Now I have been touting the Nosler Partitions as the example of "perfect expansion" bullet for a MLer, but even Noslers can fail (in rilfe bullet, not ML speed):
http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/index.php/t-9257.html
These were rifle bullets, again pushed too fast too close. But the back and forth on this thread was very interesting on what bullets hold together. Note what the recommend. Bottom line, at ML speeds, the Nosler Parttion hold together, penetrates, never fragments even hitting big bone, and gets into the Vitals---remember what Ian McMurchy said for getting into the vitals, a big bullet going slower. I figure that the 300g is a big bullet, and I can get into the vitals if I take a 150 yard shot and hit the shoulder by mistake. The only down side is cake shots on small deer blow right thru causing a tracking problem, usually not that far, but better to shoot for the off side shoulder.
So PB for cake shots broadside
difficult quarting shots stayuse a good expanding bulletthat is well constructed.
Current issue (Dec 2007)of "Guns and Ammo Magazine", Craig Boddington in an article title "Tipped and Bonded", pages 26 and 27 says the following:
"There is a growing class of bullets designed to both expand and penetrate. This is perhaps the most difficult thing for a bulletmaker to achieve because these are two diametrically opposed concepts. Expansion creates more resistance and thus limits penetration. Alhough you con't have it all, there are some very good "comprimise" bullets that do a darned good job. The first of these was John Nosler's Partition. It stood almost alone for expansion adn penetration: The front part expands fairly quickly; the back half, almost like a mini-solid, continues to penetrate even if much of the front part is wiped away by friction".
Further down he says:
"Those we recoved were just plain gorgeous for those who think recoved bullets with consistent mushrooms and long shanks are thing of beauty)."
So the ideal bullet is (see Barnes bullet from their web site):
1) expanded fully open at the head
2) holding nearly 100% of weight, over 90% is ideal
3) long shank
NOT Pancake. The PB shown above is "pancake", allow massive wound channel where it open up, if that was behind a rib your into the vitals and your gold, if that was a large bone or a shoulder, then you have got a wound on the surface fo the skin on a deer and no kill and no blood trail, since here was not massive internal damage to get a blood trail. So Boddington believes "gorgeous bullets" are long shank, perfect mushroom--bullets in the Nosler AccuBond, Hornady InterBond and Swift Sciroco. Us MLer don't have the bullet selection that the CF guys have, but we are getting there. I hope this helps educate what "gorgeous bullet" means, it does NOT mean pancake because Pancake is a tad short of fragmentation and why you find so many bullets fully expanded on the off side under the skin, they have no more energy left to punch thru the skin and out the other side.
Chap Gleason
