nosler partition bullets
 

I just returned from my Colorado hunt were I took a nice 24" mule deer. The shot was 319 yards and I had a rock solid rest. Problem was the hit was just in front of the hind quarters. He went down right away and thrashed around before expiring before I could get another round in him. When we cut him up we found some lead fragments in the area of the wound channel. Is this typical for partitions? Could I have hit some unseen brush just short of my target deflecting the bullet? I checked the gun when I got home and it was dead on. I am really puzzled by the poor shot placement.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE

Partitions are designed to shed the front part of the bullet up to the partition while the back half of the bullet continues on. So having some lead fragments isn't at all unusual. If you want to avoid it go to a bonded bullet like the Accu-Bond. hose are all I shoot in my 7mm Mag these days.

Nice buck and congrats. Lots of things could have happened and that was a pretty long shot. Wind drift, animal moving, animal quartering and thinking it was broadside, or possibly like you suggested a deflection before the target. I always had great game performance on the Nosler Partitians but had trouble with grouping them out of a deer gun and went to something else.

I too found lead fragments from my nosler partition. I think they are designed to fragment; and destroy as they fragment. Not that I'm a ballistics guy, but it worked. The Elk went 30 yards. The base did exit, but only a pencil hole. I'd rather have more blood, but I can't really complain. On deer, using cheap bullets, the exit hole is much larger.

that's the way partitions are designed, halfway back inside the bullet is a copper "H-Mantle" fused to the jacket, the rear core is harder lead protected by the h-mantle, the front of the bullet is a soft pure lead core that as the jacket peels back is desined to come apart as the harder rear core holds its shape and continues to penetrate.
If your running a high intensity cartridge you may be better served by the accubond, its the same bullet as the ballistic tip except the jacket is fluxed, just exactly like a plumber fluxes a copper pipe so the solder sticks to it, the accubond may become a twisted mass of lead and copper but it stays togather and keeps penetrating, they normaly expand to +2x diameter and retain at least 60% of the original weight even on high velocity impacts.
RR

yes and yes

Like Flags and RR posted, the Partitions are designed for the front half of the bullet to open up and fragment through the first section of the wound channel.


For about 20 years my favorite elk bullet for my .30 Gibbs was the 180 grain Partition. Often I would find the expanded back half of the bullet just under the hide on the off side of the elk. All of the lead in the front half of the bullets had fragmented inside the animals.