I say, does it really matter, if you have one ounce of shooting skill and a deer is typically standing broadside at 60 yards. Like most normal guys on this forum. Doesn’t apply to the guys killing 700 deer a year all at 1900 yards.

Shot a doe in the neck on Saturday with my 25-06 & 115 gr Nosler BT, just a small piece of meat & skin on the top & bottom of the neck was all that was holding the head on lol. I have killed more deer & pigs with my 243 & the 95 gr Nosler BT's than I can count over the years and they work well, but man that bullet in my 25-06 is like a lighting bolt. They don't take a step.

I hunted with 140 and 150 grain ballistic tips out of a 270 win for 4 years, I was hunting in the hill country those years and killing 5 deer + hogs a year. Never recovered a bullet because they all exited. Zero complaints.

The 120 grain Ballistic Tip is my favorite bullet in the 7mm-08. I cant begin to count the number of hogs and deer that my father, a buddy, and I have shot with that bullet. Luckily I bought 700 of them years back on a sale at shooters pro shop. They have the wrong color tips in them so Nosler was selling them cheap. Wish I could have purchased more of them.

165 Sierra Game King in the 308 have been the best I have ever seen in the field, bar none. Federal Classic 308C Chad TRG does them very well too

I didn't have a chance to read all the responses, and I'm not trying to posture, but I've guided professionally and through Texas Youth Hunting program for a long time and been on and around no telling how many kills. With ballistic tips at least quite a few hundred, probably around 100 personally. Here's the thing I've seen with them. Personally or my family, we've used them almost for exclusively over 25 years, and never had one single problem. Ever deer I have ever lost has been with more traditional soft point bullets, mostly Core Lokts. But I know other guides who hate hate hate Balistic Tips and think Core Lokts and those type bullets are the cats meow. Here's what I think I've observed to reconcile this disparity.

Caliber and shot placement seem to be the primary difference in performance in what I think I've seen, with an additional factor of deer size. The problems I have seen with ballistic tips are with the very commonly used on youth hunts 243, even those that are supposed to be for deer and not varmints. My family and all others I have seen no problems with are 270 and larger calibers. Also, I have seen no problems with accurate behind the should or neck shots, but all ballistic tip problems I have seen with those larger calibers have been right in the shoulder, hitting bone, shots, and those generally on either big mature bucks in our Rolling Plains area or on bigger deer in south Texas, the Panhandle or New Mexico. The outfitters and guides I have worked with in those places often don't even allow ballistic tips. So I think this is why I have heard some very qualified guys on both sides of the fence, its not the bullet, but very specific uses.

By the way, on the 243, it hasn't been so much that they don't kill, but that they too often don't exit, even on smaller deer, in our experience, and thus making blood trailing so difficult. This often happens on youth hunts, but I am too stubborn to give up on lost deer and end up finding them other ways and in most cases a great shot that just didn't exit. We've actually moved from recommending behind the shoulder shots to point of the should shots, to break down that nerve junction area, so help with this issue. And since I have started using, with my kids, and recommending more Nosler Partition or Accu Bond type bullets for the 243, we have loved it, bullets exit and ZERO deer lost.

On the Core Lokts, when I lost deer with them, I'm pretty sure it was on me, I was going through a light caliber and or long shooting phase, in my youth, and they just weren't the right bullet, for me, in those cases, gave me a biased bad taste. The guides I know that love them are primarily coming from a 100-200 yard shot at feeders standpoint.

Anyway, had this discussion alot in alot of hunting camps with alot of experienced guys and just thought I'd share some perspectives about the little nuances of use and style that may be making most of the differences of opinions. Best of luck to ya!

I made my longest shot with my Christmas .270 Friday morning. I got a 120# hog at 280 yards behind the shoulder (exact POA) with a Barnes Vor-tx (TTSX) 130 grain. It was a complete pass through and wasn't hard tracking 20 yards of red ice.

The last time I tried to “save the meat,” the deer ran 100 yards, left hardly any blood trail, jumped into the river and swam 3/4s of the way to the other side and drowned in the river. We had to drive 20 miles to get to the opposite side of the river, then swim in the river to tie onto the deer and drag him out, then carry it 500 yards UPHILL to get back to the truck.

Now I try to blow out the shoulder so they don’t run. Where I hunt now the brush is so thick that if they run very far I’d never find them. I hit them in the shoulder and don’t have to chase the deer. And I get plenty of meat out of every deer.