ballastic tip bullets?

[fisrtcoueswas80inches]

i shoot these bullets out of my 30-06 and i dont know how they work. i shot my 2002 with 125 grainers and will shoot them in 04. when i shot my deer, they totally "exploded" and i could not find any copper and what i did find was fine shreads of it. it did totally blow out the shoulder that it did hit and i was pleased with that. so what im asking is how do they work? do they have controled expansion or are they meant to tear apart and leave all/most of the energy in the deer?
casey

 

[D13er]

Please load something else for deer.

JB

 

[WAmuleyHunter]

they are ment to explode. i have loaded them for coyotes when i didnt want the pelts. they kill one shot every time. but i dont know if i would want them for deer. but i guess a dead deer is better than one that gets away. you could maybe go to a bigger bullet and they might hold up a bit more. but i do know they are ment to explode.

Garrett

 

[saminwy]

absolutly not a big game bullet. i know some people like them, but its just too much bloodshot. they might be ok in a heavy, slow load. but 125 gr ballistic tips in an '06 is a p-dog load.

sam

 

[kingfish]

I have shot them for years... I even handload them for my 270 and 300... They do have a tendency to cause some bloodshot but I have never had any trouble knocking down my animals with one or two well placed shots...

 

[3006enfield (Guest)]

Change to the 150gr ballistic tip and make sure you keep the velocity at or below 3000fps. I have used the 150gr ballistic tip for 6 years now. Have killed shiras moose, deer and elk with that reload. On all of the animals listed, I have found a bullet with around 70% of the mass entact. If you dont like bullets that expand (sometimes explode), change to the Nosler Partition. That bullet will hold together.

 

[OSOK]

If you're confindent w/ your shooting ability. There's nothing that'll kill em quicker, IMO.

 

[Norlock]

I have loaded them in my .338 ultra , (200 grain) I was very happy with the groups (under an inch @ 100y) but the velocity was a good 100 fps slower than the nosler manual claimed and basically matched my 225 grain partition's speed.

My reloading buddy swears by them and loads the 115 grainers in his 25 06. exellent accuracy, but they do open up quick, next to no wieght retention, he has had a couple of lightning kills with these bullets, but I suspect that it would be possible that one of these bullets may not penetrate through a brisket or large shoulder blade. If you use a 165 or 180 grainer out of a .30 cal you'll probably be alright but for the lighter fast calibers I'd go for a tougher bullet. try the new accubonds, maybe a little more reliable for the bigger stuff. I love the barnes XLC's but they are expensive. I am going to try the accubonds in my .270 and .338 next.

 

[caldanmc (Guest)]

I bought a .257 WBY Mag two years ago and started handloading the ballistic tip (115 gr) for deer. My first time out I whacked a buck with one at about 275 yards and he was dead after 25 yards of running. When I skinned him out in camp, I did notice a lot of blood shot and did have to trash quite a bit of the two shoulders when I cut him up. The thing that I was really quite dissappointed in was that I didn't think the bullet expanded enough. The bullet entered just behind his left shoulder and clipped his heart and both lungs, and then passed throu his right shoulder completely destroying it. The exit would was tiny though and I found no evidence that the bullet even becan to mushroom. No fragments or anything. It was as if I shot him with a Full Metal Jacket. The good thing was the buck was dead and didn't suffer much, but I am not sure that I would want to use the bullet again. My two cents.

 

[TheKnack]

Nothing wrong with ballistic tips.
The only problem I see is you may want to try a 150-180 grain bullet instead. The lighter bullets were made for varmints in .30 caliber, not big game. The heavier ballistic tips have a thicker jacket and are fine for thin skinned big game per Noslers own reloading manual. I shot a 180 grain BT out of my .300 for elk one year at close range. It did the job but if I would have hit bone I wonder.
Mostly the higher grain Ballistic Tip bullets are deer bullets in my opinion.
Best,
Jerry

 

[saminwy]

LAST EDITED ON Jan-15-04 AT 06:41PM (MST)[p]
> The thing that I
>was really quite dissappointed in
>was that I didn't think
>the bullet expanded enough.
>The bullet entered just behind
>his left shoulder and clipped
>his heart and both lungs,
>and then passed throu his
>right shoulder completely destroying it.
> The exit would was
>tiny though and I found
>no evidence that the bullet
>even becan to mushroom.
>No fragments or anything.
>It was as if I
>shot him with a Full
>Metal Jacket. The good thing
>was the buck was dead
>and didn't suffer much, but
>I am not sure that
>I would want to use
>the bullet again. My
>two cents.



actually you had just the opposite, that tiny exit wound was the only piece of the bullet that made it through, everything else was scattered about and thus all the bloodshot.this is a high shock round, it will tend to knock things down, but in my experience (limited, just what i have seen others use it on big game) its doesn't really anchor them, especially with a light and fast round like the 257, if you had hit that deer in the shoulder facing you,it may not have made it into the boiler room. i've heard aboutlots of times when a deer or elk may have dropped at the shot, but got up and went a long, long ways with the ballistic tips, mainly in lighter bullet wieghts. i dont load them for anything but prarie dogs, and thats where they really shine, p-dogs explode on impact.

sam

 

[B_F_E]

P.O.S for deer.

 

[tuffbucker (Guest)]

I shot the Ballistic tips in 150 grain and 165 grain for deer and elk for a few years. THis year I shot with the Scirocco, and I liked it even more. It has a similar look to it as the ballistic tip. The way it was described to me is that it basically a ballistic tip with a nosler partition behind it. So far I have been happy with it. I dropped a cow elk on the run at 100 yards with it, and my shot was a few inches high even. I also dropped my buck at about 80 yards with one shot.

TUFF

 

[Sureshot (Guest)]

The ballistic tips are a great deer round and are meant to expand rapidly. If you typically aim for the shoulder of an animal then you should use a controlled expansion bullet like a partition or a Branes-X. Aim for the lungs with the B-TIPS and they will yurn them to mush and only ruin a little rib meat.

 

[sagebrush]

I use 130-140 gr Ballistic Tips out of a .270. Three one shot kills from 165-181-397 yards. As others have said, you should use the heavier for caliber bullets for big game, they are less frangible. Accurate & deadly on deer sized game. You may also want to try Hornady SST's for similar results.

 

[warbird]

I have shot many animals with 150 and 180 grain ballistic tip
the bullet is not designed for elk or larger.The bullet is designed to blow up very quickly.Recently I shot a antelope at about 150 yards away with a 180 grain ballistic tip moving at 3850 fps the entrance hole was small but the exit hole was huge ( larger than a grape fruit) but the antelope did not step 1 foot after the bullet entered him.I knew this was going to happen before the hunt and I chose to use this type of bullet.
If this result is not what you want try using a barns x bullet or a really good bullet is a woodleigh bullet,both bullets with retain over 90% of their original weight.
The old saying is if the animal is dead and did not run forever than the bullet worked,I haven't heard anybody complaining that after a ballistic tip hit the animal the animal ran away. But I have personally expieranced this problem with ballistic tip on elf at under 100 yards with a magnum or larger type rifle

 

[saminwy]

heck, around here we use rimfire or at most the .17 for elfs. but whatever you want to use to stop that jolly singing while they work..hehe

 

[fisrtcoueswas80inches]

damn 3850 fps with a 180 grain bullt, what kind of gun puts up those numbers?
casey

 

[freedivr2]

I don't know why folks bother with ballistic tips. I've heard a lot of wierd stories about them like not being able to penetrate bone, etc. But, I'm sure they work fine if you can put them in the boilermaker every time.

I only load and hunt Nosler Partitions (165 grains). Never ever have I had a problem with them, and the two that I've recovered were 1/2 spent (the forward lead expanded and disappated through the critter, and the aft piece of lead stayed intact with the remainder of the copper bullet). Best bullet money can buy, IMHO. Probably the reason they're twice the price of Ballistic tips....you usually get what you pay for.

 

[saminwy]

thats been my thought, sure if they hit deer sized game just right, they go down. ok, we can say that about almost any projectile you can think of. they can do the job, but there so many choices out there that do it better. now for prarie dogs, theres no better medicine..just fine red mist..hehe

sam

 

[wallhanger (Guest)]

You might try the Sciroccos or Hornady Interbonds. Similar ballistics to the ballistic tips, but the cores are bonded to the jackets, so they don't "blow up." Someone actually posted a penetration test quite a while back where they used phone books or water jugs or something like that, and the Sciroccos out-penetrated and retained more weight than some of the bullets known for being tough.

By the way, I don't blame the earlier poster for using a 180 grainer for elves. You never know when you're going to run across a Will Ferrell sized elf with an attitude. You know, one of the elves who got stuck making Barbies all year instead of Bikes ;-)

WH