Winchester ballistic tip problem

[payhayokee]

Hello all, I shot 2 different bucks this past weekend with this ammo from a 300wsm and found NO blood.... The shots were good with a thump after the shot and both animals did the high rear leg kick.. needless to say I did not find either buck... Anyone else with a similar problem??? Is the bullet going too fast and not mushrooming??? Also these were Florida deer.. Joe

[Ethan Givan]

How far were the shots? I have a buddy that swears by the Ballistic tips. He has shot several deer with them at close range (inside 50 yards) and none of the deer made it out of sight. He uses a .30-06.

If you hit them where you are supposed to, then those deer are dead. Time to do some grid searching for them. No blood doesnt mean no deer.

Edited November 9, 2010 by Ethan Givan

[wtnhunt]

Good question, hope someone with a lot more experience than me answers. Honestly don't know about the expansion on the ballistic tips, I have not personally tried them hunting, but would think you should have gotten at least enough expansion with them to have found some blood. Have had people I worked with tell me stories about ballistic tips exploding on impact on shoulder bones and fragmenting causing massive damage to the animal, but honestly I have not used them myself so cannot speak from experience.

I have used winchester power point plus(supposed to be a higher grade than the standard power points designed for controlled expansion on deer sized game) ammo on deer, the only deer I have ever lost with the .270 was shot with the winchester power point plus ammo, went back to core lokts after that and have not looked back.

[DropTine49]

I cannot answer that, but every deer I have ever killed has been with Georgia Arms Ballistic tips. They have great expansion and a large exit hole. The only deer I shot with them that did not bleed was a gut shot with a .243 and the guts filled the exit hole, but he still did not run more than 50 yards. I don't know what the problem could be, but a perfect shot always leaves a dead deer.

[ChrisSeb53]

i thought Nosler made the ballistic tip?

[huntnfish]

Never used them myself, but my brother also shoots a 300 WSM and had similar results as yours.

[JackedUpZ71]

Where were your crosshairs when you pulled the trigger?

I've been shooting win. BST for a long time, and have yet to have a deer not bleed. Most of my shots have either been heart/lungs, or high shoulder. The high shoulder shot deer didn't go more than a yard. The heart/lung shot deer would normally go from 40-100 yards, but would leave good blood

[bghunter777]

I as well as everyone I know have had amazing results with these bullets! in 5 years we have taken probaly 10 deer with these bullets and never lost a deer even with 1 or 2 or the hits being marginal these bullets cause so much damage the deer don't go far and can ussually be taken with a careful well placed 2nd shot!

[ckrich]

I as well as everyone I know have had amazing results with these bullets! in 5 years we have taken probaly 10 deer with these bullets and never lost a deer even with 1 or 2 or the hits being marginal these bullets cause so much damage the deer don't go far and can ussually be taken with a careful well placed 2nd shot!

Same here. I have used these bullets for the past 10 years or so and have had zero problems with them. I have never lost a deer when using them, have had great blood trails, and the deer usually falls within 100 yards. After sighting in one year I dug some of the bullets out of the backstop and found them to mushroom just as advertised.

[Grady269]

I say first thing check your zero, I know that sounds trite, sorry. Those Ballistic Tip Bullets do a lot of damage, I gut shot a deer a few years ago with my 30-06 using those bullets. I found the deer about 75 yds from where I shot him, his guts got tangled up in the briars. I quit shooting the Winchesters because they tore up the deer so bad.

[John]

It sounds like the shots were off. Bullets will only damage the area they hit. The only deer that I have shot and had do a high back leg kick I made a bad shot and never found the deer. Ballistic tip or not if you hit it far back it is probably lost. I shot mine with Cor-Bon the best in the cartridge game and got nothing

Edited November 11, 2010 by John

[robinhood]

ive shot some deer with a ballistic tip but with a 7mm08 the bullet tends to shatter and not mushroom well as others its does really good damage ive always had masive blood trails but im shooting the corloc cause it mushrooms better. people tend to find piece of fragment from the bullet in there meet. my father shoots the 7mm with the bullistic tip still and never had problems. the rifle ur using could be shooting it to fast and it just shatters in the body and no exict. i would switch for sure if u lost two. no reason to loose anymore. good luck man

[Shaun_300]

I quit using that type of bullet out of my 300 WSM. I hit a deer with a Remington Acutip, very similar to a Winchester Ballistic Tip, and it looked like a bomb hit the deer. Too much instant hamburg for me. I switched to the Power Points, haven't shot a deer with them yet, but I know they group good out of the gun and by the look of the bullet construction they'll mushroom better and not explode. I do like the Core lokt's but they don't make them in 180gr for the 300 WSM, only 150 for some reason.

[PotashRLS]

I always suggest checking a gun for zero after a questionable shot. Try that first!!! No blood with a ballistic tip bullet sounds very odd and leads me to question where the deer was impacted.

I have 162gr. Hornady SSTs (interlock bullet with ballistic tip) loaded up for my 7mm Rem Mag. They are tight shooters. I shot a wounded doe for a kid last season with it folding her in her tracks. The shot was a double lung at 100+ yards with the exit hole about the size of nickel or a tad bigger.

I load my 300wsm with Hornady 190gr. btsp which also have the interlock ring. They hold together well and take the abuse a magnum puts out. All accounts I have heard of ballistic tips are that they put a serious hurting on what ever they hit.

[GWSmith]

Like Shaun I quit using them. The one Deer I did kill with them had a perfect entry hole quatering away and a "Fist sized exit hole" just in front of the opposite shoulder. I found Polymer and Metal fragments from that bullet everywhere in the surrounding meat. It took off the bottom half of the Heart and the Deer still took off and ran requiring another shot to finish it. I still reffer to that being the "Deer on AngelDust" because it would just not Die! I wanted massive tissue damage in hopes that it would stop the deer quicker well the damage happened but the deer still ran.

I have more confidence with the CoreLokts without the surrounding damage and bullet fragments so I switched back.

[Texan_Til_I_Die]

Sorry, but it ain't the bullet's fault. A .30 caliber round traveling at magnum velocities will be fatal if it hits anywhere close to where it should. I shoot 140 gr Ballistic Silvertips out of my 7 mag they always make a tiny entrance wound followed by massive internal destruction. It looks like the deer swallowed a small grenade. Sometimes there's an exit wound, which will be massive, sometimes not. Never had a deer go more than 20 yards after being hit in the mid ribcage to mid shoulder area.

Admittedly these are not good rounds if you're concerned about meat loss. When I decide to kill a doe, I usually use a different rifle with a different load.

[Texan_Til_I_Die]

And one more thing. If you've lost confidence in that round, then you might as well go ahead and switch to something else. Just like a PGA golfer who loses confidence in his putter, it'll always be in the back of his mind, even though he's used the same putter for 10 years.

Right now the Barnes TSX is the hottest thing going for on-game performance. Try some of them, I think you'll like the results.

[sureshot]

a few years back I had soem winchester factory loads, they shot good in my 7mm , first off was mulie season the last day I had a good 170 class mulie at 150 yards, shot thunp, took off followed by one more before he went around a bend, I was likewhat is going on, I walked up, no blood then a few drops and he ended up going 250 more yards both shots were bullet size in and out right behind the shoulder , no expansion, the next day was whitetail so could not change,so I ended up seeing a big buck in a field after a sneak he was 250 yards facing me only shot so I was confident, I shot he turned and took off, I was so confused, how did I miss, I watched him and took 2 more shots, after he ran about 500 yards he did a compleat flip and was dead, after gutting I found the bullet entered right were I wanted, put a small hole entering and did not expand till it hit the rump, great bullet for moose but crap for deer, to much like a FMJ for my likeing, I used ballistic tips for years in my 6mm for coyotes, I loved there speed but they blew up like bombs, they would explode on the outside of the hide and not kill at fast speeds,I had to slow them down to about 2800 fps to get the perfect coyote load with no damage, if yours blew up on the outside which is possable if it hit a shoulder might not be much blood visable if it did not hit a main artery. good luck,

[Strut10]

I quit using BT's on deer 15 years ago. They expand too violently at speed. If you got no blood, the hits were bad. Really bad. I can't see not getting a blood trail of some sort with a BT even hitting a very marginal area. They just cause too much damage to not leave some blood.

[donjohnk]

I've never had a negative issue, just a too much damage issue. You hit a bone and these bullets are devistating. I dont like shoulder shots because it ruins the fronts and parts of the backstraps. I dont know if we can post semi graphic photos but I got one picture from today of the guts hanging partially out. The bullet hit a rib and just made a softball size hole for the exit! I went from a 168gr to 150gr hoping there would be less mess. Oh forgot to mention. its for a 30.06

Edited November 21, 2010 by donjohnk

[NC8point]

I shot a 300 WSM and have had great luck with winchester silver balistic tips have shot deer at 50 yards and 150 yards same result dead deer where he was standing I deal with the hamburger meat effect of the bullet when they drop where the are hit

[huntnfish]

My brother uses them in his 300WSM and the results are devastating. Massive exits wounds with no tracking required.

The only time I have had a deer do a mule kick after being shot was when my gun was shooting high. I must have went right over his back, because when I rechecked my zero I was around 6 inches high at 100 yards. I had a pair of scope rings and bases that would come loose. Changed rings and bases to a one-piece design and never had that problem again.

Recheck your rifles zero just to make sure. If it is hitting dead on then change the ammo.

[Gator]

That's ALOT of gun for Florida deer....

[victor3ranger]

I have reloaded BT's for a number of years for my 7mm Mag and wifes 270. The first designs that Nosler came out with seemed to have a thinner jacket on the bullet and I would never get a pass thru but always slammed the deer.

This year I am trying out the Nolser Accu-Bond BT's bullets, they seem to retain more of the bullet weight and have a good pass thru.

[Tecumseh]

Ballistic tips shoot great out of my 300 WSM but I've never used them hunting.My go to load for deer is with a 165 gr Nosler Partition and I use a 180 gr Partition for Elk and larger.