My Dad was like this^^^, and I ended up supplying his ammo for his 270. He believed ballistic tips were the end all be all, and after I helped him trail a doe for hours and not find her, I resighted his gun with my handloads. He really didn’t think it was necessary, but I felt better.
Hard to blame a ballistic tip when you do not recover the deer. I have a 7 Rem Mag loaded 67.0 grs of IMR 4831 @ 3148 fps with 150 Nosler Ballistic Tip that I believe is a great deer load. It shoots about .6 five shot groups on my best days and just under an inch on others. The reason I like the 150 Nosler BT in .284 is because that it has held up enough for close shots with devastating results and expanded good with long shots. All the deer Ive taken with this load has been 14 - 175 yds except one. One deer shot at 464 yds broadside center punched both lungs expanded to near quarter size on exit through. All deer and one antelope shot with this load dropped and/or recovered very quickly because they were easy shots. Its been through shoulders to vitals, spines, necks and several head shots. Even the 464 yd shot was easy with rangefinder and wind near 0 mph. If at any time one of those bullets were not placed where was needed it could be a deer load that failed or blamed on the bullet construction by some. But for me if this load fails its because of a bad shot.
All copper bullet ????? Hopefully he can recover and see where the hit was.
Have only used the interlocks some. Havent used the SST. Rem core-lokt is a very good bullet for deer.Years ago, I bought A BUNCH of Hornady 270 cal. blem bullets from Midway, and I still have a few left. I really prefer 150 gr Interlocks but 150 gr SST’s do OK on deer and pigs too.
I use 165 gr Corelokt bullets in my 308’s, and 120 gr Corelokt bullets in 6.5x55.
Having confidence in your ammo goes along ways for sure.
