Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Old Ballistic Tips any good?

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Dad's still using 165 30 cals loaded to about 2500 or so in his '06. They were loaded up during the Reagan administration for meat hunting in the driftless zone of WI. They work rather well for their intended purpose.

They will also work fine pushed out of a 6.5 barrel at 3350 fps MV, but I'd load them in the 2700 to 2900 MV range.

20 grains of Blue Dot in a 260, with a 100 grain BTip...is a darn good deer combo...like 2450 fps MV
I've done the same thing with the Swede....30 grains of 4198, or max of 24 grains of Blue Dot.

I bought a bunch of .25 cal 100gn Ballistic Tips at least 20 years ago, possibly a bit longer. Still got a couple of boxes. From a 20 inch barrel .250 Savage (2772 fps) they were quite hard and I once shot two pigs with the same bullet. Pigs would tend to run a fair bit before going down. However, at 3100 fps from my Roberts they put pigs down quicker, I guess opening up more with the higher velocity. So this bullet at least, seemed to be fairly stoutly constructed a fair while ago. A mate has shot through a red deer hind and a beer keg barrel sized boar with the 100gn as well.

Makes you wonder what the .25 115gn would do better?

I once used a 150gn Ballistic Tip from my .308 to shoot length wise through a pig. The pig was facing me with its head down feeding so I shot it through the back of the neck. The exit hole was just to the side of its tail after penetrating almost three feet. Those bullets would have been over 20 years old as well so the fragile bullets must have been before my time.

I loaded some 100gr ballistic tips in my 25-06 to use on coyotes because I assumed they’d be fairly soft. I never got a shot with them. After reading the reports here I think I’ll use them for deer to. My deer loads were 100 TTSX and they’re a lot more costly than the Noslers.Now I won’t feel like I’m bleeding internally when I practice shooting some of them.

Never ever a ballistic tip again for us. The old ones were bombs... Newer supposedly better. but with TTSX around and another similar I can't think of the name of right now why would we use anything different.

For target practice sure. Varmints sure. But not edible game.

We use light BT type for hogs due to so many houses around but I'd hate to see deer destroyed like they do on pigs.

So there are uses. Just not for our tastes for big game. And I never want to see BT show up for moose/bear hunts with me as a guide. Saw a Berger show up this spring. That was a nightmare enough. Took quite a few TSX and TTSX out of our guide guns to stop the wound that the Berger started. Ugh.

We do use target bergers for slower rounds and longer shots.

As to cost of bullets if a box of TTSX breaks your bank you have much larger problems.

The only experience I've had with the early Ballistic Tips as with the 7MM 140 gr. bullet. Worked up a very accurate load for my 7MM Mauser M70 FWT running a hair over 2800 FPS with W760. I shot a Mule Deer buck and hit the shoulder. It looked like the bullet blew up on the shoulder bone. Just not sure if it actually penetrated into the vitals. When got to look for the deer that ran down into a gulley, I blew my left knee and couldn't go any farther. My son in law and his son refused to go look for the deer and dragged me off the hill. I haven't hunted with them since. I'm thinking of pulling the bullets and downloading them closer to factory levels as they'll still be moving fast enough for the distances I prefer shooting. Truth be told, I'l most likely just use them on paper and not worry about how explosive they may be.
PJ

What do you mean by "light BT type"? Light enough within caliber to fall into the varmint category of BT?

My campmate, his boys and I have used Ballistic Tips numerous times on deer/pigs and we have yet to "destroy" one. These include the 95 grain fired from the 243 Winchester, the 120 fired from the 260 Remington and the 150 and 165 grain versions fired from the 308 Winchester.

They would be good for pigs

Best deer bullet I’ve ever shot & as Mule Deer indicated the worst for elk. These will allow your tracking skills to get rusty at lest 150’s in my 7mm RM deer were all bang flop. 3 shots in a dime at 100 not uncommon super accurate & lethal on under 250 lb deer.

Killed a few elk then got a palm sized entry wound 240 yard shot on a nice bull over 500 yard tracking job in the snow. He died from shrapnel in the lungs.

Now exclusively use TTSX for elk & deer. Great bullet not as many spectacular kills as the old BT’s.

I shot a 500 + pound moose with a 165 grain solid base in a 308 win. The range was about 50 yards, first shot behind the shoulder. The seconds was in the neck. They did not pass through. I only recovered a piece of green tip.
The moose died.

Would like to know how "it looked like the bullet blew up on the shoulder bone" since the deer was never recovered. But have always wondered about ANY negative description of bullet performance where the animal was not recovered.

In this instance it's because, as noted in an earlier post on this thread, I killed a number of animals with the first version of the 140-grain 7mm Ballistic Tip handloaded to around 2900 fps from the 7x57 with NO problems. In fact never recovered one, even when they went through pretty heavy bone in deer-sized game at various ranges. Have also used them in cartridges up to the .280 Ackley Improved with no problems.

The late Chub Eastman, a VERY experienced hunter and the Nosler writer-contact from the mid-1980s until he retired around 2010, told me the 140 7mm was one the early Ballistic Tips they didn't change when "revising" the BT line in the late 80s. Based on my experience with them in those days I have no doubt that was true.

I killed several deer with the “original box” 270 and 7mm 140 btips out of the 270 win and 280 Rem. MV was 2900-3000 fps depending on rifle and load and they worked very well. The bullets exited on deer I shot with no signs of blow up. The only 140 Btip I can remember not exiting was a 140 combined technology in a Win factory load out of a 280 Encore. I borrowed the rifle from a buddy on an out od state trip. The barrel was long - 28” I think so additional velocity may have played a role in not exiting, but the deer dropped at shot anyway

I know I still have some original 270 140s and would have no qualms using them on any deer hunt at least

Lou

My son shot a big buck (200lbs+) at about 125 yards or so with a .257 115BT out of a 257 Roberts. The deer ran 80 or 100yds in a big circle.......He placed the shot in the ribs right behind the shoulder.........The lungs were soup.....Literally. All we found of that bullet were a few tiny fragments.......These were bought as seconds from SPS about 4 or 5 years ago.......These bullets are very accurate and did what it was supposed to do except stay together........

I base my opinion of the old ballistic tips on a sample of two, so, statistically meaningless. The first was a .308 165 gr. at about 50 yards on a broadside buck. MV was about 2550. Bullet grenaded but knocked the deer over. Second shot into the neck ended it. First bullet didn’t get past the shoulder blade. Second was a 115 gr. .257 at about 75 yards. Shot and hit the throat patch, bullet grenaded, deer ran off, did not find it despite good blood. Deer was seen and killed about two days later. I stopped using them. Newer bullets have been fantastic, with quick drops and good blood trails when they don’t drop.

Old70

Mule Deer's confidence in the early 140 grain 7mm ballistic tips surprises me because I had the opposite experience. I shot a doe mule deer at about 40 yards with a 140 BT out of a 7mm-08. That bullet blew up on the shoulder and made a huge entrance wound with no exit. The doe died but it did run about 75 yards first. Too much meat damage for me and I went back to partitions.

I have used them since the day they came out. hundreds of deer/hogs/elk later, no problems...

Never had any bullet fail to make it into the chest cavity of a whitetail deer and most of them that I have shot have been with high velocity cartridges at close range. This includes the original BT's

I've tried one bullet that ruined too much meat.
Found similar with varmit rounds, but that is to be expected
with using the "wrong" tool.



Not going to mention anything in particular and start a crapstrom,
But so many here insist on premium bullets, retained weight, and full
penetration. A decent soft bullet, at a decent speed, of decent dimensions,
will kill faster than most premiums. And if the dimensions are decent enough, it will fully penetrate too.

Even those proclaimed "too destructive" almost always exited.
That was where the damage was truly epic.


.308x165gr. Decent dimensions. Don't need "special" to kill whitetails
if you start in that neighborhood.

I had some first year BT's and I thought they did too much damage under certain circumstances. I suppose lung shots would have been perfect with the bullet. I stopped using the BT when I hit a shoulder. Honestly, I do not recall the caliber or the cartridge - but maybe the 30-06? I have no qualms about using the BT's now.

As far as bullet performance goes, I prefer bullets that stay together and don't destroy a lot of meat (blood shot) when the bullet hit a shoulder. I will (and often have) shoot at running deer and sometimes the bullet doesn't hit just behind the shoulders.