.270Win - 130gr Nosler Partitions

[bewsher500]

The Nosler Partition was 30 years ago what the Barnes is at this moment.

Interesting
What do Barnes do that Partitions don't? (not being facetious, genuinely interested as I have no personal experience of Barnes bullets)

What would be best for Africa (270) 130 grn or 150grn. Hunting Warthog, Impala, Kudu.
Tusker

Driven at factory speeds 130gr will outperform 150gr in every aspect from trajectory to energy delivery right across the range from zero to 300yds

130: http://www.norma.cc/en/Products/Hunting/270-Winchester/Soft-Point/
150: http://www.norma.cc/en/Products/Hunting/270-Winchester/Oryx/

unless you are pushing your 150's very fast compared to factory I personally see no benefit whatsoever. I ditched all my heavier bullets as a result and stuck with 130's

 

[mereside]

Ed i would be interested to know in real terms the 150 grain is giving away 100 ftlbs energy wise across the range but what that equates to on heavier animals will the 150 not be benificial in retaining more weight than the 130 would?, will a 130 grain give an exit on say a boar ,atb wayne

 

[bewsher500]

Ed i would be interested to know in real terms the 150 grain is giving away 100 ftlbs energy wise across the range but what that equates to on heavier animals will the 150 not be benificial in retaining more weight than the 130 would?, will a 130 grain give an exit on say a boar ,atb wayne

In my experience the 150's don't seem to offer a "bigger hit" or provide more exits or bigger wound channels or any of the things I would look for when stepping up in weight or calibre

I like Partitions don't get me wrong, but if you are looking for a bullet that is high on retained weight and will give guaranteed exits they are probably not the ones to choose IMO
They are designed to shed AT LEAST 1/3rd of their weight in losing that front core
In practice I would say they lose more than 1/3rd especially in a higher velocity strike (a round starting at 2700fps impacting at 200yds is not going to expand anything like one starting at 3050fps impacting at 90 yds)


I shot a stag at 35ish yards with a Hornady Interlock just recently.
Its the most expanded bullet I have ever recovered and weighed in at only 80gr (only 60% retained weight)
It still had a decent core left below the interlock ring but had lost all of the core right down to the ring. It didn't exit and was lodged outside the ribs under the skin. Not sure an exit would have caused quicker death though.
Ordinarily the 130gr interlocks are much higher weight retention around 100-110+gr (which coupled with retained velocity is what is required to produce exits IMO)


you could argue that the slower 150gr might retain more of its starting weight and produce better exits but I guess a lot of that will come down to impact velocity and the medium it hits (bone, shoulder etc)


I would say in 25yrs of factory and reload 270 ammo about 1/4 to 1/3 of them have been 150gr, the bulk of the rest were 130gr, made up of either Norma, RWS, Federal, some Winchester and then Nosler, Hornady, Scirocco, Speer and Scierra

Of the 150's I actually used on game I just never felt I was getter bigger bang for the weight. In fact the opposite on some

 

[mereside]

Thanks Ed from my experiences shooting the 270 i was always under the assumption that a bullet recoved from the animal was a good thing as all the energy had been displaced into the animal and was happy ,gamekings for me on reds very rarely had an exit granted they did not step too far afterwards but then having one run put a whole new spin on things as only having a small amount of blood from the entry wound gave very little to look for my mind has been set that i want an exit blood loss surely will have a beast die quicker or at least thats my take on it and if it does move i have an easier time of following up.
I have also had in my mind that shooting things like boar a 150 grain must hold an advantage over the 130 grain for deeper penetration on a tougher beast again just my thoughts, so will ask another question to folks ,how many shoot boar with a 130 grain bullet so i could here your thoughts. dont get me wrong i love the 130 grain bullets and use them nearly all the time the only bullets i have recoverd and that includes sst is the gameking so i have been happy with all others used so far, atb wayne

 

[bewsher500]

i was always under the assumption that a bullet recoved from the animal was a good thing

me too, but then 90% of what I shoot with it is on open ground, tracking does not require blood

the is an analogy in Formula 1 that the best designed car would be the fastest and the engine would blow up as it crossed the finish line
i.e. the minimum amount of engineering to get the job done

same goes for bullets in my scenario, finding one under the skin on the opposite side is the engine blowing up just as it crosses the finish line!

 

[mereside]

yes that makes sence that how i used to build my race engines with a little margin in between as sometimes a race is stopped and re started and then your up s,it creek.
It also makes sence if shooting open hill as you have time to take another shot if needed, this in forestry is not always the case and just wanted to highlight that fact.
It shows matching bullets to quarry and also what you want to achieve out of said bullets for your type of shooting to get the maximum out of it.
Also i would not want to be faced with another sika and worrying that i might not get an exit to cause maximum damage to put the thing down. very interesting, wayne

 

[Hales Smut]

Partitions were many years ago an evolution of the traditional single core bullet. The retained weight was ( in general ) higher, with better and more relaible penetration than the "old" bullets. I agree that the Partitions shed weight. The ones I recovered had about 65% of the original weight. The Barnes (T)TSX is now an evolution of the lead cored premium bullets. The keep about 100% of the original weight. So a 100 grain bullet is a 100 grain brass mushroom smashing through flesh and bone. Do we need it ? Probably not for game the size of the average UK deer. A 150 grain partitions gives a 97.5 grain mushroom after hitting the animal. A cheap single core bullet probably only retains 40/50 % of it's original weight and mostly with a lot more meat dammage.

 

[Yorric]

I think it is all down to back pressure. - A good sized exit wound allows the blood to flow out and away from the vitals freely with little resistance. (Little back pressure) This facilitates more bleeding from the arterial system and logically results in a a quicker death. With just a small entry wound and no exit, it is quite common to get no external bleeding - the wound channel often seals itself. (More back pressure) - Result - Slower death.

This is the main reason why I'm currently working up loads using Barnes TSX & TTSX bullets - 100% weight retention and sharp cutting edges produced on bullet expansion means more reliable exit wounds. - Best practice IMHO.

Ian

 

[bewsher500]

A cheap single core bullet probably only retains 40/50 % of it's original weight and mostly with a lot more meat damage.

but a premium single core (even non-bonded, non-locked) bullet will still retain a much higher percentage of original weight even at reduced range

I have several 130gr Norma (factory) bullets recovered from red deer shot within 100yds many of them are well over 60-70% retained weight.

Expanding solids are not new. They have been around the DG world for some time.

the main reason why I'm currently working up loads using Barnes TSX & TTSX bullets - 100% weight retention and sharp cutting edges produced on bullet expansion means more reliable exit wounds

thats the reason I bought a 300WM!!

 

[Craggan]

If you are interested in some general comments on the partition performance then out of my 308Win I've been very impressed with them in terms of doing a good job on deer though I've not been able to get them quite as accurate as the Hornady Spire Points and am getting a lot less velocity out of the partitions compared to my accurate Spire Point load. I use 150 grain Partitions.

I shoot sika and with the Spire Points had never seen a chest shot sika go straight down without a run, though the 150 grain Spire Point was doing 3000fps and doing lots of damage in the chest. However with the Partitions, at probably only 2700fps, I've been seeing chest shot sika going straight down. Now I can't say every one goes straight down and maybe it is just a matter of a change of luck but so far my experience has been that probably over half of my chest shot sika go straight down now. This saves a lot of crawling about in forestry looking for them and that is a very worthwhile advantage and so at the minute I'm sticking with the Partitions. I also shot one red hind with them and she went down so fast that the stalker with me thought I'd head shot her and was a little taken aback to discover the holes in the chest.

I've also neck shot some sika with them and found that expansion of the front core must have been very rapid indeed - they've all gone straight down as you'd expect and in some cases the only thing holding their heads on was the skin on either side of their neck and there often appears to be several inches of spine that is just "gone" with no trace as to where it went.

I did recover one Partition in a sort of freak shot, it was a downhill shot into the head of a sika stag and the bullet then travelled down the neck where it was located. The bullet appeared to perform perfectly with the front lead core gone in the initial rapid expansion, considerable expansion of the copper jacket and the rear core intact. I will attach some photos:

caorach, thanks for the comments, its very interesting to here the contrast between the two types of bullets used, and I must admit that I never really enjoy watching deer standing for any length of time or even running far - I like them down as quickly and humanely as possible. Thanks also for the pics, they look to have done what they said on the tin,

 

[western woodsman]

In .270 Win 130 grain is best I think to take advantage of the flatter trajectory of a .270 Win- as opposed to 150 gr. I used Nosler Partition extensively in the past in the USA and had good luck with them with no real problems, they do seem to be one of the best penetrating bullets out there. There is one argument from the accuracy obsessives that as the partition bullet is a bit more complex to make that it can not be as accurate as say a Sierra Gameking or Prohunter that have less to go wrong on the tolerance level in manufacture. But we are maybe talking 1" groups versus 1/2" groups. Does it matter on shots out to 200metres? Probably not and maybe the guaranteed penetration is more important.

 

[finnbear270]

Accuracy with a 130 Partition is good for me, 168 yards low neck DRT, my old Sako doesn't have an appetite for anything else in the lead range, But these new copper Barnes thingies are also accurate, when using Ramshot Magnum.

 

[bigscott270]

i have roughly about 200 empty cases in 270 mostly federal some ppu and winchester you can have them if you want pm me if interested cheers big scott

 

[coire257]

I too have used 130gr Bal Tip for years and found them to be super accurate and stopper.