always worked well for me, but if there are better alternatives let me know. what do you guys like best? why?

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.Most bullets work well on deer.A lot of guys demand "premium" bullets, but I've never really found the need for them, although I've certainly tried different controlled expansion bullets.Honestly, I think I could hunt deer with plain Winchester Power Points for the rest of my life.But to answer your question, BT's do work well on deer.Where you hit 'em counts for more than what you hit 'em with.

I have been using Ballistic Tips for several years, and they have not let me down yet. I do keep trying some new ones along.

I have always had very good performance from the Ballistic Tips on Deer. All either bang-flops or short easy to follow blood trails.

I will be using the 120 grain BT in my .280AI for deer again this year.

When BTs first came out there were some overexpansion/blow up bugs that had to be worked out. They got a bad reputation during that time and many still distrust the bullet from that time.

As others have said they are good as gold now and have been for a decade or so.

I use them a lot for deer and hogs with not a problem at all.

BCR

B-tips is all I have been using on deer for the last 10 years or so and they have always worked fine.

Not the "next big thang", but they work. Until the ttsx craze I never thought I would change. For deer will probably go back to them next year. Just wanted to get some experience in case I have to hunt in a lead free area. What a bunch of crap.

BT's work best when impact velocity is probably under 3000FPS. I wouldnt want to shoot a 125BT out of a 300 RUM @ 30 yards, blow up would be the result and possibly a very dead deer as well but you get the picture.... its only my opinion

Accubond.

What was the question again? (grin)

My mulie this year fell to a 140 gr BT outof a 7 wsm. Very dead deer, but on a quartering away shot I feel I should have found something other than a bunch of little holes in the off side ribs.

I have seen very good results from Ballistic Tips & Hornady SST's.
I agree with SAKO75, I think that the best result will be from an impact velocity of less that 3000fps with either of these bullets.

The 120 BT out of my 284 Win. has always been impressive for me but for some reason the 130 BT out of my 270 doesn't leave me weak in the knees.

They are my favorite deer and hog bullet. This year I used the factory seconds out of my 280 and both deer went less than 30 yards.

If I am not mistaken the 7mm 120gr BT is a different animal so to speak because it has the 140gr jacket making it tougher than say a .308 150gr BT or a 7mm 140gr BT. BTW thanks to dogzapper I am trying these in my .280 Steyr.
I have killed several deer with the NBT and most of the time it has done great but I have also had more than one instance where deer was shot at close range and I never found any blood and the deer ran 40 to 50 yards before giving up the ghost, this is fine but when your hunting in 500 acres of pine thicket and the deer runs out of the small plot it can get hard to find. Overall its a great bullet but there are better choices if you are bumping or exceeding 3,000fps.

A friend of mine said 7-08 with 140 bt always dropped white tails in their tracks. I never beleived him until I helped skin one out once. I swear that area of the front shoulder would have looked better if it would have been run over semi rig.

The 25 caliber versions are very good.

I use a lot of the 150 grain 7MM Ballistic Tips. This bullet has always exited for me on deer.

I've never seen bullets perform better than BT's at appropriate speeds. My particular favorite is a 165 out of a .308. Near, or far, perfect performance.

Let me add that I have yet to have a deer travel more than a few steps after a solid chest hit when I used Ballistic Tips.

They usually work well on deer, but I wouldn't want one on an anus shot. The early ones were quite soft, but he later ones haven't given me any problems.

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.

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.