Of those two bullets, how woud you say either would perform when they hit a large joint? Or which would win if you maybe had to put it through the front of a pissed off moose or bear in an unideal fashion? Alternately, which would you say is the more devastating and exspansive on a regular double lung, through the ribs shot on any common North American game animal?

For the critters mentioned, just pick the one that shoots best and go kill sh_t!

The Nosler Partition wins in each the scenarios you mentioned. But you didn't mention accuracy or shooting at long range.

For a double lung shot I'd prefer the Partition. That bullet is designed for the front to blow off and the part behind the partition will continue to penetrate. I suspect the Partition would survive the joint because of the partition protecting the rear half of the bullet.

I have no experience with bear or moose so I won't give any opinion.

They will both do about the same in my experience. The Partitions will expand a little less and penetrate further. The Accubond will usually have wider expanded frontal area and get caught in the hide on the off side on elk or big deer. I can't tell the difference on elk using similar Bullets.

Can't vouch for either's effectiveness on charging critters,, but on non-charging elk I've seen a lot of Partitions and a some Accubonds. Partitions still seem to be among the straightest tracking of any bullet I've observed.

25+ years ago I shot the south end of a northbound bull at 250+ yds and is the heaviest elk I've ever killed. I was aiming for the bunghole but missed, hitting him in the ball and socket--the heaviest bone on an elk. I found what was left of the Partition just touching the brisket. I really doubt an Accubond would have successfully made that journey through the bull.

Casey

I've used them both to kill brown bear, moose and caribou and I do not believe that there is much to choose between them. Availability and the particular application would tip me towards one or the other, not their general terminal performance.

Partition if it shoots well in your rifle. Either bullet will get the job done.

In practice I find the Partitions and Accubonds to act and kill about the same, but if you feel a little more secure with the mechanical lock of the Partition you wouldn't be the only one.

After I shot one of my largest water buffalo and a scrub-bull with a 180 grain Accubond and a 300 RUM I quite worrying about them. Shot what will likely be my last grizzly with the same combination, without a bit of worry; and actually walked away from a perfectly good .375 to do it. I doubt if a bear can die any faster then that one did.

Agree with the others. Performance is similar but if penetration and an exit are a concern I would go with the partition. I think weight retention is similar and the difference is the shape of the would channel with the Accubond creating a wide area of damage but maybe not as deep penetration. The partition after it loses the front lead if this happens makes a longer narrower wound channel. I have not shot enough game with the Accubond to draw any meaningful conclusions yet. I have shot maybe a dozen deer sized animals plus a few hogs and javelina with the Accubond but many more with the Partition. But for smaller calibers like 6mm & .257 I am sticking with the Partitions The others it will be whichever shoots best or whats on the bench at the time I am loading. Some rifles that shoot them the same I will mix them in the magazine with no concerns at all which is on top. The Partition and Accubond don't always shoot the same especially at longer ranges but the Ballistic tip will almost always be a match with the Accubond and make for less expensive practice shooting or a light game heavy game combo without changing sight settings.

I shot a bull elk at 400 yards this year with 257R and Accubonds. All pass through lung shots. He stumbled 20 yards.

My family has managed to stop a few Accubonds in deer on broadside or slightly angling shots. Not so with Partitions. That being said, the Accubonds have done a fine job, they are just a bit more likely to have a wider mushroom and hang in the hide every now and then.

The AccuBonds are designed for the front end to blow off, just like Partitions, and to retain about the same amount of weight. In my experience with various AB's (which includes the majority of 'em), they're also designed like the larger-caliber, heavier Partitions, which have the partition moved forward so they'll retain at least 75% of their weight, and usually retain more. The few bigger Accubonds I've seen recovered have retained more weight than the smaller models. A good example would be the 250-grain 9.3 I shot into an Alaskan grizzly at about 50 yards as it angled away. The bullet entered the middle of the right ribs, and was found under the skin on the left side of the neck, retaining 81% of its weight.

Like others, I have found AB's open into a wider mushroom than Partitions, so are caught under the far hide more often. But that's after they make the necessary hole in stuff along the way.

I have wondered this. So far just loaded partions, cause that is what I loaded first. Got some AB on the shelf. You might think since AB came later, they are more advanced. Dunno.

Likely not the sample size that Mule Deer has talked about, but my AB vs Partition killing as covered 150 or so animals like antelope, deer, aoudad, and a small sample (40) of plains game in Africa. I have recovered more AB's than partitions, I'm sure for the same reasons mentioned, but haven't noticed any real difference in killing power. They are both very deadly and reliable IME, whether traveling through bone or not, and at most every conceivable angle.

Just as a data point of marginal relevance, I shot a buck deer through that same hip joint at close range... 8mm 200-gn @ 2900 MV, 30 yards away maybe... anyway it demolished that hip joint (and half the ham), went the length of the deer, ended up under the hide in his throats area. Perfect mushroom and 70% retention.

If I REALLY wanted to go full-retard on penetration I'd be running mono's. Having seen what I've seen I see no point; Accubonds/Partitions are some penetrating fools.

Can't speak for moose or bear, but I can speak of how a 160g AB works on African game. 7mm Rem Magnificent, +3000fps. All shot intentionally through shoulder at ranges of 100-150 yds.

Clearly, those bullets failed JG.






Side note: the "TSX wars" really died down when I took the several-year break from the Fire... it's nice.

Yep. I learned recently right here on these forums that any bullet you can catch is a POS failure, even when it's shooter error into a buffalo.

This 140 AB failed miserably as well, out of a 7mm STW, 3375fps @ muzzle, at a whopping 30 yds into a big mule deer. Entered back right ham, found underneath skin of front left shoulder

I gained that "knowledge" as well. Some people make killing stuff awful hard.

I have not had similar experience with the AB's.I shoot a 130 gr ,6.5 out of my sportorized Swede at about 2800fps. I use it only on pronghorn. I get a lot of ruined torn up meat. If I hit a spine shot, I get a 4" hole blown thru. If I catch a small part of the shoulder, I lose the whole shoulder.Any bullets I do recover are over expanded and about like a flat piece of shrapnel.
They sure enough kill pronghorn though. and are quite accurate out of the Swede

The ones I have were bought about when the AB's first came out. I bought another box year ago or so and I"m trying to see if there is any difference.
Perhaps someone can shed some light on the older ones.

As for partitions,I don't have too much experience.I bought several boxes of 180 gr partitions from SPS for $13/box two years ago and I have only killed two elk with them.They are as accurate in my .06 as Sierra Game Kings. The ones I have recovered are text book mushrooms. Prior to the partitions, I have mostly killed elk with 220gr RN

Yeah, not so good for the Partition.

Stand alone trophies, positively.

Opening my Noz #6 ballistics tables..........

Actually........a 150 NPt leaving the muzzle of a 270W at 3000fps will have less drop than say, a 6.5 Creedmor shooting a 140 NAB at 2800fps (and that's giving the Creed some credit velocity wise). Quite a bit less drop it appears.

I've never thought of the NPt as being particularly accurate, NBT's and NAB's generally will produce smaller groups, but for hunting the NPt's shoot as well as needed--even at longish ranges.

Casey

saddlesore,

Have posted this before, in fact just posted again a few days ago in a Ballistic Tip/AccuBond thread, but here goes again:

AccuBonds were just as tough as they are today from the beginning, since Nosler did plenty of testing not just in "media" but big game animals before their introduction. I know this because of using plenty of AccuBonds immediately after they were introduced. All acted very similarly to Partitions on big game up to elk size, exactly the way they were designed to perform.

But demand became so high that a couple years after their introduction, one guy on the AccuBond assembly line tried to speed his stage up, apparently think he'd get a raise, or at least a gold star. Unfortunately, his speed-up technique resulted in bullets that acted like varmint bullets. Nosler regularly tests samples of their finished bullets to make sure they're shooting accurately and expanding consistently, but a few got shipped before the problem was found. Nosler sent out a recall, but some had already gotten into the hands of reloaders.

THOSE were the bullets that resulted in poor penetration. It did NOT happen with the first bullets, and the problem was quickly solved. I've personally never encountered such AccuBonds, and I've not only shot various AB's up to 9.3mm 250's into animals up to well over 1000 pounds, but have seen plenty of hunting partners use them as well, not just in North America but Africa,including 260-grain .375's that worked fine on Cape buffalo.

But they worked as designed from the very beginning. The problem was NOT in the design but, very briefly, in production.

Wow.

I have some 300gr AB for my 375 H&H I need to load up one of these and give them a try. Anyhow I use either one I like them both, but also like the TSX as well.

JB, any intel on the LR NAB's? They've been dissed for non-Accubond terminal performance.

I don't know which bullets were affected, but I can tell you based on the batch of .25 caliber accubonds I picked up a couple years ago that I will absolutely use 100 grain Ballistic Tips on deer before I shoot another one with the 110 grain Accubond out of my .257 Roberts. 2 shots, 2 deer, in 2 minutes ... and it was **bad** inside. When a supposedly bonded core bullet grenades inside the chest cavity of a deer and fails to exit, something is **wrong**.

Back to 120 grain partitions.

Tom

I shot an Oryx, on the white sands missile range hunt, a couple years ago with a 338 rum running a 225 gr accubond at just over 3000 fps. All set up for a long range shot......sure enough, I kill my bull at 67 yards. He was almost perfectly broadside, and with the vitals a little further forward than our native animals, I held for dead center in the front leg about 1/3 up into the body. I remember thinking this was gonna be a test for how tough that bullet is. One shot kill, and he "snow-plowed" on his nose for about 30 yds. I recovered the bullet under the skin on the opposite side....touching the rear side of the leg bone. It weighed 138 gr, and had a perfect mushroom of .550-.600" in diameter, depending on where you measure. Couldn't believe anything was left, let alone looking like textbook expansion, and retaining 61% of its weight. The partitions I've recovered under similar conditions (close with fast velocities, on bull elk) had little to no mushroom left.....all the front lead missing and unraveled strands of copper trailing back. Both performed fine, killing the animals clean, but the accubond gives me more of what I want in a hunting bullet. The accubonds also have the edge at long range and are usually a little more accurate. I wouldn't ever feel handicapped hunting with a partition, but just prefer the accubond.

Andy3

Just my usual luck.I bought 100 of then and could not figure out why they acted so wierd.

the partition, will hold together and out penetrate every time, especially on bone/joint.

Ive shot both into milk jugs along with the ELD-x, all 3 acted very similair... 6.5x55 at 2800-2900 muzzle to 100 yards. All 3 penetrated into the 4th milk jug and were caught. All had were standard mushrooms and averaged in the 60% weight retention.

That's partly because milk jugs are a relatively poor bullet-test medium. I know a lot of people that use them, but that's mostly because water and used milk jugs are cheap, but there are far better types material for comparing performance on animals.

Another often-used test medium that's a pretty poor indicator of on-game performance is water-soaked newspaper.

Montana mule deer B tags have always made a good test medium, and the test medium could be eaten.

Mule deer does, whitetail does, feral pigs--or feral goats, sheep or whatever. To have some idea of how bullets act on animals, then they need to be shot into animals.

This is exactly what most bullet companies do anymore, after they've made a bunch of tests on appropriate "media" to make sure they're in the general ball park. Here's a big hint, however: I do not know of ANY big game bullet manufacturer that does pre-animal testing on milk jugs full of water.

Have known of some in the past that used wet newspaper. This was because it's almost impossible to get bullets to come apart in wet newspaper, so most cup-and-cores come out perfectly mushroomed, ready for an advertisement photo demonstrating their perfect performance. But big game animals are not a series of water jugs, or made of wet newspaper.

I test bullets out on DRY print. That will really tell a true story.

I go to the local Goodwill Store and buy old books to use them for test media.

Yep, I use stacks of dry newspaper, after pre-testing in one of a couple kinds of ballistic media. Dry paper will provide a better idea of what happens to bullets when they hit bone heavier than ribs.

I have never found a partition or accubond in a deer. I guess they failed! Found a partition in a pig by accident, I saw a lump under the skin. Hit her in hindquarters, bullet in shoulder. 7 mag at 80 yards.