very best!


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## muddyfuzzy (Jan 2, 2011)

i had great success with sst's in my .300 for many years. these bullets need ample time to slow down in the velocity curve to function properly. if slammed into a target at closes distances less than desired results can be expected. 

with that being said i have never been happy with sierra's terminal performance in the field. i saw similar results with loads worked up with game kings. even @ 150 yds. the jacket slipped. sierra makes a very accurate bullet but i just don't think they are up to snuff. 

i am die hard hornady and stand behind their products. i have been handloading them exclusively for the last 15 years in .22-250, .300 win mag and .25-06' and love what they do.


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## M16 (May 28, 2008)

I love ballistic tips. I shoot around 30 deer a year and use the 120 grain ones in my 7mm08. Works quite well.


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## SURF Buster (Feb 17, 2008)

I also shoot a 7mm.08, been killing them for over twenty years, yes they may run off a little way but to me that just adds excitement to the hunt. I have found every deer shot.
I suppose if you dont want them to run shoot them with a .50cal bmg


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## Bohica 50 BMG (Jan 24, 2011)

I've had good luck with Winchester Ballistic Silver tips out of my .280 and I really love them in my .220 Swift (V-max). I did however have one run after being hit 1" behind the shoulder with a 200 gr ballistic tip out of a .338. The doe ran 90 yards with no heart, lungs, liver, guts, and left front leg. The big bullet blew a barn door out of the other side of the doe. At that point the .338 got resighted with 250 gr SPs and reserved for hogs as it is way too much for little HC whitetails (which I knew before I squeezed off the shot). This year I'm using a .308 with Barnes 168 gr TSX Match Grade.


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