Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game 308 Winchester for 1000 lb Moose at 50-300 yard range: What Bullet and Why?

The bullet was launched at 2,880 from a 1-12" twist 308 Win, hit an elk at 175 yards, didn't open/tipped on impact traveling backwards where it was found on the offside (backwards). It hit nothing before impact (branches, etc).

Simple really... when a bullet relies on a tiny air cavity to initiate expansion, chitty things will happen occasionally.

That's why I prefer Partitions... far less to go wrong.

Say Art,

Is that picture on Kodiak or down that way? When I lived in Eagle River, we made an annual pilgrimage down there and the bears always kept us on our toes.

Brad
The OP was about moose and your "failure" is about a bullet that almost completely penetrated an elk.

The Accubomb failures are about inadequate penetration on much smaller critters at greater range (327 yards IIRC) under ideal broadside conditions. They failed to make it through an animal about 15% of the original poster's question.

And you would prefer inadequate penetration over nearly complete penetration? And the TTSX seems to have killed the elk, far more of a test than a deer...
art shaking his head slowly

David
The bear is on Uganik Island, north side maybe 1/4 to 1/3 of the way out from the NE corner of the island. Or, if you know the island, just one ridge West of the big lagoon on the North side.
art

The only thing that makes me shake my head is that anyone would consider the TTSX pictured acceptable performance.

But coming from someone who believes Partitions don't perform well on BG, that shouldn't be a surprise to me.

Having shot far more head of big game with X bullets than you have shot total critters... AND having shot more head of big game with partitions than I have anything else, I sorta feel like I have a little clue about how they work.

I have a ton of recovered partitions, almost all have completely shed the front core. I have yet to recover an X of any iteration... And I have tried repeatedly to catch one.

The TTSX is the answer to the question I would not ask. It is a marketing ploy. As to how poorly it preformed you missed the point that an elk has some mass... deer, not so much. I did not say it was adequate preformance, but it is the only one like it I have seen pictured. And it nearly made it through the elk.

My father was a huge disadvantage for me when it came to killing stuff. He believed in shooting behind the shoulder. He knew bullets of his era could not be trusted to crunch bone and make it very far.

When I realized what an X will do it all became much simpler...

Well, that's some more to think about I guess. How far did you elk travel after being hit?

I have had four out of six Ballistic Tips "stay" in the moose I've shot with them. The two which exited were early version 180s in the '06. (The others were 200s out of the 340.)

I can recall shooting seven X type bullets into moose. Only the 140 out of a 7mm-08 left the scene. The rest were 225s in the 33 and 35 calibers.

I have a 150 Partition which was stopped by a whitetail on a broadside/angle shot from a 308. That bullet is far too stubby to make a decent moose hunting bullet out of any 30 caliber IMV.

You won't go wrong using heavier bullets on moose. And over penetration is not a concern with moose as much as it is with many other animals.

life is too short and bullets too cheap... if I wanted to run 150s, it would be TTSX hands down. I'll take a bullet that bulls its way ALL the way through ANY day, even if its barely over caliber, than take the chance of an explosion too early.

BTW the comment about the 180s shooting worse than the 150s from a 308 shows a lot of ignorance about ballistics, rounds, guns etc....... I shot 308 in competition for years, and dumped a LOT of 180-185s downrange in my M14s and the bolt gun 308 guys often laugh at my bullets choosing to run 190-210s... believe me the accurayc we got at long ranges was MORE than enough.

130 TTSX and Varget. That little 30 does some damage.

Klik,

I wouldn't leap to any vast conclusions about the 150 Partition because of that deer. I have seen a 210 .338 stopped by a whitetail buck on a quartering shot, and it wasn't all the big a buck, no more than 150 pounds field-dressed. The cartridge was the .338 Winchester Magnum and the range was less than 200 yards.

There is something about an angling shot that tends to stop bullets, especially when they break out of the flesh at an angle to underside the of the hide. Many of the Barnes X's I've recovered, for instance, are found after such shots.

Though I do tend to agree that the 150 .30 Partition is a little stubby for bigger game. I would have no qualms about using any of the Partitions from 165 on up, though....

You are wrong, Art.

Three elk seen killed with 225 AB's from a .338... All exited. Elk went down fast.

Two elk I killed with the 8mm 200. One exit, the other hit the elbow joint first, went diagonal through the chest, made it to opposite side under the hide.

A buck with a .30 180. First year the Accubond came out. Quartering-on shot. Smashed shoulder bone, diagonal through the deer, exited WAY back on the opposite flank.

A buck with the 8mm 200. Close range, magnum rifle, pretty much worst possible scenario for a bullet. The bullet smashed the hip joint, went the entire length of the deer, ended up under his chin. 70% weight retained, perfect mushroom.

Yeah, they don't penetrate.

If a bullet is to be judged by it's failures, there's been plenty of failed TSX's to look at in the last couple years. Did you miss that?

.30 cal 150 Partition started 3100fps.

Excellent pronghorn bullet....(grin)

Thats ezactly what the partition is supposed to do.

John,
No vast conclusions; in fact, it seems like a great bullet for caribou and less. And obviously, since even 55 grain bullets in the 223 have worked very well on moose several times when I've watched, even the 150 grain 30 cal Partition would also. But, on the basis of what can be counted upon to work reasonably well over a broad range of possibilities I would draw the line above the 150 Partition while giving the nod to a 150 copper/alloy monolithic type as a minimum in that weight. I haven't used the E-Tips or GMX, or whatever Hornady calls theirs, but I have used the 150 XBT and XFB in the 30-06 a number of times. I think the last time involved two caribou and both went flat really quickly. I wish I had had three lined up so I could have (might have) caught the bullet. A moose can simply be a lot more animal than many people seem to think they are. Yes, they die quite easily and generally close to the point of decent impact. But it is naive to underestimate what a 1000 pound moose can do to a rapidly moving piece of metal.

I agree with you about the heavier Partitions though.

Calvin
Nice try! But I have gotten over responding to the moron after someone posts his posts. Very few people have dropped to the level where I simply do not care one bit what they have to say...

But thanks for thinking of me!
art

Then I want no part of them. I want a bullet to leave... Like someone said of ladies of ill-repute, "I don't pay them for sex, I pay them to leave!"

The vent is important to my way of thinking and in my experience; and confirmed by doc friends in reference to making stuff die fast. Might not be needed every time, but often enough to make it mandatory feature...
art

Art,

Actually, I prefer that you ignore me. Saves me the energy of responding to your baseless attack posts.

That said, I'm not above correcting you politely when you speak in error. If you say Accubonds typically don't penetrate, you are in error.

Haha! Ignore isn't foolproof you know!