It is almost sacrilege to say anything derogatory about the Ballistic Tip here on the 'Fire but hear me out. I first used one, a 140 in a 7mm08, in about 1996. It left a large surface wound and disintegrated with a few small pieces exiting. The whitetail deer, did not go far with that lung shot but I wasn't happy with the integrity of the bullet. Next was a 130 out of a 270 (gay) that made an even more horrible surface wound. Yup, I got the deer. Luckily, it was a lung shot and not a shoulder. Next, still in the 90s, was a 95 BT from a 243. That one exited on the 95 yard lung shot, deer went about 75 yards and went down. Not as good as the usual 40-50 yard travel when using a 7mm08 or 308 with Sierra 150s.
I have read many times here and elsewhere that Nosler made the bullets tougher at some point but we are left to figure out when that was. Also, the 7mm 120 is supposedly tougher than the 140. How are we supposed to know that? What kind of sense does that make?
The 95 BT 6mm was supposedly designed by Gail Root to the a tough bullet from the get go and he even used them on elk! So why then have people using that bullet experienced blow ups? Were these toughened up too? When?
It's all too confusing to me to determine which ones are good and which ones aren't.
Am I the only one who feels this way? I wish I was one of the happy BT users but due to past disappointments, am reluctant to try them again. The only reason I used them in the first place was because the Solid Base was discontinued. That was a good bullet in the 270 and 708.
I f you go to the store and purchase new ballistic tips you can rest assured they are the updated tougher version.
