Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire 30 cal/165 gr Ballistic tips

How have these performed on large bodied deer (muley). I prefer partitions but they are nowhere to be found in my neck of the woods.

Using out of 308 WCF.

Thanks in advance for input.

They should work just fine

They will be great, shot quite a few 200 lb pigs with them, never had one run off. I was a Partition guy until I tried the Ballistic tips

Not used BT, but SST in 06. works fine on caribou especially longer range. I suspect they are similar.

Put the bullet in the vitals equals a dead mule deer. MTG

My only input is for 150lb whitetails

And they worked great, held together just fine.

When all other titty babies said they wouldnt.

.308 win, about 2600fps is where I load


Sorry cant offer data on mulies or heavier bodies

That one has a pretty stout jacket and are great out of a 308.

Keep a sharp knife!

Great bullet, used it a bunch in my 30-06 on deer and pigs. Took one elk no complaints. Still have several hundred laying around.

Youngest son shot a cow elk in 2015 with 168 gr BT at 2760 fps with 308, DRT I know it is a little heavier than what you inquired about but the 165 gr will work just load up and go hunt.

Yes.

The larger the caliber gets in the Ballistic Tip bullet range, the thicker the jacket.

I have a boatload of the 150 gr. .308 bullets, and use them exclusively for deer and anything I use a .308 for. They kill stuff dead, can’t see a 165 being anything but better in the toughness department. After using the 150’s on deer for years, I won’t blink at using them on elk, the way I hunt. 165’s would be better, maybe, but I don’t have a ton of those in hand.

I don’t take long pokes at game, I hunt them and get close. Only ever shot one deer over 200m, and it was a buck at 400. Killed him fine, would do it again if required, but most of the time my kills are under 100m, usually way under. Only time I have seen BT’s come apart is guys running them over 3k in whatever they shot. You ain’t doing that out of a 308, especially with a 165, so they should be spectacular.

can't speak for the 165 gr BT & 308 Win but have taken several forkhorn moose years ago with the CT 180 gr Ballistic Silvertips (same BT bullet coated with lubalox) from my 300 Win Mag at 100-200 yards or so, both moose went down after stumbling a few feet, bullet jacket recovered stuck against hide on opposite side, still some lead left at the heel that fell out after cleaning the muck off, no bones were hit other than a rib, lungs and liver were a mess

When you find ANYTHING on the North American continent that can take a 165 Nosler BT in the boiler and survive, you let me know.

168 is a better shooting and stouter (thicker brass back end) bullet than the 165. Either will kill deer.

I use the old 100 count boxes in my 308.

The best deer killing combo I ever used. Good quick kills, reasonable loss of meat, pretty well always exits.

Had an 8 deer, for 10 shot string going.
1 miss, 2 hits. Same deer. So 7 for 7 in the string.
Got to using other stuff and lost track after that.

Just Pa deer though. Not big, or small.

A few years ago in one season I used only the 165 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip, loaded to 2940 fps via H4350 from my 30-06 Remington 700:

Elk cow, one shot, through a shoulder blade, broke the other shoulder blade, never found the bullet. I think it came out with the lungs.


Pronghorn Antelope - through and through of course. Dead antelope where it stood.


Mule deer buck - this one needed two shots. The first shot was from front to rear, then I had to kill it with a second shot when I walked up on the buck.


Black bear - one shot, ran maybe 10 yards...


All were quick drops. Three of four were quick kills. It's a great bullet, accurate and works well on game. That was a particularly good season for me.

Regards, Guy

Had several good years back in the early 90's like that. I used the 150 grain Speer Hotcor which in no way is as good a bullet as the 165 gr. Ballistic Tip. I still made 11 one shot kills one year, thinking that was 1992.

One of my local friends shot a cow elk that was facing him with a 165 Ballistic Tip from his .300 Weatherby a few years ago. He did find that bullet--it was under the hide on one of the hams.

The 168gr ballistic tips are Hell on earth on whitetails for me from the 308win. The destruction is unbelievable for its mediocre speed from the 308. Huge wound channels and always seems to find a way to exit.