Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting 165 grain Nosler Partition, .30 cal., on Elk, Your thoughts?

My guess as to why that guide would refer to Partitions as "trackers" is because he had seen Partitions do what they were designed to do, however his hunters may have failed to put their bullets where they were susposed to. The result would have been a caliber size entrance hole and no large blood letting exit hole.

Partitions were designed with a fast opening front half to quickly transfer a lot of energy from the bullet to the animal, and a solid back half for deep penetration. This causes the bullet to shed the lead core back to the partition, and the remaining back half has an almost 1/2" wide flat front surface that often will not penetrate the tough, elastic hide of the far side of the elk.

The 180 gr .30 caliber Partition was my favorite elk bullet for many years. I usually don't spend a lot of time recovering my bullets, but I do have some, including six .30 caliber Partitions that I found just under the skin on the "off" side of the six bulls that I shot with them. They are all exactly like the Partitions that I described above. None of those bulls left much of a blood trail, but all of them had shredded lungs, and tracking wasn't necessary.

Put a Partition into the heart/lungs of an elk and you'll have a dead elk. Put a Partition into the paunch of an elk and you'll have a long and difficult tracking job.

I also don't like shoulder shots on elk. I like eating elk meat too much, and I don't like eating bloodshot meat. A bullet (or arrow) placed broadside, in the crease right behind the shoulder, and 1/3 up into the body will result in a dead animal and very little meat loss.