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300g - Norma Oryx
350g - Woodleigh

If you use Nosler Partitions you won’t be sorry. I’ve never heard or read a reliable recounting of a failure with Partitions. If someone doesn’t like them, I believe that they see a possible theoretical advantage to a different bullet design. But their dislike has zero to do with experience.

Another anecdotal experience with the Partition. .375 300gr impacting at about 2,600fps. Dropped this guy instantly in his tracks. Went through ribs on both sides and destroyed everything in between. No recovered bullet because it exited and just kept going onward to the horizon.



On another note, what do you do after you brain-shoot a hippo mostly submerged in water? I don't know much about hippo hunting, but that must be a chore going forward to retrieve the beast.

Bullet talk is the most interesting component of critter killing to me. Beautiful and highly accurate rifles are wonderful to gaze upon and own, but the bullet and where it is put is the decider for making gut piles!

My Dad and many of his friends that rolled their own liked the Nosler Partition and the old factory Core-Lokt for their Alaskan hunts. Calibers were mostly the 30-06, .270 Win., 300 H&H, converted Springfield's made into .308 Norma Mag. and a few of the resident bear guides had the old Mod. 70 .375 for Kodiak and the Alaska Peninsula. My Dad was the odd man out and all he used was his beloved old Mod. 70 in .264 Win. with the 140 grain Partition and a bunch of surplus H4831 that he dumped in with one of those little Lee measuring cups.

I never heard a bad word about the Nosler Partition from the 60's until I first started hearing and reading negative comments about the Partition back in the early 90's. During the period when Nosler quit offering the Partition for the .375 H&H a guy I knew paid 300 bucks for two boxes of 300 grain Partitions for his .375 H&H. A mere 3 bucks a bullet!

I remember reading about Bill Jordan using his 378-338 KT and 250 grain Partitions on Cape Buffalo. I would think the big case and big critter would test about any expanding bullet. I loaded the 250 grain semi spitzer for my .338 and switched to the spitzer version when it showed up. The 30-06 got the 200 grain Partition and between the two of them I knew I had the best load I could get for them in Alaska. The three 250 grainers I recovered lost 1/3 of their weight and killed quickly, never recovered a 200 grainer from the 30-06.

Some time in the late 80's articles by Ross Seyfried and professional Australian hunter Bob Penfield convinced me to try the Barnes X bullets. That was the end of me using other bullets for hunting in Alaska. I used the original X bullet, the pretty blue coated ones, the Tripple Shocks and eventually settled on the TTSX version in lighter weights for the .338 and 30-06. I can think of no animal I have ever killed with the X bullet that the Nosler Partition would not of killed. So here I was, close to 40 years old and having good success with my Partition loads, as were my friends, when a couple of articles by a couple of writers influenced me enough to quit using bullets that worked just fine for me, my Dad and our friends for many years.

I even read some stuff by Alaskan guides complaining about the Partition. About all I got to say about that is, Alaskan guides come in all sorts of sizes, shapes and flavors, some are very good and some are border line lousy and some belong in jail. Still, many believe what they say is Gospel and I suspect it is even more so for African Professional Hunters.

On another note, what do you do after you brain-shoot a hippo mostly submerged in water? I don't know much about hippo hunting, but that must be a chore going forward to retrieve the beast.

They sink after the shot and after a few hours the gasses in the gut expand and float them to the surface. Have to watch out for crocs when getting as line on them though.

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I'm still waiting to be disappointed by ANY Partition, I'll be waiting to be disappointed in Africa and Alaska too.

Alaska and Africa. Go gunner...

Sounds great. Wifey going too?

DF

I should have said when I can get around to getting back DF, had I got a leopard tag, I'd have had wifey in Moz. chasing buffalo in the long grass right now, would have got too see first hand how the 500 gr Partition leaving at 2150 from an old FN Safari 458 WM would have worked, I have a BRNO mauser in 416 Taylor nearly as ugly as Phils old ugly 458 that throws 400 gr Partitions to 2400, would love to use that rifle on the great bears in Alaska someday.

Gotcha.

Thought you were about to get on the plane...

DF

Partitions are the good answer to hunting bullets.


You may be able to do better.
You definitely can do worse.
You'll always do well.

I wish, buddy, I wish!

My outfitter (two safaris) preferred A Frames or Barnes TTSX/Solids. He didn't hesitate a second before answering the question.

Doesn't Woodligh make a 300 RN?

John has been all over me to load A-Frames for my Buffalo hunt in August. He mentioned Woodleigh as a second choice (I know he has PH'd for Geoff McDonald and has used the Woodleigh bullets himself over the years, but I think he's using A-Frames now in his .470).

I have North Fork, A-Frame and Woodleigh 400gr .410 on the bench and will probably take all three. I will hunt with the A-Frames but use the NF and Woodleigh for insurance shots, for science . Pretty sure all three will work!

Here are two bullets from my .416 Rigby. The Barnes solid was bent slightly along it's longitudinal axis. My guess is that the rear of the bullet was still moving when the front was stopped.

My PH had some negative experiences with Nosler Partitions on large and dangerous game so he specifically asked all of his hunters to avoid using them on his safaris. Not an issue for me as I didn't use them.

Good bud shot this cape buffalo in Zim with his .416 Rigby RSM. His PH carried a push feed M-70 in .416 Rem. That's right, push feed. He thought the Ruger was too heavy.

Here's the recovered 400 gr. TSX and the 41" buff. One shot did the trick, although they had to track him.

DF

I used a 400 gr Swift A-Frame, and a .416 Rigby, for a RSA buffalo in 2015. One shot put him on the ground and second one paid the insurance.

Perfect performance.

donsm70

On my recent trip to Namibia my buddies and I killed about 50 head of game. Other than a duiker and wildcat I killed with a 22LR and an Eland with my 458, I killed the rest with my 300H&H. I took both 150 grain Partition Golds and 150 TSX. Why so light? The shoot well in my rifle and exit anyway so why blow a bigger bullet out the back side.

My buddies used 168 TSX and LRX in their 300s.

The Partitions killed noticeably faster than the monolithic bullets. EVERY TSX and LRX recovered had NO petalsl- just a solid shank.

We had 4 PHs in camp. The only comment about bullets I heard was that for culling buffalo, the TSX in 375 was the best medicine their was. These guys have culling contracts and shoot hundreds of buffalo every year. I thought that was a good endorsement.

I loaded both 450 grain TSX and A-frames for my 458 Lott. They printed the same POI and shot 3/4" groups at 50 yards. I killed my Eland with an A-frame. Dropped him where he stood.

I would use Partitions for pretty much anything if they shot well enough. Simple as that.

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