My dad has been reloading for about 33 years now. And he has told me for ever that boattails don't make any differnece unless you are shooting out to 600yds and beyond. But I say screw that boatails look cool before they get loaded and they bring up the Ballistic Coefficientsey up of any bullet and when I look at bullets I look for the most ballistic coefficientsey that I can find. And the bullet with the most is the nosler accubond 140gr. Be careful when you are looking at ballistic tipped bullets most are for small game not big game. The accubond is for big game and I shoot it in my .270 WSM. As far as shooting out your barrel, unless you are shooting a load that gets up around 3200fps don't worry about it. Talk to anybody that has shot a lot of .264 winchester and they will tell you its all about the speed.......