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Did that bullet smash through vertibrates all the way up or did it travel under the skin some?

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How did your Nosler Partition fail you last year? You mention you got the Elk?

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I went on an elk hunt in New Mexico last month. I shoot a 35 Whelen that I built several years ago specifically for elk hunting. I have for the last few years loaded the 225 gr. Partition over 58 grs. of Varget attaining a velocity of around 2700 fps according to my chronograph. I have killed a couple of whitetails with it simply because I wanted to get some use out of it, but until this year had never gotten a shot at an elk.
The evening of the first days hunt I got a shot at a nice mature bull at around 75 yds. He had just stepped out of the timber and was grazing. He lifted his head and craned it around to the left to look behind himself. When he did, I placed the crosshairs at the juncture of his neck and shoulder. My thought was I'll either, a) spine him, b) the bullet will angle back through his left lung and exit, or c) penetrate through and break his left (far) shoulder. I fired and the bull bolted out into the meadow and ran a little semi-circle back into the timber. I took a running shot at him, but shot over him. I wasn't worried because I was certain I had hit him. I decided to wait a bit before going after him. While I was gathering my things, I heard him cough, and then heard limbs break. I figured he'd fallen. I went to where he was when I shot (he had been standing in snow) and found a few drops of blood that, judging from the location of the blood relative to the tracks, had come from the entrance wound. I saw no evidence of the bullet exiting (blood, hair, etc. in the snow). Also, when the bull ran he showed no evidence of a broken shoulder. I easily tracked him into the timber and not far in the timber I found where he'd stopped and bled some, but no bull. The pattern of the drops of blood looked as though they had dripped from his mouth/nose. My father and I looked until past dark with no luck. We returned the next day and followed the blood trail until it played out then combed the timber for another 2-3 hours with still no luck. We did find more blood, and it too appeared to have dripped from the mouth and/or nose.
I was very disappointed that the bullet hadn't exited or at least broken his off shoulder. I feel that had the bullet exited the bull, he would have bled more and perhaps died more quickly. I'm still sick about losing that bull.
Three days later I got a shot at another bull. I jumped him out of a large bowl/meadow area, at around 10,500' elevation, took a running shot at him at a little under 100 yards as he quartered away from me. I saw him flinch at the shot, yet he ran on up the side of the bowl and stopped behind a little string of timber. Where he stopped, a very large aspen tree mostly obscured him. I sat down and got all wrapped up in my sling and waited for him to step out. He was now at what I'd guess was 200-225 yards. When he stepped out, I shot him again behind the left shoulder at which time he went down.
Sounds good, huh? It was late, so I snapped a few pictures, gutted him, and left. Next day we came back to skin, quarter and pack him out. Contrary horses, snow, equipment, etc. threw us late getting back to him so I wasn't able to thoroughly search for the bullets. Both had entered behind his left shoulder, within a couple of inches of each other, and angled forward and stopped ahead of the right shoulder. Neither exited which, again, disappointed me.
I have used Partitions quite a bit, but always in smaller calibers and on whitetail. In my experience, they completely penetrate deer from any angle 90% of the time. I personally am all in favor of TWO outlets for bleeding.
RickF the picture of the North Fork bullet is inspiring, however Dave Scovill, editor of Rifle and Handloader magazine wrote an excellent article on premium bullets. He pointed out that bullets which expand and make a nice, large mushroom do not penetrate as well as those such as the Barnes �X� or the Winchester Fail Safe. He pointed out that when the bullet expands in this manner, the sectional density is effectively lowered hence reducing penetration.
I am currently in search of a bullet that will penetrate more deeply without the sacrifice of lower B.C. and velocity (hence, a more arched trajectory). I bought a box Barnes Triple Shock "X" 225 gr. And thus far am pleased. The first four, four shot groups all stayed within 1", with 3 shot clusters in each group going under 1". This, all without load development. I used Re15 and velocities started out at around 2550. By working up 1 grain at a time, I was able to achieve 2722 fps with the last load. I have high hopes for this bullets. Now, let's just hope I draw an elk tag next year!!
-35 Whelen