Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game when is a Nosler Partition not adequate?

I should clarify - I don't use Partitions in every situation, only when I think I'll need deep penetration or to keep a bullet together. I use them for elk size critters, black bears, and deer when I'm using a cartridge capable of 3000 ft/sec at the muzzle and a deer may show up at less than 50 yards. I've shot more than a few deer with standard cup/core, Nosler BT and AB. I don't care for the mess. The only exception to this is Hornday IL. I shoot Horn IL at deer in 90+% of the time.

Tell me of one person that thinks premium bullets are "needed" to kill deer.

I use premiums on deer -- and antelope -- but not because I think they are "needed".

The reason I do so is because I load my rifles for elk and use them for other game as well. Deer get hunted in the same season as elk so using a single bullet type makes perfect sense. Antelope get hunted 2-4 weeks earlier and I see no need to work up special loads for them. Using one bullet type makes life simpler and the cost delta is so small as to be unimportant in the extreme.

I have yet to see where a premium bullet fails on deer or antelope or where other bullet types kill them any quicker. What I have seen is fragile bullets like the A-MAX needlessly destroy a lot of meat where the premiums I use minimize meat loss.

The cost delta for using one bullet for all is minimal and may be less than the cost of working up and inventorying separate, additional loads. When compared to the total cost of my hunts the cost delta for using premiums is a fraction of 1% - not something I'm going to worry about.

Tell me of one person that gets hung up on having the highest bc possible to the point it's ridiculous.

And yes, plenty of people who hunt nothing bigger than deer use "premium" bullets. As a matter of fact, I've had a guy tell me that a .277" 130-grain partition was not a good deer bullet and I needed to switch to the TTSX.

An lastly, I don't really care why you, personally, use/don't use whatever bullet you choose.

One would think that guy hasn't used Partitions. I like TTSX and Partitions, shoot both. For genl. WT hunting, I don't think you can beat a Partition and the TTSX won't make you a better hunter by switching.

Matching bullet design to velocity and the game hunted is IMO an art. No one bullet is perfect for everything, the NPT comes pretty close.

DF

Around 500 on both of them IIRC.

This pretty well sums it up, although the accubonds I've been using the last 3 years or so are very, very impressive killers.

I ran into a guy from Pennsylvania this past elk season here in Wyoming.

He had quite the long range setup...Can't remember the round but I was a bit surprised when he said he was shooting a partition...and apparently did quite well out to 7-800 yards. He didn't seem like he was completely full of it, and didn't throw any red flags about his "ability" to shoot at long range.

Don't know if he ever connected o an elk or not.

Given the choices available today, a partition isn't even a consideration unless they come about $18 per 50 from SPS and even then it's usually a pass.

I'll shoot the TTSX, TSX, Etip, Accubond, NBT, Scenar, Berger, and Amax over a Partition, depending on the situation.

When "tough" is a consideration, the SPS 168 etip and 150gr etip get the nod in 308 and 7mm respectively. A nice blend of accuracy, toughness, and bc rolled into one. Nothing but good results from them.

I'm had great results from the 225gr Accubond.

I've killed a pile of deer using Berger, Scenar, and Amaxes. NBTs have done fine too for deer.

I'll take two jumbo black bears this spring for predator control, and the etip will get the nod.

If it's so windy that a Partition isn't good enough I probably wouldn't shoot anything else either.


Seriously.



Only have them loaded for 2 rifles but out to 400 yards they are very accurate. 180 PT's in 300 WSM's.


I think the BC is .474.


140 Accubonds for the 270 are .496.


Those are pretty low numbers for the tight pants kids.




I don't shoot deer past 400-500 yards anyway so worrying about a bullets BC is fairly low on the list when it comes to actual hunting.

I'm beginning load work up with a friend's .270 Wby. I have 130 and 150 NPT's, 130 and 140 NAB's, 150 ABLR's to try.

I ran them all thru the Hornady Ballistics Calculator using max book speed. At 600 yds, there was only an inch or so separating all but the 150 NPT, it dropped 5" more than the rest.

So, unless someone is shooting at extreme ranges, Partitions hold their own pretty well, according to Hornady data.

DF

Good post. I love the interlocks too. The same thread could be started about the interlock. However, I've all but switched to partitions because SPS sells the blemished and seconds for such a reasonable amount of money and Hornady went weird on bullet production over the last few years that it just makes more sense to buy the partitions...

From 100 grains in 243 to 400 grains in 416, they have never failed me or the friends that I load for, they hunt a hell of a lot more than me, I've not received or seen a complaint over the last 35 years of my loading career.

It is a fine bullet design, and 30 cal at 200 grains is the truest flying hunting bullet I've ever fired out to 500 yards.

I think the blurred line between hunting and target shooting on the Campfire is what lends so many of these subjects to debate these days. There's been so much injection of tactical equipment and long range shooting that the line between the guy with a Tactical scope with a funky reticle and a rifle chambered in a caliber known to promote high BC bullets and the desire to shoot groups out to 1000 yards and a guy with a 30 caliber rifle wearing a backpack in search of deer and elk with an effective range of 400 yards or less is often misunderstood. The Partition has proven itself over many decades to be the benchmark many bullets try to outperform. Between monometals, hollow point and plastic tipped matchgrade bullets the desire to have a Bullet that flys straight, expands well and stays together has left us with many choices. The number of posts that tell a story of Partitions not performing as advertised are very few. I cant for the life of me see where someone wouldn't be okay with a partition IF it shoots well in said rifle. I'll admit to having killed some chit with a Partition but there's been many cases where other bullets that I had confidence in shot more accurately up close and far away and those were the times I opted for a different bullet. But if the Partition shot well consistently close and far I'd be happy to kill with it.

I recently acquired a 300 WSM that my handloads produced these groups with a 180 Partition at 2980 fps. This is one of the few rifles I've owned that shot Partitions this well and I see no reason not to roll with them!

The other side of all of this is that FAR less accuracy than most handloaders think is necessary will consistently take big game out to 400 or even 500 yards. For some reason, we've become convinced that a load that shoots 3/4" 3-shot groups at 100 yards is vastly superior to one that shoots, say, 1-1/4 inch groups.

Even a pronghorn has a vital area about the size of a volleyball, and most big game animals are larger. Believe me, if you can shoot reasonably well, a rifle that shoots 1-1/4 inch 3-shot groups at 100 will hit a volleyball every time at 400 yards--if the shooter knows what they're doing. At "normal" ranges that's the real factor, not what are actually small differences in group size.

If the higher BC projectile happens to offer all the required #4 OTP, (and there are bullets that can and do that for some people),
that person can pass on NPs and not be at a loss.

Take the popular 300win-
If someone thinks they lost their prized elk because they didn't use a 200NP or 220NP instead of the 210 LR-AB
then I would be inclined to put it down to poor shooting than poor choice of bullet.

Put it this way, I'd rather shoot a big mule deer buck at 400 yds with a partition than a big mule deer buck at 40 yds with a Nosler LRAB.

And there are people that would rather pass up both and launch A-Frames for 40-400yd.
and some will gladly use any of the three.

True but if the chosen bullet shoots better and is substantially cheaper, why go with any premium when it's not needed to kill your animal?

Exactly--but I have read many times on the Campfire the advice to "use whichever bullet shoots best," regardless of the animal and typical shooting situation. This sometimes makes sense and sometimes doesn't, especially at ranges where a little bit more accuracy won't make any difference at all, and bullets construction might.

I have killed hundreds of big game animals with cup-and-core bullets, including Bergers, Hornadys, Nosler Solid Bases and Ballistic Tips, Remington Core-Lokts, Sierra GameKings, Speer Hot-Cors and Winchester Power Points. Have also killed hundreds with Nosler Partitions and various other premium bullets. Have also watched about the same number of animals killed by hunting companions, using a similar array of bullets. All hunting bullets work if we know how they work and use that knowledge in selecting them--but I have yet to see a "failure" with Partitions at ranges out to 550 yards, and have with several of the others.

My primary complaints with the Partition are excessive meat damage compared to a TTSX, higher recovery rate, and higher cost.

They kill fine generally, but too often they make just one hole. The only monos I have seen recovered were very light and shot into a lot of very large bone.

I have never seen an AB exit.