>>30661857
If you are shooting over 300 yrds ballistic tipped or hollow point match bullets will generally perform better imo & based on my personal experience (someone who has actually shot both past 300 yrds)

>>30661857
What is your definition of 'just fine'? How far away do you shoot at things, and what are those things?

Plastic tips are good additions to some bullet designs, useless on others. A plastic tip alone isn't any kind of deciding factor.

>no nasty ass lead buildup on feedramps
>rounds don't deform their ogives smashing into the front of the magazine during recoil

If there wasn't some sort of benefit, it wouldn't be done by every major manufacturer.

>>30661933
Two questions:
1. What were you shooting at 300 yards?
2. Why couldn't you shoot it at a more reasonable distance?
>>30661956
I define "just fine" to mean a bullet that will cleanly kill any animal I shoot with it out to distances beyond which I am not accurate enough to ethically shoot said animal. I live in North America, so I am unlikely to shoot elephants and other game large enough to require specialized weapons. I think it is neither prudent nor necessary to shoot any animal at a distance beyond 120 meters. Given those criteria, soft point bullets are just fine.

>>30661973
>rounds don't deform their ogives smashing into the front of the magazine during recoil
Fuddlore.

http://www.gundigest.com/shooting-articles-advice/10-rifle-shooting-myths-exposed

I see groups go from a half inch to about an inch and a half at 100 yards for subsonic .300, but don't shoot well enough to see a difference with anything faster on my little range. I'm reasonably sure there's a big ballistic advantage for hunters taking long shots with larger calibers, but I'll bet the plastic bits help more with reliable feeding and expansion for smaller rounds and shorter distances.

>>30662108
>neither prudent nor necessary to shoot any animal at a distance beyond 120 meters

I guess you don't hunt mountain goats. Or sheep. Or antelope.

Really if whatever bullet you are using works well for you then there is no reason to change, and at 130 yards nearly any bullet well placed will do. You aren't shooting far enough to notice the advantages of high BC bullets.

But projecting your needs and limitations on everyone else is silly. There are plenty of situation where 'plastic-tipped' bullets make a difference and they most certainly aren't gimmicks.

>>30662108
1. bullseyes (mostly)
2. define reasonable - most of my high power matches are shot at 200 & 300 yrds, because my club doesn't have a 600 yrd range - we use optically shrunk targets to simulate the 600 yrd slowfire prone (sometimes done at 200yrds sometimes at 300 (different size targets))

>>30662140
I didn't say it affected accuracy, it's just cosmetic damage that's mitigated with polymer tips.

>>30661857
ballistic coefficient goes way up with plastic tips

One advantage is for tube magazines, the plastic tip gives better accuracy than flat-nose, and eliminates a chanse for chain fire you'll encounter with pointed rounds