Elk NetworkGear 101 – Nosler Bullet Lineup

Gear 101 | October 1, 2021

Nosler uses only the best components in all of their ammunition. This means the finest hunting bullets and Brass. These components along with the tightest tolerances in the industry, translates into greater accuracy and terminal performance than standard hunting ammunition.

Nosler’s lineup of premium-grade hunting bullets cover all the bases, with several offerings specifically designed for the needs of today’s big game hunter.

Nosler currently donates a portion of the proceeds from the sale of five partition bullets to benefit RMEF’s mission and is adding 11 loadings of ammunition to increase their support of RMEF’s mission.

Partition:

Nosler’s classic hunting bullet the company was founded on 70 years ago is just as popular today. Why? Because it works. The partition is an all-around big game hunting bullet. When you look at the cross section of the bullet, there’s a barrier, or partition, between the front and rear lead cores. On impact, that front core expands and creates a wider wound channel doing more damage, while the partition protects the rear core. The bullet won’t expand beyond the partition, so it retains about 2/3 of its weight in order to penetrate the vitals. Whether you hit the shoulder bone or heavy muscle, you’re still going to be able to drive through to get a quick, clean kill. The Partition comes in 15 different calibers. 5 different bullets for reloading are RMEF licensed products.

Ballistic Tip:

The Ballistic Tip came out in the ‘80s. This bullet is designed for medium-sized game, so it’s Nosler’s dedicated deer bullet. It’s perfect for animals that are a little bit thinner skinned and not as heavy bodied. The advantage of this bullet is the expansion. With a polymer tip, it has good immediate expansion, expends most of its energy in the chest cavity and gives you wide wound channels. For example, if you’re hunting white-tailed deer on public land adjacent to private, the Ballistic Tip will give a better chance of dropping that animal where you shoot it, so it doesn’t run onto private. It’s got a thick, tapered jacket, so it’s still going to retain weight and drive through into the vitals.

AccuBond:

Nosler came up with the AccuBond to combine the best features of the Partition and the Ballistic Tip. You can recognize an AccuBond bullet by the white polymer tip. The AccuBond and the Partition perform the same way on game but achieve that performance with different methods. The AccuBond is a sleeker, modernized bullet. Instead of having the partition built into the middle, there’s a tapered jacket, thicker at the bottom to retain weight and thinner at the top along with a polymer tip to promote expansion. The core and the jacket are welded together so you’re going to get the same 65% weight retention as you do with the Partition. Try both the AccuBond and the Partition to see which shoots better out of your rifle.

AccuBond Long Range:

The AccuBond Long Range is a sleek bullet with a higher ballistic coefficient for long range shots. It’s designed to fly flatter and retain its velocity and its energy over a longer distance and be less affected by wind. There’s a distance at which your bullet is going to slow down and not expand consistently, which reduces killing effectiveness. To address this, the AccuBond Long Range expands down to 1300 feet per second instead of the usual 1800. If you like to practice farther than 400 yards, or if you routinely take shots in high wind situations like cross-canyon where a higher BC will benefit you, try the AccuBond Long Range. A lot of people think that because it says “long range” the bullet is more accurate, but that’s not true. It has the same accuracy standard as all Nosler bullets.

Expansion Tip or E-Tip:

Maybe you’re hunting an area that requires lead free. Or maybe you choose to shoot a solid copper bullet as a personal preference. There are also advantages to the bullet just based on its one-piece construction. People used to think you had to give up performance to shoot lead free. That’s not true. Because of the polymer tip and the design of the cavity behind the tip, you get very consistent expansion. Those four petals open up and you’ll create that wider wound channel to do more damage. A recovered lead bullet will weigh anywhere from 65 to 90 percent of what it weighed going in. A solid copper bullet retains more weight. It will punch through bone, or through big shoulders on a bull. You can take that quartering shot instead of the classic broadside and still penetrate the vitals. A youth hunter with a lighter caliber gun loading a solid copper bullet, will enhance the killing power of that cartridge. Typically, the E-Tip will pass through the animal. So, it’s a good bullet for people that want a better blood trail.

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