The Nosler Expansion Tip (E-Tip) Hunting bullet is a copper alloy monolithic (solid) hollow point spitzer designed for long range but has both short and long range benefits. No, it does not have surface shock like a round or flat nose but it is capable amazing energy transfer and no lead to deal with.
As I said in my last article that round and flat nose are great brush busters however for bottleneck cartridges they are in very short supply at this time. It just so happens that I own a T/C Encore Pro Hunter Muzzle Loader and a 30-06 Springfield Interchangeable barrel. Honestly, I had it set up for muzzleloader and it shoots real sweet so I resisted making the conversion to 30-06 until now. I gave in to the temptation because in my ammo cupboard I just happen to have some store bought Nosler 168 grain Expansion Tips (aka E-Tips) cartridges. I successfully used them on a 350 pound wild boar hunt a few years back. The shot was 30 to 40 yards max.
I will show you what it did. Here is the entrance wound.
Busting through the super tough shield on both sides, here is the exit wound below! Keep in mind that the boars “shield” forced the bullet to fully expand just on entrance and give up a ton of energy inside the animal before exiting. I would not expect this massive damage in a thin skinned whitetail.
Energy delivered was on the order of 2600 to 2700 ft-lbs. More than enough for Moose but you see the copper alloy stays together up to 95% intact says test data. These images are from the Nosler website; www.nosler.com
Gel test below by Nosler.
Lets take it to the range! I knew that it was likely not going to shoot MOA because I remember mumbling about the 2 to 2.5 inch groups at 100 yards. Yep, that is what I got 2.5 inch groups at 100 yards. I did notice that the cold shot was dead on. Although I prefer moa accuracy, this works well for hunting in the thick stuff like the boar above. If I hand loaded this, I can get it to MOA for sure. The boar certainly did not know the difference!
Good Hunting!
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My friend will just shot a very large boar in Florida last month with a 7mm RM. The distance was about 110 yards. The boar was moving and dropped almost immediately. I do not have any details on the exact bullet (it was not recovered). On impact the bullet punched a quarter sized hole in the boars shield and although it appeared to have hit the opposite side of the shield, it did not exit. All the energy was expended internally. That shield is TOUGH, so your Nosler bullet performed exceptionally well. People smarter than me have have said “It is the bullet that does the work”. So we should match the bullet to the game we hunt. Today we have so many great bullet options to choose from that allow us to “customize” performance for the hunt..
Nice Boar! Love the 7mm Rem Mag! If you see the shield in person it is unbelievably thick! Yes matching the bullet to the game is vital to a clean kill. I had a friend that took his 7mm Rem Mag on Safari with me. He took a 1000 pound Eland with a 175 grain Nosler Partition.
A one shot kill! The bullet found the gallon size heart and put a quarter size hole in it.