Lots of variance in experiences and replies on this subject. Many opinions are expressed on personal experience or on historical gossip handed down through the years. "It was the biggest buck I ever saw and I hit it with that ballistic tip and it ran for miles".....hit or miss, was it the bullets fault?
Most of the original ballistic tips made were for varmint and light game. They were not made for deer, elk, boar, etc. It said right on the packaging and in all of the write up that they were for light game or varmints.
The ballistic tip offered many folks the opportunity to give that high ballistic coefficient bullet a chance at exceeding the book load. "My 309 Lazer GT pushed that 150 grainer out there at 3800 fps. That is 300 fps over book." Woohoo! Pushing early BT higher than book loads likely had the soft jackets coming apart before they left the barrel. Excessive speed was another problematic issue that had to be eventually resolved. Hotter loads did not a better hunting round make.
It has taken a lot of years, a lot of money, and a lot of experimentation to get the tipped bullets to where they are today. Nosler, Remington, Hornady, and Federal all make suggestions on hunting and varmint use of their tipped bullets. If you hear of a failure now days, it is more likely hunter error for using the wrong ammo than a bullet failure. These bullets are more of a specialty than most folks realize. Just because a bullet has a certain colored tip on it, doesn't mean it was made by a specific manufacturer. Most of the .22 and .17 rimfire ballistic tip bullets are made by Remington and loaded at CCI. Nosler is making a lot of special run bullets that are being shipped somewhere else where the Nosler name is not on the box.
If you are buying ammo, buy it for the intended game. Don't shoot varmint rounds at game animals. If you are rolling your own, make sure the correct bullet is used for the correct game. Just because a .22LR killed a deer once (and a lot have) doesn't mean it will do it every time. Bad hit with a varmint bullet could leave injured game animal to suffer.
Just some soap box attitude to throw into the boiling pot.
Steve 
Steve,
I agree with you 99%. Excellent posting!
Nosler recomended, bullets beginning with the 243, 100g BT as intended for thin skinned, light, big game. Like smaller deer and black bears. What they where and/are NOT recomended for is Elk, Mule Deer, Moose or the big Bears.
When the Ballistic tips where first introduced, you are correct, the more numerious, SMALLER calibers where designed for varmints.
For varmints, thats the 55g 224, 70g 243, 85g 257, 120g 284 and 125g 308 where the smallest and lightest for each caliber.
In "deer" bullets, the 100g 243, 100g 257 (later 120g 257, 125 & 140 264) 150g 180g 308, (Later the 165g 308, 200g 338, 225g 358) IIRC the 70G 243 wasn't offered until later in production.
I remember when I bought my first 7mm's. One was a 7mm-08 (1984) and the second was a 7x30 Waters (1986). I loaded a 140g Solid Base Nosler in the 08 and a 120g FP (the only bullet made for the waters) Solid base in the Waters. I shot about a dozen deer with the 7mm 08 and 3-4 with that Waters Winchester. I never lost a deer, BUT I recovered lots of jackets with no cores. Thats bullet failure, but well placed bullets resulted in no lost animals. I switched to the 140 BT when it was offered as it was also claimed to have been better constructed not to shed its core. Over 6 or so more deer, I never recovered one of those bullets, but I do have a 125 BT shot from a 14" Contender 30-30 and it looks perfect!
About 1988 a family friend when "out west" for a Elk/Mule deer hunt. I had been loading him 180G Ballistic tips for his deer hunting and thats what he wanted for Colorado. Well I loaded him two boxes and off he went. He did not connect on a Elk, but got his Mule deer. I do not know range or situation, only remember the pictures and how proud he was of that deer. So again, its more where the bullet is placed sometimes.
Just as the start of your posting eludes to, shooters will blame bullets before blaming them selves when speaking of poor preformance.
I don't use them much anymore, but would not hesitate to again if I needed a quick expanding bullet. They are taylor made for long range hunting thin skinned game, where bullet preformance may be questioned. Good for target as accuracy in most guns is superior to other bullets.
CW
