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

Posted my thoughts on the BT's last week and a few days later got a dash more practical experience with them; Shot a mature WT buck at a lasered 308 yds give or take a few yards. A broadside shot, took out both lungs and top of the heart, then left a 3/4" or so exit.

Used a Rem 700 in .280 Rem AI, 26" barrel, 150 BT's at 3050 fps.

Nothing amazing. At the shot he trotted maybe 60 yds, then dropped over.

A digital w/the rest of the story is here in this forum.

FN in MT

Dad just called from SD. He put down a big doe tonight with his ballistic tips. 165 gr. BT over 57 gr. of IMR 4350 from his push-feed post-70 M70 in .30-06. He's been tickled with them ever since I started loading them for him. He's only had to track one deer hit with his BTs, and that's cause he had sun glare in his Trascho scope and the deer swapped ends on him while he was sighting on him. He made a good shot, just on the wrong end. I don't think he'll shoot anything but BTs at deer any more...and that includes big mule deer out in West River country. They mess up a little more meat, but a pound or two here or there isn't going to make or break the deal for us, we do our own butchering and processing, we go through it quite diligently no matter what. I plan on comparing BT performance with the Accubond next year. The same load in my .30-06 also groups sub-MOA and the BTs and ABs hit at the same POI out to at least 300 yds, haven't shot farther than that with the ABs yet.
Selmer

I loaded up some 130BT's for my cousins 270Roy. He shot a nice 11 Point on Sunday morning. Shot at 30Yrds with a 3300fps MV.

I dressed the deer. A caliber sized hide entrance, baseball sized rib entrance. The vitals looked like they had been beat with a mixer golf ball sized exit hole the rest of the way out and it was through the shoulder.

I know it is just one case but also just another case of what I have noticed how BT's perform.

Switched all my guns over to NBT. Happy with the out come.

Not to get off the topic but does Scirrico and XP3 about the same bullet as the NBT or made for a little heavier game than whitetails?

I shied away from them for years, first because of the "their too soft" reports and second I was happy with the Speer and Hornady bullets I was using. When the Shootersproshop started selling them at very reasonable prices I bought a bunch of them along with Accubonds and Partitions. In my 7x57 the 150 grain Ballistic Tips have been perfect performers, lots of internal damage, good penetration leaving big exit holes. excellent accuracy also. However if I hadn't found them at reasonable prices I would still be shooting Speer and Hornady bullets.

The Scirocco and the Winchester XP3 are way more heavy duty than the BT, especially the XP3. The Scirocco has a much heavier jacket and a bonded lead core. The XP3 has a solid copper front (similar to a TSX) with a read lead core.

Winchester XP3


Swift Scirocco

I'm pushing a 150g NBT with 38.25g of IMR4064 out the end of my .300 savage (...definately NOT over 3000fps). First shot this year at 40yd (quartering away) hit a rib turned left and continued outside the ribcage under the front shoulder and up the neck. If I didn't get a second shot off there would have been no blood trail to follow. The second shot (full broadside) went through a rib, through the heart, and out through another rib. He took three steps after that.
I'm thinking I'm might try accubonds.

I'm not sure any bullet would have done any different with your first shot, shallow quartering away shots are iffy at best. What did the bullet look like after you recovered it.

JeffG

I had a 139 gr SST out of my 280 do about that same thing. Only difference was I was able to see this little mulie fall over dead after a 50 yard run. Very lucky as the jacket and a tiny bit of core cut the cartoid artery in the neck. After getting him hung I started trimming bloodshot, I made one cut and the front shoulder pretty much fell right off in my hand. Too bad that load was so accurate (.4's) I wouldn't be missing it so much.

On the Nosler website, it even says that minimum speed is 1600 fps and max recommended is 3000 fps, so those that recommended keeping them under 3000 fps appear to have it right. I have only shot paper with my ballistic tips, but they have been very accurate in nearly every rifle I have tried. I would hesitate to use one on deer-sized game.