I am sure it is not the fault of Alberta deer but our group had similar experiences with the 180gr. Accubond- see my posts on this thread:
ACCUBONDS FAIL ON DEER

I would only use BTs or ABs on perfect, behind the shoulder and broadside shots. In our experiences, they fail to penetrate more than about 10 inches!!

In Fact, Nosler even admits that their .30 cal 180gr. Accubond will only penetrate 9.5 inches in test material with an impact velocity of 3037fps! Saeed or Canuck will post their photo of it on that thread.

I'm not sure just how comparable test material is to the vitals of a deer.



I have always tested bullets before I've hunted with them. I never had any ballistic tips penetrate much further than 10-12" in wet newspaper with carboard boxes containing lard.



However, most every deer I've killed but one since 1989 was with a ballistic tip, (but my new love is the Barnes Triple Shock) and most of those were 140 and 150 grain weights from a 270WCF. All pass throughs no matter the distance. Just last year, my brother popped a 130lb South Carolina 8pt square in the shoulders with a 130 b-tip from his 25.5" PacNor barrel on his 270. Shot was 100 yards and velocity was 3110 at muzzle. Blew right through both shoulders. Deer ran about 40 yards.



I've never ever witnessed any results from all the nightmare stories with B-Tips. But then, I'm the guy who has better groups with Partitions than Sierra GameKings.

I was under the impression that all of the units for antelope were closed by Oct 25th. Am I wrong?

B-tip will work just fine. I've demolished plenty of whitetail bones with them from my 270 Win from Missouri to Alabama.

Good Luck.

Ditto to SJs results, they don't go far (if any) after being hit w/ a NBT and I usually always get Exits. The only two that didn't exit (yes, just two out of a pile of em'), were mushroomed nicely under the off-side hide. I have had far less penetration while using the cheap Remington and Winchester bullets.

The NBT is a Great Bullet!

Good Luck!

Reloader

If you want to leave "a good blood trail" so you can track your deer several hundred yards, then you need to use one of the tough bullets like a Barnes X or a Trophy Bonded. Of course, if you just want your deer to die within view of where you shot him and skip the Tonto act, use the Ballistic Tips.

joedjr, There is no way I would try to change your set up that as you said "shoots great", on a weeks notice!

Stay with what you have for now. Just put the cross hair behind the shoulder and everything will go just fine.

Change up after you get back. Nolser is making The Partion in 140gr .277 caliber now, and I would take a long look at that bullet for just about any game you would want to point the .270WBY at!

stubblejumper..thanks for detailed reply...i shot one of your alberta whitetails last year with a swift scirocco..150gr(should hold together better than a BT) and the bullet blew up on the upper shoulder. it was shot from a 7mm Dakota at approx. 70 yds. Deer got up started to run again..shot it quarting away..bullet blew up again...the bullet penatrated the deer(not a pass through)..but the entry hole was enormous..it did kill the deer!!...but you can see why i ask

You might try the 140 grain Accubond. A little tougher and the same accuracy in my rifles.

Hunting is all about confidence. I hope this will help - I can kill a 130lb (ready for the larder) fallow with a 90gr 6mm BT at 3,250fps without the bullet blowing.

When you put the cross hairs on that antelope or whitetail then it will die if the bullet is placed in the vitals - end of story.

I can't speak for the 270 cal. bullets on deer. I will never however use them again on elk. Some years back, I worked up a superbly accuracte load for 200g ballistic tips in a 338 that were right at 3000 fps. I was hunting in rolling sage brush hills on a late season cow hunt. I was set up with a bipod over the hood of my truck and had an absolute steady rest. I shot a cow at 400+ yards. She was quartering away. The bullet hit a rib going in and the core seperated. The lead core somehow managed to take a 90 degree turn and exited 6" from the entrance wound. Suprisingly, the jacket penetrated about 8" into the onside lung. The elk stood there for about 15 seconds and then walked staight away. When I could see she was not going down, I shot her in the back of the head to finish her. While I have seen various bullets do crazy things after impact, I was quite surprised with the way the lead core so quickly seperated and then proceeded to take such a sharp turn from the original bullet path. I was particularly dissapointed with the bullet coming apart at what was at that range, modest velocity. I swore off the bullets for elk--but did use them successfully on broadside shots at mule deer where they performed admirably. I've heard rumors that the bullets have toughened up--I hope they are true as that load would routinely shoot 1 hole 3 shot groups. In faireness to Nosler, they were not, as I recall, advertising the 200 grain ballistic tip as an elk bullet. I can't imagine what that load might have done at close range.