There is a lot of mess goin on this thread that is hard to pin down.

1. Old Nosler BT's were the same as Nosler BT varmints today. They are the perfect bullet for a lung shot when impacting the deer at somewhere around 2600-2700fps or slower. They usually slip under the hide before blowing up, they do more damage to soft tissue than most bullets, and at low velocity(long range) they are one of a small number of bullets that will expand at all. A 168 Accubond out of a 30-06 might as well be FMJ past 500yds. Additionally, at the lower velocities exit wounds are quite common. That thick copper base travels farther than you would think.

2. New Nosler BT Hunting bullets, with their tapered jacket, need a little extra velocity to be good on a heart/lung shot. I've shot two deer around 100yds with a 150 BT hunting out of a 30-06. Both deer ran, they were both heart/lung shots and they both had surprising little lung damage and small exit wounds. The next day a buddy borrowed the gun and made a shoulder shot. The bullet smashed through the first shoulder, trashed the lungs and left a tennis ball sized exit wound through the second shoulder. It performed far better hitting bone than hitting just lungs.

3. Tons of people call Blitzkings, V-max's, A-max's and anything else with a polymer tip a ballistic tip. I can tell you from experience that V-max's at the same velocity as Balistic Tips are far more likely to blowup on the surface. I would assume that A-max's are similar. I have no experience with Blitzkings. The Nosler has another advantage over the rest of the tipped bullets. Even the BT varmints and the old BT's have a thick copper base. It was a carryover from the Nosler solid-base and it doesn't look like much but it is.

4. If you don't load your own ammo, you don't know which Ballistic Tip you have.

Just shot 3 hogs of various sizes. Used the 260 with 100 gr Nosler BT's. MV is about 3000 fps. The range was about 75 yards. I shot em right behind the shoulder and they dropped like a rock. All 3 had exit wounds, but the exits weren't excessive.

Only lost one deer. I was shooting a 30 carbine, and it wasn't a bullet failure, I can admit it.

I have shot BT's a lot as a kid, and the reason why is why everyone and their dog shoots them... they look cool and play to our egos about being good long range bullets and we all like to pretend we are snipers. I liked the BT's for a while but it didn't take too many years to see that their performance was sporadic, some opened and left a good wound channel and exit, while others would pencil though almost like a FMJ and others would obliterate half the deer. I like consistency. I shoot nosler partitions now, they do the same thing every time, caliber in and quarter to 50 cent piece size exit with blood ray Charles could follow.

I doubled two hogs yesterday with the NP's. The back hog was neck hit and died on the spot the front hog was lung shot, there were pieces of lung on the ground at the site of impact and a blind man could follow the blood trail for about 30 yards to the dead hog.

I've used plenty of bt on animals even had a double pig shot with one out of an 06. My biggest complaint was the lack of consistently getting exits. I typically use try Accubonds now but use Amax's some with very similar results as the BT's except I typically get a exit.

I love me some BT bullets. I have killed 100s of deer, aoudad,caribou,mule deer and elk with not one single problem in a 7mm and 300 win mag. it's kinda like broadheads in archery. It's always the broad head and not the shooter

This is what a lung shot looks like. 7 mm Rem Mag with 140 grain Sierra Boattail handload. People say 7 mm Rem Mag is over kill in Texas, but I got a clean pass through shot on the lungs like always, no damage to the front shoulders, and if I have to track the deer over 50 yards, sure makes a better blood trail. Deer is located directly in front of the truck, and you can see every heartbeat to where she finally quit.

There is some really good FACTUAL info on this thread about ballistic tips and also some really BAD info as well. My guess is that the guys posting the bad info have never done any research on ballistic tips, have never used them, or are just repeating what their buddies tell them.......or maybe all of the above.

I don't have time to point out all the fact and all the fiction on this thread though.

Carry on.

Yep! Another BT EXPLOSION using a 7mm at 100 yards....

Entrance


Exit

^^^ How is that an explosion? Looks like a perfect pass through to my eye, and a very long wound channel. What am I missing?

Have always loaded 140gr BTs in my 7mag and 130 BTs in 270.
Never had a problem. My boys shoot 100gr 243 WSSM BTS, never a problem.
Still need to be good shot. Spend some time at the range with those BT's, dial em in and killing bucks 300-400 yards out is easily attainable.
It boils down to what you have confidence in.
Happy hunting!

Exactly. Everyone says that BT bullets explode on contact....not

Here is my contribution to the exploding ballistic tip theory. Its a Nosler Ballistic tip from a 7 Mag recovered from a very large buck at a distance of probably 175 yards. He dropped in his tracks from a quartering away shot with probably 25"-30" of penetration. Bullet was recovered just under the hide after smashing all the way through the off shoulder. Took me years to recover all the shrapnel to reconstruct the bullet.

Rem Core-lokt has never let me down in any caliber.

X2

X3

Lots of hunters prefer lung shots due to blood trails. The theory's always been that an animal well hit will travel max 150 yds. This is never always the case and it isn't shot squarely thru both shoulders. If a trophy animal runs off and one loses it say after hunting 10-20 yrs. Paying for leases, trips, corn, guns, ammo, vehicles, ect. All of it is a mute point, projectiles that don't work every time and that are not accurate leave our walls empty. I'm as guilty as anyone about hunting a good deal and in younger years when So Texas leases were $125-$300 for annual yr round leases I lost several wall hangers due to poor performance factory rounds. The very least expensive thing about hunting is range time and ammo.

I shoot on point of shoulder and break them down I don't like tracking and have now moved Kacee up on shoulder which she has learned no tracking, I never shoot behind the shoulder.

I stopped shooting BT's because they would blow the opposite side leg off of every deer or hog I shot wiht my 7mm. I would have a hard time saying they dont work, when they pass through the deer and remove the opposite leg.

What did the exit look like if there was one. Seen a WT shot at 100 yds with ballistic tips that looked like that. Never got much past the entrance on the ribcage for penetration. Had to do a finish up shot at close range on the WT. I hate ballistic tips.

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That is great performance to me even at a poor shot angle in my opinion. I had similar results with BT's, that's not why I quit using them. Why I quit using them is what they did the other half of the time, because that isn't what they did every time I chunked lead at a critter.

Both comments are obsurd. First of all, deer is NOT big game so the big game comment has zero relevance. Secondly, even if deer were big game animals, the ammunition is designed for light, thin skinned animals, so you would never be using them on big game to begin with. Third, they do their job and do it EXTREMELY well.

Energy transfer is the name of the game when it comes to quick kills, second only to shot placement. When those two go hand in hand, the result is a DRT animal, no exception. The ballistic tips transfer a tremendous amount of energy and do it conistently on light skinned game such as deer.

If you dont like them, thats fine and your welcome to use what ever bullet type you prefer, but to make asinine comments like the above is stupid.

Calling something absurd when you can't even spell it is....absurd.

And deer are big game animals, ding dong.