Accubond Performance?

Partitons have worked very well in my .338 WM from point blank range to about 350 yd, which is my self imposed max range.
I have also had good success with them in .308 and .30-06.

So far as I'm concerned, Partitions are a good all around bullet and one of the more cost effective premium bullets.
I don't use anything else for serious hunting. I've used them for 30 yr. I can't think of a better endorsement.
 
We cut the elk up yesterday. Still some wasted meat from cherry bloom, but mostly spots where there gut contents was or could not be washed from the carcass.

As an update, the bullet went through the shoulder blade, but never touched the leg bones. After that, it made the four inch hole in the ribs and deflected/fragmented through the guts and exited in two pieces on the back end of the off side ribs.

What was left is still tasty though :)
 
My cousin dumped a 7pt this season with that Federal Accubond. Same caliber - 300 Win. When we asked him how far the deer ran, he said that the buck fell 2 ft. That deer was maybe 40 yards out when he shot it, so pretty close.

I guess we haven't shot enough of that ammo to find the quirks. I'll keep it in mind though the next time I buy ammo. I have shot my share of the Nosler Partition ammo. Never been disappointed with it.
 
Iosco-Bucks, what bullet weight was your cousin using? Was the shot through the ribs? I've yet to make a boiler room shot with the Accubond - maybe it will perform well if shot at light bone like ribs.

I guess ultimately, shot placement is the most important. I'll try to take taylorce1's advice and avoid the shoulder at ranges less then 100 yards.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!
 
Partitions

Been shooting 180's out of my 300 Wby for 20 years and they have never let me down. It's true the nose of the bullet will fragment away at close range, but the back end will stay together no what.
At over 150 yards I will only take a lung shot. You need to be patient and wait for the lungs to fill with blood before following up. This shot results in no loss of useable meat.
 
I used the Nosler Balistic Tip in my 338/06 for the last 4 to 5 years and never had a deer take a second step. Now no longer made i went to the same weight...180 gr. Accubond. Thought they may shoot a little diffrent so i took what was left of the BTs and the Accubonds (same case, and same load) and shot them side by side. Much to my surprise they shot in the same place. I took a nice 8 point with the 338/06 and the 180s in the Accubond and they did work. It was the first time that i had one run on me, but only about 30 yds and 20 of that there was no blood trail, but when i found it there was blood all over the place the remaining few yards. The shot was just behind the shoulder and was a complete pass threw at around 150 yds. As with the BTs there was nothing left in the boiler room but chunks and blood...worked out O.K. but i do miss the Balistic Tips> The Accubonds are accrute in this rifle and this is just my one experience with them, so i'll try them another season or two or three or...:)
 
Nice gun you got there Strax, what action is your .338-06 on? I have one built on a 1903 Springfield action. I've been using 200 grain Hornady Interlock SP in mine getting MOA accuracy with IIRC 56.5 grains of RL15, don't have my book handy. I've been thinking of stepping up to the 210 Partition as I'll use mine more for elk than deer, I thought about the 200 grain Accubonds but I just like the Partitions so much it is hard to try something new. When I bought the rifle I got a box of 200 grain Nosler B-Tips with it, I've opened the box and looked at them but have never bothered to load them, I know they are not 180's but if you want them send me a PM.
 
Whitefish,

In response to your question, "Iosco-Bucks, what bullet weight was your cousin using? Was the shot through the ribs? I've yet to make a boiler room shot with the Accubond - maybe it will perform well if shot at light bone like ribs." He was shooting 180 grain bullets. The rifle he was using actually belongs to me, but since I couldn't be there for the opener, I let him use it.

Prior to buying that ammo, however, I was using Hornady load in 165gr, which is around the weight I wanted to stay at with that rifle. I took it out to the range before the season and burned up most of what I had left in that box. When I went out looking for another box, I couldn't find any. So, what I ended up doing in picking out this box of Federal Premium in 180s and after re-sighting in with that ammo, I sent him out with it.

According to him, it was a near perfect rib/heart shot. I guess there wasn't much left of it. The deer buckled where he was standing. My cousin didn't mind not having to track it, that's for sure.

Happy New Year to you, too.
 
I definately aim for the lungs when I can. For this last elk, I likley pulled to the right and/or hurried up the shot. I was sitting in a little thicket of spruces and was shooting from a kneeling position. I had a small window to shot through and I didn't even have time to get my see through scope covers off! I suppose I could have tried for a neck shot, but I like the chest. I shot higher beause there were some willows that I had to shoot over.

I knew going into this spot that shots would have been 75 yards at best. I was worried about the Accubonds at short range given my experiences with PowerPoints at short range. The Accubonds may not have deflected if I shot into the ribs, but I don't think I'm going to take that chance again. I'm going to load up some short range loads capped with a tougher bullet (partition, Triple X or A-Frame). I'll still use Accubonds for longer shots (150 yards+), but use the tougher bullets for shorter "timber" ranges.

I think I'll take up taylorce1's advice and stick with the 300 for most of my hunting excusions - close or long range. I'll just match the bullets to the range. And of course, practice, practice, practice. We'll see how those Accubonds work on yotes! :D
 
Been shooting 180's out of my 300 Wby for 20 years and they have never let me down. It's true the nose of the bullet will fragment away at close range, but the back end will stay together no what.
At over 150 yards I will only take a lung shot. You need to be patient and wait for the lungs to fill with blood before following up. This shot results in no loss of useable meat.
Click to expand...

It's not so much of having the bullet stay together - it did stay together. The problem is that it deflected more than 45 degrees and went out the back part of the offside ribs after demolishing the guts. Again, had I hit the ribs, it may have been a different story, maybe not.
 
I think your problem is the speed the Accubond is doing at impact. I believe Nosler says 3100 fps or less on the Accubond at impact. I had the similar problems with the BT in my .257 Weatherby but haven't had the problem with the Accubond if my velocity is slower. If I anticipate a close up shot, I'll use something slower like my .308 or go to a partition or TSX.

CK
 
These were factory Federal loads with 180gr Nosler Accubonds. Published velocity values from Federal website are 2960 f/s at the muzzle (older published data showed this as 3010 ft/s at the muzzle). Using the higher value and my ballastics software, the bullet was likely going between 2900 to 2925 ft/s at 50 yards - under the limit of 3100 ft/s, but not by much.

That said, I agree that the problem is still speed and bullet construction. 180 gr accubonds will not stand up to 300WM velocities at close range. I'm going to try some 220gr partitions loaded to 30-06 velocities and see how bad the groups are.
 
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