Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting .300 Winchester Bullets

I can afford to use any bullet I want and still use the 180gr Nosler BT out of my 300 magnums. You can spend alot more money only to lose accuracy and the ability to kill quickly....

In my opinion, If you keep pushing those bullets hard they will eventually let you down. Someday you'll find yourself chasing a elk or big body deer around with a BT that just didn't get it done.

Dink

180 partition in 300 wtby was way softer than I figured it should be. JB says in the mags you run 200 partitions instead. Lots of difference evidently.

But I just moved on up to the top, to Barnes and don't worry about much anymore.

What one can afford and what one thinks about bullets and will they work in the worst case scenario, not 20 of the best case ones in a row, are totally different things.

But its always the shooters choice as to how much risk they take.

Never heard anyone say that a 180 ballistic tip was tougher than a 180 partition and hte performance i've seen from 180 partitions on Nilgai, a fairly similar size animal if not possibly tougher, with somewhat tougher hide, says I would not risk a 180 ballistic or partition.

Especially when I've had 2 deer stop 180 partitions. One with a measly neck shot into an appx 225 pound whitetail. When a neck stops a bullet it makes me VERY nervous.

Rost, I am no Partition fanboy, but the fact remains that bullet has killed millions of critters big and small. Allan Day even took a cape buffalo with a 180 partition out of a 300 win mag iirc.
I might also say your opinion on bullet performance is a bit fubar, given you get off on tracking critters..

The same could be said for any bullet. Mechanical things fail from time to time.

Sure it could. But if 180 grain BT blows up on elks shoulder joint you will be cussing yourself not choosing a better bullet. If the same thing happens with a partition or TTSX you chose the best bullet you could have.

Dink

Have you shot an elk in the shoulder joint with a 180 BT? I have and from a 300 Ultra at close range. The bullet exploded the shoulder bone and was found on the opposite side shoulder under the hide. No Barnes 100 yard dash either.

I don't doubt there are tougher 180 gr 30 cal bullets than the 180 gr NPT out there today(Banes among them),since the bullet was always designed to be "soft" in the front to expand even at low velocity and longish range. IIRC it has less bullet behind the partition than a 200 gr does,so the 200 gr in general will penetrate somewhat deeper.

I've used both from the 300 Win Mag and the 300 Weatherby. One bull, killed at 450-500 yards,caught a 180 placed on the shoulder joint;he collapsed to the shot,and the bullet was recovered against the hide just forward of the off side ham. Another at about the same distance fell to the shot with his head up...a second bullet to the neck broke it,and exited opposite the entrance.

Another at about 250 yards had two blow out the chest on pure lung shots.Sometimes you will recover a 180 Partition and sometimes you won't...seems to depend on impact velocity and what you hit.

I have been on site when a medium sized brown bear was killed with a 300 Weatherby and 180 NPT,and he was a pretty dead bear...like "right now".

I have driven the 200 gr NPT from just forward of the haunch all the way to the off shoulder, breaking it,and exiting....that seems like a lot of penetration for an expanding bullet.

A pal showed me a pair of 200 gr AB's fired from a 300 Weatherby at 350 yards,and started at almost 3100 fps,recovered from a bull elk from last fall,with hits similar to what I have done with a 200 gr NPT...they had good frontal area,which I guess helped stop them, but with similar hits, I have never seen a recovered 200 gr Nosler Partition.

Based on what I have seen,I would use the 180 or 200 gr NPT on any elk hunt, anywhere without a thought to which was better....not suggesting they are "best" but IME they are thoroughly reliable game killers.

I try to pay attention to some of these penetration tests shot into media, and published here and there....one thing I notice is that Barnes and Partitions generally lead the pack for depth of penetration,or at least are at the top of the heap for expanding bullets.

On thing to keep in mind when it comes to 300 Win Mag factory loads is that not all of it will break 3000 fps from a 24" barrel with a 180 gr....this is fast but not up to full potential and not in the 300 Weatherby/RUM class ;generally I think the bullets will take those speeds and behave pretty well at the distances most of us shoot animals.

Never used a Barnes on an animal...my supply of other bullets is too deep and I may not get to them any time soon,so can't supply a head to head comparison.

So when you get about 12 inches of penetration on a Nilgai with it, and a 150ish pound whitetail can stop the bullet.... and a 225 pound ones neck can stop it, its the bullet you'd rely on in any circumstance?

I believe that says all it needs to say.

But I could care less what anyone else really uses, just like to point out what i've actually seen in bullet performance.

And yes I enjoy the trail and I"m not that lazy or worried if I have to trail one. And I can DRT one any day of the week if I really have the need to. Even with those horrible old Barnes bullets.

This one I can agree with totally. You'll never find anything 100%. Barnes has been for me so far , from about the 90s sometime IIRC< well before the TSX came out. But sooner or later...

What I have learned is some partitions are not as tough as I'd expected so be careful there.
Not all ballistic tips are like the original ones that came out that scared me with how much like a HP they were.
That Sierra game kings might be the most variable performance out there.
And that since I found barnes, and bonded came to life after that, I've found no reason to even try bonded bullets.

Frankly, for probably 90% of shots about any old bullet will do. But I've always been of the motto of be prepared, so I carry a bullet for the other 10% if I can, and that happens to work fine for the original 90% too generally speaking.

I don't see scrimping on glass, what you can't see, you can't shoot, and I don't see scrimping on the bullet itself. The rest of it can be mediocre most of the time and never have an issue with its performance.

Jeff

This is very true. The problem with it - of course- is that it is neither a rule nor do the animals or nature play by the rules even if it was. Those blue-box (or the old red) always seemed to shoot so well and work just fine mostly and will any elk on the planet if they wreck the right stuff. The femur or other stout structure isn't a "right stuff" kind of thing though and all it takes is a simple twitch or breath of air and the bullet can be entering through such spot in spite of your best effort at correct placement. Many or most situations may not make that a concern.

The bottom line is that killing big game is not the same as shooting gophers. Minute of elk and minute of gopher are two different things. Field groups and target groups are two different things when all the factors are considered. I'd grab the Partitions over those blue-box better-shooting bullets since neither is an elk-missing load and the Partition is a better bone swatter.

In the last several years I have started using some Barnes bullets. In my somewhat limited experience they shoot very well in my guns and they have killed everything I have ever pointed at with them. However, with that being said! I have been in Hunting camps all over North America. From Northern Alberta to Southern Mexico, I have paid very close attention to what the guys who do this for a living shoot and it has been my experience that the Nosler Partition is miles ahead of any other bullet and probably followed by the Hornady Interlock!

I am always amazed and amused when I travel West or North to hunt. I expect to see all of the exotic rifles, wildcat cartridges, Hubble telescopes etc. but once there I see the outfitter with his trusty old 06, 180 Nosler or Hornady bullets and either a fixed or 3x9 variable of some flavor.

Truthfully, not much has changed in the actual art of HUNTING!

You shot a deer a several years ago with the Barnes TSX that ran farther that you thought he should have.

This is the picture that you posted of the heart and lungs from that deer.



Since you missed the heart and lungs you were lucky to have recovered that deer, yet you continue to bag on Barnes. The bullet wasn't at fault, shot placement was.

That hematoma to the right of the bullet was from the bullet dumbass.
I have since used the same load with mixed results.

Ya, that's all that needs to be said. The bullet did it job obviously and saying a bullet sucks out of one instance is the kinda BS I'm talking about.
So a hunter is lazy or doesnt know how to track if he doesnt like to see game run off after the shot? You can kill them DRT, but chose not too because you like to track? Sick bastage!

The XP3 would also be my first choice in a factory load for elk. If those didn't shoot, federal trophy bonded tips would be next. Any good bullets should be just fine, including TTSX, TSX, Partition, Accubond, Scirocco, Gmx, etc. I'd shoot whichever good bullets was most accurate out of your rifle.

No hole=no hit. Now who's the dumb azz?

The miniscule damage done by that bullet is obscured by the lung and you know it. I also at the time posted a pic of the rib cage where the diaphragm can be seen and the bullet hole is clearly well in front of it.

I have shot a good bit a game with the TSX and have seen a lot more shot with them. When lungs are hit with TSX or TTSX bullets they look like a blender went through them.
I do not see any thing that indicates they were hit and neither does anyone else.