[tonto]

Well I'm fixing to head up 'nuth on my farm for another opening deer season. This year instead of hunting a meadow from a stand I'm gonna set it up in a holler' that is a main runway for some nice deer. It is in the woods and brush and instead of using my usual 140 grain ballistic tipped handload (in .270 caliber) for long range shooting i am thinking of making up some slow ballistic tip 130- grain bullets for using in the woods(close range shooting). The problem I am having is the ballistic tipped bullets are explosive at close range. This is what I have on hand figured I would use them, and the 130 compared to the 140 grain bullets have a different color tip for ease of knowing what I am loading in my rifle. But I am thinking maybe just buying a box of some 150 grain round nose bullets for the woods. Any help or past experiences would be appreciated.

[Full MeTal Jack]

Is your scope powerful enough to see where you want to hit? That dawd-gone heart hides right behind the front leg elbow. Neck shot ?

[jerry]

I think FMJ is refering to shot placement. Just don't use varmit type bullets in the 130 class & you should be ok.

[dave375hh]

Tonto,
If the 140's work for the long range shots they'll work just fine for the short ones also. Conventional wisdom is to plan for the longest shot possible and that would include what you see on the way to or from your hollow. I'd stay with the proven load.

I don't know where you got the idea that the two different weights of Nosler Balistic Tip .270 bullets have different color tips. The tip color changes with the caliber, not the wt within the same caliber. If you saw 130's & 140's with different color tips, one of them was not a .270, or not a Nosler bullet.

[Ayteeone]

If you truly want to download, contact Nosler and find out what the lowest velocity is for that bullet to reliably expand at, then go up from there to cover the distance you expect to shoot over. Most modern cartridges are way beyond what is neccesary to cleanly kill deer, and have some latitude for this kind of adjustment. For example, the 150gr .308 cal Ballistic Tip is rated to expand all the way down to 1600 fps. At that speed it's energy is also falling below ideal, so this provides a working bottom end. I load this bullet in 3 different guns - a 30/30 Trapper at about 2150fps where it gives me a 250 yd effective range, a Savage Scout at about 2700 which does most of my hunting now, and a 110FP at 2800+ where it provides paper punching accuracy under 3/4 of an inch, sometimes better. Any one of these would handle any of the realistic shots I've ever had at a deer. Although there's an itch to try some of that longer range hunting... maybe when my field shooting is somewhat better.

[Hangfire]

I would go with the 150's. Just because I'm not into fancy poly-tipped bullets. Nothing agianst them, just not my thing.

HF