Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting The 300 Wby Mag for elk- is there anything better?

A Bear Claw?

Probably Bitterroot Bonded Core(BBC).

http://www.trademarkia.com/bbc-bitterroot-bonded-core-bitterroot-bullet-co-its-bonded-73576345.html

That's the one👍
Daddy of all the bonded core bullets, favorite of Bob Hagel and others of that period. Still one of THE best bullets ever made. Sure wish someone would've taken over their manufacture after Steigers quit.

Ray, get you some of those NF soft points and try them. They love velocity and you'll never tear one apart.

One thing that seems lost on some of you is the fa t that the partition is designed to blow off the front core. It is also worth pointing out that there isn't much and in some cases no differance in penetration between a mono metal and a partition, yet the partitions will kill faster IME.

+1

Well, I seriously doubt the design parameters of the partition are lost on those of us that prefer other bullets, at least not on myself. I shot my first elk with a screw machine type partition back in 1973, used them on a LOT of game through 1991. Satisfied but never impressed would be how I'd describe my feelings about them. On several occasions I was downright unimpressed! What seems to be lost on others here is the fact that several of us don't worship at the alter of the NP! To each his own.

Sorry i thought most knew that BBC meant Bitterroot Bonded Core. Like John said the BBC is the predecessor of the Swift Aframe and the Trophy Bonded Bear Claw. Still among the very best of expanding bonded bullets.Very tough and almost impossible to destroy at high velocity.

Here's another, a 250 gr 375 started at 2940 fps. pulled from the off side hide of a pretty big Alaskan brownie after busting up major bone. Don't be fooled by the .75" frontal area and think it wouldn't penetrate. The other two fired blew holes the size of a fist as they exited.

It was the use of this bullet in the 375 H&H that made it easy for me to sell my 338's and use an 8 pound 375 in their place.

This. The NPs are good bullets, used them a lot in Africa on my first trip in my 300, but like John mentioned, accuracy is not on a par with the TTSXs and they've all opened up on me. In fact, I was all ready to use 210 Partitions in my 338 for leopard, but accuracy was just not consistent whilst the TTSXs were, and at 2800 plus, they open very nicely.

And I guess the targets I posted showing 50 plus year old Weatherbys with LOTS of freebore didn't count. The issue of freebore (for hunting accuracy) and the hatred of "belts" are both red-herrings that really don't hold up. On the Partition V the TTSXs on penetration, a gent over on AR did extensive penetration tests, mainly on the CEB bullets, but he compared them to the rest of the competition including NPs in the bigger calibers and the NPs weren't in the same league. Speaking oF CEBs, nobody's mentioned those in this thread, so I guess now is a good time. There are some fantastic reports out there on their performance, both on killing power (tissue0 and penetration.

I’ve long been a believer that the launch platform is relatively unimportant and that the important thing is to place a good bullet in the right place.

My first elk was a big spike back in the early 80’s, broadside at about 100-110 yards. I centered a rib with a 162g Hornady BTSP with my 7mm RM. It came to rest under the hide on the far side after missing the far ribs entirely or barely nicking one of them. Retained weight was something like 47.7%. Although I was a complete noobie at the time, that performance didn’t impress me. The next year I switched to 160g Speer Grand Slams and used them exclusively for 20+ years. They killed well and I didn’t recover one until the last year I used them. That one was from a 5x5 bull on a 100-110 yard broadside and it had destroyed both shoulder joints before coming to rest under the hide, exposed but still in the bone. Retained weight was 70.7% IIRC. About that time Speer change how the Grand Slams were made and I switched to a true bonded-core bullet, the North Fork SS, which has provided excellent accuracy and on-game performance from my 7mm RM, .300WM and .30-06 rifles. Several years ago I gave all my remaining 160g Grand slams to my hunting buddy and, as it turned out, took my 6x5 bull last November using his 7mm RM loaded with one of those Grand Slams. Range was 411 yards on a quartering away shot. The results were 4 steps and down.

These days I have settled on three bullets for big game – Nosler AccuBond, Barnes TTSX and North Fork SS. While I have yet to recover an Accubond or a TTSX (or its predecessor the MRX), I have recovered some North Fork bullets. Mule Deer once wrote in response to one of my posts that (I’m paraphrasing) he couldn’t see using the North Fork bullets because of their relatively poor B.C. Poor B.C. or not, they shoot flat enough from my .280 RM (140g), 7mm RM (140g and 160g), .30-06 (165g) and .300WM (180g) for use at 600 yards, the limit of my practice and as far as I’m willing to take shots because of that practice. In practice, my longest shot ever on big game has been 487 yards and that used a poke-a-long 225g AccuBond form my 22” .338WM. What I’ve found is this:

Nosler AccuBonds – Two elk and an antelope, all with exits. One of the elk went 20-30 yards, the other maybe 10-15. The antelope went maybe 20 but all were dead on their feet once the AB entered the rib cage.

Barnes TTSX (and MRX) – One elk, a few steps and down. Multiple deer, including two lengthwise, all straight down DRT. Multiple antelope, most straight down DRT. A notable exception is an antelope that ran about 20 yards.

North Fork SS – Multiple elk. Most went straight down at the shot. A couple managed to get back up but couldn’t go anywhere. (I approached one and finished it off at 10 feet as it stood watching me. The other I shot as soon as it stood back up. In both cases all I did was hasten the inevitable.) Some bullets exited, some hit heavy bones and did not. The only elk I’ve ever lost was hit with a 140g NF from my 7mm RM and, according to evidence on both sides of the blood trail, too far back and high, a liver hit. That bullet exited even though the range was 389 yards. I don’t blame the bullet but rather the placement. The North Fork bullets have been consistent performers and I continue to use them in my .280 Rem, 7mm RM, various .30-06, .300WM and .45-70 rifles.

Here are some of the North Fork bullets I have recovered:





From left to right:

.30-06, 165g North Fork @ 2800fps
500yds from dirt, 145.0g retained

.30-06, 165g North Fork @ 2800fps
~25yds from cow elk, 133.2g retained after hitting a rib and leg bone

7mm 140g North Fork @ 3200fps
~150yds from buck mule deer, 131.2g retained after going from ham to sternum


Water jug bullets.

The bullet to the left of the hardcast is a 350g .458” North Fork (6 jugs) fired from my .45-70. The far right bullet is a 180g Barnes MRX (7 jugs) fried from a .300WM.

Granted, water jugs are different than animal flesh and bone, but it is a consistent test medium the results are often similar enough to on-game performance to be informative if not definitive. In any case, hunting bullets that come apart in water are of no interest to me except for varmints.

Jorge, have you ever recovered a partition? How many head have you killed with partitions and TTSX's?
It's worth noting that the CEB was designed to solve some of the shortcomings in the Barnes mono metal bullets. Chiefly the fact they don't kill all that abruptly.

+2

I have not recovered a TTSX. partitions very few, ALL from hogs here in the south. Shoulder shots and like you alluded to, the front breaks off and the rear penetrates. The only reason I went to the TTSX it is, without question (in my experience anyway) the most consistently accurate bullet I've ever used and I'll even include my 450NE double, where the North Forks are equally accurate. While I don't have anywhere NEAR the experience you have (BTW, what IS your total elk count, must be dozens!), my experience, and those of my friends' (in this case John55 and Allen Day since they are both "here"),show the TTSX to be a great bullet. As for really big game, I've shot just TWO buffalo, one with a 375 and the other with a 416 Rigby, both bullets were 300 and 400 grain soft nose respectively, and they worked great. The 375 is also responsible for eland, kudu, zebra, woldebeest Tsessebee and all I can tell you was weight retention was in the high 90%. I've killed Impala, warthogs, bushbuck, kudu, and bushpig with the partition. In addition of course to a few deer and lots of hogs here. The main issue I've had with NPs and not just in Weatherbys is one of accuracy. Like John says, if I were to use bonded bullets, I like the A-Frame and in slower calibers, I've really gotten good performance out of Woodleighs.

One more data point, my 7mm Weatherby really likes 160gr Partitions and if I do decide to take that rifle for the elk hunt or even back to Africa, the Partition will be my bullet of choice. I use what works for me and yes I do use and like the 300 Weatherby (if I could have just ONE rifle, a MKV 300 Weatherby Deluxe would be IT), but I've used rifles ranging from Lee 303s to 375s, 35 Wheelen (in a Ruger for my best black bear), and they all work. The ONLY absolute I have is you will never see me hunting serious game with a Remington 700..

TTSX are very easy to get to shoot. Partitions have been hit or miss for me. However, if a gun won't shot BT'S I get rid of it and a BT will do 90% of what a part in will provided it's one of the heavy jacket versions like the 180 30 caliber is.

I would not knock the ol 700. My father's two most used DG rifles were a 458 and a 375 model 700's. He also hunted extensively in Africa in a manner that's no longer available now or prohibitively expensive. I currently have in my posession the 375.

Yes, BTs are very, very accurate, as are Accubonds, but unlike many here (and you) I just can't afford to have a bad hunt, and when it comes to reliability, I'm just not comfortable with a BT out of a 300 weatherby at close range. The bullet on the right is a 180gr Hornady Interlock recovered from an impala (operative words being IMPALA and RECOVERED) shot at 80 yards on the point of the shoulder and recovered in the off ham. Weigh77grains. The little impala dropped like a sack, but had that been an eland, I'm not so sure. (the bullet in question is on the far right, the others are 300gr 375 H&Hs recovered from Zebra, Wildebeest and Eland at ranges from 65 yards to over 180, and the difference is obvious. So HOW MANY elk have you killed?

The BT in general has a much heavier jacket than the Hornady you used and certain BT'S are many times thicker.
I have killed three elk. I didn't see your question earlier.

Were your elk taken with NPs or something else? What caliber did you use?

Dang those NF bullets are spendy!

I don't mind spending extra money on bullets, but when they go for twice the price of a box of Partitions of Accubonds, I don't see any reason to experiment.

All I can say about them is they've been superlative in every thing I want in a large game bullet. A bit spendy but compared to the overall cost of a hunt they're insignificant.