Last year I decided to go with Barnes bullets vs Nosler partitions for my reloads--I did this because the Nosler tips would get deformed in the magazine upon blasting off a round--my nuttiness convinced meself that the deformed tips would change the POI of the subsequent rounds as the they were fired---I've heard that the lead burns off the tips when fired anyway, but I'm not so sure about this, but I do know that when I empty the mag the tips were always deformed--what do you guys think--was or is it something to be concerned about or did I overthink----chris

Several years ago I intentionally deformed the tips of spitzer bullets in 6mm Remington, .25-06 Remington and 7mm Remington Magnum.

I used the same loading data for each caliber (in other words, all the 6mm were the same, all the .25-06 were the same and all the 7mm were the same).

I deformed the bullets by "squishing" the tips in increments of 0.05", until the tip was totally flat with the leading edge of the jacket.

I loaded 5 of each deformed cartridges.

I set the targets at 200 yards.

The difference in POI and grouping between "cherry" bullets and those with the maximum deformation was minimal for a hunting round. (In other words, it was less than 1-MOA from best to worse in grouping, and POI was less than 1-MOA.)

The three rifles I used generally do around 0.3" to 0.7" 5-shot groups at 200 yards.

So, in realistic terms, a deformed tip will make no real difference in a hunting situation. The "error" caused by deformed bullets was less than the "error" caused by mis-judging the distance.

Hey csutton7, First off, I agree with Steve's post.

Now, "did you over think"? I'd rather say you might have been mislead about the "lead tip burning off" fiasco.

It is easy to "disprove" the Lead tip burning off idea by simply firing 10 bullets(5 with the tip and 5 with the tip filed off) at 500yds (or beyond). Try it for yourself. You will see that your bullets with the Lead Tip will impact "higher" on the target.

More appropriate is the deformation due to recoil which will change the Ballistic Coefficient "slightly". But, any meaningful change in the "Drop Rate" really depends on how far the longest shot is that you are willing to take at Game. If you only take shots inside 300-400yds, the difference doesn't "normally" amount enough to matter.

However, both bullets you are using are excellent bullets, so you didn't handicap yourself with the switch.

thanks guys--I can't remember where I heard or most likely read that the lead tips burn off in flight--wasn't too sure if it really happened--but the deformation was concerning me when I was shooting--just seemed like the groups weren't where they should be--most likely it was me on one of those not so super shooting days and I figured well I'll fix that---I've never had any probs with the Noslers hunting--well anyway I've got bullets for awhile so no harm done----chris

I don't doubt the results of your test Steve, but I don't quite agree with the conclusion.

1 MOA drop at 200 yds isn't much. But there also isn't much difference in drop between a spitzer and a round nose at that distance. At 500 yds or so, it will be significant.

More importantly, a bullet that drops just a little bit more due to a lower BC is going to drift a BUNCH more in the wind. I'd suggest re-trying your test at a longer range on a really windy day. Don't just look for drop, but look at the horizontal spread in the groups that each bullet shoots.

Jon: This aint my fight, but Riccard... did state his results were less than 1 MOA from best to worst, and less than 1 MOA from POI.

Seems he stated it was less than 1 MOA which seemed to me it could have been higher, wider, or even better..

GREAT POST>