Interesting thread. Lots of opinions on what works or doesn't work which makes one think. Compared to some my experience on elk is very thin, mostly due to bad luck. If I drew a bull tag all I saw were cows and if a cow tag, well you get the picture. Most of the time I don't draw squat. Last time I drew an elk tag in my home state was 9 years ago.
What I wanted to say tough is this. Condemning a bullet as no good based on one failure for whatever reason is statistically insignificant
Way back in the mid 1970's I loaded up the bullet the OP asked about in my 30-06 for a deer hunt. That was during the time when the Mule Deer population dropped drastically for some reason and we'd seen nothing. I got a crack at a coyote about 250 yards out and the 165 gr. Siera HPBT smacked him good. We paced it off and found a two piece coyote. I never shot another animal with that bullet. Too fragile.
In 1978, the last year I hunted Nevada I shot the biggest bodied Mule Deer I've ever seen. Total weight of the skinned quarters on a certified butcher's scale was 296 pounds. The same 30-06 was used but this time I was shooting 180 gr. Nosler Partitions. First shot nicked the heart, shot #2 was through the lungs three was a miss, four broke and antler and my last shot broke its neck. When I opened him up, the I found the first bullet just grazed the heart, The lung shot looked like someone had poked both lungs with a pencil the fifth aand last shot shot broke it's neck. Didn't use Nosler Partitions for a very long time after that.
For a very long time I held the opinion that those two bullets were no good and I would not use them. All based on what happened with one kill with either bullet. Currently my elk rifle is a .35 Whelen shooting the 225 gr. Barnes TSX. Three elk with that load, all one shot kills. One hunting partner shoots a 7MM Rem. Mag. and the 160 gr. Accubond at 3000 MV. I've seen him take two elk with that rifle, again one shot kills. This last January we added another fellow to out group and he dropped his elk with a .270 WSM shooting the 150 gr. Sierra Game King. Again, statisically it doesn't prove squat but it's been enough to make me look at bullets with a more open mind.
Paul B.
