Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 180 gr. Federal Throphy bonded vs the 180 gr. Nosler Partition

At 30'06 velocities, how do these compare as to penetration and expansion ? Does the TB spread wider like some bonded bullets do ? Does it open well at extended ranges ? E

E, from what I've seen the TB will open wider. In theory the Partition should penetrate a bit more, but I've never tested them side by side to know for sure. I do know the 30-06 and 180 Partitions go together like peas and carrots.

I have just under 1,000 180 Partitions on hand which might let you know what I think of the bullet...

Thanks Brad. I am familar with the Partition in .243, (95-100 grs.), and the 7mm (140-160 gr.). You're right. They work well.
I've only used two TB's. Both on the same buck. Seemed to open like an X or a TSX. But that was really too small a sample. E

The following is more of an opinion as I don't kill enough animals or do enough bullet testing to prove it with much certainty. I have killed at least three times as many animals with a Partition than a Bearclaw if that matters.

The wound channels with the Bearclaws are slightly wider than the Partition.

As to penetration, I believe the Bearclaw penetrates better as I have only kept one bullet in an animal I have shot using them and have found severl Partitions.

The Partiton seems to kill deer slightly faster while the Bearclaw has worked somewhat faster on elk.

Oddly, the bearclaws open extremely well on light game like coyotes and badgers.

My experience with the TBBCs is limited to their .22 cal 55 grainer...shot a pile of deer with them...full penetration, worked great.
The NPT is something Ive shot a LOT of in various weights and calibers..it is one of the few sure bets in life. It ALWAYS works...period-amundo.It is the best compromise between penetration and weight retention....

Likewise, the NPT is easier to find and in more variety...

I've yet to find a hunting bullet I prefer over the Nosler Partition. YMMV.

Gotta agree with ingwe.

I've used the 55 TB a fair bit on lopes/yotes and deer. It was effective and realitively fur friendly..grin

Dober

I have shot a few animals from deer to elk with Trophy Bondeds in all their versions, from Jack Carter's original to the present Tipped TB with the grooves and nickel plating.

They all expand wider than Partitions, but in my experience the Federal version is an improvement over the original, because it expands to a flatter front, instead of the ball that Jack's version often ended up in. The flatter front tends to cut a bigger hole and kill quicker than the older version.

The latest, grooved version does the same thing inside animals, but in some rifles is more accurate due to the grooves.

In my tests in media, penetration is about the same as a Partition of the same weight, due to the wider expansion of the TB. Based on experience with other tipped bullets, my guess is that the present plastic-tipped version would expand a little more reliably at longer ranges, but I've never shot an animal beyond 250 yards with any of them.

How about if you comp them to a SAF?

Dober

My experience is much as above although none were in a 30-06.

In a 375, I find the TBBC penetrates further and leaves a big wound channel. Seldom recover a TBBC.....may penetrate further than TSX even.

I wish I had a bunch of 55 TBBC, .224 but the few around are grossly overpriced.

Mark,

In my tests the A-Frame and Partition also penetrate about the same, when comparing the same bullets at the same velocities. Again, it's because the AF retains a wider mushroom.

This also about what I've seen in game, with one exception when a particular batch of AF's came apart badly. That was apparently an anomaly due to a manufacturing defect, because I've never seen it before or since.

U been able to get the AF's to shoot well? They shoot well in my 338/06 and did in a 25/06 I had. And my 340 liked em but haven't done much with them for years.

Thx
Dober

Yeah, usually they shoot pretty well. They also don't seem to be as touchy as Scirocco II's.

Thanks guys. Much appreciate the information. E

I bought some of the Federal High Energy 180 grain TB bullets in .30-06 when they first came out. I was shooting them out of a 27" barreled custom Model 70. Velocity was 3,030 fps. average! YES folks, that trounces every factory .300 Win Mag. ammo I have ever chronographed. Groups hovered around an inch, or a bit more.

My first victim was a big Wyoming Shiras moose. First shot at 175 yards centered the shoulder. He was in full rut and had two cows with him. He jumped in the air and the second bullet hit a couple of inches above the first. I wanted to "try" to recover a couple of bullets, since they were new. I put 4 bullets in that bull in less than 30 seconds. He was definitely dead on the first one and was tipping over when the 4th one hit him. All 4 bullets were clustered in a circle about the size of a soft ball in the front shoulder. Lots of bone was hit and I only recovered one bullet, just under the skin on the off side. It was a text book mushroom and weighed 172 grains. The other three exited with nickel sized exit holes. The innards were completely scrambled and both shoulders were broken.

My buddy took the same bullets to Africa, although they were 160 grain and 7mm magnum. He shot zebra, wildebeest, kudu, tsesebee, impala, baboon and a bunch of other critters with the bullet. He recovered one out of the zebra (broadside shoulder shot), one out of the wildebeest (sharp quartering away) and one out of an impala ram (broadside shoulder shot). All were text book mushrooms. The interesting bullet was the impala. He found the bullet laying on top of the sand where the impala was standing when he shot. It had exited, just barely and fell out on the ground.

The PH wasn't a 7mm fan at all and wanted him to bring "an African rifle". By the end of the trip, the PH was REALLY impressed with the 7mm magnum and TB bullets. He was jabbering and calling all his other PH friends about this "new" bullet.

The clients in the past had brought typical cup and core bullets factory loaded in the 7mm and penetration REALLY suffered. That was why he was down on the 7mm. It wasn't the caliber, but the bullets that were the problem.

We have killed a few elk with this load as well with perfect results. With the new plastic tip, they are even better.

Having shot a few partitions at elk, I find the wound channels in critters MUCH smaller and less traumatic than the TB bullets. The partitions have penetrated "a little" better, but only because once the front nose lead blows off, they go through like a semi wad cutter. Out of the 4 elk shot with .270, .30-06 and 7mm mags., I have not been impressed at all with partitions. Sure they died, some took some tracking, which I never did with ballistic tips or TB bullets. They all went quite a ways before tipping over. I will take the TB bullets 3-1 over the partitions. They retain their weight, crunch bone and still look fabulous. I like what they do to critters. Flinch

Flinch,

I had similar results from the High Energy 180 Trophy Bonded .30-06 load from Federal. It chronographed around 2940 from the 24" barrel of my NULA .30-06 and grouped under 1-1/2", plenty good for most elk hunting.

However, my experience with Nosler Partitions on elk (and other big game) has been very different from yours. My wife and I have shot around 10 elk with Partitions from 150-grain .270 to 200-grain .30. So far none have gone more than 45 yards before falling, and most much less.

We have also taken two moose with Partitions, and they haven't gone that far. In fact the quickest kill I've seen from a lung shot on a bull moose was on the average Shiras bull my wife took with a 150-grain from her .270 Winchester. The bull was angling away, and Eileen put the bullet in the rear of the rig-cage. He took a step and folded up. We found the bullet in the far shoulder.

I shot a big bull in British Columbia with a 286-grain 9.3mm Partition, and he stumbled a very short way before falling and rolling downhill. The bullet didn't tear a huge hole, but he'd fallen by the time I got the second round in the chamber, and I'm pretty quick with a bolt.

M D - Maybe I know, but I can't remember, Who makes the trophy bonded bullet FOR Federal.

If we can't buy them AS components, what other bullet would be comparable?

THANKS Jerry

I'm not sure.

The first Trophy Bonded bullets for Federal factory ammo were made by Jack Carter, but after a short white Federal started making them, with some changes from the original. Federal was making them in Anoka when I visited their factory 15 years ago. Possibly Speer makes them now, since they're part of the same overall company, but I visited the Speer factory a couple of years ago and never heard or saw any indication of that possibility.

This has pretty much been my experience as well with the Partition,although I have on occaission also seen what Flinch is talking about;and it has mostly happened with some heavier Partitions which sometimes behave "tough" on shots where just ribs and lungs are hit;and I've seen it mostly with 160 gr 7mm's on deer sized game,and even 180 gr 30 cal on deer and elk....where they take a broadside through the lungs and skeedadle a ways.....never far really and results are frequently a lot different when they are placed on bone somewhere along the way......but IME this has been more the exception than the rule and I have not had a problem finding anything;I chalk it up to the smaller frontal area of the expanded Partition.......mostly I have had good luck killing animals with Partitions pretty much where they stood...

But this is puzzling sometimes as I have had coyotes nearly blown in two from various Partitions in different calibers...so you know you're getting some expansion there alright....

OTOH and IME the 140 from a 7 mag and 130 270's tend to be fast killers from what I've seen on deer sized stuff.Their easy expansion and deep penetration suits me well enough that they are standard fare in a 270 or 7mm for me.

I have not gotten to Aframes or TBBC's and likely won't because I laid in a lifetime supply of Bitterroots (the bullet that TBBC's and Aframes were invented to emulate)years ago;but sounds like they are much the same and seem to expand to a pretty broad frontal area and I have seen the kind of "crunch" Flinch is talking about....especially from magnum hulls and high velocity....they make a mess due to early expansion to a broad frontal area, and break everything between the holes, penetrate well, although at closer distances you might recover them,and at longer distance where velocity has fallen off,they will exit.....in any event they have given me a higher percentage of quick kills than anything else.Friends who have used the Aframe and BBC in Africa report very good results with both,and it seems they are peas in a pod.

IME these heavy jacketed bonded core bullets seem to like all the velocity you can give them; the more the merrier far as they are concerned,which is why I go no heavier than 130 in 270 or 140 on a 280....and like the heavier one's in a magnum hull, myself.

Bob,

Partitions normally blow a big crater for several inches beyond the entrance hole, where the front half of the bullet has expanded violently, and then cut a narrow channel after that, where the bullet continues penetrating with its relatively narrow mushroom.

This "expansion" crater tends to be bigger with higher velocity, the reason lighter Partitions tend to kill deer-sized game quicker. Over the years I've noticed, for instance, that the 100-grain Partition tends to kill quicker than heavier bullets in .25 caliber rifles, though the 115 is no slouch either in the bigger .25's. Same deal with the 130's and 150's in the .270, 140's and 160's in the 7mm's, and 165's versus 180's and 200's in the .30's.

The same thing applies to the TSX and E-Tips, except more so. Monolithics kill much quicker when they have some zip to 'em.

These days, however, I tend to use more violently expanding bullets for deer-sized game, simply because they kill quicker, especially the Berger VLD and Nosler Ballistic Tip. The Ballistic Tip is a great deer bullet, and many are also good on bigger games, as Flinch noted.

I'm also using more bonded bullets on bigger game, for the same reason. So far my two favorites are the AccuBond and Norma Oryx.

I'm starting to come to the conclusion that the AccuBond may be even better than the Partition, since it produces the same big initial crater, but typically retains a larger mushroom, so the rest of the wound channel is wider. It also works very well at a wide variety of velocities, unlike the monolithics. The 250-grain 9.3 AB, for instance, works great at around 2650 fps, whether on big stuff close up or deer-sized game at 300+ yards.

The Oryx, as I've mentioned before, works a lot like the Bitterroot Bonded Core, opening up widely while retaining most of its weight. It makes a big hole, and while it may not penetrate as deeply as a monolithic or Partition, it penetrates plenty.