Well Dwight, all I can say is, I reported 8 elk shot with the 180 Partition, all where pass thrus, even out to 200+yds. I don't want to be a piss ant here, but I can't believe your performance is so much different than mine, and the critters I shot were much bigger than any deer. Got to be some other difficulty here.

Jerry

I believe that for deer size animals, any expanding hunting bullet will work just fine, if it is properly placed. For the past 40 years, I've made one shot kills on dozens of mule and whitetail deer, pronghorn antelope, bighorn rams, a Dall ram, caribou, and elk with 117 gr Sierra GameKing bullets from my .257 AI.

During that same time, I also killed a couple dozen elk with 180 gr Nosler Partitions from my .30 Gibbs. Many of the Partitions were found with the rear half mushroomed and the front half gone, and they stopped just under the hide on the off side.

This year, I killed my bull with a 168 gr TSX bullet from my new .300 Wby. This is my new favorite elk rifle/bullet.

The NPT is a dang good non-tipped bullet. Nosler solid bases weren't too shabby either.

I have seen a NPT pencil through a whitetail before. 130grn .277 rib impact. Long tracking job with a dog, but the animal was recovered. Can't explain it, but definitly a rare occurance.

I've had an NPT blow up on a whitetail shoulder as well. It was a finishing shot on a buck at 80yds, 150gr .308 NPT Gold at 3000fps MV. Absolutely no holes through the rib cage below the large surface wound. Pic:
Blood shot to the left of wound was the killing shot. When the shoulder was removed you could not even tell the second shot had been made. No bullet recovered, but massive surface damage. I assume the bullet exited the large entrance hole.

All bullets can act strange when you shoot enough of them.

Reloader

quote:

Originally posted by phurley5:
DWright ----- Was the 30-06 cartridge you shot at the Blacktail factory or reloaded. Good shooting.

I loaded them with 56 gr. IMR 4350. They were smokin. . . . .

For non-tip....it's partition for me.

I will be pitching 180 partitions from my 30-06 for cow elk in just over 3 weeks.

I use 55 grns of I4350

ted, who's selling cow tags? which state?

good luck, fill that freezer up!

New Mexico

Depending on caliber

6.5X55 - Nosler 125Gr partition
Also Hornady 139 SP

7mm08 - Barnes TSX 140 or 150 gr
also Rem PSPCL 150 gr

358 Win - 225 gr Sierra GKBT

quote:

Originally posted by Reloader:
The NPT is a dang good non-tipped bullet. Nosler solid bases weren't too shabby either.

I have seen a NPT pencil through a whitetail before. 130grn .277 rib impact. Long tracking job with a dog, but the animal was recovered. Can't explain it, but definitly a rare occurance.

I've had an NPT blow up on a whitetail shoulder as well. It was a finishing shot on a buck at 80yds, 150gr .308 NPT Gold at 3000fps MV. Absolutely no holes through the rib cage below the large surface wound. Pic:
Blood shot to the left of wound was the killing shot. When the shoulder was removed you could not even tell the second shot had been made. No bullet recovered, but massive surface damage. I assume the bullet exited the large entrance hole.

All bullets can act strange when you shoot enough of them.

Reloader

Allot of people have had 130 grain Nosler Ballistic tip failures but have not heard of any from the 150 grainer. I have been using the 150 BT's for years with devastating success.

quote:

Originally posted by DWright:
I shot a very small california Blacktail that was quartering toward me at just about 20 yards with a 180 gr. Partition from a .30-06. I hit the point of the shoulder. The forked horn just stood there and looked at me. After a few seconds, my hunting partner couldn't take it anymore and shot it in the head with his .270.
The first thing I did was run up and open the shoulder to see what happened.
The bullet had slid along the outside of the shoulder blade, washing off the point, going just about 8" and stopped. The wound would have healed over I'm sure! Never even broke the shoulder bone. I was not happy.

I shot a Oregon Blacktail at about 75 yards behind the shoulders with a 95 gr. partition from my 6mm Rem. No responce, nothin! I shot twice more. Nothin! The deer got bored and trooted off into the brush. My partner and I tracked it aways, and then split up. He went the long way around the wooded area where it went in, and I walked directly toward where we last saw it. When i did see it, it was laying down like a dog with it's head up. It jumped up and ran out the back side of the wooded area into the open. My partner was on the other side, and stopped it with his rifle.
The partitions hit about 3" from each other, but just penciled thru making 6mm dia. holes. No expansion at all. With this type of performance, why would I want to keep using them?
I got tired of others shooting my game!
Switched to Hornady's, and now everything I hit drops.

Any questions?

I think there's more to the story than what you observed or posted.

Your "evidence" is a bit skimpy all the way around...

In the FWIW dept: a NP will sometimes give the impression of having "pencilled through" since the entrance and exit holes are the same size but a close examination of the wound track will show a area of large expansion close to the entrance which will gradually dwindle to a calibre sized track as the nose of the bullet is sloughed away.

Even "failed" Partitions are pretty effective in my experience. 10 years ago I shot a 5x5 bull through an 8" aspen (I had a small window to a heart shot and pushed it 3" left in my excitement). The bullet went in two after exiting the tree and the top half spun through the liver and the back half punched through the lungs and top left quarter of the heart. The beast went 25 yards and fell. 180 grain from a 300Wby. A 180 grains of any construction is fairly difficult to stop, or even re-direct.

I'm not a physicist but I can't understand how a Partition could fail to penetrate. The partition in the center seems to make it impossible. Even if you lose the front of the bullet, the back will still have about 65% weight retention.

quote:

Originally posted by Brad:

quote:

Originally posted by DWright:
I shot a very small california Blacktail that was quartering toward me at just about 20 yards with a 180 gr. Partition from a .30-06. I hit the point of the shoulder. The forked horn just stood there and looked at me. After a few seconds, my hunting partner couldn't take it anymore and shot it in the head with his .270.
The first thing I did was run up and open the shoulder to see what happened.
The bullet had slid along the outside of the shoulder blade, washing off the point, going just about 8" and stopped. The wound would have healed over I'm sure! Never even broke the shoulder bone. I was not happy.

I shot a Oregon Blacktail at about 75 yards behind the shoulders with a 95 gr. partition from my 6mm Rem. No responce, nothin! I shot twice more. Nothin! The deer got bored and trooted off into the brush. My partner and I tracked it aways, and then split up. He went the long way around the wooded area where it went in, and I walked directly toward where we last saw it. When i did see it, it was laying down like a dog with it's head up. It jumped up and ran out the back side of the wooded area into the open. My partner was on the other side, and stopped it with his rifle.
The partitions hit about 3" from each other, but just penciled thru making 6mm dia. holes. No expansion at all. With this type of performance, why would I want to keep using them?
I got tired of others shooting my game!
Switched to Hornady's, and now everything I hit drops.

Any questions?

I think there's more to the story than what you observed or posted.

Your "evidence" is a bit skimpy all the way around...

Nope, just as I reported. Don't care if you don't believe me at all really. Just reported what happened. No more, no less.
This kind of responce is exactley why I don't care to share my experiences with others.
If you shoot enough, and hit enough game you too will eventually have some odd things happen.
After 47 years of hitting game, this is MY experience with the NP.

quote:

Originally posted by DWright:

quote:

Originally posted by Brad:

quote:

Originally posted by DWright:
I shot a very small california Blacktail that was quartering toward me at just about 20 yards with a 180 gr. Partition from a .30-06. I hit the point of the shoulder. The forked horn just stood there and looked at me. After a few seconds, my hunting partner couldn't take it anymore and shot it in the head with his .270.
The first thing I did was run up and open the shoulder to see what happened.
The bullet had slid along the outside of the shoulder blade, washing off the point, going just about 8" and stopped. The wound would have healed over I'm sure! Never even broke the shoulder bone. I was not happy.

I shot a Oregon Blacktail at about 75 yards behind the shoulders with a 95 gr. partition from my 6mm Rem. No responce, nothin! I shot twice more. Nothin! The deer got bored and trooted off into the brush. My partner and I tracked it aways, and then split up. He went the long way around the wooded area where it went in, and I walked directly toward where we last saw it. When i did see it, it was laying down like a dog with it's head up. It jumped up and ran out the back side of the wooded area into the open. My partner was on the other side, and stopped it with his rifle.
The partitions hit about 3" from each other, but just penciled thru making 6mm dia. holes. No expansion at all. With this type of performance, why would I want to keep using them?
I got tired of others shooting my game!
Switched to Hornady's, and now everything I hit drops.

Any questions?

I think there's more to the story than what you observed or posted.

Your "evidence" is a bit skimpy all the way around...

Nope, just as I reported. Don't care if you don't believe me at all really. Just reported what happened. No more, no less.
This kind of responce is exactley why I don't care to share my experiences with others.
If you shoot enough, and hit enough game you too will eventually have some odd things happen.
After 47 years of hitting game, this is MY experience with the NP.

DWright,

I had a similar experience with .277 130 grain Nosler Partitions. Shot a nice 3x3 mule deer at about 150 yards off of a huge rock rest that hid me and the rifle. I saw rocks fly on the other side of the deer when I shot as he was in a small dip in the mountain and immediately thought that I missed. He turned 180 degrees and stood still long enough for another round to hit him. Then he ran down about 50 yards into a small bunch of willows but he was in a small bowl and we knew that he couldn't get out. When my buddy and I started down to him he did run out at about 35-45 yards from me and I shot him again in the chest. He continued to run on down until he had gone about another 30 yards when my buddy shot him with a 250-3000 and dropped immediately.

An autopsy showed that I had hit him 3 times in the chest in a group size of about 8-10 inches and all those Partitions had zipped right through. It was the expanding bullet of the 250-3000 that put him down and did the damage. We didn't recover any of the bullets because they all 3 had zipped through him with entrance and exit wounds of about the same size. I've talked to a lot of guys that have and still use these partitions and most of them have never recovered any of the bullets from the deer that have been shot with them; all pass throughs.

The first two times that I shot at him I could see the rocks fly. I think he would have eventually died but he gave no impression of being hit any of the 3 times that I hit him. No humping up or the usual "watermelon hitting the sidewalk" sound of a bullet hit.

I stopped using them and switched over to the Nosler Ballistic Tips in all rifle calibers and have never looked back as to accuracy or in the field performance.

I wonder how many other critters are shot with these Partitions that give no sign of being hit and run off with the hunter thinking that he has missed. We never hear about those stories but I sure that many exist.

Just my opinion......but I like it!!!

[

quote:

I wonder how many other critters are shot with these Partitions that give no sign of being hit and run off with the hunter thinking that he has missed. We never hear about those stories but I sure that many exist.

Wow! Another 3 shots to the chest and he ran away story.

I've never had to shoot an animal more than once with a NP.

Did anyone notice they were both using .243s? I'm sure there are many such stories regardless of the bullet used but, as posted, we never hear about them.

quote:

I stopped using them and switched over to the Nosler Ballistic Tips in all rifle calibers and have never looked back as to accuracy or in the field performance.

I wonder how many other critters are shot with these Partitions that give no sign of being hit and run off with the hunter thinking that he has missed. We never hear about those stories but I sure that many exist.

When 270weatherby was my primary hog rifle for some 10 yrs, I found they hit the dirt alot faster with NBT compared to NP,...shots were mostly broadside, and rarely did i experience exit with NBT.
I would still prefer NP where I required more penetration. Otherwise NBT straight into the chest cavity proved more than adequate and a quicker killer.

the likes of GsHV banded monometal bullets give one the best of both worlds.
rather than the front section disintegrating like a NP, its designed to form three secondary projectile petals.

This shows different bullet behavior. .......

Go with the original and the one that ALL are judged by: NOSLER PARTITION

quote:

Originally posted by wasbeeman:
[

quote:

:
I wonder how many other critters are shot with these Partitions that give no sign of being hit and run off with the hunter thinking that he has missed. We never hear about those stories but I sure that many exist.

Wow! Another 3 shots to the chest and he ran away story.

I've never had to shoot an animal more than once with a NP.

Did anyone notice they were both using .243s?

I'm sure there are many such stories regardless of the bullet used but, as posted, we never hear about them.

If you would have read my post more carefully, you would have found that I was using a .277 bullet. That's not a .243; close but not the same.

Let me help you a little bit here, a .277 is usually shot out of a 270 caliber rifle, of the many 270 caliber rifles, mine was a .270 Winchester caliber used in this story.

By golly, you're right. I guess I was so mind boggled by someone shooting three NPs through the chest of a deer w/o any apparent reaction that I mis-read.
That makes it even more bizarre.

Well here's a reality: give me any decent lead bullet w/o a tip and I bet I can load it and kill a deer with it.

I'd go with the Nosler solid base as the "best" non-tipped lead bullet and a TSX non-lead. As far as tipped bullets I consider best, it would be the TTSX hands down. I'VE NEVER EVER had a failure or even questionable or head scratchin outcome with any TSX/TTSX bullet.

I did talk to an outfitter Bill Jordan used in Montana years ago. He said the partition was "too good of a bullet." They've lost animals to that bullet apparently. His opinion during the first conversation was the plain ol Hornady as the best bullet for elk/deer/pronghorn. By the time we talked again after I suggested he take a hard look at a Scirocco, he had a custom 300 RUM built and was loading the 180 Scirocco. I asked what happened to the Hornady. He said, "I woke up."

quote:

Originally posted by Doc:
I did talk to an outfitter Bill Jordan used in Montana years ago. He said the partition was "too good of a bullet." They've lost animals to that bullet apparently. His opinion during the first conversation was the plain ol Hornady as the best bullet for elk/deer/pronghorn. ...

Hey Doc, You have missed some threads where the Scirocco Bullets have HUGE "Internal Voids". And their amazing choice was to totally ignore the guy who contacted them about the problem. Pitiful and Pathetic!

If a Partition is used with a Carolina Heart Shot(Shoulder-to-Shoulder) it is time for the Drag Stick. If used through the Lungs, then the Tracking skills are often needed. Lung shots do much better with the Standard Grade Bullets.

I don't use pelosi/boxer/schumer/brady approved Politically Correct Bullets(without Lead), nor do I use Bullets "Designed for Paper" when Hunting.

quote:

Originally posted by wasbeeman:
By golly, you're right. I guess I was so mind boggled by someone shooting three NPs through the chest of a deer w/o any apparent reaction that I mis-read.
That makes it even more bizarre.

Congrats You did much better that time!!! I knew you could do it.

If I can get them, I like the Nosler Partitions for everything. They always work, any caliber, any distance. Just match the bullet wt to the game animal & performance is very dependable.

I've shot a huge amount of big game with NP's, since the early 70's when i started using them... I've yet to have one fail to work as it should! They are the most reliable big game bullet i've ever used.

DM

quote:

Originally posted by Hot Core:

quote:

Originally posted by Doc:
I did talk to an outfitter Bill Jordan used in Montana years ago. He said the partition was "too good of a bullet." They've lost animals to that bullet apparently. His opinion during the first conversation was the plain ol Hornady as the best bullet for elk/deer/pronghorn. ...

Hey Doc, You have missed some threads where the Scirocco Bullets have HUGE "Internal Voids". And their amazing choice was to totally ignore the guy who contacted them about the problem. Pitiful and Pathetic!

I remember reading something about that a long time ago. They sure must have turned out some bad batches. But that doesn't change what the outfitter stated to me about the Scirocco or partition.