Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Barnes vs Partitions vs Ballistic Tips

Again what I did was take pictures of properly calibrated and measured ballistic gelatin testing and overlaid them onto a picture of a deer. I did broadside, quartering away, gut shot, and rear shot for each. I utilized three different bullet types to show the different effects. Bullets used were a Barnes TSX, Nosler Accubond, and Hornady AMAX. All were fired from a 308 Winchester with the same muzzle velocity. All were the same weight class.

Bullets of like construction exhibit remarkably similar performance even in different weights so the results for any comparable bullet will very, very similar. IE the Barnes is one of the "hardest" bullets producing some of the smallest wound channels but almost all of the copper bullet such as the Nosler E-Tip, Hornady GMX, Remington Premier Copper Solid, Federal Trophy Copper, etc will preform closely. The Hornady AMAX is one of the "softest" bullets suitable for deer hunting that fragments consistently and as a result will produce the widest wound channels but fragile bullets such as the Nosler Ballistic Tip, Hornady SST, etc will produce similar but slightly narrower wound channels.

In testing and actual field observations on numerous deer the 168gr NBT and Winchesters CBST penetrate more with channels more in line with typical bonded bullets of the same weight class. The Nosler Accubond is the middle of the road in performance with controlled expansion bullets like the Nosler Partition, Trophy Boned Bear Claw, Swift A Frame, etc.

Keep in mind the representations offer idea of what to expect. There always exceptions and while different bullets will behave differently in animals, bullets in the same class really are more alike than they are different.




First up is broadside


168gr Barnes TSX notice the relatively long and narrow wound path.


In my experience it actually is slightly smaller then shown due to less tearing of the temporary stretch cavity.




Next is the Accubond


It still penetrates deeply yet the wound cavity is around 20% larger.




Lastly the frailest of them all the 168gr Hornady AMAX


Notice that while the others will penetrate further, the AMAX offers enough penetration and by far destroys the most tissue.