I have been searching the forums lately for further information regarding the use of ballistic tips on big game animals. From what I understand the bullet breaks apart upon impact and potentially does not leave a good blood trail. From an accuracy standpoint they have high ballistic coefficient`s.

I would like to hear some of your feedback, both positive and negative regarding using these bullets on big game.

I have used them a bit. They always shot accurately. Sometimes they blow up, sometimes they pencil through with zero expansion and sometimes they do exactly what you want. I will no longer hunt with them.

Read my post about blood trails from earlier today.

Didn't you say that was a shot at a running deer and yal didn't know where the hit was?

Yes, I was referencing the responces.

Thanks Tex Flip. The responses were good.

My 19 year old daughter shoot a buck last week at 166 yards with a 95 grain ballistic tip. Broke shoulder and shattered lung. The 175 pound buck nosed in the ground without taking a step. Not her first buck or deer or hog etc with the 95 grain ballistic tip. Very few run and the everything inside is mush. Love the bullet and is very accurate.

Started with 165 trainers in /06. Was like a hand grenade when it hit deer. Went to Hornady spire points and much better.

In my 6mm, 95 gr. ballistic tips. They do ample damage and stop some big animals. Not much on blood trail due to small cross section of bullet.

Very accurate and in the 6mm, not too much upset. Use Accubonds in my 6.8 and may start trying them more in other calibers.

I posted about my experience previously, but will tell you that I am not a fan. Shot two bucks at last light right behind the shoulder, but neither bullet exited, with a 150gr .270wsm. They ran into heavy cover and left no blood.

I shot 100 gr BT's out of a 25-06 for 10 yrs. before I found out they would not kill deer. I do not know how many hogs I killed, somewhere around the 100-150 mark with that gun. I gunned up to the 300's and bonded bullets years ago. I bet I have had more follow up shots and tracking jobs since that point than I ever did shooting BT's. I am an exclusive accubond shooter hunting bullet wise anyway. I am going to buy me a 270 wsm in a short trac. I will be shooting Accubonds for sure but I think I am going to go back and try BT's again. I grew up on a hunting camp and guided for many years on my own. I can say that BT's do make one heck of a mess if shot placement is bad but you know I have seen many many bullets and calibers fail and I think we recovered more animals shot poorly with BT's than any other bullet. A well placed BT is a perfect whitetail bullet in my opinion. It does not take a bonded bullet to kill a whitetail. IT takes a well placed (accurate) shot to keep from destroying meat.

Always did the job just never liked the fact that you didn't always get a exit.

i HAVE NEVER HAD A PROBLEM WITH THE NOSLER 95 GR IN 243 OR THE 150 GR. IN 30'06. ACCURATE AND IF ANY RUN THEY DO NOT GO FAR.

I've only shot one deer with the silver tip. It was a 180gr out of a 300win mag. It was at sixty yards. It was quartering to me. No exit but massive internal damage. Deer was not happy.

I've shot 2 deer with Balistic Silvertips, 150 grain in 7 mag. Both had a small entry wound, no exit wound, and both dropped like they were hit with the hammer of Thor. One of those deer was a big mulie that dressed out at almost 200 lbs.
It would have made me feel better if there was an exit wound and more external bleeding for a trail if needed, but fortunantly I did't need it. It's hard to knock the end result.

Any of you guys want a bunch of ballistic tips Nosler & Hornadys I will trade for 175 gr Sierra SMK, or Barnes. All 308 cal different wgts. I just punch paper with them!

i shot the silvertips out of my 270 for years. i have had one deer drop. cuz i made a headshot. all the others ran 30-100 yards and never much of a blood trail and the exit always looks identical to the entrance wound. im about to switch to nosler partitions

I've had great luck with BT's and SST's over the years when used as intended. They're not a big game bullet. They're built tougher in sizes over 308 which now appears to be limited to 8mm and 338, but it's still a rapid expanding bullet. Not what I'd want for something stout, like an elk, or bear, Nilgai, etc. Run something bonded or a Barnes. I shot a whitetail a couple of years back with my plinking load out of my 338/378. MV was right at 3400 FPS and the deer was at about 60 yards. Exit wound was about the size of my fist. That is not a complaint mind you, it did what it was supposed to do. On something stout though, I'd want something with less expansion and more penetration.

They are a bug game bullet when proper selection in bullet is made. In a few diameters they offer both varmint and bug game bullets so attention is required when purchasing.

Dee, I was specifically talking about the hunting version only. Not including the varmint. They're just not heavy enough in construction. Not what they're made for. Like I said, yes they are beefed up in 8mm & 338, but still nowhere near as stout as an Accubond, TTSX, and so on. If you kept the velocity reasonable, that'll keep the expansion in check to a certain extent but it's still not going to have the penetration.

The other side to the coin of this whole discussion is the new Berger hunting bullets, which do essentially the same thing. Less pentration, more expansion, etc. That's a full-on thread hijack, so I'll save it for another time.

.oo1 something of an inch difference in thickness in jacket. Still a cup and core. They make sense in bigger calibers but I personally feel your just itching for an issue in fast small calibers. No dought they work and work well, I just feel with bonded bullet technology better options. I look at the Gameking same as the Nosler BT

I think VLD's which more or less similar bullet construction have their place also. But thier limits are a lot more easly exceeded also then a bonded bullet

Over years and quite a few animals shot with different calibers and bullets, I have long since decided bonded bullets and Nosler partitions are a good things.

Never lost a deer with a Nosler BT, Swift Sirocco or partitions. I have seem a few bullet failures with a few cup and core bullets confirmed when the animal was put down with another shot (none of those were BTs).

I still use and believe in cup and core bullets for some uses the work great ie when impact velocities are below 2500fps they work and often have good exits on deer but not with the regularity I like.

the smaller the caliber and the higher impact velocity the more critical bullet construction becomes IMO.

They are plenty heavy provided the velocity envelope isn't pushed too far for that bonded or mono is the way to go. They were never designed for deep penetration like the partition they were designed to be very accurate and expand at distance where velocities are lower.

Last evening I shot 4 pigs and tonight I shot 3. All were with a 100 gr Nosler Ballistic tip in my 260. Not one hog took one step. MV on the load is right at 3000 fps. Exit wounds on all pigs. Biggest pig was about 100 to 120 pounds.

All Nosler Ballistic Tip bullets for hunting use (not varmint use) are beefed up from the original thin jacket. As I've said before, in 200+ deer and who knows how many hogs, I have not had one failure of a Hunting version of the Ballistic Tip when I hit the deer in the chest cavity. I have nicked a couple high in the leg or across the top of the back that I didn't collect, but they didn't die. I did have a couple of pigs I shot with BT varmint bullets from my 220 Swift that ran off. Some I found and some I didn't. I switched bullets in the 220.

Nosler Ballistic Tips (Hunting type) are all the medicine you need for thin skinned medium sized critters like whitetail deer in Texas or Louisiana. I wouldn't try them on a bear or an Elk.

For many years and many deer, I used the 270 and the 130 gr Ballistic Tip on deer and pigs, and then switched to mostly using the 260 and the 120 gr BT's. No failures except if I missed. Then I took a chance and downsized to the 100 gr Ballistic Tip in the 260. I wasn't sure it was enough of a bullet, but wanted to try it. It has been all the bullet I've needed to put down every pig, coyote, or deer that I've shot from 60 yards to 400 yards. I did completely miss an 8 point 2 years ago, but that wasn't a bullet failure.

Shoot em in the lungs like I do and they will lay dead within 75 yards, if they make it that far, just about every time. And one thing I've always liked about the Ballistic Tip is that when I shoot them in the lungs I get a great blood trail.

Much of what some of you naysayers are stating has not been my experience in use of that bullet. When I hit a deer in the lungs with that 270 and the 130 grainer moving along at 3000 fps, it just hammers them down. And I get about the same result with the smaller bullet in the 260.

The only time I ever wondered if I had the right bullet was when a huge hog showed up where I was hunting. The rancher had told me about him and said to kill him if I saw him. Well...there he was, but at 400+ pounds (weighed later) I really wasn't sure if my 270 and the Nosler would put him down. And it was the first hog I'd ever seen and I wasn't even sure where to put the bullet. So I just put it behind the shoulder like I do with the deer, and hoped that it'd get through that thick cartilage layer that they were supposed to have. Down he went and he grunted a bit and kicked a bit and then he was dead. That Ballistic Tip was just inside the skin on the far side of the hog. And that was the 'original' Ballistic Tip and not the new toughened up one.

Nothing wrong with that bullet.

I keep hearing about the 284 120 gr NBT's skin now being the same thickness as the 140's instead of a thinner more VT oriented design as it had been originally, as a sop to the handgun LR gong shooters that are the primary user market for the 120gr'er...has anyone ever sectioned one? Heard this often enough it's got my attention and 'sposed to be capable of Magnum MV's and associated impact speeds and hold together like an AB that is not offered in that weight last time I looked.
Ron

I shot a buck a few years ago with one at 260yds hit him in the neck and it went through but caused little to no trauma. Also shot a pig that year with them at like 15yds but all I found was tissue and blood. I have a friend that loves them and has shot a good number of pigs with good results. Here is a coyote I took with one at 90yds the exit wound is what you can see it has bone coming out of it.