.277 130grn NBT, 2960fps MV, 200lb whitetail, 250yds quartering away, shooting down hill from a ridge to a food plot, impact high behind ribs, destroyed the bottom of the spine(straps were fine), took out diaphram, lungs, and liver, exited ribs, stopped against the hide rear of the off side shoulder bone. Recovered weight 88.5grns(68%), exp dia .656"

Typical NBT performance:




The few I've recovered looked similar. I've killed more game with NBTs than I care to count and have never encountered a "failure" as many speak of. The only thing this NBT failed to do was load this buck in the truck

Ya'll have a good one,

Reloader

My experience has been the same. No failures with 5 of us in the family all shooting different calibers with the NBT's on elk, deer, antelope, coyotes, rock chucks and bunnies

My only problem with the 150 NBT out of my 7x57 is that I can never recover one to get a picture of it. Seriously though, it is a combo that has worked very well for me over the years, killed alot of game with it, and had no issues at all with performance.

Yep, they work great if you slow them down. At 250yds, IV is just under 2500fps, just about perfect & the bullet looks it. My ony problem w/ them as all around hunting bullets is the close range IV, where it will be above 2700fps. Good job, nice shooting.

quote:

Yep, they work great if you slow them down.

I tried a 120 grain B.Tip out of a 26" 7mm STW at 3700 fps MV on a whitetail, range 95 yards. You can figure the impact velocity. I can tell you that the deer died. I can't tell you what the bullet looked like or what it weighed because as far as I know, it's still going. I'm yet to experience the infamous Ballistic Tip FAILURE in dozens of opportunities.

I did have a Partition strike a glancing blow on a whitetail shoulder and fail to penetrate, so I'm confident that bullet failures can happen, even in the best of families.

quote:

I did have a Partition strike a glancing blow on a whitetail shoulder and fail to penetrate, so I'm confident that bullet failures can happen, even in the best of families.

Yep, totally agree. It's no different than the posts you read from time to time about a TSX failing to open. Most of the time bullets work as designed, but there are a few instances where they fail just as any other man made thing. You probably remember the post I made a few years back about the Partition that only made a surface wound on a small whitetail shoulder not penetrating the rib cage(killed with another shot). I was scolded on here for that one, but it just goes to show strange things can happen. I'll take my odds with the NBTs, I've been trying to make one "fail" for years from HV close range impacts to bone, large boar, big whitetails, etc, and they just wont "fail"

I have and use several diff makes and models of bullets, but when it comes to medium game, NBTs are all I ever need.

Ya'll have a good one,

Reloader

quote:

Originally posted by Stonecreek:

quote:

Yep, they work great if you slow them down.

I tried a 120 grain B.Tip out of a 26" 7mm STW at 3700 fps MV on a whitetail, range 95 yards. You can figure the impact velocity. I can tell you that the deer died. I can't tell you what the bullet looked like or what it weighed because as far as I know, it's still going. I'm yet to experience the infamous Ballistic Tip FAILURE in dozens of opportunities.

I did have a Partition strike a glancing blow on a whitetail shoulder and fail to penetrate, so I'm confident that bullet failures can happen, even in the best of families.

Maybe they make them diff. but ever 7mm/140grNBT I ran at high vel, virtually grenaded w/ very shallow penetration in wetpack tests. Hence, i never hunted w/ them. I have seen 150grNBT/308 from a friends 06 come apart impacting an elk rib cage. Elk died, but it took awhile.

Nosler Ballistic Tips get the job done. I use 165's in 30-06 @ 2660. They are devastating on deer and make a huge exit hole when bone is involved. The bad rap on them around here has always been meat destruction.

Looks perfect to me...

I like NBT's...

I just do not use them on BIG big game...

quote:

Elk died, but it took awhile.

The same can be said of 90% of the elk anyone has ever taken. The last one I double-lunged with a .338/210 Partition "took awhile" to die.

BTW: I don't regard Ballistic Tips as appropriate for elk. Medium game the size of carabou are perhaps as heavy as I would feel confident with B.Tips. I know a lot of people use them successfully on elk, but they also are usually judicious in shooting only into the softer part of the thoraxic cavity.

I had the front half of a partition Blow up on a pig this fall. We could see on impact the skin just exploded into a 5" mess. The bullet to our surprise still exited (only a 110lb pig)and the pig did tip right over, but it was enlightening.

quote:

Originally posted by Quintus:
I had the front half of a partition Blow up on a pig this fall. We could see on impact the skin just exploded into a 5" mess. The bullet to our surprise still exited (only a 110lb pig)and the pig did tip right over, but it was enlightening.

I have seen this happen, but the base always seems to make it through, sometimes completely leaving a bullet dia. exit.

quote:

Originally posted by Quintus:
I had the front half of a partition Blow up on a pig this fall. We could see on impact the skin just exploded into a 5" mess. The bullet to our surprise still exited (only a 110lb pig)and the pig did tip right over, but it was enlightening.

The front 1/3rd of a Nosler Partition is intentionally very quick expanding. As with any hunk of matter that you launch at 3,000 fps, it may behave differently on different targets. And since it is mass-produced, while quality control may be excellent, from time to time a bullet of any sort is going to either "overexpand" or "underexpand". The Partition does it less often than most, but as Fred says, the performance you describe is not unusual in a Partition (and isn't necessarily a "failure").