AccuBond vs Ballistic Tip vs Partitian

Which is best for Whitetail and Hogs? 243 Winchester.

95 SST hits hard and it’s what I use. All 3 you listed are good choices. Shoot whatever the gun likes best.

Accubond and there easy to hand load, they shoot small in just about any gun.

I like the Partitions or accubonds for the 243. BT will work well just destroy more meat if it is hit than the other two, plus I like an exit wound

The BTs enjoy a great reputation, but because hogs come in such great variety in size I think Partitions and Accubonds are a better choice when pork is the object of intetest.

I have both accubonds and bt loaded for my 243 and wouldn't feel uncomfortable with either. I shoot pigs in the ear/neck/face area so it really doesn't matter which one gets used. Just remember if you go bt route stay off the shoulder.

Apparently the only difference 'tween an AB & and a BT is the bonding agent that hold the lead core inside the gilding metal jacket more better in a AB. As said earlier though I'd stay off shoulder bones with a BT, while you have a better chance of deeper pentration using an AB on larger critters at up close high velocities, IMO.

The Partion is a whole 'nuther animal, using a dual chamber lead core, with a very soft front end that is designed to expand rapidly and will by design loose the front end to gain that larger frontal expansion on larger critters or on bone impacts, while the "copper "bridge" that seperates the front chamber from the rear chamber of the lead core, will hold togther and drive the remaining larger rear lead core thru the target for deeper penetration... a Tried and True Classic design....but not quite as accurate IMO as the single core AB/BT's if you are into shooting flyspec sub MOA groups, but certainly adequate for game shots on any critter larger than a fox squirrel for head shots at + yardage's.

The AB & BT's are an updated design from the original less expensive "Red Box" Flat Base Soft Point's, with the larger caliber's BT's using a heavier jacket...dunno what the 243 uses though.

FWIW I am still successfully shooting some FBSP's, for both accuracy and on game performance, out of the small inventory I bought from the Nosler Pro Shop out of the last run of some 130 gr'ers that were offered only in a 270 about 10-12 years ago. The large mature cull WTail buck I shot this month had a #2 pencil sized entry in the high shoulder crease area and a bit larger than a .25 cent piece exit at around 100+ yards, and gives me MOA'ish groups in some 5-6 year old leftover ammo that was loaded for practice ammo to a basic recipe printed on the Hodgdon label....and were about 1/3rd the price of a Ballistic Tip at todays prices.
Ron

I'd go accubond/partition for hunting anything bigger than coyotes in a 243.

I’ve killed quite a few deer with 100 gr Nosler BTs in my 260. Also killed more than a few hogs. After a few years I ramped up to the 120gr BTs. Both bullet weights are deadly on deer and hogs (i’m a heart/lung shooter), but neither often exit a medium sized hog. They both blow through a deer of any size, so good blood trails, if needed, are available.

So...if you are shooting hogs with a 243, I think i’d use the Accubond if you want an exit. And the Partition should work great too, but I hate to give up the accuracy. If you are a BT shooter like me, the Accubond should be useable without any changes to scope settings (though I can’t personally swear to that).

All that said, if you shoot a big hog in the lungs with a Nosler BT, it will die and it won’t go too far before doing it. I can most certainly attest to that. But you probably won’t get an exit, if that matters to you.

Thanks for all the help. The AccuBond is only in 90 grain for the 243. The partitian is in 95gr and 100gr. I already have a box of 95 gr partitions. Haven’t tried them yet. I think I’ll get the 100gr Partitian and then compare them to my 95gr and see which I like better after one year.

I’ve been shooting Sierra SPBT 100gr in my reloads. Pretty accurate but I’m wanting to see something better. I don’t like the small blood trails I’m getting when tracking. I’ve lost a lot of hogs in our thick brush due to not much blood trail.

Edit: I edited it to make sense.

100 grain partitions are bad medicine. I have been shooting 100 grain sierra prohunters for a few seasons out of a 243 and it has been pretty good too, but once they are gone, they are gone.

Redchevy's advice is spot on. For on game performance, the partitions, in my experience, are as good as it gets. For a hunting round, if I can get adequate accuracy, they are my first choice. In my opinion they offer the most reliable combination of expansion and penetration available.

Over 70 years ago John Nosler had a bad experience with a standard cup and core bullet of the day failing while hunting moose. He decided he could build a better bullet and the result was the first Partition bullets. The following year him and his hunting partner killed the first two moose with one shot each using his machined partitions. From that Nosler bullet company was formed. The partition 2 cores front and rear were originally milled out and a relief groove milled over the partition to relieve pressure much like Barnes did years later with the TSX.

Later the partition was changed to be drawn each direction more in the conventional manufacturing method.

So a failure of a bullet on moose caked in mud left us with the original premium bullet all others are judged by.

The next bullet Nosler did was the old red boxed solid based bullet which has a thicker base than the standard cup and core bullets and were pointed soft point bullets in most cases except ones for lever actions which were flat points. Until the Trophy bonded bear claw and 60gr partition the 60gr red box solid base was my favorite bullet in the 223 and 22-250 for deer. Still have a box of the reds on the shelf.

The Ballistic tips original bullets were the Solid base with a hollow point bullet having a poly tip installed in the hollow point and advertised as a long range hunting bullet. Long range for the day was generally accepted as 3-500 yards and they did well at that but were quite expansive at shorter ranges in many calibers popular a the time. I started reloading them in 1985 and they never let me down in the 7mm-08 for kills but shoulder shots were messy. A neck shot doe with those you were not going to hang them from the head to skin cause the skin was all that was holding the head on. Ballistip bullets were marketed as varmint or hunting bullets no distinction on the packaging but light for caliber bullets for varmint and heavier bullets for bigger game.

The original BT is an accurate bullet with for the day good BC

Nosler design team was given a mandate to design a bullet that flys like a ballistip but in game will perform like a partition. They took the BT and thickened the shank of the bullet to retard expansion and bonded the core to the jacket to hold things together. This bullet while not a partition is a very good controlled expansion bullet, when driven to high enough velocity it does hold together but not like the partition, at high enough velocity it can almost turn inside out but the bonded core will retain more weight and the core will not separate but be stuck the expanded jacket, there will be some shedding of the core in secondary projectiles but those do more damage inside the critter. Overall a very good hunting bullet IMO.

With Accubond doing the flying like a BT and the thicker jacket walls the Ballistip Hunting bullet was a natural to introduce using the thicker shank walls of the accubond but not a bonded bullet. his bullet is marketed today as the Ballistip Hunting.

I have been shooting loading Nosler bullets since 83 when I had a factory Remington "corelokt" bullet do a crater wound on a Mississippi Whitetail bucks shoulder. That apparently was not that common occurrence since it was written about in some of the gun rags of the day. It seems Remington had not yet started making the 140gr bullet for the 7mm-08 factory loads and use Hornady 139gr soft points no inter-lock in those early loads.

In an mag article John Wooters wrote in 84 about the 7mm-08 "put a 140gr partition through the boiler room of a deer an its will to survive goes out the other side". That sums up what I have experienced with the partition in the same caliber, expect a small entrance wound and a half to silver dollar sized exit.

I really like the accubonds and partitions in the 243 Just expect a little smaller exit holes with them than what I described for the 7mm-08, more like quarter to half dollar exits from my experience. I did have one Mississippi buck shot on the move at <10 yards the 90gr accubond did not exit on rutted up 195 lb buck shot through both shoulders. the bullet was under the hide on the far side and weighed 65 grains.

I have recovered 3 partitions after shooting an animal with them.

One last year was a 150 grain out of my 270, wife shot a buck and hit a cattle panel about 15 foot in front of the deer and it was bubbled up under the off side hide. The other two were also 150 grain 270's I dug out of a tree, my brother lined up his shots so they would hit a tree after going through the deer(they both penetrated about 2 inches into a live oak after going through a deer). All three retained between 60-70% weight. I measure a hunting bullet by on game performance and believe partitons are second to none.

I don't think I follow...

Don’t rule out the 80gr TTSX

All are fine for what you want to do. I heard the 95 grain BT is supposed to be pretty stout. Modern hunting NBTs have much thicker jackets now to go with their solid base boat tail design. Even if they spit their core, the solid base an jacket is still 50-60% weight retention which isn't far off from a partition.

I meant 100 grain Partitian. Sorry about that.

Is the 80gr TTSX comparable to a 100 gr Partitian?

Sort of, TTSX is lead free, the Partition is not but both are designed to retain 90+% of bullet weight.

Cooper is lighter then lead so size and expansion wise even though it weights less it’s a similar bullet size to the partition.

Barnes loads them in thier Vortex ammo line. They load them pretty hot. Think 3150. Your Rifle will love them or hate them is my experience

The 80 grain TTSX will go between 3300 and 3400 fps out of a .243 with a full length barrel. With decent bullet placement, it's quite the flat shooting super zapper. Superformance powder has the very highest velocities, but I've had numerous disappointments trying to use the stuff; try it last.

Love the 80gr barnes in that caliber....

no need for the 100grttsx get that for a .270

Agree, if your going to use the monometals they need to be light and fast.

Exit hole

Used a 243 a lot..
the 80g TTSX is OUTSTANDING in the 243
My main hunting buddy built up a lightweight 243 AR with a 20" barrel 2 years ago.
Deer and pigs don't stand a chance. His OBR (308) hasn't been out of the safe since.

Looks like it caught a rib on the way out.