ballistic tips for deer

rutland

Well-Known Member
This topic has probably been covered before so I apologise now.
I shoot all my deer from muntjac through to reds with my 30.06 and 150gn bullets and all vermin with 22.250 ballistic tips,
I have just returned from a trip to Ireland on the sika and was told by the stalkers that they favour shooting all their
deer with ballistic tips, I just would like to know what other people think.
thanks
 
Head or neck shot? Nozler balistic tip every time

I want maximum expansion maximum damage The exit wounds with the BTs are massive but if I dont get an exit wound thers a huge amount of internal trauma nothing could survive

Heart shot? soft point I like the Federal Power Shock BTs do too much dammage

My prefered head shot at the moment is the 243 as I have found the expansion with Nozler tips to be very destructive

My Feranchi (SP) 308BTs 150g seemd to go through and through which was a bit concerning I shot one in the ear a few weeks ago and it came out the cheek bone with a hole I could fit the tip of my finger in. The dear acutaly spun over in mid air and droped on the spot but I wasent happy with the compact exit wound

I am now trying Nozler 125g 308 and Hornaday 150G SST 308 home loads to see if that makes a diferance, but havent had the chance to use them yet.


ATB

Chasey
 
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Chasey when you go stalking if you have a deer that doesn't present its self for a head or neck shot and you have ballistic tips
would you still take the chest shot. Also the stalkers in Ireland told us to pin the sika straight through the shoulders, not just behind
 
I don't believe it's that difficult to understand that a 'Ballistic Tip', BT, or whatever you want to call it bullet, can come in either a hunting or varmint version to suit whatever quarry you intend to use it on?

Essentially they're just hollow point bullets with a plastic plug in the 'ole.

Just have a gander at the Nosler website for information on their variety of plastic tipped projectiles:

For varmint BT bullets: http://www.nosler.com/ballistic-tip-varmint-bullet/

For hunting BT bullets: http://www.nosler.com/ballistic-tip-bullet/
 
The only Ballistic Tip that I have used on deer ( Whitetail ), is the 7mm 120-gr BT from a 7mm-08. This bullet has a thicker jacket than the other 120-gr 7mm bullets, because they know someone is going to hot rod it out of a .280 or 7mm Rem Mag. So, at 7mm-08 or 7x57 Mauser velocities of 2,800 to 3,000 fps ( even downloaded to 2,600), it performed perfectly, not coming apart, making a mess, or drilling through. Very accurate, too.

At those velocities, appropriate for the range, the traditional Sierra or Hornady 120-gr will work very, well, too.

But a different BT in a different cartridge may not work as well as these do for me.
 
From personal experience 150gr ballistic tips by norma and federal work extremely well on roe, fallow and red hinds (never shot a stag).
 
If you shoot Sika with any frequency under Irish conditions, you'll soon want to hit them as hard as possible to anchor the brutes. Very few bullets do this as well as a BT.

Mostly I have used 120gr in 6.5mm, but also 130's in 270 and my buddy who shoots a fair few every year uses 150gr in 30/06.

Those deer are tough. I have found the 6.5 to be an excellent Sika killer with reasonable meat damage, and nearly always get an exit.
 
I use BT's in all of my rifles. The secret is not to send them too fast! I keep them at about 2900 fps and they all perform well with good clean kills generally and minimal/acceptable carcass damage. You can't kill deer without a bit of trauma!
MS
 
I have shot red and roe with 150gr normas which use the nosler ballistic tip. I have been very happy with them and found them not to cause too much meat damage. perhaps its not quite designed for roe but I think this may be compensated for by the bullet expanding less on a smaller softer animal. never had a problem with them though.

some people think that ballistic tip is designed to give rapid expansion and that they shouldn't be used on deer but that's a load of tosh. like the name suggests its to aid ballistic coefficient / performance. it was said before that the bullet is just a hollow point with a bit of plastic in it and that's pretty much true. the amount of expansion is determined by the speed of the bullet, the target it hits and most importantly the construction of the bullet and thickness of the copper jacket.

I have been told that the 30-06 is far too big for shooting roe and it is second choice to my .243 but what I will say is that it does less damage with the 150gr ballistic tips than the .243 with a 75gr v max or some other lighter heads.

in the end of the day its all down to bullet choice.
 
Chasey when you go stalking if you have a deer that doesn't present its self for a head or neck shot and you have ballistic tips
would you still take the chest shot. Also the stalkers in Ireland told us to pin the sika straight through the shoulders, not just behind


I did it once, never again, trashed the front of the carcus.

The only reasion I would opt for a chest shot would be dense woodland walk and stalk, or long range

Dense woodland where I expect to see only part of the deer & have very limited set up to shot time, Ill load soft point and take the shot with the greater margin for error.

High seat ill load BT but I have a couple of soft points in my pocket

If a deer comes out long range and doesn't look like its going to close in? If I reely feel the need for the shot, Ill open the bolt and drop in a soft point (you can do that on a sako)

Anything out to 100m ill head/neck shoot.

100-125 is a gray area dependent on shooting platofrm, windage and shot presentation

Anything over 125ish Ill chest shoot

If the deer is at 150 and I dont have time to drop in a soft point and set up, I dont think the shot was ever realy on for my skill set.

ATB

Chasey
 
120 grain nosler bt homeloaded in my 6.5 x 55 has always worked a treat for me on all deer
 
Chasey when you go stalking if you have a deer that doesn't present its self for a head or neck shot and you have ballistic tips
would you still take the chest shot. Also the stalkers in Ireland told us to pin the sika straight through the shoulders, not just behind

I did it once, never again, trashed the front of the carcus.............................

Chasey, you don't mention which version of the Nosler BT bullet you're using in your .243. As there's a notable difference between the varmint and hunting BT 6mm bullets, threads like this one tend to go round in circles unless posters state which flavour they are referring to.
 
I did it once, never again, trashed the front of the carcus.

The only reasion I would opt for a chest shot would be dense woodland walk and stalk, or long range

Dense woodland where I expect to see only part of the deer & have very limited set up to shot time, Ill load soft point and take the shot with the greater margin for error.

High seat ill load BT but I have a couple of soft points in my pocket

If a deer comes out long range and doesn't look like its going to close in? If I reely feel the need for the shot, Ill open the bolt and drop in a soft point (you can do that on a sako)

Anything out to 100m ill head/neck shoot.

100-125 is a gray area dependent on shooting platofrm, windage and shot presentation

Anything over 125ish Ill chest shoot

If the deer is at 150 and I dont have time to drop in a soft point and set up, I dont think the shot was ever realy on for my skill set.

ATB

Chasey

this sounds like a lot of flapping about to me ?

I use one bullet for everything in either my 308 or 260rem, KISS
 
a well shot deer will die with any soft point, ballistic tipped, hollow point, round nosed, spitzer, boat tailed, flat based, VLD, bonded or "locked" bullet of suitable expansion

its a "how do you take your coffee" question.

just dont use a bullet that limits your shot choices and it won't make a difference
never seen a head/neck shot deer (when hit properly!) walk away because it was a soft point any more than I have seen foxes that only die with VMax.......
 
6.5x55mm Hornady 140gr SST with 2,660fps MV has done all that I have needed to date - muntjac, roe & fallow - out to 200yds

It's plenty enough for sika and red as well, so I have the "1 rifle/1 scope/1 round" combo for everything that the UK can offer.

Have some respect for your quarry: Use deer ammo, shoot within your abilities and spend time at the range getting to know your kit intimately so you can drop your quarry into its own shadow.
 
Am surprised that this old chestnut is still going on and on and on!

Liked the 165 grain Nosler BT in my Brno 601 308 it worked well but one old chap I did a lot of stalking with back then. Muntjac mainly with a bit of Roe on occasion. Well he hated them with a passion. When he saw my handloads with the BT's has asked if I was intending to gut them at the same time as shoot them. I took the hint and to avoid ill feeling I switched to the normal Speer 165 grain Soft Point. Luckily the Speers shot almost as well as the Nosler BT's.

One estate they we stalked on in Sussex had the rule no Ballistic Tips bullets allowed to be used on the estate. The first time I came across this was on my first visit there which was a bit of a problem as they had not mentioned it before and I had my old BSA 270 with 130 Grain Ballistic Tips in my hand loads.
 
I know that the Norma 120 grain ballistic tips for the 6.5x55 are very effective on Sika. I know a couple of guys who swear by them. I use RWS 100 grain soft point in the .243, does the trick. With regard to the shoulder shot to pin the deer, as advocated by your Irish stalkers, I would agree that it is handy, particularly in very thick cover. I don't tend to use it in more open terrain.
 
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