I don't like Hornady SST or Nosler ballistic tips. Too fragile. They over expand and fragment. I don't trust them to penetrate on sharp angled shots or to drive through heavy bone.
I don't care for TSX all copper type bullets either for the exact opposite reason. They seem to expand very little at all on whitetail deer. I am amazed when I read the accounts of people online who talk about how these bullets consistently drop deer in their tracks. Those folks must be launching them at about 3700 fps because at more standard velocities I never saw that happen. In fact if I had to sum my experience and the experience of my friends with them up in one sentence it would be: "never has so many well hit deer ran so far; bleed so little; and been so hard to find.
For deer sized game I like standard lead tipped cup and core type bullets. My favorite is the Hornady Interlock. They have been accurate out of all my rifles and the lead alloy in them seem to be just the right level of hardness to give good penetration while still expanding enough to kill quickly. I have never recovered one in a deer. Even the 117 grain Interlocks out of my 25-06 have always exited the deer I have shot.
The first generation bt's were very accurate and Explosive they colored my thinking for 20 years. I am allways looking for bargains at gun shows and when I see old bt's in the black box with the red and green lable I pick up my pace to get by them. On the other hand with a good price I buy all the old Solid Base ones I can get they worked well for me as well as NPT's old or new. MB
