Things sure have changed since friends and I stuffed 30/06's, 300 winchesters, H&H's and Weatherby's with 165, 180,and 200 gr Nosler Partitions and Bitterroots and shot them at bull elk and other animals ,both close up and out to almost 600 yards (in a couple of cases). BTW all these were mature bulls...maybe one or two spikes or rag heads.
We noticed if they were hit right with these bullets, regardless of distance, they collapsed like sock puppets. There was no concern about penetration with lots of Noslers exiting,and the BBCs would ball up under the off side hide after breaking things and turning chest cavities to soup if distances were really short, or blow exits depending on distances and what they hit and how fast they were started. Penetration was never inadequate.
If distances were long so that velocity drained, the BBC would expand but tended to exit more than at closer distances. Surprisingly the higher velocities of magnum cartridges caused BBC's to expand more fully at distance and were more likely to be recovered.
None of this mattered as everything from where they went in to where they came to rest was a mess of broken bones and pureed vital organs. We discovered that a 140 BBC from a 7 mag at 3250 or a 165 from a 300 mag at the same velocity was a bomb on anything up to elk in size despite sometimes not exiting and with penetration being far more than enough,elastic off side hide being all that caught them. Train wreck in between.
Never saw any correlation in killing effectiveness between a bullet that exited and one that didn't, so long as the wound channel went to the far side all the way to the off side hide. Did see one Nosler solid base blow up in one lung of a big Colorado mule deer,,,,the off side was clean as a whistle . I was not impressed.
Partitions did it somewhat differently with wound channels smaller and narrower but somewhat more penetration on closer shots , i.e. more likely to exit. But neither one was ever lacking and I never noticed much need for improvement, None ever "failed".
Two best game killing bullets I've ever used.Not much need for me to change this late in my career.
Never used a Barnes. I hear good things from good friends with LOTS of Barnes experience...especially TTSX and the new long range ones. But I know these guys and trust their judgement. They have killed LOTS of animals with them.JMHO.
Its amazing you could kill a thing with those crappy partitions. If only you had a NF or a Aframe....
