Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles Nosler 60 NBTs on game..

I asked earlier for any input on using this as a game bullet and got none, so of course I had to go try it.....
Only got a " sample of two" but Im inclined not to use it on game any more unless you can be VERY picky about your choice of shots, or limit your shooting to little Texas deer or pronghorn antelope sized critters.

Shot a nice Mouflon Ram ( about a 100 pound animal..) Broadside, twice. Neither bullet exited, but they killed him dead in short order. I would have thought I'd get an exit on something that small....
Also shot a blackbuck doe for meat ( maybe 80 pound critter..) Quartering on, through the hydraulics, again no exit. Put her down immediately though...



Shot three good sized pigs ( 90, 100, and 169 pounds)....all brain shots so THAT worked ( as did a few others I used the bullet on last year.)




Everything shot with the .223AI

Its a Super accurate bullet in all my guns, but I'd like a little more penetration on game.....

The Sierra 63 SMP seems to provide that, and the accuracy...

And there is always the SURE BET..Barnes 55 gr. TTSX

Good feedback, thanks.

What have you shot with the Sierra 63g SMP and in what ways did it work better?

Shot some pigs with the 63 SMP..also all brain shots, but unlike the 60 NBTs They all exited ... leading me to think penetration is Mo' betta....

Plus they originally came highly recommended by a good friend and a previous knowledgable poster here..Dober.

He shot lots of stuff with them, including a 7'3" bear with great results.

If Dober says it works.....it works......

Ingwe ,

I've thought about the 60 nbt also -do they all have the crimp ?
I figured a 60gr. bullet that is crimped would make a decent game bullet -would have thought it would have exit-ed myself .
Thanks for stopping my wondering about the big NBT .

By 'crimped' do you mean cannelured?

If so, I think they all have it and it has no bearing on terminal performance. Nosler themselves recommend it for varmints only...and it seems to be a good recommendation..

Yes cannelure .

Tom,

don't forget the old Speer 70 grain SMP also...

I've wacked some blacktails with them out of a 223 and 22.250...

dropped as fast as if I'd have shot them with an 06...

I shot a few deer with those Speers and was never impressed with performance ( had to shoot a couple twice..with good what should have been mortal hits..) Good buddy swears by them though...

Dober is one poster I'd love to see return. I miss his experiences and knowledge. I understand his not wanting to deal with the drama of this place and spending more time with his family. Good choice, but I still miss seeing his posts.

Looks like you had a good hunt ingwe...

Have posted before, we seem to lose the ones we really need to keep, seem to keep the ones we could for sure stand to lose...

DF


Ed. for spelling...

Been wondering about Dober. Agree DF

You don't see Pat (Scenarshooter) posting as much; Dober doesn't post at all. Too many "hot shots" trying to take down top guys to feed their insecurity. Those kind are driven to scratch their way to supremacy, at least in their own minds.

And then, some like BobinNH, pass to their reward. Those loses can't be helped, the former are preventable.

Maybe tighter monitoring of trolls? I don't really know how to handle that. Some sites are over controlled, sure not the case here. But, what is optimal? I don't have a good answer.

DF

The 63 SMP has been a bullet I've been shooting for a good while now at all sorts of stuff. I ran it with Varget at about 2950 from my general purpose 18" AR...

Although it flies like a mattress, it is very sturdy and accurate.

Exits are the norm, usually at any angle except straight on or away...

Mark (Dober) turned me onto the 63 Sierra SMP several years ago. I've used it in several 223's and a 22-250, it's easily the most consistently accurate bullet I use and it's deadly.

Good to hear the feedback on the 63 SMPs

Im leaning more and more towards it when I want to use a CnC bullet instead of a mono. And people seem to have better luck with it than the 65 grain GK

I ran a ladder with the 63 SMP many years ago at 400 yards from the same AR. Every impact was with a 3" circle. Got a picture somewhere of it...

It's an accurate bullet for sure but so is my AR. .Grin...

Ive had excellent luck accuracy wise with them too Greg. Only game Ive shot was pigs..in the brain..so no conclusions there, other than I got exits on pig skulls which I didn't with the 60 NBTs
But getting it from Dober and a couple of you other guys with actual experience means a LOT.

DF - I agree.

Ingwe,

I've tested them on milk jugs and decided they were a "varmit only" bullet.

I placed a one quart milk jug in front of a one gallon jug. Out of a 16" AR it cut the quart jug in half, but left the gallon jug behind it unscathed. In the bottom of the quart jug was the 10gr copper base, and that all there was to be found.

Nope, not a bullet I would choose for game.

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Sounds like that bullet would have been "fur friendly" .

Actually I found them to be fur friendly, once they slowed up to 2500 fps...







And yes, those are all different foxes...

Gotcha...good to know.

Nice to see all the stunt shooters havent been chased off.

Our numbers are increasing!

Resistance is futile!

Are you referring to performance on game or accuracy?

Performance on game. Both seem to be super accurate.

Interesting... You have now brought to my attention another bullet conundrum that I was not aware of. I had favored the 65 SGK for my next .223 (normal) load development, but this is based only on my feedback.

I have heard a lot of good about the 65 GK...but I have seen schitty results with other, larger GKs so I have steered away from it. There may very well be no reason to...

I have used the 65gr GK with good results on a three deer with no issues out of a 1:9 222 Remington.

I still like my 270 though!

Disappointed to hear about the mix results with the 65gr gameking. I bought a few to reload for my 223rem. I was going to buy the 63 smp for deer but when I call Sierra they insisted it was varmint bullet and recommended either of the gamekings, 55gr or 65gr.

But judging from the review I've read, both should be good bullet.


What range limits are you guys shooting at? Avoiding hard angle shoots?

The 223rem is fun to shoot! And cheap to shoot!

My personal rule of thumb is 200 yards for the basic .223 and 300 yards for the .223AI or .22-250

With all bullets in the little guns I tend to avoid angling shots, but with a Barnes its not much of an issue...

Thanks, ingwe!

Ive used 60gr ballistics on several whitetails , never did a serious autopsy , but they all went down in short order...the 63gr sierra has also worked good

Did you get more penetration out of the Sierra SMPs?


I think all tolled the 60 NBT will work for those who pick and choose their shots...carefully.

"And there is always the SURE BET..Barnes 55 gr. TTSX"

"With all bullets in the little guns I tend to avoid angling shots, but with a Barnes its not much of an issue..."


ingwe, I think you found your answer.

ingwe.....cant say for sure, except one Sierra did go thru both sides of the ribcage on a pretty husky buck , and stuck under the hide

the ballistics were used on smaller deer(does) one straight on from the front , at least a couple of others side rib shots , and those were near poleaxed on the spot

all those were out of a 223 semi auto


my feeling is the rear end of the ballistics has enough meat to get adequate penetration , as long as you are not doing azz shots , thru shoulder joints , or the like

I think you are right...the blackbuck doe I shot was quartering on and just augured in when it hit her...

Thanks for the testing Ingwe, you're braver than me, were I to get a bolt 223 or same AI'd for hunting, I couldn't leave those 55/62 gr TTSX's at home.

Interesting topic this.

Back before I knew better I kilt many a Missouri Breaks muley and Tongue River white tail using 50 grain Speers (in my 788 in .222) and the old Nosler 55 grain solid base boat tails (in my 788 in .223) Now that I know better (my wife laughs at this) and Colorado DOW forbids it, I can't use my go-to rifles for deer 'n antigoats here.

It's my (very) humble opinion that one is not under gunned using as light as 55 grain bullets to take even big bodied deer if you don't hot rod them to start with. From my "experience" with the aforementioned bullets the 63 grain SMP and Nosler 60 grain BT should work (though I have never shot either of them) at less than mach Jaysuss velocities.

Many of the deer I killed with the .222 you could eat right up to the hole.

RJ

Good info. A best pard of mine killed scores of deer with a Remington 722 in .222 with factory 50 grain ammo...before we knew better....

BTW I LOVED that Nosler Solid Base bullet..killed a bunch-o-deer with them in a 60 grainer...

These 60 grain partitions work just great on game...

I tried it today, and once hit, they didn't move a bit...

First shot a Monopoly board, and then a Quija Board...

Neither one of them moved after being hit with the partition...

This was out of a 221 Fireball...

This stuff definitely works...

That 63 SMP is about the only bullet I would truly say that I "like" from Sierra.

It's accurate in some guns (namely, the ONLY .224" bullet that would stabilize in my 22 hi-power) that won't shoot anything else...

Ditto.

I have a good answer. Put together a knights of the round table so to speak. Ones such as Ingwe, MuleDeer, Schrapnel, Deflave, RinB, etc. If something isn't done the campfire won't be worth standing around much longer. I haven't been here long but I've read here for quite a few years. The old campfire was awesome. The new campfire....not so much.



Trystan