At a time when the internet naysayers probably greatly outnumbered their advocates, I was definitely in the latter Barnes camp. That was before I opened my eyes and realized that Barnes X iterations have issues just like all the rest. I have caught the likes of the 225 from the 340 Weatherby in caribou at around 100 yards. The most meat damage/loss I've ever had on moose came from the same bullet which failed to expand, the wound bleeding for an extended period of time via a main artery into the muscles layers; no bone broken, no exit. The last X types I've used, a 120 in the 7mm-08 and a 235 in a 375 wildcat both failed to exit and neither broke any significant bone. The latter did hit the hide based on the fact that the hole stopped right beneath the hide, while the bullet evidently rebounded back in as it was several inches inside the wound.
Good bullets? Yes. Magic? No, and bullets one must use with some discretion. The Partition is still an excellent benchmark bullet that is a standard by which others are measured. It may not exceed many of the more recent ones in things that they are best at, but it is still a bullet that does more things well -- reliably, something very few others can do. It seems no small irony that the tipped TSX (TTSX) has arrived at or close to the pinnacle of 'X-perfection' by imitating the Partition in many respects.
