Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Not Sold on the 120 NBT

A while back they came out with this really nice round for shooting deer sized game at close range....like 10 and 80 yards. Its called a 30-30. Bullet selection is not critical but I shoot 150 grain in mine cause speed kills.

You won't blow the front half of your critter away with one of these guaranteed!

After 200 or so deer shot with BT's (270 and 260), I still use the bullet and am getting good results. Messy at times, but always deadly. Most of the deer were taken with the 130 gr in the 270. Mostly hunt with the 260 for the last couple of years and used the 120 gr and then switched to the 100 gr BT. The 120 is a better killer on deer and pigs, but I like the higher MV of the 100, which works just fine too. In all cases, I load em hot, and in most all cases I shoot em behind the shoulder. I do hope that all you BT haters will quit buying them, since finding the 260 bullets isn't that easy lately. You will probably find happiness with the Sierra Gamekings. Great bullet and relatively inexpensive.

I think 60 head is prolly enough to make a fair judgement.......................just sayin'.

MM

JG has an impressive collection of fine, dead critters collected with his 7RM and 160 NAB's.

http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/8852001/1

Great info. I agree with DF. Being a loony its great to hear what others are experiencing.

I do like BT's if kept below 3000FPS impact speed. The holes are pretty good most of the time. Haven't had much trouble with penetration, but I run the heavier end of the bullets for the caliber as well.

Sure. Always have because, as a Partition shooter, it gets pricey just shooting those (although I do burn up a fair number). Just a question of confirming the same POI for the cheaper bullets and out to normal game ranges it usually works out.

For example,I shoot the 150 BT and 150 NPT from the 7 Rem Mag to 600 yards and there is slightly more drop for the Partition at that distance(about the width of a hand)...but any closer there is not enough difference to be concerned about if any.

Interesting how prejudices are dictated by personal experience.

Here's a coues buck I shot at 285, 150gr partition from a 270. I'd killed a lot of bucks with that 270 and 130gr handloaded interlocks. Anyway, my son in law had an elk tag and liked the 270 best of all my guns, so I bought a box of factory partitions, he killed his first BG animal. Couple days later I was backpacking in for coues and just took the rest of the box instead of resighting.

The black circle is the off side and where the partition was under the skin, I should have thought to save it, but it was the back half.

The next buck I shot with a 7mm08 and 120gr NBT going 3080 about the same distance. Again the off side.

Both combos have killed elk and deer, I've never recovered a BT... and shouldn't recover a PT in a coues.

Never had a problem with BTs in 25-06, 270, or 7-08. Shot several pronghorn last year with the 7-08 and 120 BTs with no problem. This past Sunday I put a 140 grain BT from my 280AI through the right shoulder and exit from the left rib of an antelope buck at 325 yards. Did loose some shoulder meat, but I expected that with my placement selection. I could have waited a bit for a more broadside presentation, but I was having a hard time finding clear view through the weeds in the fence line.

Did have some excessive meat damage from the20 from my 7-08 a couple of years ago. Sometimes things just don't happen as planned!

Have also used lots of Barnes TSX/TTSX and Nosler partitions with sometimes similar conflicting results. Those times didn't happen as planned either.

Gotta be honest with you good folks.......when I'm staring through my scope at a 190" muley buck, I'm seldom thinking of how much meat I'm fixin' to ruin.

For sure...

DF

krp: Yeah who knows why that 150 Partition stopped? The 130 NPT has not been easy to recover in bucks 2-3 times the size of your Coues.

But odd stuff happens now and then and even the toughest expanding bullets won't always exit.

Which is why I get a kick out of anecdotes that start with "I shot a deer once"......or better yet, "my brother-in-law....."

Not aimed at anyone in particular.

Whether or not a bullet exits doesn't concern me much. Moreover I don't consider it much of a test of the bullet, although I find some exit more reliably than others.

An animal on the ground is better than the best blood trail.

"An animal on the ground is better than the best blood trail."

No kidding...

DF

Yep, both deer stumbled and were dead, end of story for me. I didn't start a thread about how a bullet didn't do what it was supposed to and I should have used XYZ bullet because they are known to be consistent, the deer were dead... just sharing some irony.

Bloodshot meat is also inconsistent as far as bullet goes and really depends on how much bone is grenaded into the meat.

My 06 with first the original 165gr X then TSXs has killed around 30 elk, about as many as the rest of my guns combined. A few have had extensive bloodshot and some just a little breaking the same bones. And usually it looks worse than it is, butchering my own there's not much meat waste after trimming.

Bloody pictures don't scare me off a known performer.

Kent

Yeah, a sample of one isn't much to go on, although I can understand why it'll make someone nervous if they have bad or unexpected experience first time out. I loaded some Interlocks for a .270 once,130's or 140's can't say for sure, and loaned it to a buddy. Watched him shoot a small whitetail buck with it, behind the shoulder at about 100yds. Bullet did ok, dropped him where he stood but I found fragments scattered all over, never made the off side. I was a little surprised, having read that it was a pretty tough bullet. Might have shot the next 50 with full penetration, who knows. Enough guys have killed enough game with it that its obviously a pretty good bullet, sometimes shixt just happens.

Statistically, a sample of one is meaningless.

But, to the one with that sample, it can leave a lasting impression, affecting future bullet choices...

And who's to say our choices aren't tainted somewhat or even totally by perceived notions...

Like in Hollywood, when myth veers from fact, print the myth...

DF

And the more different bullets you shoot, you realize there isn't consistency, just tendencies, not consistencies.

Kent

Yeah, tendencies and perceived notions rule...

DF