I sometimes wonder is those folks writing about how bad the "accubombs" broke up were confused and shot the old Solid Base Ballistic Tips instead. Now those I also have used and seen used, and they were awful game bullets in every case I ever saw them used. But they were a cup and core bullet with a jacket about as thick as a piece of good writing paper and the plastic tip covered a large hollow point, so it was not a big surprise they they would break up all the way back to the base.
I used the early BTs in 270, 7X57, 25-06 and 257 Roberts and they were REALLY accurate---- and REALLY poor on deer and antelope. My friend Bob B. used them (against my advice) on deer from his 257 Weatherby Mag and the results were just like those I used in my 25-06. Awful. I have a friend in Green River, Rich N. that tried them in his 257 Weatherby too, and with the same results, shooting an elk. And another man I know in Gardnderville Nevada that used them in 30-06 and 25-06 with the same results. The one that was the most relieving was a friend of mine named Irvine C. who got a Wyoming moose tag and took his 45-70 and his 338 Win Mag up to the camp. I was with him on his hunt. He shot a bull with a 210 grain Ballistic Tip and hit it right over the shoulder blade, shooing down hill at a steep angle. The bull ran off and we tracked it down. It took us about 4 hours to catch up to it and he killed it with an LBT hard cast bullet from his 45-70. I personally field butchered the moose. The bullet hit the shoulder blade and broke up, and not one piece of it made it into the 1st lung let alone the 2nd lung. The shoulder meat around the hit was ripped up badly but the penetration was about 8-9 inches max. The shot was from his 338 210 grain Ballistic Tip bullet, and the range was about 75 yards. The 2nd shot from his 45-70 was also from about 70 yards or so. It hit the moose about mid belly and came out it's neck about in the middle. The moose dropped instantly from that shot. The 450 grain LBT bullet clipped the bottom of the neck vertebra which is why "it's legs disappeared". So it was a neck shot, but he shot through half a moose to get to the neck.
There are few more horror storied about the old BT Solid Bases bullets too, but I often believe those that curse the Accu-bonds mistake them for those older BT bullet because "they have a plastic tip" and seem to think that they are the same bullet.
There may be more to the story, but tha's what I have seen over the last 20-25 years.
Last edited by szihn; 03/01/20.
