.243 in Barnes TSX or Nosler Partition??

[Killdee]

That sounds like a winner, and I do agree re the bt's.

 

[cemeteryhill]

Tripple shock. Very accurate. And very devastating. Imp federal. Is a much better quality ammunition

 

[Randy]

Interesting thread. I won a CVA Apex .243 last night at the GA Wildlife Federation dinner. I usually shoot a 7mm-08 but want to try this .243 this year.

 

[AJared]

The TSX works great in .243.

 

[KennesawLawMan]

Remington Premier Core Lokt Ultra 100gr PSP = Dead deer.
It gets the job done, less expensive too.

 

[bigreddwon]

The GMX and the Barnes would be my choice. Devastating every time. From a 22-250 to a 308 Ive used just about everything on deer and hogs. Nothing performs like do. Just expensive, but you do get what you pay for.

 

[NorthGa.Sportsman]

I myself use Nosler partitions and will never use a different bullet again, but I can only tell you it is magic in a 300 saum.I personally do not like holes no bigger than a quarter for the exit wound.Anything bigger to me is overkill.The only way you are going to know what bullet is best for your caliber is to shoot a deer with it and find out.To me penetration is far more important than expansion especially in a smaller caliber like you are shooting.I am fully confident that you would not be disappointed in the NP but it all comes down to what (you) are looking for.Good luck in finding the best set up for your gun!

 

[mtr3333]

E\Remington core lokt will never let you down and your deer will be.

 

[Mangler]

E\Remington core lokt will never let you down and your deer will be.

Yea...unfortunately they have. That's the reason for the post.

 

[pine nut]

Killed I don't know how many deer, 'cause I lost count, with a .243. Never had to track one ...until I started using a N.partition bullet. If I was hunting ELK it would be my choice( in a .243), although I would use a larger caliber, but on a deer it will peretrate both sides with a .243 cal hole and you will have a tracking job! Use a Rem. corelok and put it in his chest and he'll be laying there where you shot him! I much prefer that. There were a good many of use in the club I was in using the .243 and we all experienced the same results with the partition, and my wife lost a nice buck with a 257 Roberts for the same reason. The coreloks will make the lungs look like ground meat the nosler pokes a hole and goes out the other side. I have no experience with the Barnes. As someone else pointed out it is about expended energy, and that is what the corelok does very well. I have no stock in Remington BTW just telling ya my experience. If I made a habit of shooting at the hind end then I would use a Nosler Partition, but I do not. I took an elk in Colorado with a Nosler Partition and though I got the animal, I have not a single doubt in my mind I would not have, had I not just barely nicked the botton of his spine. I was shooting hand loads (very accurate). I had a 7mm hole on both sides of the chest and a 7mm hole through the first of the bottom of a thoracic vertebra (actually a groove about 1/4inch deep). There was no blood in his chest and His lungs were not even brusied! He was alive when I found him and looking back over his shoulder at me. He tried to rise and I put one in his neck after a small circling of him. That elk would have got up and LIVED eventually and I have no doubt of this! I am veterinarian and have treated my share of gunshot animals and shot my share as well. Noboby wants to believe that elk story but it is true! My bullet went just above the aorta and just over the lungs. It was a broadside shot @ 60 yards and he turned and ran and went down about forty yards from the shot in thick cover. I was about fifteen feet from him when I saw him and finished him. Oh yeah I almost forgot to say that had I not found a freshly disloged rock and two specks of blood I would not have found him. There was no blood trail. I found myself wishing I had different bullets! I'd have to examine what I'd use if I went again on elk! I was not pleased with bullet performance in that instance at all! Had it hit a rib going in or out I'd have been better off. I did a postmortem exam on him because I shot twice once to enter on his left side and when he turned I shot again from the right side. One of them missed! He stumbled at the second shot and I have to think that was the one that got him, because I saw dirt fly off of him. I could not determine which was exit and which was entry...gospel truth! YMMV! I am convinced by what I saw and examined!
When I dressed the deer I've shot with a .243, the heart is usually not even still attached in the chest and the lungs are made into a sort of soup and all the blood in in the chest cavity. There is no blood trail and he's Dead Right There! That's what I and others like about them. I will say that I like the nosler Balistictip very much and that is what I use now for deer in the same 7 mm Rem mag rife and .270 and they are DRT too. I do not have an axe to grind with Nosler at all and I use their reloading manual as well. I would be inclined to try the ballistic tip on an elk were I to get to go again , but I would not use the partition. Thought I should add that to be fair to Nosler. They are a fine company.

 

[AlabamaSwamper]

TSX is quite possibly the best bullet ever made for hunting. Of course, I shoot Barnes out of everything including my mzl. 100% kill rate on animals up to near 300lbs without a single shot failing to pass through.

 

[pine nut]

Yea...unfortunately they have. That's the reason for the post.

Don't know your circumstance nor how well you shoot, but if you hit even a tiny (pencil lead sized twig) with a bullet chances are you will miss completely. I have had that happen as well! Don't judge it by a single shot unless you got the proof! I judged the partitions by many experiences , (mine and others that don't usually miss) and found they are not a good bullet for thin skinned animals. Not trying to say anything here but trying to look at things from an accademic standpoint! I once had a doe standing still beside me at twentyfive feet and missed her clean. I found the twig that was clipped at the shot that I could not see through the scope! It was less than a quarter of an inch! It happens! I've hunted for fortyfive years and always been concerned with accuracy, and bullet placement. Just saying and trying to give you my experience. I believe most of the bullets out there designed for penetration will perform about the same as a N. P. on thin skinned animals like deer. Use the right bullet and you will be happier. I hunt with a good friend who uses the partition in .243 for deer and he is convinced it is great! He's also a good tracker! ... I like them to fall right there, and they usually do. I could never convince him to do different!
I will give you another story which involves the .243 Rem CoreLock and a nice buck. I did not recover this deer and there was no blood at all though he fell in his tracks exactly like many others had fallen and were DRT! This deer was walking when I pulled the trigger and was approaching me on a slightly quartering to me angle with my shot placement aimed to enter between rigtht shoulder and neck. At the shot he spun back to the left and went down in his tracks, thrashed and kicked a few seconds and I watched the top foreleg (his right) relax and stop movement. I have killed several this same shot and they all fell and did the exact same thing. I shoot a Ruger M77 with a scope set on low power. At the shot I worked the bolt and watched through the scope as he expired. I could easily have shot again, but knew he was dead! For some reason I decided to load another round into the magazine (it hold five rounds and I still had four in the gun!) At the sound of closing the bolt I thought I saw a slight movement and as I pushed another shell in and closed the bolt the deer rolled to his knees and crawded about two feet as he got up and then he was gone in a flash! He appeared to be running from the side of one tree to another! I was stunned and I looked for that deer until dark. The next morning found me right back there and I continued looking all morning. There was hair all over the ground where he had thrashed on the exposed roots. He was walking up a road as he came towards me before the shot. Since I had found not a drop of blood alongh is trail and was puzzled as to why, I decided to recreate the shot. I looked thourgh the scope while standing in the tracks where I shot from , and I was tracing the imagined deer as he approached me. I track along right to the bullet hole in a six inch white oak, center punched with a fresh hole! Further examination showed the bullet did penetrate that tree but could only have been dust!) as it hit the deer! That sucker foxed my proverbial (J.S.) pure and simple, but the mystery was solved. This was a long time ago before there was such a thing as a Partition bullet! I always shot the 100 gr .243 BTW.
One of the best hunter's in my club, told us one morning that if we were listening at 8:00 the next morning he was going to shoot a buck in the left eye at that time. We thought he was full of it until he did it! He was an expert deer hunter if there ever was one and he had a buck patterned as to where ,when, and how he bedded, and he called his shot! He would often kick his shoes off when stalking a deer and trust me we would often find them all over the woods we hunted. He was probably the best shot and deer hunter I've ever seen. Heaven only knows how many deer he's shot, and BTW when he started using the Partition in his .243 we had to track them too. He quit using them also. Ok I will shut up now! Sorry to be long winded, but I usually am. My rifle would cut a ragged hole off a bench at 100 yards. again just saying, and I don't have a dog in this fight. I've nothing to gain or lose herein.

 

[dtala]

I've personally killed several dozens of deer with Nosler Partitions in .243, 6mm, 264WM, 270Win, 30/06, and 300WM. They have, for me, outperformed any other bullet I've used over the years, across the board, at every distance, every shot angle one could shoot a deer at. Period.

Now my neighbors son-in-laws best friends wife shot one with a NP and lost it, so they may not be as good as my experience tells me.

troy

 

[NorthGa.Sportsman]

I also want to add that I have shot a lot of deer with the NP and 90% have dropped like a sack of potatoes and I am not taking shoulder shots.No deer I have ever shot with the NP have ran over 30 yards.I have shot one dear with a core lokt in 7mm08 lung/liver shot no exit wound no blood trail and never used them since.

 

[tbrown913]

i just started to use the barnes ttsx in my .270 this year. i have used the tsx and ttsx in my 12 ga slug gun. the slugs are overkill! i had one run last year after being hit with the slug. double lung shot at about 75 yards. i was walking to my stand that afternoon, and spooked her. she stopped broadside after running fifty yards. I shot her, and she went about 50 yards. the blood trail looked like you took a paint roller and dipped it in blood. I can handle deer running with that kind of blood trail!

 

[gurn]

TSX
Good for treerat ta Moose. But they sure aint cheap.

 

[dadsbuckshot]

So I just spent a small fortune on 2 boxes of the Federal NP in 100gr. From reading the comments on here I gather that it was a mistake from the deer hunting standpoint.

 

[NorthGa.Sportsman]

So I just spent a small fortune on 2 boxes of the Federal NP in 100gr. From reading the comments on here I gather that it was a mistake from the deer hunting standpoint.

Apparently you are not reading all the comments.As I and several others have said they are great bullets!

 

[RipperIII]

Never shot a .243, so I'm probably not qualified to answer, but in my .270 out to 200yds both the partition and gmx are clean pass through rounds even through both shoulders.
The gmx is devastating.

 

[dadsbuckshot]

Apparently you are not reading all the comments.As I and several others have said they are great bullets!

So - will .243 with the Federal NP 100gr. kill a hog/bear if the opportunity arose? Not that I am going out looking for that in particular, but if one of those crossed the deer trail in your opinion would it work as advertised?

I know your a huge fan from the comments, but others are more on the original issue asked.