Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Nosler .270 160 gr.

I have as well, and with complete penetration, even on our big mountain caribou bulls, which are the size of mature elk! That's exactly what they are designed to do.

Actually, I have seen a few 130s go through moose, too.

Ted

BR: Well, that is something I have NOT seen......ever. Not that I doubt you but just have never run into it regardless of distance...with any Partition.

I had the same thing happen with a Barnes.....

[quote=Big_Redhead

I have blown 130gr Nosler partitions to shreads on broadside chest shots on whitetail deer with a 270 Winchester. I found nothing larger than little flecks of lead and jacket metal.
[/quote] No exit on the animal either?

I was wondering the same thing, also noticed the plural part

Dober

Someone can run the numbers on 130's, 40's, 50's and 160's. I don't think you will find any significant difference in paper ft. lbs. of energy. A reasonable approach might be to pick one or two versions that your rifle likes and leave it at that.
Fire extinguisher handy.

And that's BS!

I'm skeptical and I don't mind saying so.

The 130 Partitions below were fired from a 270 Win into a close-range bull elk. Both were recovered on the opposite side (shoulder) under the hide. The Partition on the left is the only Partition I've ever recovered that was what I might consider less than stellar even though it was right next to the one that performed as advertised. The one on the left appeared to have tumbled and opened from both ends and just the jacket was left, but it didn't lack in penetration and darn sure was bigger than just flecks of jacket material.

Cool Nosler photo. The marketing types would call that dual expansion. I have suspected the core loss (judging by the wound channel) but never recovered one, the jacket just kept going. If anything the Nosler's were even more destructive when they tumbled.

It was two shots at the same buck. The range was less than 75 yards, and my loads were quite warm back in those days (mid-'80s). Both landed in the ribcage close behind the shoulder about two inches apart as evidenced by the entrance wounds. There were no exit holes. At the first shot the buck started to run, but stopped after 10-20 yards because he saw me racking the second round in the chamber and may have heard the "clack-clack" of the bolt on my M70 XTR featherweight. At the second shot he took off and ran toward the road about 150 yards, collapsing in the ditch (handy). Yes, the deer died, and I did not say the words "bullet failure" in my post. The insides of the deer were mush, but I didn't find any bullets, only fragments. Maybe they were there and I just didn't find them, but they didn't exit.

I can't and wouldn't say this would happen with "any" partition, but on that day, with those 130/270 partitions in that load, that is exactly what happened. I don't remember the exact load under those partitions that day, but I do remember that in those days I loaded 61.5gr of W785 or 60gr IMR4831 under other 130 grain bullets with CCI magnum primers. Both loads were above book max and I do not recommend anyone use them.

Lonny,
Definitely something unusual happened to that bullet on the left. Somehow the base contacted something with enough force to squirt the base lead out the base - hence the little petals. The front half looks like it would have been normal except something pushed the bullet off center. My thought is that the bullet came in contact with some woody vegetation before entering the animal. Others may differ.

Big Redhead,
Your experience isn't exactly unique, it usually takes a large magnum to do it and high impact velocities. I'm surprised the 270Win achieved it. Solution is usually to up the projectile weight and hence reduce the speed. The base is usually in the animal, somewhere, but fails to keep tracking in a straight line.
Cheers...
Con

The 270 Win and the Nosler 130 gr Partition will killed any Elk you shoot as long as you shoot him where he lives

BR: Well sounds to me like they were both in the animal nd you just did not bump into them in the butchering process.....I HAVE seen that,which is why I have some recovered 130 270's here.On shots through the chest, into offside bone and heavier muscles of shoulder meat, they will sometimes be stopped....especially at "woods" ranges,where impact velocity is high.

OTOH, last year I kiled a buck on the run at about 70 yards....snapped the spine behind the shoulder and he was killed instantly.....the 130 partition exited....I could ditto that on more animals than those that did not exiit, which is why I only have a few recovered bullets.


Lony, that looks like a tumble for sure.....same thing happened to me with a 160 7mm.

Scott how the hell did you blow up and X?

Lots of little shreds of lead though...

Maybe 15 years ago I shot a mule deer buck in the chest as he faced me in lodgepole timber. The range was 30 yards, the bullet a 140-grain Nosler Partition from a 7x57, started at 2900 fps.

The buck dropped right there, as they often do when the bullet hits the little dimple at the base of the neck. The bullet didn't exit so I looked for it a little while doing the field-dressing. I didn't find it, but did trace it's path through the diaphragm and paunch, so assumed it was left on the mountain in the gut-pile.

About a year later I was eating one of the buck's round steaks and bit into something hard. This turned out to be a perfectly expanded 7mm Nosler Partition that somehow had slipped between two knife-slices when we butchered the buck. (Well, some people would claim the bullet wasn't perfect, since it "failed" when the front core blew off, but I have ALMOST given up explaining that no, that's the way they're designed to act.)

About 3-4 years ago I killed a 6-point bull elk with a 180-grain Tipped Trophy Bonded from a .30-06 factory load. The bull was angling away at 250 yards and I put the bullet in the middle of the ribs on the right side, so the bullet would angle toward the left shoulder. The bull stood there stunned for a little bit, then some other elk that had been in the timber went running by and he tried to go with with them. "Tried" is definitely the word, since he only got 20 feet, then stopped again, this time broadside, and I shot him again behind the shoulders and he dropped.

The second bullet exited, but the first didn't. As with the deer, my wife and I butchered the bull ourselves, but never could find the bullet, despite looking hard. I doubt that it blew up, since the rear 2/3 of a Trophy Bonded is solid gilding metal.

So, one bullet I couldn't find was discovered a year later, and another was never found, despite the fact that I'm sure it didn't disintegrate. Not finding a bullet doesn't prove it wasn't there, and even finding fragments from a Nosler Partition doesn't prove it disinegrated, since the front third is designed to disinegrate. But without finding anything, we never actually know what happened.

John, I would respectfully submit that if you had shot that deer broadside, that Nosler would have "penciled on through" and therefore failed.....

Of course! I've seen it many times....

Damn Noslers anyway.....they always do that.....