Difference in BT's?

[tddeangelo]

OK, I just finished a range session, and I'm all kinds of confused.

I've been shooting 150gr Ballistic Tips in my 270. I started off at 2-2.5" at 200 yards, and worked on the load till I have one load that shot around 1.5 and another at 1.3, both at 200 yards. The rifle was very consistent.

I finished the 50-ct bag Scotty had sent me, which were the grey-pointed older BT's.

I bought 140ct of the "standard" yellow-tipped 150's online, and shot the first batch of them today. The first group was a little over 2", and the next two groups went over 3". Same powder, charge weight, primer, seat depth.....even same brass. I have 100-ct new Winchester brass, and I got through 50 of them, and rather than shoot the 1x brass, I kept going with new brass. It was sized/prepped just like the first 50 were.

The only thing that changed was the bullet.

Are those grey-tipped bullets actually different?

 

[Guy Miner]

I don't know if the bullets are different.

I do know that the difference between a 2.5" group and a 3.0" group at 200 yards is minimal, and easily explained via shooter problems, wind, mirage, barrel fouling, or any number of other factors.

Otherwise why do a whole bunch of guys, shooting the same model of rifle, with the same ammo (USMC 200, 300 and 500 yard lines) shoot such different scores? The rifle & ammo didn't change...

Regards, Guy

 

[tddeangelo]

2.5-3.0, I agree.

It was shooting 1.3-1.5 prior, today it's more like 3.5-4. That's significant...

 

[Guy Miner]

Okay.

 

[Alderman]

So the original Ballistic Tips had a grey tip? All tips for all calipers were the same?

 

[HeathSexton]

You measuring from the tip or the ogive?

 

[tddeangelo]

Unfortunately, I was lazy on the grey tips and measured to the tip, despite having a comparator. Now I've shot them all and can't compare ogive lengths.

That's what I'm wondering....if the ogive, or at least the placement thereof, is different.

Guy, didn't mean to be dismissive of your post. I appreciate the insight, and I do have to remember to see the forest for the trees, so I appreciate keeping me grounded.

 

[Oldtrader3]

I have shot them since they color coded them and they were always yellow. If they are gray and you get them from Scotty, they may be LRAB, not BT's. Scotty sent me 150 gr LRAB's with grey tips. The LRAB's have the reputation of not being as accurate. Just a thought.

 

[russ808]

They could also be over run ballistic silver tips that didnt get to winchester for the coating.
russ

 

[Guy Miner]

Guy, didn't mean to be dismissive of your post. I appreciate the insight, and I do have to remember to see the forest for the trees, so I appreciate keeping me grounded.

No sweat. I'm a coach kind of a guy. Seldom suspect the football, usually figure it's the player.

A fault of mine.

Best of luck sorting it out.

Guy

 

[tddeangelo]

For sure.... The trigger puller is first thing to check.

Just seems odd to see it change so abruptly. I may need to just do a seat depth work up. Might just be a difference on the ogive that means seat depth has to change slight.

 

[Guy Miner]

Bullet making dies do wear out. Manufacturers have to change dies, and that can result in small changes to the bullets being produced.

Berger was real good about letting the target shooters know when they were going to change dies on a particular bullet, so target shooters wouldn't wind up with mixed types of bullets. One reason when I was competing, I tried to buy bullets in bulk, all the same lot number. Once the load was worked up, I simply wouldn't change a thing, until I had to buy lots of powder, primers or bullets... Often then I was able to keep going with the original load.

Don't remember ever getting the kind of shift in accuracy that you're reporting though. Unless I made a radical change to the load and found a bullet the rifle just didn't like.

Regards, Guy

 

[Dwh7271]

I'm with OT3.
I think with the gray tips you had ABLRs.

 

[tddeangelo]

Scotty may chime as he has time, as I got them from him, but they were BT's, not ABLR's. They were very light grey, almost white, points. Not the graphite dark gray of ABLR's. They were overrun or blem CT's Scotty got a while ago, and he was generous enough to share a bag when I got the 270. I may have a pic of a loaded round somewhere.....

 

[baltz526]

I have shot the Ballistic silver tips and the Regular Ballistic tip in 150gr 308. There is a difference. What it is I have no Idea. Over the chronograph with exactly the same primer-brass-powder-die. BTST 2817.2 FPS average, 5 shot string 2813-2817-2821-2814-2821. BT 2808 fps average, 5 shot string 2800-2813-2785-2789-2853. I shot a lot more of both, But that is fairly representative of results. The Ballistic Silver Tip Seconds/over run Are more consistent in velocity and accuracy than the Ballistic tip Seconds.

 

[SJB358]

They could also be over run ballistic silver tips that didnt get to winchester for the coating.
russ

Russ, that is exactly what they were/are. I bought a slew of them back when we used to bid for them on Bivwak.

They are unreal accurate from my 270 WSM.

Never shot a real yellow tipped first to know if there was a difference.

 

[SJB358]

I ran into the same problem awhile back. I'd developed a killer load with the red tipped 160ABs in my 7WSM. WELL, when I ran out of those I switched to white tipped firsts and they shot like crap. Upon measuring I found the difference, adjust accordingly and all was good.

Just the difference Guy spoke of with a different lot of bullets being the culprit. It made me realize when I buy bullets 300-500 is usually a better course of action, when I can swing it.

 

[russ808]

Scotty,
Ahhhh, the bivwak days. They were the fun days bidding for bullets. I got some really good deals. Those were the Tannin days. Hope your not working to hard Tannin.
russ

 

[SJB358]

Scotty,
Ahhhh, the bivwak days. They were the fun days bidding for bullets. I got some really good deals. Those were the Tannin days. Hope your not working to hard Tannin.
russ

Yup! You aren't kidding. Wished I could go back in time and buy a 1000 of those red tipped 160ABs. Nothing has shot quite as well as those. Plus I remember getting some great deals like you mentioned.

 

[russ808]

Scotty, I think I might still have some red tipped rockets.
russ