.243 Winchester- 95 Grain Nosler BT

For the past three years, I have been loading the 95 Gr. Nosler BT's for my daughter in a .243 Winchester. She has been shooting my Model 16 that started life as a .223 but is now a .221 Fireball, for several years for practice. SHe has taken three deer with the .243, but I'm not sure quite what to think about the bullets performance. Two does and one buck have been taken. One doe ran about 20 yards, the other about 30 yards. The buck she shot today dropped in its tracks. None of the bullets exited the deer. I am shooting a fairly mild load of 33.5 grains of IMR4895 which is about 2750 fps. Both does were shot broad side in the ribs and both bullets turned inside out. The buck she shot today was almost straight on at 60 yards. She hit it at the base of the neck, severing the ateries in the neck and snapping the spine. The bullet broke in half, with one half traveling into the left lung and the other half staying in the spine. I cannot argue the the bullets did there job effectively, but the bullets came completely apart. This concerns me, because if a major bone is hit, I doubt that the penetration may be sufficient. Or, bullet deflection may occur. Has anyone else had these concerns?

...That's od...I've been trying out the Sie. 85gr HPBT GameKings & I'm getting total pass through with 43grs of H4350...I hit a doe last Sun. morning broadside thru the ribs, spine & out the other side of the ribs..It was about the size of your daughters buck...I normally shoot the 90gr Noslers but it's been awhile since I used em..Never had a run off with them....

I use the 95g nosler hunting BT, but in my 6x45 at 2817 fps, so the speed runs with your .243. I shot 2 Antelope broadside and the bullets went right through them both at under 100yds, but they also disintegrated doing so, found a few shards of copper at the exit hole (size of silver dollar). One made it 25 yards with both lungs and 1/4 of the heart gone, the other one just dropped. It also had the lungs & heart destroyed.
I think that when hit they either hit full after burner due to an instant adrenaline boost (dead on the run so to speak) or drop on the spot due to the
instant shock.

The 95 gr. BT's have a pretty good rep from what I've read elsewhere. Because of that I just bought a box that I plan on loading in my 6mm Rem. The Sierra 85 BTHP's mentioned also have a good rep. In the past all I ever loaded was 80 gr. Remmie PLHP's and 100 gr. CLPSP's. If I'm not happy with the BT's, then I'll prolly either go back to the 100 gr. Remmies or Nosler Partitions.

If you're not happy with the 95 gr. BT, why don't you try some 95 or 100 gr. Partitions. That should solve your problem, if in fact you have one, or think you have one. Your other option is to go to one of the monometal bullets, which will preclude core/jacket separation issues. Hornady has an 80 gr. GMX bullet out, and then of course there are the Barnes. It goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway, a lot of things can happen when you shoot a critter with a bullet, depending on where it's hit, what the bullet runs into going through, what kind of bullet it is, angles, and the reaction of the individual animal and it's tenacity in clinging to life. This stuff is not an exact science, and sometimes proven bullets don't do very well and marginal bullets look like rock stars. I wouldn't get terribly excited unless bullet performance was such that I started losing animals or I started to have ongoing probs with a particular bullet make, model, and weight, then I might start looking at options.

My friend and I stopped using ballistic tips for hunting a couple of years ago for that reason. We were shooting them out of a 270 and a 7mm mauser, and at short range they blew up like hand grenades. Killed deer dead as a hammer, but messy. I shot a six point at 75 yards broadside, hit right behind the shoulder, the bullet went up into the back and blew out one of the backstraps and broke the spine between his shoulders. I lost a lot of meat on him. My friends asked if he was laying down when I shot him! My buddy shot a doe in the neck with his mauser and nearly took her head off. I switched to accubonds and have gotten very good performance. I shot one deer at 75 yards and another at 300. Recovered both bullets just under the skin on the opposite side, mostly intact. Neither deer went more than 20 yards.

The Ballistic Tips, being cup and core bullets can have explosive expansion and subsequent bullet disintigration when hitting bone. I use the 150 gr BTs in a Ruger 30-06, loading them to 2850 fps. Last deer I shot (a doe) was 60 yards away, broadside. The deer ran 30 feet and piled up. There was an exit hole through the far side ribs about the size of a 50 cent piece. I've been using the BTs for a number of years and to date, have never had one fail to harvest a deer.

I'm just wondering if there is a fine line where too fast is not good with the 95grn Ballistic Tips. I shoot them in my Savage Striker 243 pistol. I load them with 34grn of Varget and they are running 2445fps and I have never had one blow up to the point is didn't exit. I have had a couple of shots hit rib going in and still had a good wound channel and exit. This is only on 100lb or less whitetails and coyotes. I did buy some Accubonds and will be shooting some of them in the next week or so for our doe only season. I have a chance to hunt some 130+ lb does in Northern Oklahoma on some wheat. I know the Accubonds perform fantastic in my 6.5JDJ and 284 Winchester pistols.
One thing about shooting the Ballistic Tips and going to the Accubonds. They have been shooting the same point of impact in my 6.5JDJ and hope they are the same in my 243. A range trip in in the future this week after loading some.
Mike

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kweeks10045

One doe ran about 20 yards, the other about 30 yards. The buck she shot today dropped in its tracks.

---

Sounds about as perfect as you could hope for. Section that BT & you'll find the jacket is very thick toward the base, it will hang in there just fine if it hits "major bone."

Grats to your daughter btw.