gunner,

Here's something that pretty much confirms your gut feelings! These four Nosler Partitions were all recovered from dead buffalo. The two on the left are 300-grain .375's, retaining 88% and 89% of their weight. The two on the right are 400-grain .416's, retaining 83% and 95% of their weight. Please note the left-hand .416 lost its front core, a real no-no according to many experts, yet weighs 332 grains after breaking one shoulder. The .416 that retained 95% entered a quartering-away Botswana bull in the left rear of the ribcage, penetrating part of the paunch and both lungs before ending up under the skin of the right shoulder.

As I've noted in other posts, the bigger, heavier Partitions have the partition moved forward so they'll retain far more weight than the typical 2/3 of lighter, smaller-caliber Partitions. Exactly how long they've been made this way I don't know, but it was true of the 300-grain .375's in 1998, the first year I ever recovered one. Also don't know how many Partitions are built this way, though a 225-grain .338 that broke the big shoulder joint of a huge musk ox retained 85% of its weight, despite retaining only a sliver of its front core.

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