Nosler Etip bullets
Springville Shooter
9/10/11 10:53pm
Just wanted to post up the results of some work that I've been doing with Noslers Etip bullets in my 25-06 Ackley. I have been working up a load for my wife to use on an upcoming hunt. Along time ago, I had a custom reticle built for the 100grn Nosler Ballistic tip by Premier Reticles. Since then, I have gone away from these bullets as their construction is not sufficient for the velocity of the Ackley at 3500fps. I tried the Barnes TSX and TTSX but was unable to make up for the lack of BC with the extra velocity that I got from the TSX. I worked up a good load for the Swift Scirocco, but ran into pressure problems before I got to the velocity I needed to match the reticle. Looking at the BC for the Etip, I noticed that it was very close to the Ballistic tip and started working a load. While researching these bullets, I read alot of bad reviews and guys that had lots of problems so I was skeptical. After working up a great load that matches my scope perfectly I can say that if any of you are considering these bullets, never fear, they are great. Two things that I did notice are that they they do build pressure a little faster than other bullets of the same weight, but that I was able to still reach normal velocities before maxing out on pressure. Also, the bullets seem to like being seated a little farther from the lands than most conventional bullets. My final load pushes the 100grn Etip at 3485fps with a 20fps spread at around 58000 psi. 100 yrd accuracy was 3/4 MOA, 200 was 1 MOA, 300 was 1/2 MOA, and 400, 500 were both MOA printing center on the targets with my custom reticle. Nosler has always been my favorite bullet maker, and it looks to me like they have another winner.
13,827
On a different not how much did you pay for that reticle?
While my wife was unable to connect with a muley on her hunt, I took the 25-06AI to Idaho with me for some whitetail action and to try out the etip bullets. I shot a nice buck at 298 yards and made a perfect heart shot hitting the pocket just behind the shoulder. The buck hunched up and started to do a stiff-legged walk toward brush. When he paused, I put one through both front shoulders and put him down. The second shot was not needed, but I don't like to take chances. To my suprise, very little meat was lost even on the shoulders, (around five pounds) as the wound channels were pretty narrow, both passing all the way through. The heart and lungs were destroyed from the first shot and the buck was well on his way to the ground before the second shot.
My friend also shot his deer with my 25 due to the longer range shot that we were presented with at a great buck who lived in a clever spot and was very wary. The closest we could get to him was 408 yards and with a great shot from prone position, my friend placed a perfect shot into the chest from a front angle. The bullet actually passed through and grazed the ham on the way out the back door! This deer also stumbled down hill but kept his feet. Again, a second shot put the buck on the ground at 384 yards ensuring that he would not make it to the steep tangled brush at the bottom of the steep draw. Wound channels were that same and very little meat was wasted.
All-in-all I am very happy with these bullets. Even though second shots were taken, they weren not needed to cleanly kill the animals. We are simply very careful to get deer killed and down as quickly as possible to limit any chance of wounding, losing, or allowing them to run to bad terrain. Accuracy of these bullets is very good and the best feature is that they match their BC ratings making them easy to map with ballistic programs. Wound channels were narrower than I've experienced with lead core bullets, but were still plenty sufficient for quick kills with little bloodshot. Fouling in the rifle was equal to all other bullets and I was able to achieve great velocity with these bullets before pressure was a problem. My only hesitation with these bullets would be in using them in slower velocity rifles with the larger bullet weights like a 180grn in 308 Win. I'm not sure that you would get the expansion that I would want in a big game bullet. Seeing that I still have 45 of these loaded and they match my scope perfectly out past big game yardages, I will probably be hunting with them for a while.--------SS