Bullet gurus, tell me what ya thank about....

[EdO]

I wish I could remember when Win came out with the SilverTips, but can't I remember buying them in the late 60's, so they are probably o.k. They wouldn't have been around this long if they were bad.

[Mike D]

That's interesting as to how many deer are lost after being shot with ballistic tips. If you didn't find the deer how do you know the bullet failed? Gutshot deer tend to go a long way when pushed. It doesn't matter what bullet you used. I've shot and seen hundreds of deer shot with lots of different bullets. They all died fairly quickly with a shot in the right place. People get exited and make poor shots. Then it's blame the bullet time.

Well I shot and didn't recover until days later 2 deer.

Later in the season I shot another buck and was able to watch him fall about 100 yards away. The ground was very frosty that morning so I was also able to follow his tracks. There was a little blood at the impact site and more where he fell but not a drop between. No exit would on a behind the shoulder shot.

I changed to partitions after and never had another issue. Always got a pass through and good blood trails.

[Artos]

M16...give the tsx a try.
They shoot as good as the bt in my guns and kill better than any bullet i have used. I think you will like them after cleaning some deer and comparing damage created.

My prefered shot to test pass through bullets is very slight-ward quarter where i can destroy the entry shoulder (testing bullet) and exiting just behind oposite shoulder taking some important boiler room parts for the exit where the rib cage almost meets the exit shoulder & giving best chance for blood trail.

I love this shot especially for larger / important deer as you have a broken shoulder, vitals destroyed and a trail if they dont drop. Our particular brush is no fun without a trail!! Can get lost 20yds from you & why i started this whole crazy nonsense of testing tougher bullets. My go to gun just doesnt like any of the bonded or partitions and why i settled on the barnes. I pretty much use this shot on bucks if i want to save the hide...otherwise its a drop neck shot for any deer i shoot. I hate our brush when animals leave the senderos...miserable getting to them.

I will be testing this method on does with the 110 tsx going around 2475fps just for grins to see if this bullet will plow through with the sbr blackout. Very curious as this gun is shooting better everytime i go out and this 110 was designed to open up at lower speeds. Figured ill keep it to 175yds or less??

[M16]

I've used the tsx in my .257 Wby and 25-06 with good results. They penetrate completely. For high shoulder shots they can't be beat. But in my experience body shot deer run further after the shot than they do with ballistic tips. The brush on my place is just like yours. Stay out of it as much as possible.

[Big pig]

That's interesting as to how many deer are lost after being shot with ballistic tips. If you didn't find the deer how do you know the bullet failed? Gutshot deer tend to go a long way when pushed. It doesn't matter what bullet you used. I've shot and seen hundreds of deer shot with lots of different bullets. They all died fairly quickly with a shot in the right place. People get exited and make poor shots. Then it's blame the bullet time.

First clue was a buck I shot with my .260. Perfect placement and he went about 100 yards with no blood trail. No exit. Thank goodness it was muddy.
Lost a boar at a range of 30 yards . No a bad hit.
Later with a 7 mag 12 pt only went 150 yards. No blood trail. Found him months later. Same Season Large boar in the shoulder at 35 yards with same 7 mag Never saw him again
Btw 50 years of hunting with a gun. I am not a fan of no exit wounds.

BP

[TexZ71]

I really like the Barnes tsx and ttsx! So far the farthest one ran was 20 yards.

[lovemylegacy]

First clue was a buck I shot with my .260. Perfect placement and he went about 100 yards with no blood trail. No exit. Thank goodness it was muddy.
Lost a boar at a range of 30 yards . No a bad hit.
Later with a 7 mag 12 pt only went 150 yards. No blood trail. Found him months later. Same Season Large boar in the shoulder at 35 yards with same 7 mag Never saw him again
Btw 50 years of hunting with a gun. I am not a fan of no exit wounds.

BP

Youre scaring me

[Tye]

I've shot deer, elk and caribou with ballistic silver tips and have never had a problem. Here is a deer my daughter shot last week with a 6.5 creedmoor using 140 grain Amax bullets. Hole in and hole out and ran 40 yards



Plastic tipped bullets are the only thing I shoot

[Old Bald Guy]

Did a comparison this evening between a 45 gr TSX and a 50 gr Rem Accutip on 2 pigs late this evening. Both bullets traveling at about 3100 fps out of my Kimber 221 Fireball. Both 110 yard broadside shots-both pigs DRT and ended up touching. Bottom pig is a sow about 100#--shot her through both shoulders with the 45 gr. TSX = dime size exit hole. Top pig is a sow about 50#---shot her high right behind the shoulders = another dime size exit hole. I guess that proves beyond a reasonable doubt that pigs don't fly.

[cwill]

I've never had a problem with them Calvin in my 7 mag. I loaded for me and Flash for years and between us we killed a pile of deer with them and most of them had serious wounds. No they did not all exit, but I can honestly say all "rib" shots exited and I never recall a "shoulder" hit deer taking a step. Head and neck shots were just pure destruction. I've killed one deer with them out of my 7-08 encore pistol and she was shoulder shot and didn't take a step. Personally I wouldn't be scared to drill any deer in the woods with that bullet. Having said all that and if I still gun hunted I'd have to look close at the triple shocks. I've been very impressed with the kills my little boy has had with the triple shocks in his 223.

[Seacoal]

I'm never had an issue. I personally shot ballistic tips in my 25-06 both factory and handloads for about 5 years. Never had an animal get away due to bad bullet performance with proper shot placement. Can't recall anything I didn't get a pass through on except maybe my axis buck, but we rarely pass through the back side skin on them, and usually find the bullet just inside the back skin (had this happen with 25-06 and .270 that I know for sure, shooting accubonds or Sierra's)

This being said, I like the ballistic tip's in light weight calibers. My brother shoot's them in his .270, my cousin in his .243. Never had any performance issues through either. We've had them loading in at least 6.5x55 and one 7mm Mag in the past (the 140's are dad's favorite 7mm bullet I believe). I know they performed in 6.5. the One of my best friends shoot's them in his .300 winnie. To handgrenadeish in that caliber for me, I personally won't load them over 140 gn's tops.

Nosler sells both normal ballistic tips and BST's. There's a little difference in the technology, but they perform the same and are thus essentially the same bullet.

The only BT that ever had severe severe on target performance issue's was the first generation of the 130 .277 cal bullets. They acted like the light weight modern ballistic tips in you 22-25 caliber's that are built to disappear inside of a varmint. Had severe cratering issue's. But those have been out of production probably since I was born.

I use them with confidence myself.

[Jethro]

The issue with Ballistic Tips has everything to do with velocity, and a lot to do with which specific weight, in which caliber, you are using.

I have shot a ton of them in my 7x57, at slightly higher than 7mm-08 speeds. The 7mm 140's, and especially 150's are great at that speed. I have killed every deer I have hit with one of them, and had plenty of exits too. Whereas there are plenty of calibers and cartridges I wouldn't use them in, the 7-08 is not one of them. Use them with confidence.

BTW, whoever was talking about the 7mm/120, that is a particularly good one. The story I have heard is they made it specifically for the silhouette crowd and toughened up the jacket on it. That may or may not be true, but I do know it has the reputation for being one of the better (tougher) NBT's out there, irregardless of caliber.

Some of the worst ones I have ever seen were the first generation .308/150's. Those things were grenades. They have gone through 4 generations of revisions on that one, and are much better now.

[Mike D]

I'll end this with saying that due to my past experience with them I will only use them with lower velocity rounds like my 300 Blackout and maybe my 6.5 Grendel. As a comparison I've shot pigs at bow range distances with my suppressed 300 blackout SBR with 110 grain Barnes TAC TX bullets and 125 grain Nosler ballistic tips both at 2200-2300 fps velocities. The Barnes passes through EVERY time, I have yet to have a ballistic tip pass through.

[Chad C]

No guru, but I prefer partitions for hunting! For instance... I've killed 4 elk with my 25-06 using 120 grain Nosler partitions and I've never lost a whitetail with it.

[lovemylegacy]

No guru, but I prefer partitions for hunting! For instance... I've killed 4 elk with my 25-06 using 120 grain Nosler partitions and I've never lost a whitetail with it.

Yeah I like Partitions too, but the suckers wont shoot as good as I would like. I used them in my 243 when I used to gun hunt deer and never lost one with Partitions.