Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Empty .30cal Nosler Partition

A good friend shot a Red Deer Stag with it, standing broadside, and from 50 or 60 yds. At the well aimed shot the deer stumbled almost imperceptibly as his son, who was beside him and lloking through the binos told him, because with the recoil he did not ntice, and then lifted his head and started looking around.
He reloaded and a second shot put the stag down.
The first bullet had sort of splashed itself against the skin, penetrated about half an inch and was visible from the outside.
The front core was properly expanded with the front core gone.
Looking at if from behind showed that the rear core was not there. Inside it was clinically clean like it had never had any lead inside, as lead normally would have left some traces. This lack of weigh and SD and the bullet instantly expanding to a large frontal surface could have caused the bullet not to penetrate, I guess.
Distance was short but I find it amusing that the bullet flew straight and hit the deer exactly where my friend was aiming, a shoulder shot that would have gone throgh both scapulas, exactly like the second bullet did.

Now looking at the photos I notice that the bullet does not present the crimp at the edge with which the Partitions lock the rear lead core.

If that were the case there is the possibility that it fell off during the bullet flight?

Was that a bullet he loaded or was it "factory ammo" that uses a Nosler bullet?

Why the hell would you use a obviously defective bullet in one of your reloads?

It was factory ammo, Nick.

I'd advise Nosler. At the very least they would replace the ammo with a voucher for new ammo.

Alvaro,

VERY interesting!

Like you, I suspect the bullet somehow missed getting the rear core crimped-in during manufacturing. Or it never received the rear core at all.

Have a number of recovered Partitions in my collection, up to 400-grain .416s, and have never seen anything like that.

Very interesting. It would be good to see what Nosler has to say about it.

Happily it was a red stag, not ole griz he was taking a poke at!

wouldnt it be dark inside where the core goes from powder burning if it didnt have it from the factory

I had this "failure" of a 300gr .375 NP years ago on a big moose. This bullet slipped its core after traversing 3'+ of meat and bone on a pretty hard quartering away shot. The first shot was broadside at about 75 yards, and he ran off. As I approached where I thought he was, all of a sudden a whole bunch of antlers suddenly rose up from the willows and tried to run off! The bullet traversed from about the last rib to the neck, where I found it lodged against the spine after shearing bone. I couldn't find the core, but I can't imagine it popping out early and the bullet penetrating that much. The first bullet (shown with the "failed" one resting on it) was found partially exited on the off side of the broadside shot. The shank of the bullet was sticking out of the hide, but the mushroom caught and prevented it from exiting completely.

The only other "failure" I've had with a Partition was another 300 grainer from the same .375 when I shot a charging brown bear at 2 yards as it was jumping up at me. The bullet entered at the junction of the neck and chest, messed up some vitals, and then literally pulped 5 or 6 inches of spine. The animal folded up like a book at the shot. All I could find of the bullet was a bunch of copper and lead particles, no discernable pieces at all. Maybe
the bullet didn't go to dust, but I couldn't find anything of it. Despite my notions of what constitutes perfect performance, that 300 grainer at 2550 kept me from getting rearranged that day.

If it really didn't have the front core it seems likely that, at the time of loading the magazine, the shooter would have noticed that it was missing. The lead tip, if the core is in place, is very obvious.

Thanks, John.

First time I have ever heard much less seen this happen!

It just proves that anything made by man can fail.

I am more in your second thought that maybe it never received the secon core. As Gene270 says (thank you!), maybe if it had been empty from the beginning there would have been some powder residue?

Alvaro

MickeyD,

We are talking it hadn't had the rear core.

Yes, if it had been the front one it would have been very obvious.

Alvaro

I don't know how Partitions are made, so anyone who knows please chime in. If the rear core is inserted into the rear of the copper jacket in solid form and crimped in (instead of molten/softened lead "poured" into the rear of the jacket), a lube might be used, and that would account for a lack of lead stuck to the jacket.

Without a crimp, the rear core would leave the barrel at the same velocity as the rest of the bullet and wouldn't be subject to air drag, so it would continue in its position with the rest of the bullet until impact. I wonder if upon impact, enough resistance, particularly if something relatively solid was hit (bone or thick muscle around bone), could cause enough force to be transmitted to the bullet that the rear core could slip out, particularly if a lube was involved and no crimp was applied. If the rear core immediately exited the rear of the jacket upon impact, a large portion of the bullet's momentum and energy would be lost.

However, I'm not sure the physics would work out because I would be surprised if the shoulder of a red deer would have enough resistance to stop a 0.308" Partition, even with a loose rear core.

Did the hunter search for the rear core on the ground around where initial impact occurred?

R R,

He didn´t because his first impression was that the rear core had retreated inside, as they often do when stopped inside an animal.

It was during a later inspection at home, when cleaning the hair and blood that he realized what had happened, and called me on the phone to tell me,

There's another physics problem: In a head on collision would an unrestrained passenger in the back seat go out the back window?

Nobody's suggesting the bullet didn't have the FRONT core before the shot. Instead we're debating whether it had the rear core.

Partitions sometimes lose all of the front core when they impact game.

I was thinking the same.

Noticing the turned cannelure, how old might this ammo have been? Not that it matters but I wonder if rear core security has evolved as well.

Keep us posted on this one - especially if Nosler has a comment.