Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Mule Deer what calibers, weights of ballistic tips penetrate like partitions

Mule Deer do you remember what calibers and weights of ballistic tips penetrate like partitions?

If I recall correctly, the 7mm 150; 165 & 180 .30; 180 8mm; 200 .338 (now only available as the Ballistic Silvertip) have the extra-heavy-base jackets. But they may have added others--and in fact now list a round-nosed 220-grain .30 Ballistic Tip, that I suspect would have the heavier jacket.

But the best way to make sure is to contact Nosler.

Thanks John. Did Nosler discontinue the 250gr 9.3 ballistic tip? I remember you mentioned it years ago as tough and deep penetrating. Thanks.

.308 168 NBT was on that list. I have been using them on elk for years now.

The 168gr 30 cal Ballistic Tip is another one.The 220gr 30 cal was designed to be used in the 300 Blackout.

The 168 does indeed have a lot of its mass in the jacket. It's a nice all-rounder for a .30cal cup/core in that weight class.

+1 on the 7mm 150 grain. They are a little too tough for my application.

I have read numerous reviews that indicate the 7mm 120 grain was designed “tough” from the get go for metallic silhouette shooters.

Pretty sure the 120 is the same jacket as the 140 just shortened so it is a little thicker at the mouth.

Yep, they discontinued some of the larger-caliber Ballistic Tips when they introduced the AccuBond around 2007--which is basically a bonded Ballistic Tip. They tested each version in their penetration media, and with some bullets bonding didn't make any difference--but in others it did. The 9.3 250 was one of 'em--though I field-tested the AccuBond version extensively on a cull hunt in South Africa, and it worked very well. Among other things it went lengthwise through a springbok ram on a frontal shot, exiting the rump, and breaking both shoulders a 550 pound gemsbok bull--and also exiting. (The weight came from the ranch scales, not guessing.)

But have had great luck with 250 Accubond since, taking quite a few even bigger animals. Have only recovered one, a rear-angling shot on a 7-1/2 foot grizzly. The bullet entered the toward the rear of the ribs on the bear's right side, and stopped under the hide on the left side of the neck, retaining 81% of its weight.

Thanks Mule Deer. I really liked the tough 9.3 ballistic tips for 1/2 inch groups. When Nosler gets caught up supplying everyone I'll buy three or four boxes of the accubond bullet if they are accurate. I really don't believe we need the 286gr bullets in North America. However, there are those who will disagree with me concerning brown/grizzly bears.

Wasn't the 6mm 95gr BT also a tougher engineered projectile for elk hunting? Mark & Belle

I’ve shot the 150 7MM into game enough to know they act nothing like a partition. They can come completely unglued.

The older 150gr 7mm Ballistic Tips were explosive,the new ones are great. Unfortunately externally you cannot tell the difference between the two and some of the older ones are still making their rounds.

These are not old ones.

I really like the 7mm 150 BT.

It shoots well and has reliably exited and dropped deer. Wouldn’t hesitate to put one through an elk.

While I have used several of these heavier jacketed models myself, I don’t know that I would characterize their performance as being “just like a Partition”. They’re generally very good for non-bonded cup/cores, but I’ve found Partitions to dig a bit deeper and exit more often. I always figured this was due to a smaller typical expanded diameter, not so much overall weight retention. Some may disagree.

None do.

Everybody wants their bullet to work like a Partition. I don’t understand why they just don’t use Partitions to begin with.

Same thing with Accubonds.

Damm good question……

I have preemptively donned my flame proof suit......

I know it's bragging but....between myself, family, friends, and guiding I have witnessed roughly 150 elk killed with rifles over the past 60 years (I started following my dad elk hunting as a kindergardner in the early 60's). Plus I have been in on the field dressing of another 50-60 elk. As Brad suggests it seems a lot of people don't really know what to look for in bullet performance.

In response to similar thread a couple years ago I had two longish conversations with people at Nosler.
The jacket thickness of BT's and AB's don't vary much if at all. Instead Nosler uses different lead hardnesss for the intended application and cartridge the bullet is used for. An example is the 7mm 150gr BT. It is made with the 7RM in mind and does indeed have a more hard lead than usual. Partition lead hardness varies from the front lead to the rear lead portion--that was news to me and something I had never considered before.

"Accubonds are good bullets but they're not Partitions" That's a quote from a late outfitter I guided with for nearly 35 years. The outfitter and his two sons all used 7RM's, and his sons got into longer range shooting and highish BC bullets. They convinced thier dad to try AB's too. He did try them for a few years, saw AB's used on other elk, but went back to his Partitions after a while saying they were more consistent in their performance.

And this is a common theme I see in these conventional bullet threads. Take the recent ELD-X thread. The first couple pages were full of very different results. One ELD-X was claimed to have traveled practically lengthwise through a moose and the another post claimed the ELD-X went splat and stopped in the first lung of a deer. Inconsistent performance among conventional lead core bullets is a common theme and something I have observed time and again, particularly on elk.

Given the info and experience I have some BT's and AB's are definitely better suited for elk, or big deer, than others. But they ain't Partitions. No use trying to make them Partitons when the bullet is easily available at roughly the same price.

Flame away.......

Any bullet that does not have a built in “fail safe” design can absolutely come unhinged. Ballistic tips are no different. Most of my game has been taken with Barnes bullets. The second most with Nosler BT’s. It’s a lot. They aren’t partitions.