Partition failure ?

[HTDUCK]

Over the weekend I had an ODD thing happen.
Still haven't figured this out and wanted to see what you gents thoughts are.

Yesterday morning my buddy's daughter shot a 175 lb Missouri whitetail buck with one of my handloads using a .243 100 gr Partition.
The bullets were 2nds from SPS.
The load is 41.0 grains of IMR4350 and a Fed 210 Primer.
Never chronied it, guessing somewhere in the 3000FPS range?

The deer was broadside at about 80 yards and she center punched him behind the onside shoulder halfway between the belly and the top of his back. Perfect center mass lung shot.
The bullet broke the onside ribs but failed to penetrate through the lungs and out the off side of his chest.

She had to shoot the deer walking away and shot it in the right hindquarter.
That bullet broke the femur, penetrated all the way into the intestines.
No exit hole here either.
We never recovered either bullet.
(didn't look too hard for the 2nd one)

I've had Hornady and Sierra bullets come apart on impact but never a Partition.
I can't believe it did?

Anyone else ever experience anything like this?

 

[GeorgeS]

The bullet broke the onside ribs but failed to penetrate through the lungs and out the off side of his chest.

How exactly did the bullet fail?

The front core of any unbonded partitioned bullet is designed to expand rapidly and often gets wiped away. It is the rear core that punches through (usually).

Did you witness the shot and can confirm the shot presentation as related here? If the deer was angling slightly away, the bullet might very well have gone in at an angle sufficient to make it miss the lungs, especially if it veered off course after contacting the rib cage (sh!t happens).

I shot my first pronghorn (broadside, with it facing right) with a 150 Hornady Interlock from my Mark V .300 Wby. The bullet hit the rear tip of the near side shoulder blade, turned left and traversed the goat lengthwise, exiting the ham near the o-ring. It dropped at the shot; , so I cannot really say the bullet failed. :mrgreen:

George

 

[HTDUCK]

Well George, no I wasn't in the stand. My ace hunting partner was, and his daughter was on the trigger.
I suspect the deer may have been quartering slightly away.
As a result I would think the rear of the bullet would have gone through the off side shoulder.
Not so.
Post mortem, very little damage to the lungs.
The deer lay on the ground for ten minutes then got back up.
His daughter then proceeded to shoot it twice more in the hams as it walked away.
Both of these bullets went well into the intestines and made quite a mess.

 

[GeorgeS]

Based on its getting back up after ten minutes, the projectile(s) clipped the spine.

I presume the stand is elevated, so that shots would be at a downward angle. It would be easy enough to clip one of the spinal processes.

George

 

[Guy Miner]

As a result I would think the rear of the bullet would have gone through the off side shoulder.
Not so.

Sometimes bullets don't penetrate completely through. With the smaller cartridges & bullets, it's really not unusual for even a good bullet to not make it all the way through. I usually see an exit wound from my .25-06, and the 6mm, but not always.

Sometimes the critters just need to be shot again, no matter what bullet is used.

Guy

 

[ScreaminEagle]

I shot a nice buck one time in the neck running with my 7mm-08, using factory Remington 140gr cor-loks. It bit the dust hard. When I got up to it, it had a fist sized hole in its neck! Dead right? Nope. It jumped up and ran away. I had to shoot it in the back of the head to finally kill it. Weird stuff happens sometimes!

 

[Oldtrader3]

Spine hits can stop even really heavy bullets in their tracks. I shot a mule deer in the spine with a 130 grain Partition at about 100 yards and the bullet hit a spinal vertebrae in the chest and went off into space taking two vertebrae with it. I never found the bullet, only a very dead deer.

 

[nosler06]

I am not sure what part you would be referring to as the failure. In the 30+ years that I have used Partitions I can say that I have seen a deer and even elk get up after being hit hard with a 180gr Partition. Like what Guy said some animals will need to have the second shot. There are so many variables. If you have not found an exit hole it is very possible that the bullet may have hit a bone and started to tumble and will be lodged somewhere in the animal. If you really what to have a deer drop dead first shot then a shot from a 600 Nitro with its 900gr bullet should do that trick. The thing is that you will only want to shoot once.

 

[super-7]

You'll have tendency to find bullets not penetrate as far on closer shots as they open up much quicker. With a PT you are more likley to get a pass thru on 200 yrd and up shots( my experence) and on shots say 100 and under you have a better chance of recovering a bullet on the off side. This is generally, as in life nothing is guaranteed . Think about the force of a bullet doing 2900fps slamming into a shoulder bone of a deer? To have the front gone is not surprising .
My nephew has made that same shot on a nice fat mule doe broad side at 40 yrds and we opted for the high shoulder shot as we did not want to track with heavy brush and no snow. The 100 gr Partition punched thru both shoulders and was not recovered. I am a bit surprised her deer got up and needed 2 more shots. I've always felt that the 100 gr PT allowed the 243&6MM to punch above there weight class. But that's just my own personal feeling and expierence .

 

[tjen]

If both lungs were not hit a deer can live hours. I would say the PT worked great from your explanation. it was the shots that were poor.

I have made perfect heart lung shots that dropped deer with in thirty yards. And here is two almost perfect shots say with in two inches of perfect that were not so great.

First a 40 yards lung shot with a 200gr spire point from a 358win. The buck ran only twenty yards stoud still for 45 seconds and dropped. Never found the bullet and did not hit the heartor exit the body cavity. Second a 15 yard shot with the 358/200gr that entered just below the near shoulder blade and exited the far elbow a one lunger. I waighted 35 minute then tracked it. To make it short I watch it loaded by three men that said there was only one bullet in it mine, " but said I would have never found it. It ran 100 yards and dropped in front of one of them.

 

[Oldtrader3]

I have shot elk only to find them 100 yards down the trail, straddle-legged, dead on their feet, still standing. Usually this was with a little less powerful cartridges or bullet weight. The elk were still dead, they just did not know it.

 

[nshunter]

I shot an average size whitetail buck about 150lbs dressed a few years ago with a 100 grain Partition out of my 243 wssm at about 40 yards. The deer was quartering away from me and i put the bullet right behind the front shoulder. The bullet didn't exit and I never did find it, but the deer dropped in it's tracks and the vitals were mush! Not sure if the whole bullet exploded or just the tip, but I was surprized that it didnt exit. In any event it did the job and I wouldn't hesitate to use them again!

 

[Oldtrader3]

Partitions tend to make a mess inside the chest cavity of a deer or elk. This is what they are designed to do, that plus a lot of penetration through the animal by the back half of the bullet.

 

[Guest]

Bullet performance can be a funny thing and every manufacturer is not perfect. The outcome can be contributed to many factors. Angle of shot, placement of shot and was there anything in the bullet flight path before it hit the Deer?

I've killed many deer over the years with mixed results using Hornady and Nosler bullets.

One example was a an averaged sized Whitetail Buck I shot at 65 yds from a tree stand elevated 15 ft. I was using my 30-06 with 150 AB going 3,000 fps. I hit him through the shoulder Blade exiting the ribs on far side. At the shot he took off like I never hit him, giving no indication of a hit, couldn't get a follow up shot off.

This Deer never bled a drop. After searching for a while I found him 100 yds away, dead.
Upon field dressing him I noted his lungs were a mess, the shoulder Blade broken and one rib broken, exiting the deer, but the exit hole was small.

The bullet didn't fail in this case and yes I didn't have a clear shot, I shot through three limbs as I discovered later. The deer was a tough customer too. But it's not always the bullet at fault.

Don

 

[Oldtrader3]

Don, wow, that is a unusual outcome for the AB bullet. My experience with hitting the shoulder blade is to paralyze the deer in his tracks. That just goes to show that each animal and circumstance is different and that is the way it goes with hunting.

 

[Jimbeaux82]

41.0 grs IMR 4350 and 100 gr bullet, probably going closer to 2700 fps than 3000 fps.

 

[Guest]

OT3,
Yes I was shocked but none the less I got him. Love the Nosler offerings we all have access to.

Don