Recently, when loading 180gr Ballistic Tips in .308 Winchester, I noticed something. When changing between two bullet lots, I had to increase the OAL by .016" to get the length to ogive in the same place as the previous lot. Not a problem, except that I noticed something else. With the exact same load, there was a noticeable accuracy difference, as well. I took a 3 shot group size average across the bullet lot for the same load, and the first lot averaged 0.398". The second lot averaged 0.673". A 0.275" difference may not sound like a big deal, but that is a 69% increase in group size just from changing bullet lots. To aggravate the problem more, Ballistic Tips are sold in boxes of 50, rather than 100. This doesn't give one much room to account for quirks between lots.
It looks like I will be trying Sierra GameKings and Hornady SST's in the near future. MatchKings have already impressed me. So much for "You get what you pay for".

BTW, I am not posting this to bash NBT's. More so, I was hoping someone could let me know if they have had similar experiences, or maybe post data that would indicate my experience was an isolated incident. I plan on trying at least two more lots of the bullets before I decide to stay with them or move on. I was just disheartened by my original results.

BTW, the loads between lots are exactly the same except for OAL, because I seated the bullets to about .005 into the lands.

Manufacturers sometimes change the specs of their bullets without notice to the consumer. Fortunately, they don't do it often, so if you find a bullet you really like, my advice is to buy a long-term supply, all boxes manufactured near the same time, preferably of the same lot, to avoid the problem of future changes.

My gunsmith just told me that Ballistic tips have changed the jacket on their bullets. I assume too many people bitching about performance on large game. I say match lot numbers and rock-&-roll.

Mike

I just got off the phone with Nosler, and I think you folks are right about matching up lots. BTW, he said that the first two letters of the Lot # are all that are required to match lots on the NBT's.