I probably know the answer to this before I ask it but...Has anyone tried Nosler Ballistic Tips, specifically .30 cal 180 grain, in any of the .300 mags on whitetails?
I know this is more of a standard cartridge bullet but I was just wondering? Playing with some loads for my Win. 300 WSM M70 Featherweight.

Several years ago I was hunting South Texas whitetails and used the 180 Ballistic Tip in my 300mag. It will kill them, butcher them for you too.
I'll stick with a stouter bullet like a partition.

I have one ballistic tip story, it involves a 270 win with a 130 grain bullet. I tried to texas heart shoot a deer and ended up gutting him, he dropped the whole gut pile right where I shot him, the bullet blew up.

I also know a guy who hunts a lot of caribou with the 300/180 BT and he swaers by them.

I find Balistic Tips particularly good for thoes who don't have an aquired taste for deer meat...they do blood shoot the shoulders.

Unfortunately I prefer deer to elk or any other wild game...I never ate anything else growing up until deer got to be worth more money than beef, late 40's and early 50's...Thats when we started eating beef, it was bringing about 11 cent a pound and a deer was worth several hundred dollars..Dads idea, it took a year before any of us kids would like beef......and it put the kabosh to our deer hunting on the US side of the Rio Grande....

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Ray Atkinson

ray@atkinsonhunting.com
atkinsonhunting.com

Hey Ray,
I lived in Twin for a year back in 1992. Was the active Army advisor for the National Guard Unit there. One thing I remember was a young fellow near downtown who was a promising young gunsmith. He did all kinds of custom work and I saw several beautiful looking "heavies" he built on some old enfield actions. Is the guy still there doing work? I'm looking to build a .416 sometime early next year...

The Nosler Ballistic Tip is usually very accurate, but then so are a number of other bullets that don't have the same propensity to ruin meat and capes the way the BT does.

To me, the BT is at its best for varmint hunting purposes. I don't care to use them for big game hunting.

AD

Allen said it all....very accurate but unless one uses his big game rifle for varmints they are IMHO too frangible.
Saw my nephew shoot an antelope doe at less than 200 yds with a .30-06 and 150 or 165 BT's. Hit her in the shoulder and it blew up on the outside! Now that may have been a million to one occurence but enough for me. I would use any of the many fine standard bullets or one of the premiums, bust stay away from the BT's. At least for big game.

FN

[This message has been edited by Frank Nowakowski (edited 09-06-2001).]

Those 180s might be better than you think. I blew up a couple of mule deer with my 30-06 using 165 BTs when they first came out and decided that this bullet wasn't for me. Last year my hunting partner showed up in elk camp with a 300 WM Abolt loaded with ballistic tips. I laughed and asked him why he was using them. He didn't really have a good answer. Anyway he punched a big 6 point bull through the lungs twice at about 50 yards. They didn't do an excessive amount of damage, the exit wounds weren't the saucer sized holes I expected. Later somebody told me that Nosler redesigned thier hunting ballistic tips. Anybody else out there heard this?

I've found that with a .30 cal cartridge there is absolutely nothing wrong with a ballistic tip on whitetails. we shoot them at 75-160 yds with no trouble. but we only use it on broadside shots straight through both shoulders. they drop where they stand and there isn't much meat to waste at all where they are hit.

we use xp-100 single shot pistols - you have 1 shot, make it good. thats our rule

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A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed !!

I have used the old BT Nosler bullets in the past and will not use them, but for target work on paper or varmints. They made a big 3 inch rose on yotes shot and deer.

I can't express thoughts on the newer jacketed type BT, never bought to shoot.

I use 140 gr. ballistic tips in my 7mm stw on mule deer. I even shot a cow elk with that rifle/bullet combination. The deer I have shot have been from 100 to 475 yards. Hitting a deer with a 140 g ballistic tip out of a 7mm stw is like setting off a hand grenade inside them. Penetration is limited to 8-18 inches, depending on range, but they ALWAYS go down. The deer at 475 yards was broadside and I hit her with a high heart/low lung shot. When I walked over and rolled her over, I found one of her lungs lying on the ground underneath her.

That, and I get 3/8 inch groups from that bullet. What more could a mortal man want?

JeffS,
I have no way of knowing unless you have a name...Twin has grown a bit since thoes days.

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Ray Atkinson

ray@atkinsonhunting.com
atkinsonhunting.com