95 grain Ballistic Tip failure on a whitetail

[6mm Remington]

I've had great success over the years with Nosler Partitions and Accubonds, as had my son. They have never let us down. In his Ruger MKII in 6mm Remington I worked a load up shooting 90 gr. E-tips at 3140 fps. With that bullet he has taken antelope, deer, and his first elk which was a big cow he took with one shot at 350 yards. Hit her tight behind the right shoulder and the bullet exited the left shoulder. She staggered about 20 yards and went down. The deer and the two antelope he's taken with that load were also roughly 300 yard shots. All were one shot kills.

I don't think you could. go wrong with either the Partition, AccuBond, or E-tip. All are great bullets.
Here is his cow elk. You can see the blood right in the middle of the left shoulder where the bullet exited.

Here are Accubonds, Partitions, and E-tips out of my 6mm shot into gallon water jugs at 400 yards while I was testing penetration, expansion, and weight retention. They each did very well.

No it's not ballistic gelatin, but it is cheap, repeatable, excellent shooting practice, and a lot of fun.

 

[Hunter26]

Bad Axe, go read some of Faklers studies. Weird things happen. Went to a noise compaint one night, partner was handling the call. Knock knock knock. Police turn down the music. Door comes open big ass bad guy standing behind the crack of the door Fuck you” and raised a piss ain’t 25. Partner hits him center mass with a Federal 230 gr dead center perfectly between the nipples. He went down so fast my partners second shot grazed the top of his shoulder. Damn he made a lot of noise. Bullet followed a rib all the way around to his back and stopped against the spine without doing any damage. He walked to the aid car, walked out of the hospital and into the jail a day later.

I've had a 130gr AccuBond do an almost 90 degree turn in a big whitetail doe. Bullet stayed together and destroyed the spine. She dropped like a sack of potatoes.

That's a crazy story with the big 45, but that looks like a Winchester Ranger-T or other Winchester HP, not a Federal.

 

[PJGunner]

"If you poke a hole in the heart and lungs it’s going to end up tipping over dead within a few seconds no matter how far or fast it runs."
That may very well be true but I still haven't figured out how one deer shot by one of my neighbor kids with my .243 ran over 250 yards before running into a fence twice before laying down and dying. The heart was obliterated and the lungs a red goo. Bullet was the 100 gr. Hornady spire point, a pre-interlock I think. This was back around 1977 or 78.

I do agree that bullets can do some strange things. Like three 180 gr. Nosler Partition two of which passed leaving holes like poked with a pencil. The only one that may have opened up was in the neck shattering the spine. This was on the last deer hunt I did in Nevada so 1978.

I've onlt shot one animal with an AccuBond, a cow elk that ran about 30 yards at the most. The bullet was the 165 gr. 30 caliber. Never found the bullet. However, a very good friend who is no longer with us used the 160 gr. AccuBond in a 7MM Rem. Mag. on a couple of elk hunts with me and swore to his dying day those bullets changed course in every elk he shot. He could be found on several web sites as Swampshooter. He was a good guy to partner up with on a hunt. RIP Bill.You are missed.
Paul B.

 

[salmonchaser]

I've had a 130gr AccuBond do an almost 90 degree turn in a big whitetail doe. Bullet stayed together and destroyed the spine. She dropped like a sack of potatoes.

That's a crazy story with the big 45, but that looks like a Winchester Ranger-T or other Winchester HP, not a Federal.

Actually you may be right, it was a long time ago and I don’t remember like I use to

 

[FOTIS]

The Ballistic Tip is an excellent deer bullet but it's not intended to be a shoulder buster. The AccuBond and Partition are better suited for smashing through big bone.

JD338

Pretty much nailed it there. Personally I never had an issue even with shoulder shots. Then again "mechanically" everything will fail at least once if you use it enough. Swap to the 90 gr AccuBond if we're talking 6mm here.

 

[diverdown]

Hard to get rid of a bullet bias, I’ve one against Sierra’s, I’ll never hunt with them again.

I'm just the opposite. I've shot a ton of deer over the years with the Sierra 165 grain BTSP. I "don't" shoot for the shoulder as I got tired of throwing 1/4 of the deer away from bloodshot meat. If I have to walk a little bit to retreive the deer so be it but many never moved at all. I also would definitely not hunt with lightweight bullets no matter how effiicient they are supposed to be. We're all talking about less recoil but only to a certain point. I hunted with the early ballistic tips and yes they definitely fragmented on many occasions. That left a bad taste and Partitions fill the bill perfectly.

 

[JD338]

I'm just the opposite. I've shot a ton of deer over the years with the Sierra 165 grain BTSP. I "don't" shoot for the shoulder as I got tired of throwing 1/4 of the deer away from bloodshot meat. If I have to walk a little bit to retreive the deer so be it but many never moved at all. I also would definitely not hunt with lightweight bullets no matter how effiicient they are supposed to be. We're all talking about less recoil but only to a certain point. I hunted with the early ballistic tips and yes they definitely fragmented on many occasions. That left a bad taste and Partitions fill the bill perfectly.

The Partition is never a bad choice.

JD338

 

[TackDriver284]

Bad Axe, go read some of Faklers studies. Weird things happen. Went to a noise compaint one night, partner was handling the call. Knock knock knock. Police turn down the music. Door comes open big ass bad guy standing behind the crack of the door Fuck you” and raised a piss ain’t 25. Partner hits him center mass with a Federal 230 gr dead center perfectly between the nipples. He went down so fast my partners second shot grazed the top of his shoulder. Damn he made a lot of noise. Bullet followed a rib all the way around to his back and stopped against the spine without doing any damage. He walked to the aid car, walked out of the hospital and into the jail a day later.

Looks like those old Black Talons or the Winchester SXT.

 

[salmonchaser]

Found the evidence tag in the bottom of the file; it is an SXT. A good reminder to double check your memory.

 

[badaxeriverman]

Is there a link to click on to see that study? I tried to find it on the Internet without any luck.

 

[Charlie-NY]

Bullets can do some unexpectedly strange things and animals can too.

1. I shot a whitetail at 225yds with a popular mono-metal bullet that sheds its petals. The broadside standing deer took the hit centering on its heart. The deer ran into the wood line and zigged and zagged for over 100 yds while blood was pouring out. When I located the deer, it had a 2" diameter exit hole with heart tissue hanging out. That buck shouldn't have made it 10yds.

2. I went to Wyoming for a little pronghorn hunting. I was shooting a 7STW with Hornady 162 A-Max bullets. We followed a small group of pronghorns for quite a while until we got within 450yds. I shot from a high rocky outcropping. The pronghorn was standing broadside at the down angled shot. Impact was just behind the shoulder. At the shot, the pronghorn stood there for a second as I noticed what looked like a sheet hanging between its legs and then the animal just disappeared. When I finally got to the animal it had dropped right where it was shot. What looked like a sheet was all of its entrails hanging down to the ground. The bullet shed its jacket which apparently took a hard turn and ripped down along its belly. I had never seen terminal performance like that before or after that hunt.

 

[badaxeriverman]

I shot two deer with a 35 Whelen the last week. Both ran like they weren’t even hit! First one blew out the heart and it ran 15 yards and tipped over and the other one I double lunged it and took the whole top of the heart off and it went 60 to 75 yards like it wasn’t hit and fell over. New gun figured I’d try it out. My 30-06 with the same shot placement normally drops deer where they stand. It blew my mind that second one went as far as it did I figured it would’ve slammed to the ground. So yes, animals do weird things and have the will to live.

 

[salmonchaser]

Shot an elk right thru the boiler room with my 577 NE/750 grain Lion Tuff soft point. Damn thing ran a couple hundred yards. Did not recover the bullet.

 

[grry10]

I know that many love the 243 but I am not a fan of them. Because of all the many articles singing great things about the cartridge I bought two to start my boys. Over a three year period they shot a total of seven deer and we were only able to recover four. In two cases I watched the hits through binoculars, so know they were good hits. On the three that were not recovered they were shots of less than 100 yards with no blood trails. The loads used were 95 and 100 grain but no NPT. After three years of this we gave up. Neither have lost a deer since. All that said I shot a buck at 91 yards with my 338-06 Ack and a 210 grain NPT (ammo left from a successful moose hunt). When I checked there was no blood but was able to recover it after about a 50 yard track through tag alder. I was surprised to find that the NPT did not exit. It has never happened since and like Dr Mike said some things just can't be explained.

 

[AFG270]

I started my son with a 243 Win 23 years ago, he practiced a lot, then shot several deer, most were bang flop using 95g and 100g various bullets. Then we were required to use lead-free bullets, the first time was a Barnes TSX, he heart shot the buck luckily as the bullet just penciled through. We switched to TTSX and he shot a nice muley buck in the front shoulder at 100 yards, I was watching through a spotting scope and he made a good shot, but the buck ran off into heavy brush. We found a little blood but it soon stopped and after tracking him for a ways we lost the trail. We combed the area but found nothing. About 3 days later a rancher found the buck a half mile from where he was shot and called us, upon inspection the bullet just penciled through the front shoulders, and had a tiny exit hole.

Now I have a 243 as a truck gun and shoot lead-free Hammer bullets in it with excellent accuracy and several coyotes have been DRT.