Seafire,
You're using logic and experience to counter speculation and inexperience. Doesn't seem fair.
Yeah, I get accused of that often.. I have to cut that sort of crap out..
Not to contradict the gentleman who mentioned the Nosler Partition... although not as hard as many of the 200 grain bullets, it is harder than the standard 220 grain RNs..
I'd do some testing with it just to get an idea of where my functional point blank range is at, to be able to penetrate the game I am going after...
Its design is called a Semi Pointed... most of the original Partitions were of that design, but folks wanted longer range capabilities, so the partitions were changed to a straight SP...
My favorite two partition bullets are the 220 grain 30 cal, and the 160 grain 270 cal... the only two partitions left in that original SMP design..
Sierra and Speer also had some of those design, but they keep getting dropped due to lack of sales...of course they were some of my favorite also...
like the Speer 275 grain SMP in 338 bore... or the 100 grain SMP Sierra in 6mm/243 bore... luckily I have a small stash..enough to last me most of my hunting life..
in 22 cal, Speer still has the 70 grain SMP, while Sierra has the 50, 55 and 63 grain SMP..which are at the top of my favorite varmint bullet list...
a local guy who has since passed on, was wanting to take a "big bear" as he was putting it, that was raiding his getaway cabin. All he ever hunted with for a rifle was a 30/30... he was asking me about what would I use, claimed to have shot it with a factory 170 grain load and it just pissed the bear off more as he put it..
since I play with that sort of 'what if?" scenarios, he paid for the components for me to experiment with... so I picked up some 220 grain RN Sierra's, and some W 748 powder....
I seated them down so they would cycle thru his model 94, adding a light crimp...it still was a stiff load, but tested it out in my rifle particularly for brass life, ( read pressure limits)... I reloaded the case 5 times and at time 6th, the primer pockets were still tight.
The rank was going to be less than 50 yds, a shot being from inside his cabin, when the bear came around again...the load worked... one shot with the 220 grain RN Sierra, dropped the bear...I was not able to observe the results of shot placement of the 220 grain load and the factory 170 grain load that "just pissed him off"....
however one shot from the 220 grainer finished off a bear that weighed a hair over 500 lbs...out of a 30/30..
granted it was a 'stout' load, hence why I don't give out the load except in a private PM.... but the 220 grain RN as usual, managed to do its job quite nicely...
and if anyone is asking, in testing, I can tell you that if your velocity is going to be low, the Sierra is a better choice than the Hornady 220 RN..
the Hornady is not slouch, it is just the Sierra seems to open up at a lower velocity still than the Hornady..just passing that on... out of an 06 or bigger, then are pretty interchangable...accurate and effective..
