Are the old solid base ballistic tips different from the current production ballistic tips? I'm not a big fan of the current bullets for my use but I seem to remember the solid base bullets having a little toughr jacket. I have some of the older solid base ballistic tips in 165 gr and 180 gr. 308.
Thanks

Nosler solid bases -- yes. ???

The older Nosler bullets had more of a straight wall to what I can remember. The new once's has a thin walls to the front and thicker walls to the bottom. I like the BT's for load development, but for hunting I spend a few bucks more on the Accubonds. The BT's and the Accubonds have the same construction, but the Accubonds is bonded. You can use exactly the same load on both. Had used the 180gr in my 30-06 on Kudu this winter in South Africa and it was an instant drop. Retaining weight was +=80%. Had also used it on Waterbuck and impala with neck shots and it delivered instant drops. Then I had shot a Blue Wilde Bees broadside in the chest. It went right through and totally destroyed the leg on the outgoing side. It went for about 50 metres and I had dropped it with another shot behind the ears. The meat damage is far less than the BT, but still a little more than Barnes TSX. Nevertheless I do not like those solid bullets for the reason that they are too hard and they deliver a smaller wound channel that the Accubonds. Accubonds produce more instant kills compared to Barnes TSX if shot behind the front legs. I had recovered a .270Win Hornady Interbond bullet from a Kudu and it had a 84% retaining weight. What was more impressive is that the mushroom was 16.8mm on the broadest side. This is nearly 3 times the bullet diametre. I had heard from other Barnes TSX shooter getting 10-12mm diametre on the mushroom on the .270 bullets. Yes the retaining weight is 95%+. BUT you need a good wound channel to drop the animal faster. This is just my experience. Other hunters may disagree with me.

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BUT you need a good wound channel to drop the animal faster. This is just my experience. Other hunters may disagree with me.

And they would be wrong. Trauma is what kills an animal, and broadly-expanding bullets cause more trauma (so long as they penetrate to the vitals, which virtually any high-velocity copper jacketed bullet will do.)

But back to the subject: Early Nosler Ballistic Tips had the reputation (earned or unearned) for being too expansive. After a few years of production Nosler tweaked the jacket design (of the hunting BTips) to slightly retard their expansion.

All Ballistic Tips have always had the solid bases, adapted from the original lead-tipped Nosler Solid Base bullet. The lead-tipped Nosler Solid Base was an outstanding bullet that was fairly "tough" for a cup-and-core bullet and exhibited performance surprisingly close to the Partition, but at half the price. In fact, the Solid Base was such a good performer that it appears Nosler withdrew it from the market in favor of the successor Ballistic Tip because sales of the less expensive Solid Base were cutting into sales of their flagship (and higher profit margin) Partition.

The Ballistic Tip, whether "old" or "new", inherited the solid base of gilding metal which enhances its penetration to a surprising degree. Despite the tendency to fragment, the rear one-third or so of a Ballistic Tip will usually end up at least in the offside hide of a game animal, if not penetrate it completely.

It is true that if you prefer shooting your game in the rear ham, it will mess up a lot of meat. If you normally shoot your game in the thorax, you'll simply have to do without a few ounces of blood shot ribs (which, whether pristine or not, most of us simply throw away since there is little meat there to begin with and none of it prime.)

Bottom line: If you're hunting medium-sized game animals the Ballistic Tip, old or new, will put them down quicker than most other game bullets. The Accubond will expand fairly broadly, but will not fragment, so you'll see a bit less spectacular trauma with it, but will have the assurance of adequate penetration of the angle of the shot is disadvantageous and must penetrate a significant amount of non-vital muscle and bone before reaching the organs. If you're part of the one-percent of game hunters who shoot really big, tough game animals (wapiti, large African species, etc), then the Ballistic Tips are not intended for that purpose and are best reserved for the lesser big game species.

Somehow I managed to amass 25 boxs of the old lead tipped Solidbase bullets,first line no less for $4.95 per box. These are .277 for my WSM's, with a son and six grandsons hunting I will need them. Good shooting.

Thanks for the info guys, I think I'll just burn these up in practice.

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Originally posted by phurley5:
Somehow I managed to amass 25 boxs of the old lead tipped Solidbase bullets,first line no less for $4.95 per box. These are .277 for my WSM's, with a son and six grandsons hunting I will need them. Good shooting.

I grab them whenever some shooter (or his widow) offers them for sale, or when Nosler (on rare occasions) sells them as seconds. Nosler still makes them and wholesales them to ammunition manufacturers. Since I never buy factory ammunition I don't know which manufacturers, but I would guess that some Federal ammunition is or was loaded with the Solid Base bullet.

I shoot nothing but the SB .277 130's in my Sako .270. It has a "fast" barrel and yields an honest 3200 fps. I've shot some big feral hogs with this load and they simply crumple when hit in the thorax. I recently acquired a .280 Remington and shoot some of my supply of SB .284 150's in it with outstanding accuracy. Come to think of it, I took a .30-06 loaded with SB 165's to Africa as my back up gun and killed a couple of animals with it.

Can you tell that I like the old Solid Base Noslers?

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Can you tell that I like the old Solid Base Noslers?

^^^ Amen to that ^^^

IMO dropping that line was one of the saddest things Nosler has ever done, right next to dropping their bullet count per box to 50.