Nosler Partition or Accubond?

[john in jax]

I bought a new Ruger in .308 this summer and liked the accuracy I was getting out of GA Arms 150grn Ballistic Tips, but I shot a pig in the head (just below and forward of the ear) last Friday and was disappointed in the penetration. It looks like the bullet hit the pig's cheekbone and exploded, doing a lot of damge in the first 2-3 inches but absolutely nothing after that. There was no exit wound, and I couldn't find any bullet left in the poking around I did.

That pig went down right there, but a bigger pig (that happend to try and escape right at me) took a round in the front/chest and another in the side/chest and never slowed down. They were hits - the pig jolted but never went down. That big sow never laid down, and the sparse blood trail we were following just slowly petered out after 600-700 yards.

The place I'm hunting is eat up with pigs, so I'm thinking of switching to the 180 grn Nosler Partition or Accubond, any body tried these?

 

[zeisloft]

I have had excelent results with partitions on hogs with calibers ranging from .224 up to .308. Have not tried the others. Generally speaking all pass throughs, a few large (350#+) have kept ahold of the lead, usually with in an inch or two of the far side, however, these were shots through the plate. The above hogs were shot with 139 gn bullets through a 7-08 at moderate velocity (2800ish fps). Pretty sure a heavier bullet would have better medicine for a through and through. I now carry some Barns X that shoot to the same POA, however, I have not encountered and big pork to try them on yet. Let us know how it works.
~z

 

[Wild Bill Bucks]

John
I am a dedicated Nosler and Combined technologies user. Re-load My own.
Have found through years of shootin that rule of thumb for Ballistic tip ammo
is small to medium game(Grounhog to Whitetail)
Partition and accubond both are excellent choices for Larger game at about
180 grains and up.
Would not shoot Porkers with anything less.
I am presently shootin a Ruger 77 with Shileen competition barrel customized to shoot 150 to 168 grain CT Lubalox Ballistic tip bullets.
Loading .308 cal. with 47.5 grains of Varget with Winchester Brass and
Magnum primers from Winchester behind a 150 grain CT Ballistic tip bullet.Gives me around 2900 to 3000 fps and shoots a 1.5" rise and fall to 200 yards.
If I were going to be doing a lot of porker pounding I would
take that load to about 45 grains behind a 180 grain Partition and go make HAM.

 

[Tom Matiska]

+ on Nosler's Partions except for the 170 in a 308. Front half of the 170 is designed to work at 30-30 velocities. The time I tried them in my 308 on bambi, I wound up taking a point blank range shot that resulted in lots of purple jelly and not the penatration you want for pigs. My bad, not Nosler's.

 

[john in jax]

I don't reload, yet, so I've got to choose a factory load. Right now the two leading candidates are both Federal.

P308G 180grnNP at about 2600fps (muzzle)

P308E 180grnNP at about 2700fps (muzzle)

I don't know enough about the Accubond, Barnes Triple-X, or Trophy Bonded Bear Claw bullets to choose them over the Nosler Partitions.

 

[Long Path]

I was looking at Federal. If they're the same bullet internally, I'd say go for the lower velocity one. If the P308G (the faster one) uses a heavier-constructed bullet, I'd go with it. I note that Federal claims the E variety is for "Medium Game", while the G variety is for "Heavy Game." Hmm.

Winchester also offers two .308 180g loads, but sadly neither is the FailSafe bullet. They do have a nice Failsafe in 150g that would make a nice all-around load for deer and the occasional chance hog, but if you're loading for hog, I agree that 180s are the way to go. Winchester has 180s in both the Silvertip and the Power Point. Frankly, the Silvertip looks like the better of the two:

 

[Long Path]

Remington also has three 180g choices loaded for .308:

 

[Wild Bill Bucks]

Any of the factory listed ammunition listed by the other guys would be good choices. If your not into re-loading, it's as good as you can do.
If your rifle shoots factory ammo to your satisfaction, thats great, but
your accuracy can be Greatly improved if you get into re-loading your own because you can customize your ammunition to YOUR particular needs.
RCBS has a nice starter kit at about $200.00 and change, and if you shoot very much you can save a ton of money , and create a fun hobby for yourself at the same time.
NOW THAT I'VE DONE ALL THAT ADVERTISING
any of the 180's you choose will shoot something like this from your .308
Zero at 35 Yards will put you 1/2" high at 50 yards 1"high at 100 yards Dead on at 150 yards and 2" low at 200 yds and 6" low at 250 yards.
I shoot a 77 Ruger with 24" barrel so this should be pretty close.
By sighting in at 35 yards it keeps your trajectory to a 3" rise and fall out to 200 yards which is pretty good for hamsters.
Hope all this helps.