Bob,
Nosler started toughening up the Ballistic Tips shortly after they introduced them in the mid-1980's. At first they simply put a plastic tip in what had been the Solid Base soft-points, but didn't realize what effect the rather large hole necessary for the insertion of the tip would have on expansion. But as soon as it became apparent, they made changes, at first in core hardness.
But eventually they also thickened the jacket as they introduced new models. The first of these was the 200-grain .338, which appeared in 1993. I tested some in dry newspaper (a very tough bullet test), shooting 210 Partitions alongside them, and found the 200 BT's penetrated 90% as deeply and retained around 60% of their weight. Killed my biggest-bodied bull caribou with one that fall, at about 200 yards, the bullet entering the pocket behind the right shoulder and exiting the bones of the left shoulder. The bull dropped right there, straight down, posed for the trophy shot, and the wound channel could have easily been made by a 210 Partition.
A few years later used the same bullet and load to shoot my first gemsbok, a good bull quartering almost directly toward me at 150-175 yards. The bullet cracked the spine where it dips down between the shoulders, then went on through the rest of the bull, ending up under the hide on the rump, retaining 59% of its weight.
I never had any trouble with various Ballistic Tips from 1992 on, but always made sure to use recent versions. This included a 140-grain from a 7mm STW shot into a pronghorn buck angling away at about 200 yards. The bullet entered the rear of the ribs on the right side and was found, bulging the skin of the left shoulder, retaining 56% of its weight.
There are still essentially two versions, one which might be called the "standard" model and the heavy-jacket version based on the 200-grain .338. If recovered, the standard version usually retains around 50% of its weight, give or take 10%. Fairly recent examples are a 120-grain 6.5mm shot into a pronghorn doe quartering toward me at around 250 yards from a 6.5 Creedmoor. The bullet entered just behind the right shoulder joint and was recovered from the skin of the left ham, retaining 59% of its weight.
Another was a 100-grain .25 put into the shoulder joint of a Montana whitetail doe at about 50 yards, the bullet started at 3100 fps from a .257 Roberts. The bullet was recovered under the hide at the rear of the ribs on the far side, retaining 42% of its weight. Last winter a friend (who happens to be more of a heavy-bullet guy) killed a big aoudad ram at around 250 yards with the same bullet from a .250 Savage. This was his first aoudad hunt and he'd heard a lot of people recommend .300 magnums, but the little Ballistic Tip shot so well in his rifle he went ahead. The ram went about 40 yards and fell over dead. A Montana friend shot a broadside cow elk with one from a .25-06, and the bullet blew on through, dropping the elk within a few yards.
I obviously don't use Ballistic Tips all the time, partly because of having to mix things up due to my job, but have used the 95-grain 6mm; 100- and 115 .25's; 120 6.5; 120, 140 and 150 7mm; 165 and 180 .30; and 200 .338 enough to have plenty of confidence in using any of them. (Oddly enough, haven't used any in the .270 Winchester, but a local friend has taken over a dozen elk with the 150, and prefers it over any other .270 bullet for elk.) Might choose the equivalent Partition (or AccuBond) for some purposes instead, but in the past 25 years haven't experienced any problems with Ballistic Tips.
