When the Nosler 55 gr. Ballistic Tip came out I was in high school and of course I had to get as much velocity out of it as I could. Didn't have a chronograph in those days, but the listed max load of H380 got me 1/2" groups with a M788, so that was the load. The first "reactive" target I ever shot with it was a water-filled coke can balanced on our target stand made out of 3/4" plywood. I centered it at 200 yrds and the aluminum can wrapped around the plywood like it had been custom formed. I was SOLD. I made prairie dogs dance in the air, coyotes look like they were shot with lasers, and made my longest ever witnessed kill with it, measured after the fact at 642 yards, or at least according to a wheel counter. This was before LRF were standard fare in a range bag. I won't mention what was killed, but let's just say it was a predator about the size of a prairie dog. That load shot like a laser from that gun. After I got older and a little smarter I realized that seeing the extractor mark in the case head and having primers fall out was generally a bad thing, so I retired the load. It didn't shoot as well with two less grains of powder, which is where the max load changed to after the first couple of years that the bullet was available. I could barely fit 53 gr. of H380 in the case and seat a bullet, but by God I did it! 51 gr of H380 didn't have the same magic, but I'm also a big fan of my face, ugly as it is, and my fingers are precious to me. Good memories with that load. I probably ran 1000 rounds of it down the original factory barrel, which it still wears and still shoots well. I choose to remain ignorant of what the throat looks like in the barrel.
