Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Nosler Ballistic Tip 120 grain, 7mm-08 performance

The 120 NBT is my favorite deer bullet in the 7-08. Wife and I have killed deer with at least one of us shooting a 7-08 since 2005. We've used 120 NBT, 120 TTSX, and 140 NAB. All worked - really well. The 120 is just about half the price of the others and has had similar performance in our experience.

i asked about the comparison between the nosler bt vs the hornady sst as i've read where they are very comparable projectiles but just wanted y'alls real world experiance is all. i like my bullets to hold together and penetrate to create 2 holes just in case a track job insues.i started my 6yo off with the reduced recoil custom lite 120 sst just to keep him from being trigger slappy and gunshy. here recently imma front shoulder shooter due to the impenetrable thick southern thorns and generally thick stuff that is 2 leaps away should you make a bad hit. we have tried the behind the shoulder shot and they run aways so this yr i know i'm going to lose some shoulder meat but i want drt or real close to it.

Yeah. It’s funny. In open country- 20 yard death run = DRT you see the place they died from where you stand and from where they where standing when the Bullet hit them. Now back in south ga where it’s palmetto and aliagtors andnscrub and water moccasins 20 yard death run = bullet failure, or bad shot placement or whatever you want to call it- but it’s a pain in the ass to find a 70lb deer in that situation. I been shoulder shooting again too in the main. I want to see white belly in the scope after The recoil where I do most of my hunting at the moment.

Other than BC are there any differences between the 120 and 140 that are meaningful specifically construction- will the 140 hang together like the 120?

I don’t hunt where you do but if you really need DRT on a 70 lb deer, the extra velocity of the 120 vs the 140 certainly won’t hurt.

Just weighed the jacket with a little meat left on it. 53 grains and you can see it's obviously a thick base and lower shank. Lots of folks on here with more than a sample of one with pretty much the same results. Impact velocity couldn't have been over 2700 and it penetrated rutted up neck muscle while blowing up substantial bone then penetrated some more. Would expect similar effect on shoulder bone but would rather shoot around it. For a light bullet with powder puff recoil I guess we'll keep using them for a while <<grins>>. Plus wife is convinced it's a death ray and she's Lagertha with a gun. Now a 120 Accubond with the same jacket would be a mean beast indeed.

The SST is not even close to this BTip. Don't substitute on shoulder shots.

I sure do not understand why Nosler will not make us a 120 & 150 gr Accubond.

According to a well-known gunwriter who shall remain nameless (Mule Deer), Nosler only makes ABs in various calibers and weights if the design offers a significant inprovement over BTs of the same weight.

Limited testing so far shows that my .308 may prefer the 165gr AB blems over the 165gr BT blems a bit from an accuracy standpoint. Only killed two deer so far with the BT and none with the AB, so that part of the question is unanswered so far.

They kill like lightening

Maybe because they wouldn’t be any tougher than those current bullets...

150wise probly because the 140 and 160 cover the need, for other than really, really loonies. 120wise it should be unique in the realm of lead core bullets in the low weight arena. Specially with an even heavier jacket up the shank (if engineering ain't too busy). I'd buy a couple.

Who said anything about a 70lb deer?our avg sized does are 120ish lb. so, the sst's aren't as heavily constructed as the nosler balistic tip?

Only a sample of 4, but I used them in a 7x57 with MV of a bit over 2900. Whitetails and pronghorn, none real big but all on the ground within 50 or so yards with one shot and all bullets exited.

Will be using them in 7mm-08 soon, won't be worrying about performance, that is for sure.

I did. I’ve been back in coastal ga for a few years now and I’ve been shoulder shooting primarily the last 2 years for the reasons mentioned in my post despite the fact that it uses up a lot of meat in a critte threat hasn’t got much. And I’ve gone back to 120grn tsx’s Because my encounters are frequently inside of 50 yards and I found the few options i tried in “deer bullets” were too messy or couldn’t get through the shoulders at that speed. I’ve got 140 ballistic tips loaded that I never even messed with and I never even looked at 120s because my experience has been with ballistic tips go heavy. I lately saw mentioned somewhere around here about the 120s stout construction for sillioutte shooters etc. I’ve basically always used 140 partition or 120 tsx/ttsx I got my 7-08 built the first time in 2007 and where I lived I had. No reason to look at other options.

175rltw did.





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Do a search on here, there is a lot written about the 120 NBT and performance. If you can find some of the older threads written by Steve Timm, you will have all the confidence you need.

In 7mm Ballistic Tips, the 120 and 150 grain both have heavy jackets and penetrate well. The 140 is softer.

The SST is much softer than any Ballistic Tip.

120 BT is an excellent bullet. Keep the MV around 2900 - 3000 and go kill stuff.

Same thing Pappy pointed out. Had not considered that part of the equation..

Indeed. I have his 120 BT recipe for the 280 AI if anybody wants it.