Accubond vs BT Hunting and BT Silvertip

[Horn Seeker]

I haven't even looked at BC's yet, but in the pictures, these bullets all look identical except for the color of their tips... True??? Am I missing something here? Must be something, cause the BT is way less $$ than the accubond.

 

[Ben Lamb]

BT's are a more frangible bullet than the Accubonds.

I'd be hard pressed to use them on anything larger than a whitetail.

 

[noharleyyet]

What Ben said is spot on. Makes more sense to me to use AB's on deer, elk, hogs...

 

[1_pointer]

The big difference is that that Accubonds have a portion of the let bonded to the jacket so they can't seperate. I've used the .338" 200gr BT on pronghorns, mule deer, and a cow elk. All exited. Also, keep in mind that some BTs are built 'tougher' (some have 60% of their weight in the jacket) like the .30cal 180gr, but Nosler doesn't really note them as such.

The BCs are the same for like weight BTs and ABs, with the 140gr .277" AB being the notable exception. It has the BC of the 150gr BT.

 

[MThuntr]

Accubonds have the lead core bonded to the copper cup while the ballistic silvertip's core is not bonded. The Accubonds will retain about 65-80% of their weight while the Ballistic silvertips will shed quite a bit of weight like the standard BT's do. I consider the Silvertips and the BT's the same with the exception of the coating.

I've used both the Accubond and the BT's on mule deer. BT's created quite a bit of meat damage without an exit while the Accubonds in a similar shot did not create as much damage and was a complete pass through. Both did what I expect but I would never use the BT's on large deer, elk, moose, etc.

 

[BuzzH]

Pointer is on it.

I just did a quick check of the 140 grain .284 bullets and compared all three...seems the only difference is the AB has an OAL of 1.290 vs. 1.255 for both the ballistic silvertip and ballistic tip.

Cant know if thats consistent with other calibers or not...didnt bother to check.

I've used limited numbers of HUNTING ballistic tips. I used the 200 grain BT in the .338 for about 3 years. I killed 4 elk, a bear, a bull moose, a few deer, and a dall sheep with them. I recovered bullets from 2 of the 4 elk, the bear and moose...and all performed well.

I also shot several deer with the 95 grain .243 ballistic tips as well, never recovered one and acted much like the old style lead tipped solid base, IME.

I killed a lot of deer and antelope with the old style solid base bullets. I used them when I first started loading as they were cheap enough for practice and good on game...right in line with the budget of a college student. I've recovered a handful of the old style SB's...but darn few.

Within reasonable MV's and providing you're shooting the HUNTING ballistic tips...I'd probably not shy away from using them on most anything...including elk. They're a carbon copy, sans the polymer tip, of the old style SB bullets that I used for many years.

Switched to AB's this year and havent found a reason to hate them yet...good price, hold together, really accurate.

 

[Horn Seeker]

Thanks for the info. I knew the BT's of the past were fairly fragmentable... but by looking at just the cross section pics in the catalog, I couldn't see any difference. I guess the "bonding" in the AB is what sets it apart for the most part..

Thanks all. I have been shooting Barnes for a long time and was just looking at some option here. Haven't heard much bad about the AB's so was looking at them.

By the way, never had a TSX fail me, but here they wont open at lower velocities when shooting long range... which I dont do...but hey, who knows, maybe someday.

 

[cowboy]

Haven't heard much bad about the AB's so was looking at them.
By the way, never had a TSX fail me, but here they wont open at lower velocities when shooting long range... which I dont do...but hey, who knows, maybe someday.

I've probably taken as many deer and elk as anyone on this forum with the TSX as well as the older X style. In my experience the TSX was much more likely to not perform correctly at very close distances - they are actually a very decent long range bullet if you can get them to perform in your particular rifle.

Nothing wrong with the AB if you want to shoot a bonded bullet.

 

[WapitiBob]

If you're a high shoulder shooter use a Partition. If your a rib cage guy use the Accubond.

 

[1_pointer]

Thanks for the info. I knew the BT's of the past were fairly fragmentable... but by looking at just the cross section pics in the catalog, I couldn't see any difference. I guess the "bonding" in the AB is what sets it apart for the most part..

Thanks all. I have been shooting Barnes for a long time and was just looking at some option here. Haven't heard much bad about the AB's so was looking at them.

By the way, never had a TSX fail me, but here they wont open at lower velocities when shooting long range... which I dont do...but hey, who knows, maybe someday.

If you look closely at the cross section pictures you'll notice that the AB jacket gets thicker towards the base, whereas the BT is pretty much uniform.

 

[Horn Seeker]

Like I said, I dont know about the long range stuff, because I haven't shot anything long range. But all my elk and deer of the last 10 yrs with the TSX have been 90 yds or less and the bullets have performed perfectly. Thats the 168 out of an 06' at about 2900 FPS... for what that is worth...

Didn't recover a few, but did recover a few and found them to be just beautifully mushrooms and lodged against the far side hide... (elk/moose...no recoveries on deer).

Anyhow... thanks for all the words. I'll be ordering some AB's and shooting them a bit this summer.

 

[Taxidermynut]

All I have used for the past 17 years are Nosler BT or AB in my 7mm. 5 deer, 15 elk and not a single failure with the BT's. Most BT's that I was able to find retained 40-50% of the original weight. Switched to AB's about 4 years ago. 2 deer, 2 antelope, 5 elk and can't complain about anything. Damage to the animal is pretty similar. The AB's that I was able to find retained about 80% of the original weight. Never had a bad experience with the BT's but you here a lot of stories (might just be "stories"), so I decided why take the chance.

As for opening up at long range, I shot a cow elk this year at 623 yds. Bullet velocity approx. 2150. AB broke front shoulder and was sitting in the hide on off side. Retained 87% or original weight. Same day my little brother shot a cow at 818 yds. Bullet Velocity of Approx. 1850 Broke ribs going in and out and was sitting in hide on off side. Retained 95% of original weight. Nosler says not to expect them to expand below 1800 fps. So that would be as far as we would shot them. They both expanded mine about 1/2 length, his about 1/3 length.

Whatever you decide on go with the velocities that they are recommended for and you should never have a problem.