Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 33 Nosler

I bet they would "over-penetrate"....

I shot a rock chuck once with a 225gr Accubond out of a 338-378
Wby started at around 3200fps, I guess? Quite impressive!

Amateurs....

Never did shoot a 460WBY. I had a 378, though. That was good bunny medicine.

Edit: That is a beautiful rifle, BTW. The wood looks great. Is that a Wby custom shop rifle?

3 factory 500 gr rounds from the .460 Wby.

[img]http://i1243.photobucket.com/albums/gg546/elkhunterinnm/th_IMG_2782.mp4[/img]

Sorry,340boy I missed your edit.

Yes,it is a Weatherby Custom Shop .460. Believe it was made in early 1986.

You may need a 33 Nos for smaller wabbits...

And for pests...

DF

Could use the 33 Nosler for mice.

Mule Deer. (John)
I would not truly call them "problems". That why I referred to them as "results I have seen that are a bit less then I’d want".

What I have seen a few time in the 7MM and 30 cals run at super speeds were for the front half of the bullet to come completely off, leaving only a cylinder of the shank left to do the rest of the work.

Now I can't complain too much. They all worked, and works pretty well, but they didn't do as well as the same bullets hitting other animals at about 300 FPS less.

The first part of the wound channels were huge and bloody, but the last parts were narrow. In my years of hunting I have used blunt nosed FMJ bullets in 375H&H and 404 Jeffery, and I can assure anyone that a good wound, all the way through game in the right place, is still effective.
And so they can be if the front half of a partition bullet blows off, as long as the bullet gets clear through to the other side, and preferable if it exits.

So I can't really say that behavior is a "problem". Less then perfect? Yes. Problem? ....not really.

But such a wound has not impressed me as much as those I see from the expanding solids.

They are better than FMJs, but only if the bullet get all the way through. So far what I have seen, they do. But also I have not seen any of these bullets used on anything bigger than elk. So that why I say "we'll see in a few years".

To me it's a spectators sport.
I own no rifle that doesn't preform exactly as I'd like using Nosler Partitions, but as I said, none of my rifles shoot as fast as the new super magnums.

szihn,

I've been shooting Nosler Partitions since the original lathe-turned version, the main reason I've recovered more of 'em than any other big game bullet, in calibers up to .416. While a bunch have lost their front core, as John Nosler meant them to do, I've yet to recover one that was a perfect cylinder. Instead there's always at least some remaining jacket in a rim around the front end, resulting in a slightly cupped front end.

Have seen something similar even with monolithics (or similar "petal" type bullets) that lose all their petals. The front end is expanded slightly, usually from hitting bone. Two good examples are an original Barnes X, a 6.5mm 120-grain that hit the shoulder joint of a big deer, and a .30 165-grain Winchester Fail Safe that broke the spine of a gemsbok bull on a frontal shot. Both, by coincidence, expanded to .41 inch, with a definite slight "mushroom" even though they lost all their petals.

This sort of front end results in a larger wound channel than a perfect cylinder, and a MUCH larger wound channel than a round-nosed solid, or even one of the more recent round-nosed solids with a flattened tip. In fact, the solids that result in the widest wound channels are cup-tipped, resulting in a shape much like a Nosler Partition that's lost it's front core. Both the Woodleigh Hydrostatically Stabilised and Swift Break Away solids are designed to work this way, the difference being the round plastic ball in the cup of the Swifts, allowing them to feed more reliably from a bolt-action magazine, which like the plastic tip on many of today's spitzers "breaks away" on impact.

Much of my bullet performance experience is also through observation, not my own shooting. In fact I've observed about as many big game animals being taken as I've taken. From about 2000 to 2010 I deliberately went on a bunch of cull hunts in various places around the world, primarily to observe bullet performance on a wide variety of big game animals. The biggest was a month-long trip to South Africa where 185 animals from springbok to Cape buffalo were taken, but also went on other culls not just in Africa but North America, Europe and New Zealand. I took my share of animals, but deliberately accompanied many other hunters, and spent hours analyzing wounds. For instance, in Africa I've only personally shot about 20% of the animals I've seen taken on various culls.

During all this, I also made notes on how far various animals traveled after being hit. My notes don't indicate any noticeable difference in how quickly animals died when expanded bullets were turned into "cylinders" on impact, whether Nosler Partitions or petal-type bullets.

And as I'm sure you're aware, ALL expanding bullets do the most damage in the area immediately behind the entrance hole, with the rest of the wound channel much smaller and surrounded by less peripheral damage. Exactly how large that remaining channel is depends on the frontal area of the bullet, due to its original caliber and shape, with a flatter or cup-shaped front end cutting a bigger hole. And I am more impressed with how quickly animals fall than what the wound channel looks like, especially the tail end of the wound channel.

I like it!

Some more pics of it.





Scope is a Leupold 1-4x.

Hey John
Your notes would be a very welcome read for me.

When I was CEO of Cast Performance I used to dedicate a LOT of time to viewing detail from many hunters from all over the world, and if I can get good notes on kills with ANY bullets on ANY game I like to read them. That's a good way to build an knowledge base of the average performance of bullets at given velocities on different types of game.

You can't do a valid comparison of A against B unless you know a lot about B.

So if you have them printed up, or in a file that could be e-mailed, would it be too much to ask for you to let me read them?
I hope to hear from you soon.
Steve

I believe the whole secret is the case length fits standard
30-06 length actions. Less flex, less weight to carry. Ultra light is the current trend and long range accuracy is always the trend. The 33 Nosler has them both with Nosler brass and bullets. Nosler makes standard weight rifles but the new conversions like my Tikka T3 re barreled to 33 Nosler is what will keep this cartridge going. The other 338s are established.

Yes, but any better than the 338 Win Mag? Plus, the 338 Win Mag is available almost anywhere.

.

that's a negative selling point in my opinion!
especially in hot weather !

Shot a bull with it in Utah this year using the 225gr. E-Tip. Lots of recoil, yes. Impressive on the elk, heck yes.