Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles What's your experience on accurate bullets? Hollow point vs. Plastic tipped?

What's everybody's experience with bullets? Are the match style hollow points much more accurate than the plastic tipped match bullets? Tightest groups at 100yards 300yards 600yards ect.

i have very good results with both

Ed

In MY PARTICULAR .224" rifles, I seem to get the best accuracy with Sierra's 52gr. match hollowpoint, but they can ricochet a lot worse than, say, Hornady VMaxes in a prairie dog patch. So, I use the plastic-tipped bullets on prairie dogs. I can't afford to replace a cow, if a bullet skips off over the hill, so I stick with the plastic tips or SPSX or Blitzes. I've heard too many HPs whine off of the hard-baked ground to trust them much.



I try to keep my shots under 300 yards, if at all possible, so I can't help much on the longest yardage shots. Sorry.

That's the kind of feed back i'm looking for....Thank you...The reason i'm asking is i shoot the 168gr A-max in .308 and worked up a pretty sucessful load with it 1/2 inch groups at 100....and roughly 2-1/4 inch groups at 300yards....Haven't really used much of the hollow point match bullets....somehow when i started hand loading i got on a plastic tipped bullet kick and never went much further....Now a friend who is a very very good shooter and rifle builder...ex army sniper...blah... blah sais the match hollow points will give a little better results....however we all know each rifle likes certain components....Just wanted to hear if anybody else has gone through the trials and tribulations of all the various bullets in their particular rifles:)

My 308 seems to prefer Hollow Points but the 223 has better results with the ballistic tips as lone as they are boat tails. Little brother has excellent results with the AccuBonds in everything he shoots them in, but the match hollow points are much cheaper. I have put about 4000 rds down range with the 223 in the last couple of years and while the 52 and 53 match hollow points shoot darn good the 52 Amax puts them to shame most any time. I've tried every 52 -53 match bullet I could get, Sierra, Hornady, & Berger.

My experience with HPs and plastics for varmit and target rifles in both .22 and .24 calibers is that they are capable of excellant accuracy. ??

Both work just fine. Don't get hung up on plastic tips. They cost more, and shoot better for the most part, but sometimes, the lowly old regular HP is the most cost-effective way to go.

Depends upon the bullet, and caliber and manufacturer
at times equal, other times not so.

examples:
Hornady 75 grain HP, and 75 gr V Max in 6mm...the HP is more accurate in all of my rifles.

Hornady 75 grain HP Match, 75 gr A Max in 22 cal... HP is more accurate in all of my rifles.

Hornady 52 grain A Max in 22 Caliber, more accurate than the 52 and 53 grain HP match bullets from Hornady and Nosler, in most instances. however Sierra 52 and 53 grain HP Match are more accurate than the 52 gr A Max in all of my rifles. Speers 52 grain HP ( Varmint one) is more accurate than a 52 gr A Max in all of my rifles.

Sierra's 55 grain HP and Speer's 55 gr TNT, are more accurate in my rifles than the 55 grain B/Tips, B/Kings and V Maxes...

Speer's 50 gr TNT is more accurate in my rifles, than Noslers 50 grain B/TIP, Sierra's 50 grain B/King, and definitely more accurate than Hornady's 50 grain V Max..

don't ask me why, Hornady's 50 grain V Max is beaten in accuracy substantially by their 40 grain, 55 and 60 grain V Maxes in 22 caliber..

Sierra's 40 grain HP, is more accurate in my rifles than Sierra's 40 grain B/King, and 40 gr V Max... but on par with the 40 grain B/Tip from Nosler..

these are just some examples, but I have found that each has to be tried in a rifle, as the HP or the Plastic Tip alone is not the end all for accuracy...

Velocity CAN play a difference at times.. but not always.

Seafire,
Your experience with the 50gr V-Max is exactly the same as mine. I thought maybe I had a bad box or something. The 40 and 55gr V-Max's shoot just fine. I haven't tried any of the 55gr TnT's because the 50gr have shot so well for me.

50gr VMax is the most accurate bullet I have found for my 225Win. Ya newer know!

Boattail: Boattail: I am going to "dance around" directly answering your question!
The reason being is that even with my most costly and carefully prepared (smithed!) Varmint Rifles I can't tell which style bullet is "generically" more accurate!
For instance this past week I took one of my beloved (and known to be accurate!) 40X factory stock Rifles to my range on a dead calm day. The caliber was 6x47 and the bullet was a 68 grain hollow-point. The scope was a Leupold 36 power.
The resulting group (5 shots at 100 yards) measured .176" center to center!
Score one for the hollow-points.
A couple years ago I took my Darrell Holland built Shilen barreled Remington 700 in 223 Remington out to my range on a similarly calm winter day and proceeded to shoot a .162" group (5 shots at 100 yards)!
This Rifle has a Leupold 6.5x20 variable scope on it and was shooting the Nosler 40 grain Ballistic Tip bullets!
Score one for the "plastic tipped" bullets!
I normally have experience based views one way or another on many subjects BUT I have to say I can not define (for myself anyway!) which bullet style is more accurate in MY Rifles.
I will say this I have never seen any "plastic tipped" bullets being shot at official bench rest competitions!
That may be another point for the "hollow-points"?
Now as to your question regarding accuracy at different ranges - I will will mildly interject (contend?) that the accuracy of a bullet does not change over moderate ranges like you inquire about. If its accurate at 100 yards it will still be accurate at 300 yards and at remain so at 600 yards!
Bullets of course can be affected differently by "conditions" and by their speed (time of flight) but their "accuracy" potential, shouldn't change with modest increases in distance.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Very good feedback from everybody.....Thank you all very much! I guess all and all if you want to get critical with your accuracy....You just have to go spend the money on a variety of bullets till you're satisfied....Which in the hand loading game....Could take some time...lol

And it's FUN, too.

I may upset some people with this post, but I will share my experiences and thoughts on the subject. I think plastic tip bullets are mostly hype and a very successful marketing strategy by bullet and ammo makers. Do they shoot good? Yes Do they shoot better than conventional bullets? Sometimes yes, but it's not because of the fancy tip. The heel of a bullet is far more important to accuracy than the tip. This has been proven in countless experiments ever since plastic tip bullets came on the market. I do own and shoot Ballistic Tips, Amax's,Vmax's,etc...but in over 75% of my rifles when it comes to accuracy, I can beat them with a Sierra sp or hp. If plastic tip bullets were inherently more accurate, then you would see every competitive target shooter using them, which isn't the case. What you do see is Joe Blow looking at a Ballistic Tip or Accubond and buying them because he thinks they are more accurate because they look really cool. This type of thinking is what the bullet and ammo makers capitalize on, and that's fine, but it doesn't mean it's a more accurate or better bullet.

What the tip really offers over and above other bullets is a higher B.C. and better expansion characteristics.

EXACTLY! Every rifle is different in it's likes and dislikes. My Kimber (.223 - 12 twist) doesn't like 40 gr bullets, though it likes the 40gr BT best. It likes 50 gr bullets, doing best with the Vmax and the TnTs (better than any match bullets - AMAX, Bergers, Hornady, Speer - though I never tried the Matchkings). I've never shot a 55gr bullet in it and have no desire to, so I can't speak from experience there.

Kaiser Norton

"What's your experience on accurate bullets? Hollow point vs. Plastic tipped?"

Not all of my rifles are accurate enough to see any real difference. Of the four that do show a slight preference, two like HPs, two like PTs. Me, I like what my rifles like!

The most accurate over-the-counter (not custom) bullets that I know of are Sierra Matchkings. They are used in 1,000 yard competition where any little flaw will show up. They are hollow points. If plastic tips made bullets more accurate, Sierra could have converted the Matchkings from hollow points to tipped bullets years ago.
I agree with Jordan Smith, the tip offers better BC and expansion.