I know I'm gonna get flamed for this:

The first year the Nosler Ballistic Tip came out (mid 80's?), I snatched up a couple boxes of
150grs for my 270W. They were the most accurate and the fastest (thru my now
archaic Custom Chrono) 150gr bullets I had ever shot for both of my 270's. Back then I
thought it was real important to keep the the lead tips perfectly uniform in order to ensure
ballistic coeffecient and accuracy (OK, so I was in my mid twenties). I figured I had
discovered a new wonder bullet and/or reloading secret.

I had burned up most of my available huntin' time, resources, and money pursuing bighorn
sheep in September that year, so I bought an over the counter bull tag and hunted the family
land on the Uncompahgre Plateau. Opening day, about noon, I was trudging back to the
cabin when a little 5X5 bull came shooting out of the timber and across a log skidder trail.
He was about 60 yards away. I just had time to center the crosshairs on his shoulder and shoot. He kept going as
though he hadn't been hit. I knew I had to hit some part of him, so I took off after him.
I found him about 100 yards away hiding behind a baby spruce tree with nothing but his
head peering around the tree at me. So I plugged him in the head. The first shot hit a rib
about 6 inches behind his shoulder, deflected down and forward and IMMEDIATELY began
to come apart. There were 3 or 4 holes perforating his lung--but only one lung. The
bullet pieces stopped in the first lung.

OK, this should make a good deer bullet anyway. Two weeks and mile from where I killed
the elk, my brother spooked a very healthy 4 point buck (I guesstimate 200#) to me. He
was standing about 30 yards away when I shot him. I expected the muzzle blast alone,
to knock him down. Instead he took off like the proverbial scalded cat. It took a
moment to regain my senses and I shot him in the butt as he was hightailing through the
timber. He disappeared into the quakies. It was very dry, terrible tracking, and it looked as if
it was going to be a warm day. My brother and I found him about 200 yards from where
he disappeared into the trees. The first shot hit his scapula and IMMEDIATELY the bullet
began to come apart. His closest lung looked more like shotgun pellets had hit it.
Needless to say, none of the bullet fragments made into the second lung. The shot in
the butt ended up with the bullet hitting nothing but meat, but the bullet was still in 2 or
3 peices. Sheesh.

This has gotta be a good pronghorn bullet, right? The next year my dad and I drew
pronghorn tags for the Northwest part of the state (Craig/Maybelle area). I spotted a
nice pronghorn and started a stalk when a just-as-nice pronghorn bolted out of a draw in
front of and below me at a very steep angle. He wasn't more than 50 yards from me when I
saw him and decided he was worth shooting. I aimed between the tops of his shoulder
and hit him...right between the hind quarters. Yuck. The ballistic tip "blew" out about
6-8 inches of backbone. It was not pretty. But he does measure 15 inches .

I stuck my remaining (50 or so) loaded cartridges in the back of my storage cabinet and
went back to loading my beloved Partitions.

But it gets worse. A few years later, I concentrated on archery bighorn and
high country deer in the Sangre De Cristos. Then my buddy acquired a couple of bull tags
on private land for the last rifle season. I then discovered my brother had absconded with the
last of my loaded Partions and left me with nothing but the damned ballistic tips (note
how I am now using no capital letters to describe the b-a-l-l-i-s-t-i-c tips? It is purely
subconcious no doubt). So with two feet of fresh powder (if ya can't find an elk in two
feet of fresh powder, yer doing somethin' wrong), we went elk hunting. At about two
hundred yards, a whole bunch of elk stood up where they had been bedded on the far side
of a park. I plopped down across a log in the snow, had a perfect rest, waited for the bull
to clear the cows, and shot. He disappeared into the quakies. I couldn't believe it. My
buddy, a (almost) pure bow hunter, hooted and hollered. Great. I trudged (two feet of
fresh powder) over to where the bull had been and we looked for blood, hair, dragging feet,
staggering bull elk, whatever, for a half hour. Absolutely nothing. So we sat down and
ate brunch. Then we decided to "run em down" (two feet of fresh powder). We climbed
less than a hundred yards up the ridge following the elk superhighway through...two feet
of fresh powder, when MY bull stood up and started staggering up the ridge. I centered
the crosshairs on his butt just as he was about to crest the top and disappear. Click. I
forgot to put a shell in the chamber after brunch. Now I'm really pissed. I charge up the
hill through (two feet of fresh powder) top out, and spot the bull staggering through and
bouncing off the quakies about 50 yards away. There's one big problem, 100 yards beyond the bull
is the property line and a barbwire fence. The adjacent rancher and my archery buddy did
NOT get along. If that bull made it across the fence it was all over for us. All I had were
butt shots. I shot the bull twice in the hams, finally turned him, and shot him behind the
shoulder. The bull, literally, hit the fence, bounced off, and died. The first bullet? It
hit tight behind the shoulder and IMMEDIATELY began to come apart.

I am a huge fan of Noslers, and Ballistic Tips are still some of the most accurate bullets
I have shot in my 270's, 06's and 30-06 Improved--but I won't hunt with them. In all
fairness, allegedly Nosler made the jacket a little thicker in the Ballistic Tips sometime
during the 90's and supposedly improved the bonding of jacket to core. But I think I will try
the new Bonded bullets before I shoot any large critters with Ballistic Tips again.

Casey