CH,
I have never witnessed a BT blow up on big game when used in its proper application (I'm refering to the big game BTs here). The key words are "proper application". Nosler has put out articles in its load manuals on when and when not to use a BT and its not rocket science. Obviously you have failed in that aspect.................
If you want to shoot high priced premiums to make yourself feel better and more confident then by all means have at it. But to say Partitions have a penetration problem because you recovered them is certainly laughable.
MtnHtr
I have seen BTs grenade.
Shot a hog, maybe around 100, 125lbs, right in the shoulder with my .30-06, range about 80 yards. The 180gr. bullets chrono'd about 2750fps.
The round went into one shoulder, through the shoulder blade, put a fist-sized hole in the ribs, and literally made mush out of the interior of the critter. There was not one mark on the opposite side of the rib cage or diaphram, except for the green plastic tip which penetrated the farthest.
You could have poured out the contents of the chest cavity. In fact that's what we did.
This was not a very big pig and pig bones are much softer than deer, by the way.
There was no blood trail and it took about an hour of searching the brush to find Mr. Piggie.
Now... clearly it died, so at a certain level you can't fault performance. But.... they didn't penetrate much pig. What would have happened on a 200lb. deer or 200lb. hog? Honestly don't know.....
The only BT I ever recovered was in the neck of another small pig. It was stopped by the neck muscle, and did not even break the neck bones. Core-jacket separation, of course. Same box of handloads, too.....
So we're talking penetration of maybe 3-4 inches of muscle, and only very light bones....
I also shot a javelina end-to-end with the same load. No exit..... on a critter that might have weighed 40 or 45 lbs.
Word is that the newer BTs are a bit tougher. Someday I'll get around to trying them.
My father in law got a batch of 7mm BTs that were quite soft. His description of one of them was that it just blew up a fist-sized chunk of meat and didn't go in more than a few inches. He quit shooting deer with them, said they'd cut a coyote darn near in two from his .280.....
Funny thing, the 125gr. BTs in the my .30-06 were a heck of a lot tougher.
In the meantime, I have a box of 165gr. Partitions loaded up. Those work ALL the time on all the critters I hunt. Can't complain....
