Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Ballistic Tip vs Accubond

I don't notice a big difference between the Partition and the Accubond but have not shot many of the new and tougher BT. The first Accubonds I shot acted more like the BT and people were calling them Accubombs. Now I think they have been toughened up a little so may differ more from the BT than before. Does anyone think the BT will produce quicker kills? It should in theory but may not be apparent in the field.

I doubt the ABs would be noticeable vs killing with the BTs. They expand and hold onto a larger frontal area in my experience. I can't imagine how many animals you'd have to shoot to see a true difference between the 2 if everything was the same.

The Accubond is a great Bullet. These days I can't tell the difference between it and a Partition other than a little wider expansion and a touch better BC.

I don't know if the Ballistic Tip will kill more quickly than the Accubond, but it does work very well.

Last season I used the 165 gr Ballistic Tip, from my 30-06, on pronghorn, mule deer, black bear and elk. All dropped at the shot, only the mule deer needed a short range finishing shot because I broke his spine with the first shot, but didn't kill him with it.

Guy

With urging from JB Ive used Bfs on game after their first couple years of introductory failure. If they come in a box marked " Hunting" Ive found them to be excellent performers on game...if they come in a box marked "Varmint" thats exactly what they are...varmint bullets and not game bullets.

Haven't gotten what I consider acceptable accuracy out of Accubonds, though Ive heard their performance on game is indistinguishable from the NBTs....

I killed a big bull elk in 2015 and two buddys of mine also killed bulls only days later.

Mine was with a 30-06 shooting 180 grn Accubonds

Arics was with a 30-06 shooting 180 grn Partitions

Geaybirds was a 300 WM shooting 180 grn Balustic Tips

We were fortunate to recover a bullet from all three bulls.
All 3 had similar mushroom shapes and all three were within 5 grains of each other.
All 3 held at or just above 65%
All 3 died in short order....imo excellent performance

Accubond's sometimes like a big jump so don't be afraid to seat them deeper.


As for Ballistic Tips vs Accubonds I like them both and use them a lot. Like many of you I tried them when they first came out (150 gr - 30-06 in this case) and was surprised how they came apart on a black bear, killed it well but the remnant of the bullet was against the shoulder blade on the far side. I never tried them again until the 35 cal 225 gr Ballistic Tip came out which killed game for me from black tailed deer all the way up to moose. I wish they still made them. These days we use the 120 gr in 6.5x55, 140 in 260 Rem and 150 gr in 270 Win for deer sized game and really like how they kill game quickly without a lot of meat damage. All are nicely accurate too.

With Accubond's the 200 and 225 gr in 35 Whelen are my go to bullets and I really like how the 130 gr AB works in my 260 Rem. So far I haven't been able to tell the difference between the 6.5 mm Ballistic Tips and 130 gr Accubond, all have exited the deer shot and had exit wounds about 1 - 1 1/2" in diameter.

I killed my Mule deer buck with a 200 grain accubond out of my 35 Whelen last year.

Tejano,

Have posted this before, but here goes again.

AccuBonds were just as tough as they are today from the beginning, since Nosler did plenty of testing not just in "media" but big game animals before their introduction. I know this because of using plenty of AccuBonds immediately after they were introduced. All acted very similarly to Partitions on big game up to elk size, exactly the way they were designed to perform.

But demand became so high that a couple years after their introduction, one guy on the AccuBond assembly line tried to speed his stage up, apparently think he'd get a raise, or at least a gold star. Unfortunately, his speed-up technique resulted in bullets that acted like varmint bullets. Nosler regularly tests samples of their finished bullets to make sure they're shooting accurately and expanding consistently, but a few got shipped before the problem was found. Nosler sent out a recall, but some had already gotten into the hands of reloaders.

THOSE were the bullets that resulted in poor penetration. It did NOT happen with the first bullets, and the problem was quickly solved. I've personally never encountered such AccuBonds, and I've not only shot various AB's up to 9.3mm 250's into animals up to well over 1000 pounds, but have seen plenty of hunting partners use them as well, not just in North America but Africa,including 260-grain .375's that worked fine on Cape buffalo.

But they worked as designed from the very beginning. The problem was NOT in the design but, very briefly, in production.

MD

Got it and I am working on that reading comprehension thing. Just my luck to use the first BTs which were definitely of the Varmint type even if not marked so and to get that "special" batch of Accubonds. Now I have complete confidence in both. If any of my opinions are valid (quien sabe?) the BT is more likely to produce better accuracy with less tweaking then the Accubond but they have always been sufficiently accurate for me. The BT may produce quicker kills but I am letting the shooters pro shop determine which I use and usually you can switch back and forth with no load juggling or sight setting changes. BT, Accubond, Partition how much deader than dead is there?

Cut to the wizard of Oz scene where the Mayor of Munchkin land proclaims the Wicked Witch of the East most truly and certainly dead. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6cnryxwH6A

The 180gr BT is none of the best game bullets made, even at magnum velocity levels.

Btw the fragile BT'S in the red and green boxes everyone talks about are now over 25 or so years old IIRC. I used them and they worked good for me back then.

It's really hard for the average guy to get enough opportunities where the variables are close enough to the same to draw conclusions on if one bullet kills faster than another.

All that said, the NBT that I have the most experience with, the 120 grain .264 shot from a 260 Rem, really did flatten deer quickly. About half the time the bullet would fail to exit, but it didn't seem to matter. The bullets recovered were in the 50% retained weight range.

Catching bullets is a bad sign to me. I want an exit every time especially on bigger game. I have never seen an Accubond exit (out of 30+) and have personally caught at least 100 NPTs.

I remain amazed at those claiming to have never caught an Accubond or NPT.

Most of the Accubonds I have recovered were on frontal and steep quartering shots

I usualy get about 32" or a bit more

I've only caught a handful of Accubonds....mostly Elk and African stuff but a few deer and antelope stopped a few lengthwise

Having put quite a few X bullets lengthwise through big critters without ever stopping one I see a huge difference... and insist on bullets that reliably leave the scene.

I've shot 130 gr BT out of a 270 WSM and the BT would blast through the whitetail at 225-250 yds. Never a problem. Exit hole you could put your fist through.

Every deer I ever shot with one was DRT.

Dan

Laffin.........

My thoughts as well JG

I use the 140 BT in my 7mm-08 and have never caught one yet. Most of the game animals have been hill country whitetail, axis and one red sheep ram. Shots have generally been 200 yards or less. Exit wounds are in the 1-2" diameter size and most, if not all, have been DRT.
I use BT's in my 308 but haven't taken anything more 'gamey' than steel targets so far.
I use AB's in my 25-06's and 243 and haven't caught one of those yet either on basically the same game as the 7mm-08.
I use the ABLR in my 6.5x55 and 264 WM. Only taken a couple of axis does with the 6.5 and haven't caught one yet. In the 264, I took my 5x5 bull elk with it this past fall. Punched clean through both shoulders. Bull staggered up and I put a second one in him. This one went through a small twig/branch (I could see the branch moving after the shot) and entered the ham, through the pelvis and stopped in the meat on the outside of the off-shoulder. That one I caught. Bullet started at 142 gr and ended up at 60 (59.9 actually). I figure after penetrating about 5 feet of elk and two major bones, that's pretty good penetration.
I use partitions in only one rifle, a 243. the 85 gr goes through these little whitetails like a hot knife through butter.

Last partition I caught was a box of 25-06 Federals from 35 years ago that only 5 out of the 15 I shot into a sand bank actually mushroomed. The rest looked pretty much like original unloaded bullets. I did use them in my 25-06 when it was the only rifle capable of taking an elk way back when, never caught either of the two rounds in the two bulls I took with that rifle.

About what exactly?
Multiple posters here have used multiple Accubonds with me and not a single one exited.
I have shot a lot of critters with NPTS and have caught a lot of them.

Or is it hard for you to grasp the value of the larger and better vent on the exit side?