Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Ballistic tips best for whitetails?

I like ballistic tips. I have shoot quite a few of them out of a 7mm/08 at deer. The 140 grainers were like cyanide.

Kind of good to have a Ballistic Tip thread not trashed by the unbelievers.

I prefer them when the rifle will shoot them well....but in .30/150gr...im pretty much sold on #3033 Hornady...just my .02

Yes it is.I really didn't expect it to make it this far without somebody bashing BT's.

I love the BT's as well. I also agree the best optimum speed is 300 fps or less. I shot several deer in the past 5 seasons with the 130gr BT out of a 270 WSM and a 150gr BT out of a 300 WSM, all had the same ending result....DEAD! Both loads where in the 3200 to 3300 fps range. They grouped excellent, but had a tendancy to get really messy sometimes if you hit bone, which did some major damage to the meat. The 150gr out of my 308 is by far my favorite because it is moving slower and does a wonderful job of killing without all of the mess.

Try the 150 grain BT out of the 7 WSM... I found out Saturday that Dober was right - they work great on yotes!!!

Between my 280 and my son's 7-08, the 120's have netted 12 antelope,6 mulies and 1 6X6 bull with no problems.

Ive been using 150 gr. BT's for about six or seven years now except for a couple occasions and every bullet performed perfectly for me. If you hit em where it counts, you cant go wrong with BT's. Its when you get into bone is where they dont perform well. Still probably well enough for your avg size whitie in the states particularly the southeast which is where i hunt.

Happy hunting!

TC

Ballistic tips are definitely a good deer killer but I prefer just a regular ole soft point bullet for my deer hunting since the majority of my shots are close range. The soft point bullet works just as good for me at much cheaper price. If was hunting where the shots were long and required a super accurate bullet, ballistic tips would be right at the top of the list. In fact, I have a few boxes .30-06 Winchester Supreme Ballistic Silvertips (Lubalox coated NBT) and I can cover 3 shots with a dime at 100 yards so that would be my load of choice for hunting something like a power line right of way.

Dogzapper has killed more critters with Ballistic Tips than I'll likely see. I doubt that he'd use them as much as he has if they didn't work. I've seen quite a few deer killed with BT's (including a few of my own) and haven't seen anything resembling a problem, much less a failure.

MY youngest son (7) shoots a 222 rem mag topped with 55gr nosler BT's and has no problems putting the deer here in South Texas down.

I've always had good results with the 7mm 120's in both 7 Mag and 7mm/08.
The 95 gr does a wonderful job in my 6mm Rem

those 7mm 120's have my interest in my 7mm-08. They are very accurate and even do very well out to 500 yards on targets. Must have a good BC.

I killed a blacktail buck with a 150 BT and thought the explosiveness I saw was a bit much. It was at very close range. I really like the Accubond and while it's more than any deer "needs", it's an excellent deer bullet IME.

that brings me to my next question. how do accubonds perform on deer, do they open up well? are they kind of a bt that stays together better? what about ttsx? thanks for all the help.

I just took a nice 185lb/8pt with a 140gr. SST out of my 7-08. One shot, 80yd's,dropped in his tracks. I've always like BT's and have them loaded for my 270, 338/08 and 338mag. I just wish someone would make them for my favorite caliber, 358win.

I prefer the BT's as they tend to be VERY accurate no matter the caliber. I like them in my .257 Roberts AI as well as the Wifes 7mm-08 and my .280 Rem AI. I've never had a problem with a single deer or antelope with BT's.

Then again I pass on many shots that others would take. I prefer a broadside so I can take out both lungs and maybe catch the heart in the process. I also hunt a 6 week season 4 miles from my home. So no urgency or time constraints.

FN in MT

I think my one kill with a BT was an anomoly, so I'll refrain from commenting directly on whether the AB is like a BT that holds together...

However, with two good "test of a bullet" deer kills with Accubonds, as well as two personal elk kills and two witnessed (afterwards) elk kills with AB's, I can report that they do indeed hold together and penetrate. And they sure do expand. And you get the boattail and plastic tip of the BT obviously... I dunno, I think they are about the best bullet out there, period, as long as a guy uses a reasonable bullet weight. I don't think they are the way to go if you are into shooting light-for-caliber bullets at warp speeds into shoulders though.

-jeff

NBTs are very good whitetail bullets, I've killed piles of them with NBTs w/o failure. Matter of fact, only a few have failed to exit on raking shots and always had nice mushrooms on the off side.

In regards to the Accubond, I load them for myself and several others. We have taken dozens of game from varmints to elk. They do really well on deer sized critters, but I have noticed on at least 3 that the exits were small and blood was very sparse. We've actually had NPT type performance on most animals taken with the NABs. I have recovered a couple and they were text book mushrooms with 60+% retained weight.

You can;t go wrong with NBTs or NABs for medium game IMO, just choose what shoots the best.

My whitetail load this season is a 7mm 140NAB @ 3185 fps avg. Worked like a champ on a nice mulie last season, so I'm going to give it a try on 200-240lb whitetails in a couple weeks shall the opp arise.

Good Luck

Reloader7RM

Some of my guns seem to prefer BTs and some seem to prefer Accubonds. I've had great success with ABs on deer and yotes. We're trying the 120 BT for the first time this year in the wife's 7-08. So far one shot has taken down a decent 7 pointer DRT. MV was 3100 or so, shot was 74 yards so it was still cookin' along pretty good. Really no meat damage, just a bunch of goo where the lungs were and the top of the heart was grazed but not unduly damaged. Broke a rib going in, broke two going out with about a 3/4" exit. From my vast experience of one kill with the 7mm 120 gr BT, it appeared to perform about like ABs. And it is VERY accurate in this gun.

I wacked a small buck with my 7-08 and a 140 BT the other day, bullet performed great, shot was close, 40 yards or so and had no issues with bullet blow up or anything you hear so much about on close shots with b-Tips. 47 grns of H4350, have not clocked them but I would guess there in the 2850 fps area, just perfect.