180 gr. Woodleigh or Partition for elk?

[rickt300]

Which would you choose and why? I am trying to decide which to take elk hunting this year.  Rifle will be either a 30-06 or a 300 Winchester magnum.

[Redhawk1]

I would use Barnes myself.  

[Graybeard]

Nosler PT is still the standard to which others are compared. The Woodleigh is an excellent bullet but harder to come by and more expensive. You never go wrong chosing the PT. I've tried the Barnes in a lot of guns and so far have never found a load accurate enough to take hunting. Gave up on them.

[Redhawk1]

Nosler PT is still the standard to which others are compared. The Woodleigh is an excellent bullet but harder to come by and more expensive. You never go wrong chosing the PT. I've tried the Barnes in a lot of guns and so far have never found a load accurate enough to take hunting. Gave up on them.

Wow  :?  is all I can say. I have found the Barnes bullets extremely accurate in my guns. I use them in my 243, 300 WM, 375 H&H, 416 Rigby, 44 Mag, 454 Casull and 500Mag. I even use them in my 45 Cal Muzzleloader. Accuracy and performance is great.  

[rickt300]

The only Barnes bullet I have used was a 225 grain 338 bulllet. I got good accuracy but zero expansion on the only elk I used it on. As to Nosler partitions I got great accuracy but poor performance from my 6MM Reminhgton and very poor accuracy from the 200 grain Partition in my very accurate 300 Win Mag. Now if I can get good accuracy and performance from the Woodleigh bullets and don't have to waste much cash on testing I will come out ahead even if the bullets cost more.

[Redhawk1]

The only Barnes bullet I have used was a 225 grain 338 bulllet. I got good accuracy but zero expansion on the only elk I used it on. As to Nosler partitions I got great accuracy but poor performance from my 6MM Reminhgton and very poor accuracy from the 200 grain Partition in my very accurate 300 Win Mag. Now if I can get good accuracy and performance from the Woodleigh bullets and don't have to waste much cash on testing I will come out ahead even if the bullets cost more.

Did you recover the bullet and see there was not expansion? I just took a Water Buffalo with my 416 Rigby using a 300 gr. Barnes X and recovered the bullet in the exit side of the hide, and it was a perfect mushroom. The exit whole in the shoulder did not look real big but both shoulder's on the buffalo were destroyed.

Personally I get poor accuracy with Nosler Partitions. I tried to work up a load for my 300 Win Mag and my bullets were all over. I will stick with Barnes X and Barnes bullets for all my hunting.  

[rickt300]

The 225 grain barnes was an early version and sung thru with what appeared to be little destruction. The elk was recovered though it had to be shot again and the hunt turned into an Olympic event. I alsohad a similar event with the same rifle and a250 grain Sierra boat tail.

[crow_feather]

rickt300,

As GB said, accuracy is more important than the bullet design of these two bullets.  If you shoot an elk with either one and hit it where you are supposed to, there is no difference, the elk will be dead.

An elk might drop faster with one bullet over the other, but not so your going to notice.

C F

[Lawdog]

Graybeard,

I've tried the Barnes in a lot of guns and so far have never found a load accurate enough to take hunting. Gave up on them.

You really need to forget about your experiences with the old X bullets(even the XLC's) and give the newer TSX bullets a try.  You won't have any of the problems you had with the X bullets.  The old X's could and were very finicky about seating depth.  Some could get them to shoot very well and others couldn't get them to shoot at all.  Not so with the TSX.  Accuracy is the best I gotten from any hunting bullet and they out penetrate heavier weight bullets in the same caliber.  Thus you end up with a flatter shooting load.  I am loading the new 165 gr. .308 caliber TSX’s in all my .30 caliber rifles, standard or magnums.  They out penetrate the 180 gr. Nosler Partition and give better accuracy.  Lawdog
 

[rickt300]

Well after years of shooting Speer Hotcor bullets and Hornady interlocs I have decided as I am not getting any younger to order some of each and see how they perform. Not that I ever had any problem with the old standby's. Going to pass on the TSX bullets this year though.