Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting 30 Cal. Nosler Partitions

I've never used Nosler Partitions. For whitetail deer at distances under 100 yards is there any practical difference between the 150 gr., 165 gr., and 180 gr. when used in 300 Savage, 308 Winchester, and .30-'06? From my understanding of the bullet design the wouldn't be, but maybe I'm missing something.

For whitetails at distances less than 100yds. I have never felt the need for other than a Hornady or Sierra bullet, They have performed well enough for me to be satisfied with them, they have always grouped well on target and never failed to cleanly harvest deer in .257 Roberts, .308, .30-06, .338 Magnum and .35 Whelen.

The Nosler Partition is a prover bullet many others are compared too.
With the right powder combination you should be fine with either the Partition or the Ballistic Tip .
Of course you will need to test a few loads for accuracy in your particular rifle .
Soup

I like 150's for deer but the 165 or 180 will do as well. I favored 165's for many years. You do not need a NP for deer but they certainly will do the trick. I have had excellent luck with the lowly 150 PSP Corelokt on deer size game.

For deer, the 150gr Partition is my choice.

Any of them would be fine but a cup and core design would likely be just as good.


Okie John

I have a long history of using cup and core, and am satisfied with them. I'm just thinking about what the differences might be between those weights at 2600 - 2900 mv.

Don't think the deer will notice any difference, dead is dead. Put the money saved towards hunting trips, licenses, guns & gear. I have tried Ballistic Tips and Partitions, they didn't exhibit enough advantage/improvement over Hornady or Sierra bullets in my experience.

Partitions are way overkill for deer at 100 yds. They'll handily kill a deer, yes, but there's no need to spend that kind of money. Any standard bullet will work just as well, Speer, Sierras, Hornadys, etc. You won't be able to tell the difference.

The NP is made in 2 parts, an expandable tip and a heavy base for penetration. By the time the tip is finished doing it's job, the bullet is out the other side. The extra penetration isn't needed.

About the only thing you will gain with the increasing weight is a proportional increase in penetration. Which as has been pointed out you really don't need for whitetail.

Oh ! One more thing...you also gain a lighter wallet to lug around. The brand cup and core projectiles will do just fine !

Bullet in, bullet out. /shrug...premium or not, .30's work just fine.

My last Texas whitetail dropped to the cheapest Federal blue box 150gr. cup & core. A 180 partition would have done the same. Shoot 'em if you got 'em...or not.

it's all good, i won't judge.

If you use a 30, and nothing bigger than '06, and 150 gr or heavier cup and core, the only way to have a
A bullet failure might be a 30-30 bullet in the '06 at maximum velocity.
These are the cartridges that hit the targeted veloctites the bullet designers have in mind.


Honestly, I have only used partitions on deer from 7mm and 300 mags.
In both cases, I have seen faster kills using Ballistic Tips than Partitions.
Small sample, maybe 8-10 deer. And no problems, just time and distance until dead.


Unless you are hunting the huge northern deer,
Partitions are wasting your money.

If you think I'm biased, read Sig line.

I usually use either partition or accubond in the 270 that is for deer hunting.

This year I decided to go cheap and bought Federal Blue Box 130 grain ammo. It certainly got the job
done. However, in the three deer I shot, the blue box ammo did not shoot through the deer. I was very
surprised that any ammo did not penetrate fully on a deer but it did not. Two of the three not passing
though says it is the bullet.

A while back, a liberal member of the Fire used the term 'over penetration'. It became a byword here for a while. I suppose that a having a bullet penetrate another 200 yards of air after it exits a deer could an example of that and the NP will certainly do it.

I've killed a lot of deer with different bullets,but what I like the best in the 30cal is the 165 or 168gr Nosler Ballistic Tip.The new version ballistic tips have a good stout jacket.They create a very good wound channel but not excessive bloodshot meat damage.I have more consistant DRT kills with this bullet than any bullet I've used in the 30cal and I have not recovered one yet.

If you are set on using the Partitions ,see if Shooter's Pro Shop has any over runs or blemish . If they do, ,you can get them about the same price as any C&C.

I paid $13.50 a box of 50 for some 180 gr last year. That is cheaper than Hornady or Sierras.

Lighter bullets like the150's out of an .06 or .308, you might not want the meat waste of using C&C

⬆️ What he said.

I've got a bunch of .308 150s on hand. Some are Partition Gold I paid about $8 a box for on closeout from Graf's, the rest are overruns I got from SPS for $19.95. No need to spend big money, nor to shoot cheap bullets unless you just want to or don't want to wait for a deal.

150s over 46gr of H4895 is my standard '06 deer load. It's been accurate in three rifles, and kills well, just like .270 160s, 120gr .25s, and 100gr .243s.

A pattern is beginning to form🤔

No flies on the 165gr BTs either. May boil down to what your rifle prefers.

Early on I thought that the Nosler Partition was the be all end all for a hunting bullet and killed lots of deer with a .300 WM, 7mm RM, .308 and 7mm-08 all using NP's. Sure there was always a dead deer and a couple of elk at the end of the trail, but fading light and minimal blood trails from that front half of the bullet completely folded back on itself had me switching to standard Core-Lokts, Interlocks and SST's. My biggest buck took a .308 165 Interlock broadside and the blood trail was amazing starting only a few yards from where the deer stood. The last one with an SST was a DRT and that never happened with a NP. I had too many where did he go moments with nothing but scuffed leaves or a direction to go to find the animal for me to ever use another NP on a deer. NP's are still a good bullet, just not a great one for just deer.

Nosler Partitons have always been a great bullet for myself and my family

I doubt you'll see much difference between them, exit holes and dead deer. I've shot a few with 180 NPT's from a .308, yeah more than necessary for a 200 lb deer, but they shot really well in the rifle I was using at the time and no victims escaped.