I have a Sako 75 in 338 mag, with the nosler partitions in the magazine they flaten the tips under recoil. I thought It was just because it was a .338, but my buddys Sako 75 in 30-06 does the same thing. What can be done to prevent this and does it really matter on long range accuracy.

Although a few guns have a "buffered" magazine with a soft plastic insert in the front to help avoid nose flattening, any gun with significant recoil will flatten lead spitzer bullet noses. A few magazines do have "shoulders" shaped like the bottlenecked case which help hold the nose away from the front of the magazine, but with such magazines you run the alternative risk of the bullet creeping out of the case with recoil.

There is little effect on bullet performance or accuracy with slightly flattened noses, so just learn to live with it. I always keep a pristine bullet in the chamber and a fresh one "first up" in the magazine, then use flattened ones behind that.

There are bullets that will resist damage. Some of these are Silvertips, Ballistic tips, Bronze points, Nosler Partition Protected point and the Remington Pointed Corelokt will resist damage.

Just do what Stonecreek says or what I do and use a single shot.

Swift A-Frame bullets have slightly blunt tips, and so TBBC. The lead in these bullets does not stick out like NOS bullets, since their jackets end right at the point where the lead shows.

But again, a slight flattening of the bullet's tip should not affect accuracy within normal hunting ranges. In fact, some round-nose bullets are pretty accurate within 300 yards, and if there is any change in accuracy when compared to spitzer bullets, it is not large enough to worry about.

I am having the same problem with my new 75 in .375 H&H.
Remington 270gr SPs flattened the tips and seated the bullets deeper (depth of the cannelure)
The 270gr Failsafes showed less obvious but visible flattening of the tips and perhaps a slight increase in seating depth.

The recoil feels surprisingly mild. The magazine spring seems weaker than most. Maybe the lack of pressure allows more impact versus other manufacturers?

Heider, I get this effect with most of my bolt-action rifles using staggered magazines: Sakos, Winchester M70s etc etc.

Stonecreek has had the same experience that I have had: there isn't a great deal you can do about this, so you learn to live with it. For peace of mind, keep a perfect round up the spout, and keep loading the flattened ones at the bottom of the magazine. In case you really need a 4th or a 5th shot in a hunting situation, the adrenaline induced "accuracy" will outweigh any effect of the flattened nose. There are even people who claim that the exposed lead-cone at the nose melts off in flight anyway. Secondly, there is evidence that damage to the nose of the bullet has far less impact on accuracy than damage to the base of the bullet. Don't ask me why.

For some reason, the further down I load the bullets in my magazine, the more they will flatten under recoil.

FWIW - mike