Thanks Kyler,
I second your analysis.We are always looking for the "perfect" bullet for a reason - this being the reality that we hope it performs well in all animals,all angles,distances,speed etc.When we look at the results,we understand that this bullet doesnt exist - yet.
Too soft a bullet will not do at high speed,short distance,big animal.Accubonds still seem to be tooo soft as described here.I appreciate this knowledge ,as I was going to use them instead of Partitions,because of better accuracy.My Barnes experience shows that they always exit,but I would like a bit more expansion,I feel they zip right thru- the opposite extreme,so to speak.
I used North Forks in .416, perfect mushrooms,always made it to the off side hide,great weight retention.Would be nice if they would exit too.Cant have it all.

Nosler partitions are designed for about 60 to 70 percent expansion, that gives them the necessary amount of expansion to tramatize the heart lung area and enough base to cut an exit hole to let out blood...If you want perfect expansion the Northforks are the route, but if you want two holes the Nosler partition or the Northfork cup point is the way to go....

Nosler Partitions have traditionaly been the bullet by which all others are compared, that should tell you something. There are some as good but none better.

In my opinnion there are only 3 big game bullets, Northfork, Nosler partition and Woodliegh, they all work. Why anyone wants to use a non premium bullet on game is beyond me and cost is a poor excuse.

I think that you may be just wanting a little different performance, not better . I bet Nosler would love to have that photo for advertising purposes, because, as stated by some of the other posters, they worked precisely as advertised/designed. They seem only to have a little wider mushroon than a Nolser Partition, which might limit penetration somewhat, but the expansion stopped at about the same depth as a Partition. Also, from most reports, they are very accurate. I've just bought some Winchester Supreme Accubond ammo for a 30-06, 180 grain, to try, but haven't shot them yet.

My question is at what point in causing the death of the animal did the bullet fail? The simple fact that you recovered the bullets means they did their job. Bullet hits animal and animal dies. Performance acceptable. Period.

Mac

MAC,
You're right. The animals IN THIS CASE died, the bullets worked, end of story.

I don't mean to pick on you but I'm always a little bothered by the "At what point in the animals death...." line of thinking.

I mentally hashed this over a lot about a month ago when a client of mine brought a muzzleloader with a round ball on a pig hunt. Sure it killed the pig, and that combination has probably taken millions of animals through history, but the animal died slowly. Very slowly. Even though he hit it perfectly, on a broadside lung shot, the animal traveled a long way and took a long time to die. Has the bullet failed if the shooter places his shot where he means to and the animal dies next Tuesday... 7 miles from where it was hit?

I think it's important to learn from one's experiences. These bullets we're discussing didn't exit or didn't penetrate well on SIMPLE broadside lung shots (BEST case scenarios!!). No shoulder bones, no quartering away "through 60 pounds of wet grass", no straight away TX heart shots (sorry, I'm sure in Texas it's referred to as a California heart shot ) where you need 3 to 4 FEET of penetration to get TO the vitals.

When you're paying $1000 plus per day you don't want to be passing up perfectly make-able quartering shots at a huge eland just because you picked the wrong bullet (one that's darn accurate but only kills reliably on broadside lung, neck and head shots).

It sounds like Greg (HT) learned that lesson and next time he'll use a Partition, Triple Shock, etc. and have the comfort of knowing he can take that big eland, zebra, wildebeest,etc. at ANY angle and make a clean kill. We should thank him for the knowledge we gained from his experimentation.

Kyler