I have read a lot of posts about BT's blowing up or performing poorly but have yet to form my own opinion of them. I have talked with people that have never had anything but good to say about them as well.

It seems alot of these supposed blowups seem to be happening in lighter weight, ultra high velocity, short distance situations.

I shoot factory loaded SST 150 grain out of my 308. I also tried 165 grain Nosler BT's loaded at Georgia Arms, (only factory 165 gr 308 BT load i believe). Neither of these bullets are what I would call hot loads and the bullets weigh more than most of the bullets i have read about blowing up. I like them because they are very accurate.

ANyone have a blow-up with these bigger, slower moving calibers?

I think that's the trick w/ BTs. They were designed as a long range hunting bullet & probably perform well as vel. falls off. The "failures" seem to come @ high impact speeds or w/ more solidly built animals. For me, there are just too many other reliable bullets on the market to trust my hunts to a possible oops w/ a bullet.

308 TIKKA,

I was in an Elk camp with a chap that shot 210 Grain ballistic Tips out of his 338. He took a nice 6x5 elk with one shot in the neck. The chaps that make the BT say that 30 cal and above are made to hold together better and retain their weight. Some of the other posters seem to have success with them on deer size game but I have had marginal performance at best in 270 and 25-06.

I've broadsided a few whitetails inside a hundred yards with the .35 Whelen - 225gr BT @ 2,450 fps. They held together fine for that little bit of work - just ribs and lungs, no noticeable jacket frags inside ribcage.

I know it's not a "bigger caliber", but I also took two broadside at 300 yards with 120 BT's from a 6.5-300 Wby. Estimated terminal velocity was 2,900 fps. One was through ribs & lungs only, 1" exit, no jacket fragments noticed. Second was through both shoulders, roughly 14" total muscle & bone penetration, 1" exit, lots of damage, bone fragments and some jacket pieces. Bullet then penetrated more than 8" on hillside beyond animal and was not recovered.

[ 05-29-2003, 18:36: Message edited by: eshell ]

Word is that they are "supposed" to be made tougher from about 25 caliber on up.

I wouldnt hesitate to use a 30 cal on up for lung shots on deer, and even some larger bullets for lung shots on even larger game. But I have a nephew who uses a 165 grn BT from an 06 for shoulder shots on Elk. So far it has worked, but I think its a safe bet that his luck with that approach wont last.

[ 05-29-2003, 21:19: Message edited by: Wstrnhuntr ]

I am one of the worst critic's of BT for hunting, but I used one in my 257 JDJ to take a doe deer last year. If the velocities are slower, and the game smaller (deer size), I would use them.
For larger game and faster velocities, I won't touch them.

308 Tikka:

I agree with Old Fart ( although I don't want to call him that.)

In the summer last two years I went out into our vastness of forests here in Oregon and tested out Ballistic Tips and Hollow Points and Partitions and Round Noses by shooting them into tree branches at different velocites and see what kind of damage they did.

I also have field experience that back this up.
A deer taken at 300 yds in a 6.5 mm, 100 gr Ballistic Tip leaving the muzzle at 3350 dropped a deer in its tracks. Instant kill. Gutting it saw why. Blew up like a grenade inside of the deer. Destroyed about 10 pounds of hamburger on the oft shoulder. Next time I will use a partition for that speed.

The second was just the opposite. 165 grain Ballistic Tip loaded in a 30/06 leaving the barrel at 2250fps, for a young kid carrying a rifle his dad wanted him to "grow into".
The load was suppose to be for the kid to go deer hunting with. However 150 miles from home on the opening of elk season, in typical kid fashion he left his 180 grain loads at home.
All that is in the truck is the 165 grain slow load.

After shooting at running elk kicked up by other hunters 8 times! he finally connects with one large one at 175 yrds running broadside. I stood him still, had him take a deep breathe and then aim, instead of just spraying lead like he did for the first 8 shots.

The elk was hit in the ribs and went 40 yrds and was down for the count. the right lung had a fist sized hole punched in it, the esophagus was cut in two, and the left lung and upper liver were turned into a bowl of spaghetti. The elk weighted about 650 on the hoof. It field hung by the Montana fish and game at 410 lbs. Cow elk.

In my testing I found that ballistic tips seem to be at there best and do the most damage between 2800 fps tops and will cause a lot of damage, especially the bigger the caliber as low as 1500fps. 270 to 308 diameters, the optimum impact velocity seems to be between 2000 to 2600 fps. Getting to talk live to a Nosler tech guy in Bend face to face, verified the same observations.

Hope that helps.

The only Ballistic Tip I have ever used on game failed miserabely. It was a 150 grain fired from a 7-08 at around 2700 fps. at a small whitetail quartering away at 20 paces. The bullet hit a rib and exploded leaving a softball size entrance hole whith very little damage to any organs other than fragments found mostly in the stomach and intestines, opposite the original path of the bullet. I knew upon firing the first shot what had happened because of the extreme amount of hair that flew from the spot where I had aimed. Luckily the deer ran about 80 yards and stopped giving me the opportunity for a follow up shot wich I put to the head to make certain that he would expire quickly. The second bullet did great, exit hole a little over double the size of the entrance.

From what I have seen and heard that is not typical behavior even for a Ballistic Tip but I also believe that is what gives them such a bad name. Seems like they work fine most of the time but when one failes it failes in a big way. Maybe my failure just happened to come sooner rather than later.

Just for comparison in this argument, I have been using 55grain ballistic tips in 6PPC on roe deer.

Yesterday I took a cull buck from around 50 meters, entered center of the body and exited center shoulder on the off side.

I have yet to have one of these tiny little varmint pills stay inside a roe deer, all have done a good deal of damage in the exit and no animals have made it more than 20meters after being hit.

Another buck I took several weeks ago @220meters(lasered) through the shoulders which also exited.

I am very pleased with them for this application, though I wouldn't use them for anything bigger than roe in this weight and caliber...

Express, what size bucks are we talking about? If I had the luxury of taking several rifles to Africa, a light wt. NBT would be about right for the various Duikers. Then again, most of them are under 30#.

Hey Heavy Varmint:

Sorry to hear about your failure on that buck with the Ballistic tip. However, once I had a 200 grain Sierra from a 300 Win Mag hit a good size 250lb plus 8 point buck in Northern Minnesota. Dropped him on the spot right on his nose. Distance was about 100 yds. Then he jumped up and ran straight into the swamp that he was running toward when I shot him.

IN the snow there was blood and hair every where.
However even a heavy bullet like that, at mag velocities even at 100 yrds did not get the chance to open up before passing thru.

However as the sun drops like a brick in No Minnesota in November, we did not get a chance to track him, and it was the last day of the season.

Guess that is why they call it hunting tho, huh?

By the way, even tho I live out in Oregon, I am a native of over in Monroe County. My grandmother was from Beckley. It was her father that started that Lilley Family ReUnion back in 1914 or so.

Good huntin this fall Bud!!

Seafire, if your grandmothers father started the Lilly family reunion we may have more in common than just being from the same area. I went to a couple of them reunions when I was a kid, they are a big event.

Heavy Varmint:

Yeah, probably do Friend. but as you know, half the people who have been in WVA for a couple of hundred years and related to all of the others that have been there for a couple of 100 years.

MY grandparents, Grandma was a Lilly and Grandfaher was a Meadows. The Meadows side actually got off of the boat at Jamestowne in 1607.

Believe it or not, in our family tree I am the 17th generation in the USA on the Meadows side.
Most are still back in Virginia/WVA

Stay Cool Cuz!

Last week i was out shooting silhouttes with my 375ultramag and 260gr nosler ballistic tips, shot a the 300 meter pig- dropped the round low and hit the beam below the pig. Made a gouge in the steel approx. 1/2wide and 1 inch long, very impressive to me, this was in the upper lip of the rail. I know the beam is not hardened like the pigs but still impressive. when i hit a pig or chicken silhoutte it just leaves a shiney splat mark. I know this is not performance on live game but you think what it would do to an elk shoulder if it can do that to a iron beam.

Nothing but good to say about them as far as 130 grain, .270 caliber at 2700 feet per second. At least 25 whitetail deer taken with them. Average travel of animal after shot (normally heart shot, but some in both lungs) 30 yards. No recovery of bullets-just didn't for them. I also use them in my CZ 550 American 9.3X62 in 250 grain and they work just as well as in the lighter caliber. Good shooting. Mike