Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Substituting Accubonds with Ballistic Tips

Good morning all.
I wonder if anyone has ever had any luck substituting Accobonds for BT or Vice Versa?
They look so similar to me that I imagine given the same bullet weight they'd shoot to the same point of impact?
With about the same group size.
Does anyone have any real-world experience with this?

I've only tried A few Boxes of Accubonds... they didn't do anything more for me than the Ballistic Tips did, except lightening my wallet a little more..

so I still just use Ballistic Tips as my main preferred hunting bullet...

There's green tips and white tips in the "bubba buddy" stock sleeve on this Ruger .308Win. It shoots the 150 NBT and 150 NAB to a similar point of impact with the same seating die setting and powder charge. Both are great bullets. Same rifle shoots the 150 E-Tip to a similar POI with that load, but groups open up a fair bit, although I have no qualms with hunting them inside 200yds. I like being able to grab the flavor of the day and go shooting or hunting.

I tried BT’s when they came out and they seemed to have been designed as varmint bullets. Now they seem to be great bullets for accuracy and for performance on game. I have little experience with Accubonds - I’ve had excellent luck with partitions and have seen no reason to switch to Accubonds.
Some people like the Accubonds though.

I have a 7 mag and a 7x57 and they both shoot accubonds and BT of the same weight to the exact same point of impact.

I've had similar good results (on paper and on game) with the .30 cal 150 NBTs and NABs in the .308 WCF and 300 WSM.

Sounds like it can be done then, thanks everyone

All I use for antelope to elk are .308 168 gr NBT. I caught one on the last elk on the outside hide and it weighed 121 grs, perfect mushroom.

Same experience as you. My first impressions of the accubomb when it first came out was not good. Accuracy sucked donkey balls and no, you could not load them like you could ballistic tips, nor use the same seater die setting. The original accubonds shot terribly, most guys that I knew that tried them had the same issues. Then it came out that they liked more "jump" to the lands. By that time, I had given up on them. Back to seating die settings. When I tried that, I found the similar weight accubond would contact the rifling or vise versa. Its been a long time since then. But it was No bueno. The only combo I've found that I can use the same seater die setting with is on my 30-06 loads using 180gr Nosler parititons and 180gr Winchester power points. To say they shoot well is an understatement. I like simple and try to keep things that way. Especially when it comes to handloading:



So as far as it can be done. I have not seen it. You may get lucky, but I highly doubt it. You can always try to prove me wrong though..

I saw ballistic gel test with ballistic tips. They performed way past expectations! The guy doing the test was shocked. Performance was up there with some of the premium bullets. I like both. In my bigger high velocity guns i shoot Accubonds.

My 6.5 CM shoots 140 gr Accubonds and Ballistic Tips in the same hole at 2700 fps.

A 30/06 puts the 180 gr B/tips 3” left of 180 A/bonds with same load.

A 300 H&H hits the aiming point with 180 B/tips when the 180 A/bond is just over 2” high.

There’s only one way to find out and hopefully you get lucky.

Unlike the paper tiger bsahunter, actual use of AB's prove them to be a superb hunting bullet. I've dozens upon dozens of examples over the years, but this is one example from a Namibian cull hunt where the 160 version was paired with my Tikka 695 7Mag. I intentionally punched through shoulders trying for heart shots. These are the only one's "caught", the rest exited..

Exactly, ballistic tips kill hogs and deer just as well. If I was hunting heavier game, Accubonds probably a better choice

Outstanding

I used Accubonds for all but the last elk I got before I "retired". I never had any complaints with the Accubonds neither for accuracy nor performance. All bang/flops. I decided to try the BT's on the last elk I got. It too was a bang/flop. Hit a bit high, bullet passed through so I wasn't able to recover it.

I had heard much on this board and other boards about the performance of the BT's, all negative. Couldn't see how so many could vilify the BT's. That was over 10 years ago. If I were still hunting I'd use them without hesitation. If I remember correctly I made absolutely no changes in the load. Just a different seating die setting for my preferred distance off the lands.

I use .277 140 NBT's for practice and 140 AccuBonds for hunting. Works wells for me. I'd have no worries using a 140 NBT for deer and such, but the 140 AB has been such a solid performer over the years that I consider the extra cost good insurance in the hills. I've been using the .277, 140 AB since about 2006 and caught a few in critters over that time. All have performed well. Pretty much "Partition like" in retained weight. Frontal diameter is a bit more than a typical partition though.

Interesting. That's the one combo I would have guessed may have hit in different spots. Judging by the BC numbers alone, they appear to be shaped differently. IIRC the 140gr AB has the same, or used to, listed BC as the 150gr BT.