243 95 gr Nosler Ballistic Tip w/ cannelure

[ReloadKy]

So I ordered two packs of 95 gr nosler ballistic tips in 243 from shooters pro shop for my son's rifle. Have been dying to try them out. When I opened the box I was surprised to find that one bag was the regular ballistic tips and the other bag had ballistic tips with the cannelure. At first I was kind of ticked because when ordering I simply increased the amount in my cart from 1 to 2 so in theory the product should have been exactly the same. I didn't even know they made this bullet with a cannelure. Which is my first question, why did they? The regular ballistic tips are plenty accurate and proven already, why mess with a good thing?? Second will the bullets with the cannelure perform differently than the ones without? I really do not want to go through load development twice.
As with all new bullets I have not tried I collected my CBTO data and wanted to compare the two. The regular ballistic tips had a CBTO of 2.298 while the ones with cannelure had a CBTO 2.293.

 

[JD338]

The seconds with the cannelure are from a run Nosler made for someone like Federal or Winchester. Accuracy and point of impact might be slightly different but on game performance will be the same.

JD338

 

[SJB358]

The seconds with the cannelure are from a run Nosler made for someone like Federal or Winchester. Accuracy and point of impact might be slightly different but on game performance will be the same.

JD338

I’ll echo Jim but I’d bet they’ll be darned close to the same. Nosler stinks in my opinion for making ultra consistent bullets in length but on the other side of the coin I havent found that to be ultimately a horrible thing since they usually shoot real well.

i do hate when I don’t get what I've ordered though.

 

[Teknys]

I've been there and have seen no difference in the .243 and .277 BT bullets. I've loaded both and they shot in same group.

 

[jimbires]

I'll bet they will be fine for hunting, out to a couple hundred yards .

 

[ShadeTree]

No direct experience but I'll echo what others have said. Whatever your load is that you already have worked up, load the different length bullets to the same distance off the lands regardless of what that changes on the overall length, and there's a good chance they will shoot right with them. Not enough difference to fuss about at reasonable ranges will be the likely result.

 

[wvbuckbuster]

Adding to what the others have said Nosler blems are just that. Might be different color tips or a grove added. I used this very bullet in the last 243 I owned, and they shot the best out of 4 different bullets tried in it. Load up 4-5 and shoot for group. Doubt there's much difference. At worse make good practice bullets save your others. Dan.

 

[jimbires]

the cannelure could help with retained weight . Hornady advertises the cannelure as helping to lock the jacket to the core . I would think the Noslers cannelure would act the same .

https://www.hornady.com/bullets/interlock#!/

 

[Orezona]

I have .284 Partitions with a cannelure that were listed as overruns versus seconds. My research found they were probably overruns for Federal. My research also found that the cannelure is cut into the jacket versus crimped. The cannelure on mine are smooth. No crimp looking grooves. I hope this helps.

I haven't loaded mine yet as I'm just getting into my 7mm-08 and 8 lbs of Big Game.