quote:

Originally posted by DM:
What happen to NP's??? They are cup/core, but they sure aren't standard!

DM

Agree! Nosler Partitions are still my favorite bullet for North America. They open up at long range (500 plus yards) and hold together at short range (15 to 30 yards). They penetrate well in both cases too.

Well i voted for C&C as they are by and far the most I use.

I do admit to loading some Partition and Barnes for certain loads but these are specific purposes. The PT's get loaded in my 25-06 along with some AB's simply due to the fact they might hit at over 3K and ranges down to several yards verses a hundred or more. I just like the fact I don't have to worry as much about throwing away or washing out a bunch of meat. With the Barnes, I load the 130gr TTSX in reduced loads for my grandsons. It is as accurate as it gets with the oldest being able to shoot clover leaf groups at 100yds with them, before he moved up in horsepower. The middle one who will be 5 this fall will be trying his luck out with them on hogs then.

For the .243 and everything else above the 25, I usually am loading either the Nosler Solid Base or Hornady SST, with a few Rem CL's thrown in for good measure. Well in fact I probably shoot more CL's than any other bullets simple due to price, and results. They might not always be the very most accurate, but they do what they are supposed to time and time again and velocity doesn't seem to bother them much. I have run a 120gr CL out the muzzle of my 25-06 AI at over 3250fps into a 250'ish pound feral hogs shoulders, with outstanding performance. If they hold up to that they are a shoe in for a deer or even bigger critters.

As to elk hunting, I have only shot one, and I do admit it was a cow. This said I bumped up the bullet weight from the standard 150gr I usually shoot to a 180gr as that was all I could find at the store on short notice. Had I known what I know now, I would have simply kept the 150gr load and gone on with it. Granted it wasn't a hunt in the back country wilds of some far away state, but the results are the same, put the bullet through the heart and lungs and they only go a short distance. I waited for my shot and was rewarded to a 20yd tracking job. The 180 did nothing more than the 150 would have, but I wanted to be prepared just in case.

With owning and regularly shooting something in calibers ranging from .223 through .311, I simply cannot afford to shoot those high dollar bullets all the time. They might get used if I were ever to have the funds to book some trophy guided hunt somewhere on a once in a lifetime hunt, but I have WAY too many other things that money will get used up on before then.

Barnes for elk, cup & core for deer.

570 Barnes TSX out of my 500 Jeff, bonded cup and core out of everything else

I use cup and core for targets and groundhogs. For big game here in Virginia I use mono metal......usually wheel weights water dropped, and shot out of a 45-70 bolt gun. The price of my mono metal bullets has been about the same for the past 30 years, even adjusted for inflation.
I know the manufacturer real well he's a up right fellow.

Jim