Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Old Ballistic Tips, 150 grain 270

The very first year the accubombs were very explosive, but by year two, that was corrected. Being in 100 piece boxes, there are very old bullets. I'd either section one, or shoot them into water jugs before I took them hunting so I would know, and be guessing at which version I was taking hunting.

Water jug tested them today. 4 gallon milk jugs full of water set up at 100 yards. The load is 57.0 grains of AA3100 popped by a CCI 250 mag primer. No marks on the case and primer radius unchanged. I got the rifle on paper with the Winchester 150 grain factory load and the 150 gr. BT's hit to the exact same POI. So I shot the first jug at the top edge of the label, the first two jugs were absolutely blown flat, the third jug was split in four directions, the 4th jug had a half inch hole through it and the bullet was not recovered though I looked for it for a while. In my opinion a bullet that will sail through 4 water filled gallon jugs has plenty of penetration for most uses. That said this bullet could be very destructive if put in the eating meat.

RL26 and 150gr Hornady Interbonds seem to be a match made in heaven in my Ruger 77 Mk II All-Weather Boat Paddle .270. Last year at one of the 1000yd ranges near here, I had a good day going and was banging a gong at 750 yds every shot with a load that was averaging about 3035 fps. The gong was either 9" or 10" square. I tried a little hotter load that ran about 3060, but in 80 degree weather, the bolt lift was just starting to increase and the primers were somewhat flatter.

That rifle loved the old soft 150 BT's also. I had a load for the 150 BT's using H4350 running about 2800 fps, that was excellent on deer, even when they were inside of 100 yds if you kept them in the ribs. Several years ago, I was using that load while hunting along the creek a couple of hundred yards behind my house and a nice 8 pt came easing along, headed off my property towards the neighbor's property about 50 yds away. I purposely shot him in the shoulders, hoping to anchor him. That was a mistake. The bullet hit the shoulder joint and shattered. Only two or three small pieces penetrated the ribcage into the vitals. I had to run and got lucky and got a bullet into him behind the opposite shoulder just before he got into some really thick cover.

I had a couple of boxes of the first year stuff. Good for crows. I never trusted them after that. (I’ll try them again after reading so much good print on them in the Fire. )

I bought a couple boxes of the first year production of the Speer premium bullets too. Same story. Very poor bullets in my opinion.

I suspect, but am not sure, that may be the reason I dislike Sierra bullets - poor poor performance years (decades) ago.

It’s been difficult to keep trying bullets after getting bit a few times. I need convincing by experts like MD and some others here on the fire. (I like antelope-snipers reply.)

Buying old bullets - for me at least - seems like a crap shoot. I did buy a bunch of bullets at an auction for a nickel on the dollar. And I did build an expansion box.

To me, bullet performance is more important than getting that last Bit accuracy. Mainly because most of my shooting of game is less than 300 yards.

I shot 130 gr Nosler SBBT bullets in my 270 till they quit making them. When they went to 1st Gen Ballistic Tips, I switched to those and had no problem at all. And I killed a lot of deer with them, and killed a hog that weighed close to 400 pounds (per the rancher where I was hunting) with one. The ‘explosive’ BT made it through the thick chest to the gristle plate on the far side. And then on to the Gen 2 version of the Nosler BT, which also works just fine.

Last couple of years i’ve hunted with a 260, and used 100 gr BTs and 120 gr BTs. Like with the 270, they work just fine. Either weight bullet will pass through the chest of a deer , but more often than not they won’t exit a hog of any size. Kills them, but doesn’t exit them.

I guess i’ve killed between 150 and 200 deer with Nosler Ballistic Tips, and I have no complaints about the bullet.

I avoided Ballistic Tips for years in the beginning when their rep wasn't good. When everyone said they were just fine I started using the 150 gr. .284 diameter bullets in a 7x57 and had excellent results on deer, coyotes and some really big hogs. I caught exactly one an angling away hit that came to rest under the hid of the far shoulder. It contained some core and was well expanded. the hog ran 70 yards downhill into a mesquite tree and had to chop limbs to get him out. His left tusk curled over his snout to almost in front of the opposite eye. I have also used the 180 grain 30 caliber version in a 30-06, excellent bullet. I may now get to test the early version and see how bad it was.

Right after the 140 gr .284 cal BT's came out, I bought a couple of boxes and worked up a couple of different ~3000 fps loads in a .280 Rem Ruger 77. I killed a couple of antelope and 35 to 40 deer with that batch. They were superbly accurate and I got bang-flops, or close to it, with all but two on a couple of whitetail does, one at about 30 yds and the other at 75 yds. Both deer were broadside and both were shot high in the ribcage, a couple of inches under the spine and behind the shoulder blade. The bullets zipped through without expanding!?!?! Go figure. One ran like hell for about 200 yds and had to be shot again, the other just laid down with its legs tucked up under it and head up, and was still very alive when I walked up to it, but it couldn't get up. But I've heard of other deer doing that when shot in that spot with other bullets.

When they came out with the 150gr 30 cal Nosler/Winchester CT BT, I loaded them in .308 and 30-06 for me and some friends, in loads from around 2870 to 2920 for the .308's to around 3000fps for the '06's. We've killed a plethora of deer and antelope with them, and we still load and use quite a few of them. Have never had the first problem of any kind with them.

A friend absolutely swears by the 165gr 30 cal BT's. He says that they might be the ultimate deer bullet in a 30-06. I've got some but haven't used 'em on game yet.