Nosler Ballistic Tip

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ldlfh7

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I have been loading 8X57 in my surplus Mauser and practicing a lot for deer season. While it does not compare in accuracy to some of my other rifles, it is more than accurate to take a deer within a reasonable range as it is open sight. Lately I have heard these bullets fragment on deer real bad. Can anyone with experience shed some light here? I was thinking of a vintage hunt this year but if the deer is full of bullet fragments, I will need to buy some new bullets to load.
 
Yes they do partially fragment, no you don't need to worry about it. I have used ballistic tips to GREAT effect. They might make a nasty wound but place it right and you won't have to track anything.
 
Ballistic Tips maintain enough integrity to give reliable penetration on deer class game as long as you don't push them past 3000fps, they are supposed to hold up to 3200fps but anything past 3000 and all bets are off if you hit bone. Overall they are a VERY good deer bullet, one of the best, but my favorite is still the Sierra Game King, which is another bullet known to fragment some weight but it does massive damage to vital organs and kills on contact.
 
I love them for accuracy and hate them for their construction. I quit using them after digging pieces of bone and bullet out of 40% of a large deer I killed at close range. These were labeled "Hunting" ballistic tips.

I switched back to Nosler Partitions .. more expensive but worth it.
 
Ballistic Tips work best on soft tissue shots, keep in in the neck or behind the shoulder and you will love them, if you are a through the shoulder shooter you are in for a rude awakening. I mostly put them behind the shoulder and have never lost more then a few ounces of rib meat.
 
Ive used BT's a lot. Over the years i collected a few and found that on the deer ive shot and on avg the weight retention is around 30%.

I hunt in TN and MS and these shots were all broadside double lung shots between 50 and 300 yards from a 7mm mag.

In almost every case the bullet has exploded violently...turning the lungs to a shredded mess.

The upside is that the damage is devastating...and im not eating the lungs so the fragments dont matter. The downside is that many times there is no exit wound. The bullet simply didnt have enough weight left to punch through...in fact most times they veer off course prior to exit and ride up the hide on the far side of the animal.

If i hunted really thick stuff where a blood trail was essential...they might not be my first choice.
 
I don't rifle hunt deer anymore. I'm strictly an archery hunter now. But I used to. Other than the 180 corelokts, I shot 168 grain Nosler BT's. To say the damage is impressive is somewhat of an understatement. Shot 2 deer with the Winchester Supreme BT's and literally I could almost work my hand through the deer's ribs and I can palm a basketball. There was ZERO tracking. They just fell over and locked up like they had bit into a 440 powerline. Turned the lungs to lungburger. And the heart was decimated. Destroyed absolutely no meat except the ribs. But I don't eat deer ribs.

If you have any reservations about that bullet, I wouldn't use it. Confidence in your equipment is king. But I can tell you I wouldn't hesitate to trust my hunt to that bullet. Not for one second.
 
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Don't expect quite the explosion gspn is describing, 7mm Rem Mag is pushing the impact limits of the Ballistic Tip, I shoot them at 2900fps and have always had an exit wound. I am told they normally retain 50-65% of their weight depending on how fast you push them and what you hit. Give them a try I think you will be impressed with how fast they put deer down.
 
Nosler 150 BT

I've been using Nosler 150 BT's for close to 20 years.
I have an old 30-06 pump gun which was a 2 to 2 1/2" gun at 100.

I probably shoot more deer with a bow and shotgun than i do this rifle.
It was probably a waste of time to work up a load for accuracy out of this rifle but after trying about a half dozen bullets and 1/2 gr increments, I settled on 57 1/2 gr of IMR 4350 and the group size came down to about 1 1/4". I had a good time doing it. The doz. or so deer I shot with this load didn't go far. I never recovered any parts of bullet and can't remember ever not having an exit wound.

After shooting a buck and doe last season with a cross bow at 25yds, I shot this doe at less than 10 yds. with the rifle. She went another 10 yds. from momentum.
I guess I should say the longest shot I ever made on a deer was 95 paces with a 12 ga. Ithaca Deerslayer using BRI sabots.


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I have the same experiences as Kachok. I use them in .308 and .30-06 at about 2800 fps and have always had an exit wound. I've saw chunks of lung tissue sprayed over 10 ft of ground where it was shot. Very rarely is any tracking required.
Great whitetail bullet. If you hit the shoulder however, you are going to have a mess on your hands when you open it up. I know this.
 
It depends on the bullet. Nosler responded to complaints of them breaking up on larger game such as elk. The .30 cal Ballistic tips in 165 and 180 gr are essentially the same bullet as the Accubond now except with a green tip instead of white. They have made several others a bit tougher as well in recent years, but the 2 listed above are the only ones I'm sure of.
 
What Kachock said.

I shot a nice buck with 8mm 180 gr BT behind the left shoulder as he was angling away. About a 75 yard shot. There was no right shoulder...

FWIW using RE15 and FPS approx 2600 chrono'd. It shoots cloverleafs at 100 yards if I do my part. Love 8 x 57.

BTs shoot well in everything I shoot. They open and hit hard IME.
 
I shoot the Nosler BT in my Contender and Encore Pistols with great results.
The Ballistic tip type bullets are designed for rapid expansion shot out of a rifle at 2800 fps
Inside 100 yards or so they will be very distrutive at pistol velocity 2400 fps not so distrutive
My personal choice is a Remington Coreloc or a Seirra Pro hunter out of my 30-06 Encore running 2900 fps I get a 30 cal entrance and a quarter to golf ball exit with no shrapnel to deal with.
Flip
 
I like the 150 .308 variety. They work great at near 2800 FPS on deer and hogs (as Wyohome says) and even expand at .30-30 pistol velocities of just shy of 2200 fps. I do NOT see excessive meat destruction from them at 2800 fps even at 30 yards. I've seen a lot more meat destruction from a 150 Sierra game king at 50 yards shooting 3200 fps at the muzzle I've shot the full length of a nice 8 point, never found the bullet, ham to neck penetration. Don't let the un-knowing tell you they won't penetrate. I don't even mess with Barnes stuff anymore. I think the exploding bullet tales come from pushing them at high velocity on game inside 100 yards, my theory. I've never actually recovered one, have shot probably 2 dozen deer and a half dozen hogs with 'em.

One thing I really like about 'em in my .308 is the accuracy. 3/4 moa from the 20" soda straw of a Remington M7. In that gun, the Nosler BT is my do all favorite. If I ever go elk hunting with the gun, I might decide to load the Barnes or other controlled expansion bullet, but I think the BT would work fine just based on what i've seen in hogs and deer.
 
My cuz just shot a deer just a little farther than 100 yards with a Winchester factory silver tip shrapnel was found on the entrance wound and the exit was baseball to softball exit.
Lots of wasted meat and not a purity sight no animal deserves that.
Flip
 
Lots of wasted meat and not a purity sight no animal deserves that.

1. If you don't shoot them in the meat, you don't ruin meat. Put it 6" behind the shoulder instead of in the shoulder and you'll not waste very much, if any.

2. The larger the wound channel and more damage done equates to the animal dying faster and suffering less. I personally think the animals do deserve that.
 
I took my 1943 K98 Mauser hunting this weekend. I have some of the Nosler 180gr BT bullets, but haven't worked up a load for them yet, so I'm using the Sierra 175gr GameKings with a stout charge of W748. Pushes them along at 2,630 fps. Figure I'd try them this year and see how they perform. On the bench, 3" high at 25 yards and 6" high at 50, but that is about as long of a shot as I have here. Saw 2 does, but never had a clear shot. Good luck!

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1382377784.335546.jpg
 
I used a 180 grn Nosler BT from my Yugo M24/47 in 8x57 @ 2600fps, on a Fallow doe @ 120 yds last fall, she was 135 lbs.
Bullet entered the front right leg just below the shoulder, and exited the opposite shoulder, totally destroying it, (salvaged some hamburger meat).
She moved three feet in the air from the bullet momentum and was dead before she hit the ground.
I will place my shot better next time, but would rather have a quick kill than anything else.
 
The large caliber BallisticTips (ie: over .30cal) are a bit different than the .30 and under. They are constructed quite a bit tougher.
With milder loads in the 8mm you'll be very happy with their performance.

In fact, Nosler has discontinued the B.T's in .338 and heavier. I'm lucky to have several boxes of the 180's in .338 so I "happy" as they are the best/most accurate bullet in my .338/06 for "deer". I don't really use that rifle much as I've aquired "others". But, for deer and antelope it would be the B.T's instead of the newer MUCH more expensive accubonds...
 
I agree with the posts above. I have boxes and boxes of them in all calibers in my reloading room. Many, many critters of all sizes have meant their maker via these bullets. I love them for their accuracy and their killing power.

I have only had a couple of pass thru's, and on the other hand only a couple of deer have ran more than 20 yards. 95% drop in their tracks. Internal damage is explosive, but I can't say that I have lost very much meat. Sure, I have made a bad shot or two (maybe a few more) ruining some meat, but I believe that any bullet with bad shot placement is going to do the same thing.

I did have one bad experience about 20 years ago. I shot at a buck 25 yards away with a .264 Win Mag with a 100 gr bullet leaving the muzzle at 3500fps. The bullet exploded upon impact and I had to shoot him again to put him down. I believe that Nosler says to keep the impact velocity at or below 3200fps to get proper expansion. I guess I should have read that before hand loading for that rifle.

I have been trying some Berger VLDs in some rifles in the past 2 years. They also have been very accurate once you figure out the correct seating depth. I have only killed a few deer with them. but have been pleased with the results.

I don't think you would go wrong giving the BTs a shot. If I had some 8mm heads, I would send you some to try, but have nothing in that caliber.

Good luck, QM
 
The large caliber BallisticTips (ie: over .30cal) are a bit different than the .30 and under. They are constructed quite a bit tougher.
With milder loads in the 8mm you'll be very happy with their performance.

In fact, Nosler has discontinued the B.T's in .338 and heavier. I'm lucky to have several boxes of the 180's in .338 so I "happy" as they are the best/most accurate bullet in my .338/06 for "deer". I don't really use that rifle much as I've aquired "others". But, for deer and antelope it would be the B.T's instead of the newer MUCH more expensive accubonds...
You can still get the Nosler Ballistic Silvertip in .338. It's a ballistic tip with Lubalox coating.

http://www.nosler.com/ballistic-silvertip/
 
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