Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 'Tough' Balistic Tips

I believe that I have read that some Ballistic Tips are 'tougher' than others in a caliber, such as the 7mm 120s and 150s and 30cal 168s. Is this true? Also, are there others? What are they? Thanks captdavid

BTW,how would compare the 7mms 150 Ballistici Tip vs the 150 Partition @2900 fps on cow elk under 200yds? Thanks again captdavid

Don't know about elk ,but a 7mm140 out of a 7 mag will blow through both shoulders of a 200 pound pig. The heavier the bullet, the tougher it is from what I have read.

Personally I don't think the 120 BT is all that tough based on a sample of one going to pieces after hitting a rib on a 65 yard shot with a muzzle velocity of 1950 fps. Other's have different experience and think they are the cat's rear end.

I'd pick a Partition over a BT every time. Even a smaller cal Partition over a larger BT.

Mule Deer has posted here in the past that some of the bullet weights and calibers popular for elk have been made tougher. IIRC he specifically mentioned 165 and 180 gr bullets in 30 caliber. There may be others.

I have some 338 caliber BT's that are elk tough. If I remember correctly, they may have dropped them in favor of AB's for the respective weights. I have plenty of both.

The 200 .338 BT's are still available as Ballistic Silvertips: Same bullet, different look.

The really heavy-jacket Ballistic Tips I know of are the 120 7mm and 165, 168 and 180 .30. Most others are pretty stout too these days, but the above bullets all have jackets weighing around 2/3 of the total bullet weight.

All the hunting ballistic tips are tough now.

Not a partition but too one is a 150 grain ballistic tip that was started at 3250fps and connected on an elk at 60 yards. Bottom one is a 150 grain ballistic tip same load pulled from an elk at 300 yards. Middle bullet is a 160 grain accubond started at 3200 pulled from an elk at 460 yards. As you can see not much of a difference. I'd have no problem launching them at 2900fps into elk.

Perfect examples from Laker.....pulled from elk......

I'd have to go back and do some counting to get an estimate, but at the very least I have taken multiple dozens of hogs -- and definitely into three figures -- using the Ballistic Tips and the Lubalox coated Combined Technology Ballistic Silvertips.

I primarily use the 6.5/120/ 7mm 120 & 140 and the .30 cal 150s launched at moderate velocities and have yet to experience anything I'd consider unsatisfactory performance. I have tons of photos I could post, but this set from Christmas night pretty much typifies my experience with them.

here ya' go:




THIS is perfect testimony to why I love the Ballistic Tips at moderate speeds. This 120 grain 7mm broke a rib on entry, wrecked the lungs and broke through the opposite side shoulder, penetrating the 2nd layer of 0.7" thick cartilage (shield) before lodging beneath the hide and very nearly exiting. And check out the weight retention after such hard impact.

The range was 170 yards. The MV of the load is app. 2655 fps from my 7-30 Waters.

Performance could not have been any better in my opinion as the hog dropped on the spot.

And yes, those blue-tipped bullets are really 7mm Noslers. These were a batch of factory-first overruns from the Shooters Pro Shop that were sold as 2nds due to the blue tip.

In the last few years I've used the 150gr in my 7mag,150gr in my 308 and 165gr and 168gr in my 30-06.I have been very impress with them.I used them years ago when they were quite explosive and quit using them until recently.Nosler did well in redesigning them.I think they are about the best non-bonded bullet on the market and they shoot darn good too.

I read a while back that the 95 grain .243 ballistic tip is an extremely tough bullet. Apparently Gail Root, former ballistician at Nosler was a big fan of the .243 Winchester and his favorite bullet was the 95 grain ballistic tip. He was given a free hand to design the bullet as he saw fit, and he designed it tough enough to use on animals up to the size of mature bull elk.

Steve Timm could probably verify that, I believe they were good friends.

From what I have seen, there are two kinds of hunting Ballistic Tips, both tough, but one kind is tougher than the other. The majority will typically retain around 50% of their weight. The other kind, the models I already listed with VERY heavy jackets, will typically retain at least 60% of their weight.

Bobby, that's a good pig mate. By the look of that green grass he'd been chowing down for a good season or two!

My wife and her moose 280 Remington using 150gr ballistic tip using muledeer load data. This was a big cow moose we ended up with 480lbs of meat to include the bone, going to the butcher.

Wow - big moose! Congrats.

I've liked the Ballistic Tips for a long time now. They've become my preferred hunting bullet for most game & rifles.

This past season all I used was my .30-06, with 165 Ballistic Tips at about 2,900 fps mv. Bear, pronghorn, mule deer & cow elk. No problem.

Shot the mule deer in the chest as he was facing me, about 140 yards away. Bullet penetrated most of his body, dropped him instantly and was recovered well back, just under the skin:



Didn't take a good photo of it, but this one took the black bear at 325 yards, as he was quartering away from me. Recovered the jacket in the off-side hide, and the core did separate, making an exit wound. Bear died very quickly.



Of course the pronghorn didn't stop the bullet. And I never found the bullet that dropped my elk. Hit her in the shoulder, trashed the lungs and the bullet appeared to at least go into the off-side shoulder, but I never found the bullet. Ah well, she died quickly.

Guy

Am also very impressed with the 95 gr Ballistic Tip, from the 6mm Remington. Very accurate and excellent performance on mule deer & whitetail.

And the 115 gr Ballistic Tip from my .25-06 is one heck of a deer, antelope & coyote killer. Very accurate too, I've made some longish shots with that rifle, no problem.

Ya, I like the doggone things!

Guy

I think that I will try the 115 BT in my .257 AI on my next deer hunt. I ran out of 110 ABs and SPS hasn't had any for a while. I loaded up some 115 BTs that have been languishing on the reloading bench for a couple of years. They shoot as good as the ABs and I have been impressed with the terminal performance of all the other BTs that we have tried.

Guy,

That recovered 165 .30 is typical of the expanded shape of the "super-heavy" jacketed Ballistics Tips. Their jackets are much thicker along the shank than most Ballistic Tips, surrounding only a relatively thin column of lead--the reason they retain more of the shank when expanded. The standard hunting BT's tend to open wider and "shorter."

Even when the super-heavy jacket BT's lose their cores, they normally retain around 60% of their weight, because there isn't much core to lose in the first place. Which is why they keep on penetrating even without any lead, unlike standard cup-and-coreds that lose their weight.

Have mentioned this before, but probably the deepest penetration I've seen with a super-heavy jacket BT was on a bull gemsbok, about the size of a typical mature cow elk. The bullet was the original super-heavy jacket BT, the 200-grain .338, and the bull stood quartering toward me at around 150-175 yards. The bullet clipped both the near shoulder and the bottom of the spine, ending up under the skin of the rump on the opposite side, retaining 59.4% of its original weight, despite losing the core.

Guy,

Did you weigh those bullets?