Nosler Partition 30cal 180gr performance in question.

[ANARCHIST]

My son & I loaded up some Partitions for the first time for this deer season, we have always used Sierra BTSP with ok performance on whitetail in NY & Pa.

Long story short, I hit a decent sized whitetail broadside close to 300yds, the bullet hit a rib on way in damaged both lungs and stopped in the far lung.

We recovered the bullet, I must say I am really unimpressed with the performance, not sure what happened but the alloy core is gone from the front & rear sections of the projectile. I will weigh it & post pictures.

Just not something I would expect from the reputation of this bullet and on a lung shot to lose the core? We had hoped the bullets would work for black bear but I am really questioning the integrity of these.

Load was 84gr 7828 - fired from a factory Win70 26in

My son I am thinking 108gr Retumbo with same Nosler 180gr which I imagine will be much worse on impact.

 

[Frank in the Laurels]

Question the integrity of a time tested bullet like the partition ?? I've never heard of anyone in 50 years of reloading questioning it's integrity ! I've shot a railroad car full of whitetails with a 140 grain 7 mm bullet at 3100 fps and have never recovered a single bullet even those that smashed both shoulder blades, never recovered one. How you managed to stop 180 grain one in a whitetail is beyond me. Countless animals from small game to grizzly /moose have been taken with that bullet and for the most part I've never heard a single complaint about performance, from every continent on Earth. 300 yards away will surely slow down a bullet but not enough to cause it to fail, if anything it would cause it to stay together and penetrate even further, a little whitetail rib would offer very little resistance even at 300 yard velocity. Obviously something happened, are you sure you had the right amount of powder in there, things happen at times when reloading, did the bullet pass through some unseen object, like a tree branch before hitting the deer..at 300 yards, say the velocity was down to 25/2600 fps, the core certainly would not fail at those velocities. Maybe you just got a bad bullet but to do it over and over doesn't sound right to me...the bullet is designed not to go past the middle of the H ...that's the idea, so that it can be driven forward no matter what happens to the front..

 

[ANARCHIST]

Actually we have recovered a few 30cal Sierra 165 btsp from several different guns using a similar charge of 7828.

I have a shoulder hit from a very large NY 10pt at around 100yds I recovered just under the skin on far shoulder some years back,the core held with the jacket.

Will post some pictures & data later today.

 

[AZShooter]

You never mentioned what you are shooting. The powder charge weights indicate that this is a very large capacity 30 caliber cartridge, perhaps the 300 RUM?

I would suggest you switch to the 200 gr nosler partition or the 200 gr accubond. I have only had one of those bullets stop in an elk when fired from my 300 RUM at approximately 3200 fps with over a dozen animals taken. The one time was at 560 yds with bullet penetrating 20" of animal, found it under the skin on opposite side. It would definitely go through a whitetail at any angle. Plus the slightly slower velocity would help keep the bullet together.

 

[Laelkhunter]

My hunting partner always used 180 partitions out of his .300 Weatherby, using factory ammo. He never had a penetration problem, with no bullets ever being recovered. He used it on 9 Bulls before he gave up Elk hunting. Most of his shots were between 100 and 200 yards.The partition is designed to shed the front part during penetration, but it should hold together (rear core), and if recovered will have little lead left on the front portion, but rear portion should still be intact.
I have never seen a partition lose the rear core. Please post pictures when you can.

 

[Edd]

I have recovered empty Nosler Partition jackets from Antelope shot at 2-300 yards. They were 85 gr 6mm from a 6mm-280. 100 gr Partitions from a 25-05 under the exact same conditions would always pass thru. With either cartridge the Antelope fell dead at the spot.

 

[SansSouci]

Anarchist,

I've shot mule deer and elk with Partitions. They have performed as advertised. I've killed a HUGE trophy bull elk with one 160 grain Partition fired from my 24" barreled 7MM Rem Mag. He was dead standing up.

My advise is for you to call Nosler tech department. A service specialist there will help you.

Just a thought: a .308 Win might be a better choice for your hunting applications.

 

[LeePaHunter]

I have been shooting 165gr partitions out of my 300 SAUM and never recovered a single bullet. I have shot whitetails and black bears with it with phenomenal success. Even dropped a bull elk in Colorado two years ago out at 350 yards with a pass through both shoulders. I have never had bad luck with this bullet. Everything I shot dropped either on spot or within 20 yards. I have never heard anyone unsatisfied with this bullet.

 

[toddc]

Truthfully, the whole story sounds very weird.
I am assuming the rifle was a 300 win mag with the charge used. The 108gr charge referenced was your sons and you drove 84gr.
Is it possible the deer was actually shot with a 300 Blackout and a 125 SMK?
That is the difference in performance level you are talking about.
Unless the doe weighed 1500 lbs I can't in any way see this happening without a severe manufacturing defect. Like "OOPS forgot to put core in bullet".
Any 180gr 308 running that much powder would pass thru a chest shot 99% of the time. A bullet like the Partition would be 100% of the time.
You said the bullet only penetrated 1 rib, a lung and then stopped in the far lung. A lung is about as good as AIR at stopping a bullet. I have killed thousands of critters (shot control 15 yrs), and I have never found a bullet in a lung that I can remember. They are about 95% AIR. Found plenty of bullets stuck under the hide or even stuck in ribs but not in a lung.
I can't give you an answer for what happened. I can pretty much assure you that the odds of it happening again is about 1 million to 1 unless you have a box of bullets with no cores. That would be about the only way that what you described could occur.

 

[ANARCHIST]

i been hunting since 1977 I do not post much, but when something very unexpected happens I feel its worth sharing with fellow shooters.

My boy has an auccumark 30-378, i have a win70 CRF 300wby killed many whitetail over the years with this cal since the 80's - yeah I have plenty of rifles and a few years experience.

The core is gone from the rear as well as the front, no the jacket did not disintegrate as one would expect - what the _ell happened here? the penetration situation has been in my experience we recover more with deer shot with the wby than say a 7.62 or 30-06 using same bullets, just what i have seen over the years.

here are a couple pictures along with the receipt on one of my digital powder scales it retained 61.5gr of the 180 which some may be gore.

Sorry had to use my wife's image hosting.


FREE eBay image gallery | JPEGbay.com

 

[ANARCHIST]

Here are 2 more 165's Sierra recovered from a large NY 10pt and the other my son recovered from a smaller Pa 8pt at the time he had a MkV 26in 300, the load being 73.5 of 7828 according to the envelope.

Just thought I would share yes bullets are recovered & most of the time bullets perform well, these Sierra's must of been clocking around 3200-3300 fps on impact at 100yds - they held up well in my opinion smashing both shoulders.

 

[toddc]

i been hunting since 1977 I do not post much, but when something very unexpected happens I feel its worth sharing with fellow shooters.

My boy has an auccumark 30-378, i have a win70 CRF 300wby killed many whitetail over the years with this cal since the 80's - yeah I have plenty of rifles and a few years experience.

The core is gone from the rear as well as the front, no the jacket did not disintegrate as one would expect - what the _ell happened here? the penetration situation has been in my experience we recover more with deer shot with the wby than say a 7.62 or 30-06 using same bullets, just what i have seen over the years.

here are a couple pictures along with the receipt on one of my digital powder scales it retained 61.5gr of the 180 which some may be gore.

Sorry had to use my wife's image hosting.


FREE eBay image gallery | JPEGbay.com

Weird things happen. I have had bullets hit and come right back by me so you never REALLY KNOW what 180grs of anything will do when it hits any kind of target. The Partition has a great rep and design but shoot anything in millions of different impacts and just about anything can happen. Just ask the Warren Commission.

 

[TOM H]

Actually we have recovered a few 30cal Sierra 165 btsp from several different guns using a similar charge of 7828.

I have a shoulder hit from a very large NY 10pt at around 100yds I recovered just under the skin on far shoulder some years back,the core held with the jacket.

Will post some pictures & data later today.

Why don't you call Nosler. I'm sure they like to see that bullet.

 

[LoneTraveler]

Never seen a Nosler Partition react that way. Is it possible the bullet hit a twig before it hit the deer? Or when the bullet hit the rib it tumbled instead of straight penetration. I have killed 2 bear and several deer with 270 Win. and 130 and 150 gr. Nosler Partitions. Recovered 1 130 gr. from a pine tree 30 ft. behind the bear. Killed a moose with 338 WM and 225 gr. Nosler partition. A called in bull, The bullet penetrated 8 inches of shoulder,, broke 2 ribs going in the chest, through chest broke a rib going out and into an Ontario beaver pond.

2 180 gr. Nosler partitions, 2 Caribou, Both DRT. Full Penetration.

With a 300 WSM at 220 yds. I put a 180 gr. Nosler Partition into a 7X7 bull Elk, broadside, Full penetration.
The 2nd shot went just in front of the right hind leg and was recovered from the left shoulder. After about 4 ft. penetration. Perfect mushroom. The base has a knot on it where the back core was trying to go forward faster than the mushroomed front. The only bullet I have recovered from any animal.