Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Nosler Partition Discontinued

Do you shoot a 44 Magnum and if so which Nosler do you like for it? I am visiting your great state as I type this. I really need to try to do an elk hunt out here sometime before I get too old.

Paul, yes I shoot the Noslers in the .44 Magnum

Here's my load:

240gr Nosler HP (seconds)
24gr WC297 (non canister version of 296)
Winchester Brass,
CCI 350 Primers.

They chronograph around 1400 and are pretty impressive on the water jug test.

Doh ... a third run in less than 15 years. Awwwwww No please stop

I actually like both.....depends on my particular rifle. My Interarms Mark X .30-06 doesn't shoot accubonds worth a damn, but the two most accurate loads that I have are with 180 & 200 grain partitions; my 200 grain load shoots 1/4" at 100 yards consistantly over the past 35 or so years. However, I've yet to get a partition to shoot as well in my .338 Win. mag....but I do have an accurate Accubond 225 grain load for that rifle (Ruger M77).
I am currently loading for a new rifle (Winchester 70 in 375 H&H), and have both Accubonds and Partitons loaded up.

If the folks at Nosler are reading this, please do not be like Winchester and D/C items that have been in inventory for years (such as their Silvertip bullets) in favor of something that is "trendy"........I have since quit using Winchester products as they bring something out, have it around for a few years, I spend a boatload of money working up handloads, find one I like and then..........they D/C the product!!! It's quite frustrating.......

I know the folks at Nosler pretty well, and I sincerely doubt they're going to discontinue any product as long as shooters are buying it. Nosler is a family-owned company and the family is full of hunters and shooters. Believe it or not, this isn't true of some other family-owned companies that make shooting products.

One of the reasons really big companies drop stuff is disconnects in the chain of command, often caused by people at the top who only care about the bottom line, not the actual business they're in.

Yes, I have actually, and killed a couple deer with it. It shot just fine but in my limited sample of two it was too destructive....I went back to Barnes but I'd say the 64 gr. bonded is a sure bet for a stunt shooter!

I have a lifetime supply of the 250 gr Partitions and was out shooting them in my Ruger Carbine yesterday. It was consistently keeping three inside two and a quarter inches. Plan to use it on spring best next year.

I dunno. I'm still mad at Nosler for discontinuing the Solid Base line of bullets.

That's quite the grudge! Twenty years or so? Gotta admit, I am still pissed about the 50 count ballistic tips.

Yeah, me too. Now the ABLRs come in 100 count boxes. I wonder when their bean counters will get around to cutting that amount in half. Probably if and when they become popular.
Paul B.

Nosler's success and reputation as a company wasn't built with the "side show" bullets. It was based on the success and popularity,and world wide "experience" of the Partition.

I doubt the Partition is going anywhere soon, so long as people are allowed to kill BG animals.

What's an Accubond?

Bob,

This may dismay you, but the Ballistic Tip has been Nosler's best-selling bullet, by far, for a long time. My guess (based on some knowledge) is Nosler became a really big bullet company only after BT's were introduced in the 1980's. There were other reasons as well, but the BT (which was also conceived by "Big John" Nosler) was a major factor.

The rifle and ammo business is also helping the company grow. They've already made as many rifles this year as they made all of last year. Luckily, more efficient manufacturing has allowed this growth with not nearly as much growth in the number of employees, so the family can still keep track of everything that's happening.

It took me a LONG time to use ballistic tips again. I blew apart too many deer with them, tried reduced loads etc, still it was ugly. Yes I never lost a deer to one but they were messy.

Of course that was in the days when they were between BT and solid base.

Me too--until they made the 200-grain .338.

I hated the first few years .284 BT's, so much I swore off of them "forever". Got persuaded to try the newer versions, namely the .284 120 and 150's, and they work very well, and are supremely accurate. I guess my forever wasn't really forever.

I'd like to see the deer I wouldn't want to shoot with the current issue 150 out of a 308.

I once shot lengthwise through a pronghorn buck with the 150 from .308. He stood facing me at about 250 yards and the bullet exited the right "cheek."

As mentioned the first BT I used after they started making them stouter was the 200-grain .338, because the late Chub Eastman told me it was indeed different. Tested some next to 210 Partitions in dry newspaper and found out he was right, of course. Killed the biggest-bodied caribou of my life with one that fall (1992), putting one behind the right shoulder at 200 yards. The bull dropped so straight down his legs folded up, ready for the hero photo. The bullet had busted the far shoulder joint and exited. Have shot a bunch of animals with the same bullet since (now only available as the Ballistic Silvertip) and only recovered one, from a big gemsbok bull shot quartering toward me. It broke the right shoulder and spine, ending up under the skin of the right "cheek," retaining 60% of its weight.

Since then have used BT's from .25 to .375 (the short-lived 260-grain) on big game, and have only recovered a very few, all either on angling or shoulder shots. The "standard" versions retain around 50% of their weight, about like Hornady Interlocks, and the heavy-jacket versions (which now include the 165-180 .30's as well as the 200 .338) retain 60% or a little more.

I too tried BTs when they first came out and they were dismal failures in the performance department. Refused to touch one ever since except for varmint bullets.
Then last year a bunch of Campfire members here told me how good ( and changed) the 95 BT was in a .243 so i decided to try them. They work great, they shoot great. End of story.

NBT's,

shoot like a match bullets
Great initial expansion, with 50-60% weight retention.
Inexpensive (well at least the seconds are).
Kill kill like lightning....

What's not to like?

That bullet is what turned me on to the 243.