SP OR BTHP

[alan gordon]

I recently purchased a tika tac3 rifle in 6.5 creedmore.i have shot the seller and bellot and hornady american gunner both being bthp in 140 gr.are the softpoint rounds as accurate as the bthp?

[44 AMP]

Bullet A being more accurate than bullet B depends on the individual gun it is being fired through.

Anyone telling you different is selling something.

[T. O'Heir]

SP's are for hunting. BTHP's are better for long ranges. Neither is more accurate than the other though. Unless the BTHP is a match bullet.

[Dufus]

Boat tail bullets really do not have any effect or come into the picture 'til you get past 300 yds. Soft Points can be as accurate as the other and sometimes are more accurate. As Art said, it depends on your firearm and what it likes to eat.

I would never use a hollow point bullet on a deer. Especially if you are gonna eat it.

[603Country]

I’d agree with Dufus, but the 140 gr Sierra BTHP for the 270 is a seriously good bullet for deer and hogs. Never hear anybody talk about them, though. I suppose it’s a forgotten bullet. No plastic tip.

[std7mag]

I've shot both the BTHP GameKing, and BTHP MatchKing. Both hollow points, but obviously made for different purposes. Accuracy is not lacking on the hunting bullet inside 300 yards.
Same with the SPBT GameKing.

Regardless of what some will say about weight retention, SP vs HP, i'll take the expanding hollow point.
Have seen numerous deer shot multiple times with 06'.
With HP i've never had to take more than 1 shot.

[Zen Archery]

For the distance most people are hunting with the 6.5CM you are not going to notice any difference as long as you are using the same bullet weight. I’ve loaded close to 30 different bullets with the 6.5CM and the only real difference I’ve seen with bullets of the same gr. Weight are custom hand turned bullets with extreme BC (Alco, Hammer, Cutting Edge).

[Bfglowkey]

I think folks confuse BC with accuracy and is why you hear a debate. BC just helps you buck the externals more efficiently....load, shoot enjoy!

[Dufus]

Have seen numerous deer shot multiple times with 06'.
With HP i've never had to take more than 1 shot.

My Dad used this combination for a few years with mixed results. Back in 1976, he was using the Sierra 165 BTHP and lost 4 deer due to the bullet not being up to the task.

I sawed a couple down the middle to see how they were constructed inside. I was shocked to see that the jacket was only maybe 1/16" (0.062") thick from tip to base.

We stopped using them then and switched to the Speer 150 gr HotCor and never lost another animal to the day he stopped hunting. Note that all were one shot kills with the Speer.

I got burned another time with Sierra bullets back in 1979 and have not used another since that time.

BUT, I am guessing that Sierra has made some improvements over the years, but it doesn't matter to me. I still won't use them.

[Unclenick]

Bglowkey's point is true. If you look at the bullets shot by benchrest competitors at 100 yards, they are all sort of stubby, flat base, small ogive radius bullets with unimpressive BC's. At that range, they want the bullet as short as possible to minimize the rate of twist they need to use, as that, in turn, minimizes eccentric spin and makes for fast bullet settling. Nobody can say those shorties lack precision (what most folks call accuracy) on paper. They also prefer the square base, as it is impossible to form a square base off-axis and it is less influenced by muzzle blast.

[hdwhit]

Unclenick wrote:
If you look at the bullets shot by benchrest competitors at 100 yards, they are all sort of stubby, flat base, small ogive radius bullets with unimpressive BC's.

Thank you for that explanation.

Almost all of my shooting is done under 200 meters and just by trial and error, I ended up with a load using a flat base bullet that works great. I didn't know why it worked so well. Now, thanks to your explanation, I do.

[RC20]

Unclenick:

Did you or X ever do any testing to see how they do with the lead tip knocked around?

[Unclenick]

Not me, but a number of authors have over the years, or done something similar like filing a 45 degree angle onto a bullet nose. At short range the effect is smaller than folks expect because all the drag from it that moves the bullet one way just moves it back the other way when spin turns it around. So the bullet flies in a tight corkscrew. Drag overall is greater, though, so the BC is reduced, which means long range targets will see the deformed nose bullet drop more.

That nose filing does open the groups a little, but nowhere near as much as an angle filed on the base does. The base filing causes lateral drift owing to muzzle blast playing off it. IIRC, Harold Vaughn filed a 45 degree slant on the nose of a bullet and got only about a fourth of the group dispersion a 2 degree slant filed on the base produced. This was with a 6 mm machine rest gun. The nose produced about a .2 degree radial dispersion and the base about .8, again IIRC. I'd have to look it up to be sure.

[alan gordon]

i want to thank everyone for there input.this rifle is not being used for deer hunting.it is being used for target shooting out to 1000 yards.

[Bfglowkey]

That will definitely call for your BTHP style bullets , VLD etc and the BC will make your dial ins easier. Wind will also play less on your pill. Pay attention to when your chosen round goes transonic as well. So you know when it has a chance to begin tumbling and how it may effect your groupings at greater distance

[reynolds357]

Did you or X ever do any testing to see how they do with the lead tip knocked around?

It does not matter much. It's really insignificant for medium game hunting. The bullet is spinning, so deformed tip does not steer the bullet at all. It only in a miniscule fashion affects the balance of the bullet.
It matters enough you would not shoot a deformed tip in a Bench rest match, but we are talking score cards that at times go down to micrometers to decide.