No doubt the Nosler Partition is a great bullet, probably the best lead-cores SP hunting bullet ever made. That being said, I like Barnes. I had the same skepticism about the ability of Barnes X bullets to open up quickly enough to create a good wound channel, especially as lower velocities. But if you get the chance (and have a high speed connection because the videos are big), go over to the Barnes website and check out the video they have there of a 180 gr bullet fired from a .308 hitting 10% ballistics gel at 2000fps, which is roughly 300 yards from a typical .308 Winchester. The TSX expands fully in less than 2" of penetration and then fully penetrates the block. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that a Partition under the same circumstances wouldn't do the same (honestly, I don't know). Even assuming it performs identically, it's still going to shed weight, which means lead fragments in your deer that can be impossible to fully remove from the meat and wind up in the final product often in particles that are too small to see or feel. At standard ML velocities (1500-1900 fps), lead frag isn't as major a problem, but start pushing the ML bullets to 2000fps+ (easily achievable with modern ML's and ML propellants) and any of those lead core bullets are going to shed weight, including the Partition. The Barnes, being all copper, seem to retain 95%+ of their weight even at ultra-high velocity and at velocities below 3000fps often retain 100%, and being copper, the tiny amount of shed metal isn't going to be harmful to anyone, in fact, copper is a vital nutrient in our bodies that only becomes toxic in very large doses. So I just feel better about feeding my kids lead-free venison (and they LOVE venison! ) Starting next year all of my hunting will be with Barnes bullets. Because I have confidence they'll perform through the entire practical range of velocities, whether I'm shooting them out of my 10ML-II with a mild 1800fps load or out of my 257 Wby at a full-throttle 3600fps. They always give me good to excellent accuracy in every rifle I've tried them in, and most importantly, my young kids (4, 2 and newborn) won't be eating lead as they wolf down venison in massive quantities.

As for the Lehigh bullets, they might be worth a try. I wonder though if the brass, which is harder than both pure copper and guilding metal, will expand adequately on game. It they do, and the costs are comparable or better, I wouldn't object to giving them a try.

Mike