The idea behind ballistic tips or silver tips is that the bullet will fragment into pieces upon impact and become more like buckshot as it passes through the deer. The problem with that is the fragments do not have nearly as much penetrating ability as what one solid bullet would have. If you hit the deer in the shoulder then there’s a chance that the bullet with explode on impact and then the meat of the shoulder will absorb most of that penetrating punch from the fragments. Even if you don’t catch a lot of meat the fragments may still not pass all the way through the deer.

I used silver tips in my 30-30 for a while back when I used to shoot a lot more deer than I do now. I always shot deer behind the shoulder and the silver tips would make mush out of the inside of the body cavity….but I would often times find the fragments embedded in the off side rib cage and not get a pass through. That made for several tough tracks where there little to no blood and I quit using them.