Thread: Shot placement on deer with ballistic tips??

Originally Posted by Low box

have had a great run with BT's but also some disasters, they are more frangible (thats a flashy word for break up easily) so prefer to go for the crease behind the front leg rather than the bone. I have seen 2 shots from a .308 BT into the shoulder of a big red spiker that could be described as flesh wounds only, about 100m distance. I've been told the .30 BT bullet was more frangible than other versions but anyway I shot it in the same place with an Accubond and the poor thing finally went down. Since them I've aimed for the softer spots with BTs and they work great on ribs, necks etc. Add a bit of distance and a more frangible bullet comes into its own with less speed they still open up.

This x2 ^^^ but with 150gr sst in 30cal....they were even being driven at very modest speeds...

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The ballistic tip bullets I use at present are the 55gr 22 cal and 30 cal 180gr. In the 22 cal they are coming out of a 22 250 and in the 30 cal they are out of a 30 06 ( was until recently using them in my 300 Win Mag but have changed to the 178 gr ELD X)
If you have worries of bullet break up use a heavy version, instead of say a 165 gr 30 cal move up to the 180 gr. I have found the 180 gr in 30 cal excellent but it can be a bit messy on shoulders but animals don't move far if anywhere. Years ago ( quite a few) I remember putting four 30 06 150 gr BT into a big Red stag just prior to the rut, his neck was swollen and the two neck shots only knocked him down only to get up again, eventually I got him but it put me off the lighter 30 cal bullets. On average deer they were great. Since then as I said earlier Noslar have strengthened the hunting bullets with thicker jackets to help stop the explosiveness.

Yep the sectional density is important too.

130/150gr in 6.5-7mm has good sd 130-150gr in 30 cal has dismal sd and with a frangible projectile is asking for trouble up close......on the other hand 130gr monolithic will penetrate the full length of a escapee wap cross stag.

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Ballistic tip is a bullet built by Nosler, its a trade mark, they list 2 different types, hunting and varmint.The hunting are very good and have a thick solid base of copper (much like the old Nosler Solid Base. go figure ) The varmint is also very good. Other polymer tipped bullets are not ballistic tips and have their own designation, SST, amax, ELD-x, Vmax etc.
Caliber is the size of the hole (roughly speaking) ie 7mm. or 6.5 or .223, .308. 7mm08 remington is a cartridge or chambering as is .223 remington., .223 wssm,6.5x284. norma or .308 winchester.
Annealing polymer tipped bullets will make them softer not harder but I don't think its a real thing and to try would defiantly indicate a certain personality type.
All are bullets or projectiles..... not pills or heads. Using the term "pills" also indicates a certain personality type and you should really get some professional help.
Yes its better to throw a 270 Winchester round than shoot it. ( note: this is a cartridge not a caliber )
Owning a 7mm08 is ok, a 243 will kill deer or most anything else. Blasers are ugly and have problems with plastic washers.
The owners of Blasers also have problems but of a different nature unrelated to plastic washers.
There is no "best" anything in this sport, no best scope , no best caliber( god help me ), no best bullet, there is only opinion and normally the best opinion will come from the guy on the internet with the coolest user name and/or the highest post count.
Dont overdo sunscreen, vitamin D is critical for good health. Get some sun but be smart and dont burn.
Save for your retirement, it's coming faster than you could ever imagine, along with failing eyesight,absentmindedness, insomnia and if your lucky only a mild form of
some auto immune disease.
Be good to your mother, she will be gone before you know it.


Some of the above is fact, some opinion, but as I don't have a very cool username or a high post count i suggest you ignore all of it.

Originally Posted by sneeze

Ballistic tip is a bullet built by Nosler, its a trade mark, they list 2 different types, hunting and varmint.The hunting are very good and have a thick solid base of copper (much like the old Nosler Solid Base. go figure ) The varmint is also very good. Other polymer tipped bullets are not ballistic tips and have their own designation, SST, amax, ELD-x, Vmax etc.
Caliber is the size of the hole (roughly speaking) ie 7mm. or 6.5 or .223, .308. 7mm08 remington is a cartridge or chambering as is .223 remington., .223 wssm,6.5x284. norma or .308 winchester.
Annealing polymer tipped bullets will make them softer not harder but I don't think its a real thing and to try would defiantly indicate a certain personality type.
All are bullets or projectiles..... not pills or heads. Using the term "pills" also indicates a certain personality type and you should really get some professional help.
Yes its better to throw a 270 Winchester round than shoot it. ( note: this is a cartridge not a caliber )
Owning a 7mm08 is ok, a 243 will kill deer or most anything else. Blasers are ugly and have problems with plastic washers.
The owners of Blasers also have problems but of a different nature unrelated to plastic washers.
There is no "best" anything in this sport, no best scope , no best caliber( god help me ), no best bullet, there is only opinion and normally the best opinion will come from the guy on the internet with the coolest user name and/or the highest post count.
Dont overdo sunscreen, vitamin D is critical for good health. Get some sun but be smart and dont burn.
Save for your retirement, it's coming faster than you could ever imagine, along with failing eyesight,absentmindedness, insomnia and if your lucky only a mild form of
some auto immune disease.
Be good to your mother, she will be gone before you know it.


Some of the above is fact, some opinion, but as I don't have a very cool username or a high post count i suggest you ignore all of it.

I could hear your teeth grind when I asked about those pills

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Just drilled varying amounts of lead out of the hollow points before I boxed them up. It wont matter, they'er only pills.

Originally Posted by sneeze

Just drilled varying amounts of lead out of the hollow points before I boxed them up. It wont matter, they'er only pills.

You probably recovered them out of a stump anyway.

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Well if it killed a deer once and you find it, why not reuse it you know it works!

In the middle of the shoulder they will do the bizzo.

Originally Posted by sneeze

Ballistic tip is a bullet built by Nosler, its a trade mark, they list 2 different types, hunting and varmint.The hunting are very good and have a thick solid base of copper (much like the old Nosler Solid Base. go figure ) The varmint is also very good. Other polymer tipped bullets are not ballistic tips and have their own designation, SST, amax, ELD-x, Vmax etc.
Caliber is the size of the hole (roughly speaking) ie 7mm. or 6.5 or .223, .308. 7mm08 remington is a cartridge or chambering as is .223 remington., .223 wssm,6.5x284. norma or .308 winchester.
Annealing polymer tipped bullets will make them softer not harder but I don't think its a real thing and to try would defiantly indicate a certain personality type.
All are bullets or projectiles..... not pills or heads. Using the term "pills" also indicates a certain personality type and you should really get some professional help.
Yes its better to throw a 270 Winchester round than shoot it. ( note: this is a cartridge not a caliber )
Owning a 7mm08 is ok, a 243 will kill deer or most anything else. Blasers are ugly and have problems with plastic washers.
The owners of Blasers also have problems but of a different nature unrelated to plastic washers.
There is no "best" anything in this sport, no best scope , no best caliber( god help me ), no best bullet, there is only opinion and normally the best opinion will come from the guy on the internet with the coolest user name and/or the highest post count.
Dont overdo sunscreen, vitamin D is critical for good health. Get some sun but be smart and dont burn.
Save for your retirement, it's coming faster than you could ever imagine, along with failing eyesight,absentmindedness, insomnia and if your lucky only a mild form of
some auto immune disease.
Be good to your mother, she will be gone before you know it.


Some of the above is fact, some opinion, but as I don't have a very cool username or a high post count i suggest you ignore all of it.

2000 posts is not to be sneezed at.

Sent from my SM-A320Y using Tapatalk

I've used 140gr NBT from a 7mm08 for 8 years and shot about 100 goats, a dozen deer, 1 bull tahr, 2 cham, and half a dozen hares plus wallabies and can count number whiere I've had to shoot twice or they got away on my fingers (I'm a bit forgetful - perhaps could need a couple of toes as well). So, that's experience with small to medium animals. The BT are pretty forgiving of less than ideal shot placement, probably because of their frangibility and large volume of total tissue destruction.

Ineffective shot placement includes:
Specially a bullet tracking between outside the ribcage and inside the front leg. This happens if the animal is quartering towards you but has turned its head and neck facing you and you aim for the center of the brisket. This placement is totally ineffective and I believe it accounts for a lot of cases of "bullet blew up on the shoulder and didn't penetrate".
Too far back in the ribs from broadside. Clips the lungs but truly a gut shot.
The jaw. Fine if you're Muhammad Ali but they tend to get up again after the count.

The hilar region is where large blood vessels come out of the heart and pump blood into the lungs. This is the full volume of blood circulating. It has a second pass through as it returns from the lungs to the heart. Then a third pass at high pressure in the aorta which wraps around the heart going back to the body and branches go to the head too; finally blood also passes through this region as it returns from the body to the heart. Of course, if the bullet hits the heart, blood will come out into the chest cavity and circulation will cease. After about 20 seconds of no blood to the brain the animal will loose consciousness and collapse. It can run some distance in that time but usually less than 50m. If you do break a leg its is slowed down a bit but not bang flop unless you break both which is very uncommon for me. Bang flop seems to also occur with a powerful high velocity bullet on a small animal and I believe would be due to hydrostatic shock waves affecting the spinal cord. However I've never seen this with my 7mm08 and I think the overall power or perhaps velocity is not great enough.
The other effective hit is if you strike bone in the neck or the back top half of the head . About 20% of my shots are like this, specially under 30m and on goats where the situation is well in control and I want to recover the heart and liver. Head shots are common in the bush where the animal's body is obscured but you're usually standing. Tell me punk do you feel like you can hit a 5cm target offhand today ? (balancing on a wobbly log or mud with your heart pounding)

In summary, think 3D when you shoot and carefully analyse whether the animal is angled a little towards you or away. Broadside is fairly common And is good specially when they stretch out to feed and angling up to 45 degrees away from you is good (the crease is available and shots can also penetrate some liver and stomach to reach the hilar region).The 7mm 08 is powerful enough to do this up to at least 200m. Shooting down is usually good but for some reason its often deceptive shooting up into an animal and hard to pick a good angle.


ps - good work sneeze

Originally Posted by kiwigreen

Yep heard way too many stories from very experienced hunters losing the big old once in a lifetime red in the roar, one of which was a 14 pointer they shot,sat on it, counted the points then leapt up, another 2 shots, blood everywhere and never to be found. Had 2 mates last roar lose a stag each with well placed shots, same thing, blood everywhere but not found(.270 sold after that). only heard of it happening on huge reds though, great cal for everything else but just wouldn't use it in the roar on big stags.

Lmao never heard of such false logic. Losing those animals had nothing to do with what Cal they were using and it certainly wasnt because they were using a 270 thats for sure. Firstly, if they were well placed shots they have the animal on the ground. Just because they thought they were well placed doesnt mean they were. What type of pill they were using may have a factor on the results as well. Some are more suited for certain ranges and size of animals than others. Choice of projectile is not the fault of the Cal but the owner so either way its user error, not the Cal thats the problem.

Secondly, i use 165ssts in my 308. Use them for bush stalking and longer range and i always aim for the shoulder region where possible. If hit in that region they always go down. Avoid headshots where possible and be very careful with neck shots. If dont strike the right area and hit bone i ve had big stags shot thur the neck drop on the spot. Short time later they up and off, been lucky and managed to chase them down and finish them off but the best percentage shot is that shoulder region.
Have shot many animals now, many with the mighty 243 with softpoints and adding a few now with the 165sst in 308 and they all go down without a problem if hit in the right area.
PS kiwigreen, ye mates prob dont like the big bang and recoil of those 270 and cant shoot as good as they think. Upgrade them to a 243 and and they drop anything they put the crosshairs on if they can shoot, including huge stags.....my go to Cal for the roar

anyone who is dumb enough to approach a shot animal and doesnt poke it in the eyeball with loaded rifle incase it is still alive deserves to eat supermarket bought vegetable sausages for life...... if its still moving shoot the bloody thing again......if its a big trophy animal shoot again if necessary and again..... you arent going to bugger up the hind quarters /back n eye fillets UNLESS you are a really shitty aimer.

Originally Posted by Bagheera

I've used 140gr NBT from a 7mm08 for 8 years and shot about 100 goats, a dozen deer, 1 bull tahr, 2 cham, and half a dozen hares plus wallabies and can count number whiere I've had to shoot twice or they got away on my fingers (I'm a bit forgetful - perhaps could need a couple of toes as well). So, that's experience with small to medium animals. The BT are pretty forgiving of less than ideal shot placement, probably because of their frangibility and large volume of total tissue destruction.

Ineffective shot placement includes:
Specially a bullet tracking between outside the ribcage and inside the front leg. This happens if the animal is quartering towards you but has turned its head and neck facing you and you aim for the center of the brisket. This placement is totally ineffective and I believe it accounts for a lot of cases of "bullet blew up on the shoulder and didn't penetrate".
Too far back in the ribs from broadside. Clips the lungs but truly a gut shot.
The jaw. Fine if you're Muhammad Ali but they tend to get up again after the count.

The hilar region is where large blood vessels come out of the heart and pump blood into the lungs. This is the full volume of blood circulating. It has a second pass through as it returns from the lungs to the heart. Then a third pass at high pressure in the aorta which wraps around the heart going back to the body and branches go to the head too; finally blood also passes through this region as it returns from the body to the heart. Of course, if the bullet hits the heart, blood will come out into the chest cavity and circulation will cease. After about 20 seconds of no blood to the brain the animal will loose consciousness and collapse. It can run some distance in that time but usually less than 50m. If you do break a leg its is slowed down a bit but not bang flop unless you break both which is very uncommon for me. Bang flop seems to also occur with a powerful high velocity bullet on a small animal and I believe would be due to hydrostatic shock waves affecting the spinal cord. However I've never seen this with my 7mm08 and I think the overall power or perhaps velocity is not great enough.
The other effective hit is if you strike bone in the neck or the back top half of the head . About 20% of my shots are like this, specially under 30m and on goats where the situation is well in control and I want to recover the heart and liver. Head shots are common in the bush where the animal's body is obscured but you're usually standing. Tell me punk do you feel like you can hit a 5cm target offhand today ? (balancing on a wobbly log or mud with your heart pounding)

In summary, think 3D when you shoot and carefully analyse whether the animal is angled a little towards you or away. Broadside is fairly common And is good specially when they stretch out to feed and angling up to 45 degrees away from you is good (the crease is available and shots can also penetrate some liver and stomach to reach the hilar region).The 7mm 08 is powerful enough to do this up to at least 200m. Shooting down is usually good but for some reason its often deceptive shooting up into an animal and hard to pick a good angle.


ps - good work sneeze

Just learnt alot from thanks!!!

For the last ten years plus all i have used is hornady 7mmm08 139 sst and the old box of 139 gmx. All my meat animals i try to neck or head shots and had no real issue. Stags from now on get the puffy neck so have to be careful with that but most stags i shoot are behind the shoulder. Never had a issue with the sst it self, you have to play your part. Never shot past the 450y with them.