Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting 85 gr Partition and 243

For shooting deer, I feel exactly the opposite. I think that the Partition is more critical in the .224" and .243" bores than in the larger bores, as many of the bullets made for the .224" and .243" bores are too fragile to ensure sufficient penetration. I agree that small bore partitions often leave a minimal blood trail, but they will reliably penetrate through and through on most shots aimed to hit the pleural cavity, and no deer shot through the lungs is going to live for long.

Jeff

I generally agree with Atkinson on this. I've had really poor blood trails from partitions and that is the main reason I don't use them at all. Of course, where I hunt is extremely thick (often impenetrable without a machete) and wet. If a deer runs 60 yards with no blood trail he may very well be lost. 260Remguy lives in Nebraska and I am sure the woods out there are probably much more open. If I lived in an area that was not wet, and was fairly open, I might very well shoot the partitions to ensure an exit wound.

If I were in Slidelkid's position, I'd be shooting a Ballistic Tip of 7mm or larger. I'm of the mind with 260Remguy, the smaller calibers demand the Partition to ensure penetration and to hold together. I've never had a problem with bloodtrails and partitions, they put the deer down fast in my experience.
Selmer

I agree with 260Remguy on this one. The smaller calibers tend ot demand the premium bullets to expand reliably. The smaller the caliber, the harder it is to design a controlled-expansion bullet. Cup and core bullets tend to either explode like varmint grenades or fail to open. The Nosler partition was designed to give us the best of both. The front section opens violently to impart shock, and the base section plows through to penetrate like a solid.

I can't keep my nose out of the 243 threads, whether I have anything to offer or not...grin.

I haven't used the 85 Partitions in my 243, but I've run the 85 TSX's with good results - most recently hammering a 225-250lb Axis buck through both shoulders with the bullet exiting - he ran about 75 yards, at most, with a good blood trail.

On Partitions in small calibers, I have run the 60 Partition in a 223 a good bit, and have been impressed - I've had exit wounds on smallish Texas whitetails - and my kids have had more - I've got to think a 243 with them would be fine - although it is zipping along faster, which makes me wonder if the 60's in our 223's may be opening a little more and giving a bigger exit wound because they are slower. Exits have been pretty fair sized with the 60 grainers out of the 223.

DJ

Why would you think that a slower bullet will open up more and give a bigger exit wound? The faster bullet expands faster in an identical construction/material bullet. Wow, have I opened up a big can o' worms? Not trying to argue, just curious of your thoughts. Either bullet will work wonderfully!
Selmer

In the TSX's, I think the slower bullets may be less likely to shed petals, while still penetrating enough to exit. Hence, the larger exit with petals intact - but it's mostly a guess on my part - haven't tested them except on critters, and I can't seem to keep one in an animal.

I don't know if a Partition is also likely to shed some weight if travelling faster or not - have only used them in the 223 so far, so I have less experience with them. So far, all have exited and I haven't found any bullet fragments and exits have been impressive - even on spine shots and double shoulders.

With cup and core bullets, my experience has been that the slower bullets often hold together and penetrate better because they expand more slowly, while the screamers may expand more quickly. Accordingly, faster bullets may penetrate less despite the extra speed - they may expand faster as you point out, but this often equates to less penetration because they expand so much, and more bullet fragmentation. Premiums are designed to address this problem, but I'm not sure they are immune to it.

In premiums like TSX's and Partitions, they seem to penetrate well whether they are flying fast or slow, but the only time I've found petals which have been shed is on the faster steppers with closer shots - like the Axis I just killed with 85 TSX's at about 75 yards or so. I found one petal and had a smallish exit after smacking him through both shoulders.

Hope this makes sense...and I agree - either will work wonderfully well, IMHO.

Have a good one,

DJ

Ok, sounds good DJ. I thought you were going to spout that BS at me about slower bullets doing more damage because they're in the deer longer!
Selmer

Can't make that argument! Grin...

I like exits and blood trails, so I want penetration and expansion in balance - don't need a hole I can stick my fist through, just one that bleeds good. Seems the TSX's are king on this front to me, although many likely prefer the Partition.

BTW - I made another correction above - used expansion where I meant to say penetration in one place - hopefully makes a little better sense now.

Have a good one!

DJ

I used 95gr Partitions out of a 243 on deer for years. Almost always exited (1 exception), usually left a good blood trail. Only deer that I had problems with was a long shot at a doe where I put it a bit forward into the shoulder. Broke it, but she kept on going for quite a ways. Learned not to try to reach out too far with my medium loads after that.

I almost always shot for the heart/lungs, and probably got an average of 50-60 yards of run after hitting them. Max of 150 yard run with lung shots at a guess.

I liked it especially for the low amount of tissue and meat damage. Great for filling the freezer.

My father and I have recovered probably a half dozen Partitions over the years for a 100 gr. .243 or a 150 gr. .30 cal from a .30-06. They are invariably found just under the exit side, and always on shots over 250 yds. They have anywhere from 66-80% weight retention, because much of the front 1/3 of the bullet core is shed on expansion. The thing I like about the Partition is that it expands just like a cup and core bullet until it hits that Partition, because that's what it is, a cup and core bullet forward of the the partition. It's not bonded up front, it's designed to expand well, then penetrate deep. If I were just getting into reloading or using premiums I would probably play with the Barnes bullets, but we have loads that shoot Partitions into 1-1 1/2" in all of our rifle, and I KNOW they will never fail, so we've chosen just to stick with them. For my money they are the perfect premium bullet, but that's also a biased opinion, I can't imagine or picture better performance for OUR needs, your needs/wants maybe different.
Selmer