25-06, Ballistic Tips

[Andy L]

Evan,
I see you talking about using 75gr Ballistic tips on deer. Which ones are you using? Give me some details on performance, please.

I have been tempted to do that very thing for whitetails. I didnt know if I could get good enough penetration or not. I have been shooting some 75gr VMaxs for playing around as we have talked about before. They are fun, but so explosive, I wouldnt think they would be too good for deer. But, could be wrong. I know they blow the hell outta whatever they hit.

Thought maybe a little heavier jacketed ballistic tip may be the answer. However, I did kill an elk with the VMax. Not hunting elk, but I bought one to butcher and it got out of the pen on me. Only thing I had was the 25-06AI in the seat of my pickup and it was loaded with the 75gr VMaxs. She stopped to look back at approx 200 yards and I shot her right under the ear with it. Dropped like she was hit by the hammer of god.

Hey, I just thought of something. I got a new proclomation to make.

The 25-06 with the 75gr VMax is the Perfect Elk Cartridge.



Andy

[Evan03]

hmmmmm well my topic went asstray over there and i like to delete the hole thread but i cant, my word got alittle out of hand but heres the catch. i would in heart beat use the 75gr vmax on deer but i dont consider it to be deer bullet. not in anycaliber. but with well placed shot itl knock deer down just like alot of other calibers with stouter bullets. id have to enphasize alot on the well placed shot if one was to use this bullet.

i havent taken deer with any vmax. but ive hear the 75gr amax works very well on deer sized game. id like to give it a try. im not even positive the 75 amax is available in 257. im hearing the 243 75 amax is what works very good. if i was to get 243 thats the bullet id load first. id use it to varmit and deer hunt.

a lighter weight 257 bullet i like is the 85 nolser balistic tipp. ive shot coyotes and other varmits with this bullet and it isnt anywhere near as explosive as the vmax. i could if i wanted to shoot alittle faster than what my gun does with the 100gr nolser bt, load this bullet exsculsevily for al my varmiting and deer hunting. ive pretty much settled on the 100gr bt and load only it in the 25 now.

even the 270wsm ive only ever loaded nolser balistic tipps. ive just found that they do the job and are acurate.

ive heard nolser bts weighing a certain amount have heavier jackets than the lighter bts, but ive never been able to find out if this is true or find out whhere the weight cut off is. the lightest ones ive shot are 75s in the 25.

thats about all i have. id kinda str

[Catfish]

Bullets like the V Max. are a very poor choice for deer. If you can put the bullet in the brain or between the ribs into the chest they will look devistating, but if you hit a bone you are left with a flesh wound. The first groundhog I shot with my .257AI I shot at about 15 yrds. with a 75 gn. Serria HP. It litterly through him 3 ft. and flipped him over, but the bullet did not exit. If your deer bullets won`t shot through a groundhog you better get a different bullet. I loaded shome 110 FNHP for a friend`s .30-30 to shoot groundhog and coyotes. He took them to KY deer hunting and thought he found the end all deer bullet. He took a deer at abt. 50 yrds. with a shot through the chest and it dropped like a rock. The thing is if he would have hit the deer from about anyother angle the bullet would not have had the penatration nessary to kill the deer.

[rem 700]

If you like bst's in the 25-06, I'd stick to the heavier 115 grain from winchester ammo, at least for deer... varmints are the ones that deserve the 75 or 85 grain loads

[Cal Sibley]

I'm quite fond of balistic tips in .224 and .243. They do the job and are quite accurate. However, I'm a bit leery of them in anythng larger than that. I like the Nosler line but prefer their
partition bullets for deer sized animals. Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

[Evan03]

i like partitions to but there exspensive and i never could get them to fly well, granted i idnt try to awful hard knowing the 100gr bts were hitn paper better than i could with an eraser but at 2 ft.

but i have flown some tripple shocks, also 100grainers down range into very notable groups. this is the bullet i think.


winchester uses strickly nosler balistic tipped when they load anything with plastic tipp. combined technoligies between win nos came up with coated nosler bt. black bullet, grey plastic. combined my but.

its all in the marketing. it must work.

i dont know about other calibers, but im pretty positive in 257, cal everything over 85grs is put together useing a stouter jacket.



ive shot a few difrent bullets in stouter desing. rem core lockt, aka varmit slug. this bullet has produced the most red mist on small varmits from 3-400yds. close far it doesnt matter. its only out done by 75gr vmaxes and possibly 50grainers doing 3800 or so.

nsler partions. never have i hit anything with this bullet pushed through my 25. but this bullet has taken deer and yotes while getn drug through my 270win tube. inside 150yds its normal for this bullet to punch pin pricks through deer. leaving almost no exit wound or even an entrance wound. out further the bullet will sometimes leave an exit or possibly not exit. i used to have a few almost perfect mushrooms that i recoverd from deer. good bullet for big game. in my open deer arent big enough to fret over just use good bullet id say over 100grs, and stay the heck away from hornadys vmax.

sitn here trying to think of other bullets ivee used, i know theres more but i havent near the exsperince with them as i do these.

nosler bts are kinda my thing. ive got some 130grainers, that im gona try in my 270win. and some 140s. had to get 140s because the 270wsm liked them alot. i used 140s to take some coyotes badgers and rock chucks. with good results. no exits on coyotes and chucks and badgers werent exsplodeing. badgers are touch and kinda what i use to judge bullet.

the only bullet that has even remotly messed up any badger ive shot has been the 75vmax. i think only because this bullet fragmented on impact. takeing alot of thje badgers head with it.

ive used 3006 270 2506 270wsm and seen alot of bullets retained in the carcas, even at close range. i also shot badger at longer range 200 or so with the 2506 with 100gr core lokts. badger dropped instantly no kicks or wiggles. nothin.

theres wasnt a exit or entrase wound to be found. but what i did find amaxed me. one very clean 100gr core lockt in a good mushroom just a few feet behind the badger. the jack was still entack. but ready to come lose. this bullet isnt what i call a great bullet but seems to hold together on badgers. almost makes me wonder if tougher skinned game makes this bullet perform like its intended.

or is this dual purpose bullet. takes readying in flight and knows its about to impact a varmit so the air turblance loosens the jacket then on impact it pentrates and comes apart.

okay im outa here im rambling like crazy and i could go on and on.

good night

Evan

[Lone Star]

In .257 and .264, bullets of 100 grains and up are game bullets. I've used the 100-grain BTips in my M7 .260 on Kodiak deer and one caribou and they worked very well at 200 yards for lung shots. Ditto the 100 BTip out of my .257 Weatherbys, but past 200 yards only. The impact velocity is too great much closer.

At lower impact velocities Ballistic Tips are great deer bullets, but once they pass around 2800 fps on impact they are pretty soft. I've gone to 100-grain Barnes X-bullets in the Weatherbys, but still prefer the 100 BTips in the M700VLS/.260 Rem for varmints. They shoot as flat as a .22-250 at long range and carry more energy to the target - and they are suitable for deer if one walks out.

[Cal Sibley]

I purchased a box of Nosler Ballistic Tips recently for my .25-06 and failed to notice that they were flat based bullets. I understand Nosler is returning to the flat based bullets in deer sized offerings to beef them up some, along with making the jackets thicker. That should be good news who have concerns about the frangeability of the Ballistic Tips. I've heard the current ones tend to fly apart quite easily. Just one mans view. Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

[Ridge Runner]

Several years ago nosler made ballistic tips(which then were just a light jacketed hp with the plastic tip) and they're excellant solid base boattail. for some reason nosler discontinued the sbbt and then changed the heavy for caliber Ballistic tips to the same makeup as the solid base boattails. the light for cal. bt's were left unchanged and are still intended for varmints.
How can you tell? look how they're packaged, the big game ballistic tips are packaged 50 per box, the varmints are 100/250 per box.
RR