Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Finished with the .284 120gr Ballistic Tips for Deer!

This may be a little off topic but I hope still useful to the post. I shot a big mule deer with my 7mm-08 and a 139 interbond. I cosider the interbond to be bonded, but bonded to what? Very thin copper at least for the front half.
Here is where my post may be somwhat relavent. On my shot on the mule deer and his shot on the whitetail both were hard angling shots. The interbond started at 3050fps hit the deer at 200 yards and and ripped a hole 1 1/2 inches high by 4-5 inches long down the deers side and chest cavity. The angle as I remember it should have driven the bullet into the animal but instead it skipped down his side. The bullet ended up tumbleing and lodging under the skin at the front of the wound. I feel hard angling shots are the most difficult for thin and light for cal. bullets to perform well. So take home message, if you expect to take shos like that change bullets. As you posted you plan on changing but thought I would add my 2 cents that the 120 may have done just fine had it even hit the shoulder square at your velocity. It is the angled shots that really tear them up.

Yukonal:You are 100% correct...let me make myself perfectly clear so there is no misunderstanding.

I have NEVER shot any game with a 120BT,and I never will,because I have seen enough BT's(AB's X,Speer, Sierra's Hornadys etc etc) at work that,in general, I don't care for BT's for hunting,admire them for their accuracy,but will not reach for one for hunting any BG(well maybe a doe cull but that's it).

You will NEVER see any of them loaded in any 7mm rifle that I hunt with.

It's a conscious decision...

My views are not,as you state,based on just idle speculation,but from watching lots of bullets work,not just my own,but lots of others.

I am told, on here,that BT's vary in jacket thickness and toughness, have been upgraded,etc,so that some work splendidly and some are still very explosive.I personally have better things to do than wonder about whether the BT's are the second coming,and waste my time and hunts sifting through them to see which is which.That is not my job and I will leave that to the experts.

Personally, I am not interested nor inclined to run around testing bullets on game,and am more inclined to use what I,personally,know to work. I am not into guessing.I will watch, and see for myself,make a decision on my own.

Just because they worked well for you at 7/08 velocity does not mean they will do as well fired at 3250 fps as the OP states he used them.

I don't recall saying anything about them not working....what I said was I would not use them except for punching paper or shooting varmints.

With all due respect, I don't have to stop being negative about them; you use them and like them,have confidence in them and should use them.I personally think there are far better choices than a 120 BT for shooting anything classified as BG,and I will not jump on the bandwagon just because popular people on here use them.That means nothing to me.

If you want to trust an important hunt,and thousands on a hunt to a 120 BT,that is your right to do it. But I'd appreciate it if you would not give me a Dutch Uncle sermon on what I should like and not like, or say and not say.The hunters on here are adults,and capable of making up their own minds.

Merry Christmas!

And a Merry Christmas to you as well, Bob.

The way the trend is going, pretty soon someone will shoot a deer with a BB gun and will try to convince us all that we should be shooting BB guns and that they can put a BB in a 338 Winchester Magnum and shoot it 10 miles and hit the target.
The day of all this silly hype has to end someplace.

You're an idiot!

Douche Queen Beer...Marc was right..

BTW does Barnes make a TSX BB?

TFF....

I have had very good results on big Iowa whitetails with the 120 BT on broadside shots during our January antlerless season as has my friend (224th) in the 7-08. In fact all shots have been thru and thru and have not had a deer go more than 50 yards. I have also had a failure such as desribed with a 150 speer out of a 30-06 on a Montana whitetail as the bullet slid down the shoulder blade blowing the crap out of the the shoulder and not getting to the vitals. Might want to think more about the angle and shot placement rather than the bullet. I am working up loads for a 7x57 I just got together with the 120 for this season Russ

I had the EXACT same happen to me. 300 Wby, 180 gr BT @ 3250 fps, 280 # Axis Buck, 200 yards & the onside impact exploded with zero penetration.

Next day I called Nosler. Mr Nosler answered the phone. His advice was never to run the BT's beyond 3100 fps impact velocity. While some get by with it often times many do not. I was one of them.

The shot was debilitating though. It kept the wind knocked out of him until the 300 Wby laser beam put his lights out with shot 2.


My final decision was that terminal velocity does not have to be much over 2700 fps. That's a hard pill to swallow for a reloader who has actually traded off otherwise perfect rifles just because they weren't fast enough. In retrospect, how stupid I was then. I'll never forgive myself for trading off my first ever hunting rifle, 308 Win in Rem 700 BDL, Leupold 3-9x "Gold Ring". Stupid, stupid, stupid.

We all have read your insightful/intelligent posts so I'm sure you have opened our eyes so we can change our silly ways. The only trend I see is a idiot aka Douche Queen Beer trolling around the fire being a prick! All I can say is God screwed up a good one putting ears on you!

So what is wrong with shooting deer for steaks, loins and hamburger? If you are just after a horns, You are an idiot. I made a decision about 15 years ago that I had killed enough big buck deer and had plenty of trophies and have shot nothing but does ever since. Any dumb Iowa boy knows that if you want to better your herd you don't kill your bull and to let future generations enjoy the chance at a good one that you should pass at times. Russ

this thread is funny


i killed 4 in the last 2 days

120 nbt 3300 fps muz vel

110 dressed doe
107 dressed doe
90 dressed doe
85 dressed doe

35 yds broadside shoulder went 10 complete pass thru .28 in .45 ish out

then i repeated the above again

then 122 yds high shoulder neck area pass tru dropped in tracks

then 187 yds got a lil to high spined it pass thru


hell i have killed 9 this year alone with it

1 in youth load 2775 fps

and 2 more with youth load my son and his bud

not counting all the ones from last year

i must have a good lot

Point of aim looks to be too far forward for the severe angling away shot that is described. The more it's angled away, the farther back you have to aim. Even a TSX would likely not have hit enough goodies at that angle, though an exit out near the brisket probably would have helped some.

That's great glad your liking them! After what happened with me I'm done pushing them that fast. I'm very curious about the 35 yd broadside shot through both shoulder's @ 3,300/fps and getting a exit...which deer was it? Why is this thread funny?

It's a folly of epic proportion to expect a bullet... any bullet... to make up for schitty shooting...

Tn deer hunter,

first off - kudos for ending the ordeal.

Second - kudos for asking questions and willing to learn from experience.

The core of the matters concerning bullet integrity and impact velocities have been stated here.

In this case - bullet of low integrity shot at close range from a high vel. load into a shout body section (bone) made for a (almost) bad outcome.

Apart from seconding the suggestion of going to a TSX or TTSX, I want to suggest to look at one more issue - this one not bullet related; more general good practice after a shot.

Search for the shotsite and anaylsing sign.

In this case I assume, had you looked, you would have found the absence of sign for a solid heart/lung hit.

This absence of sign would have triggered you into a mind set of searching for a wounded deer instead of looking for a dead deer.

PS this thread is not funny.

How was it "schitty shooting"? I hit her squarely in the shoulder...if the bullet goes straight through it would have came out the other shoulder. I always shoot for the opposite shoulder! Your comments are right on track with Douche.

Thanks I guess. I was shooting for the shoulder and if a bullet doesn't exit in a lot of instances there would be no sign at all just a short sprint and they give up the ghost. The day this happened it was drizzling rain and somewhat foggy, I knew the lay of the land and where she headed so why spend extra time trying to analyze blood and hair I did look for it but didn't see any. I also was looking for sign when I jumped her the first time. I have shot many deer where there was no exit and no sign where the deer was standing when hit but I knew where the bullet went and seen where the deer ran. Like in my previous post I had no intention in shooting a deer this close it just happened. Most shot's where I was hunting average around 150-200yds and could be 450+yds.

If a critter is facing away from you... and quartering hard... then a shot in the shoulder is only going to hit shoulder... the bullet ain't gonna make a hard right turn into the vitals.

Again... if the critter is facing away from you hard... you have to run a shot into the paunch (or even the ham) to angle into the vitals... which you attempted to do... this is never a good shot to take... regardless of bullet/caliber/critter. Now, I understand that it was in a recovery situation... but it's hardly an applicable "test" of a bullet's merit.

I don't think his comments are on track with Douche. And, it's too bad you lowered yourself to the name calling. Now you're in a very select group.

You stated in your first post that the deer was heading sraight away, and turned around to look at you. We are all assuming, from your description, that the deer's body was angling away from you. All a shot in the shoulder would have done, is imobilize that shoulder.

Then in another reply, you stated that the shoulder you shot was "square" to you, and in line with the off-side shoulder. Any of us who have shot BG animals "square" in the shoulder, with 120 NBT's, know what the outcome will be.

It would have been more appropriate for the title of this post to read, I'm done taking crappy shot angles on deer.

If you are going to come on a public forum, and make negative comments about a product that has performed so well, for so many, expect to take some heat.