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Nathan Foster

From one of our members in the U.S:

Hello Nathan,

We recently put down two deer with the 257 Roberts. I was using the 115 Gr Nosler partitions. One deer was at 40 yards and the other was slightly over 250yds. The 115gr are getting pushed at approx 2750 fps. The 40 yd deer (135 lbs dressed) was a neck shot at ground level. DRT ... Hole going out was approx 2" in diameter about 6" lower than the brain stem. There was massive trauma all the way to the base of the neck. I salvage what I can from the neck area to make sausage.

The 250 yd deer was a large bodied buck that dressed at 175 lbs. I aimed for the shoulder and the bullet hit slightly higher than my point of aim. The deer went down, tried to get up then expired within seconds. The bullet made a complete pass through just under the spine, missing the top of the lungs. There was a large amount of blood in the lung area. The exit hole of the left shoulder was about 2" in diameter as it exited the meat (just under the hide) but about a half inch in diameter going through the hide. The right shoulder was broken and the damage to the left shoulder was extensive. The bruising on the right front shoulder was bad enough where I lost a lot of the meat. I spent a lot of time trying to salvage what meat I could from both shoulders.

Is this typical performance of the partition bullets? The neck shot was what I expected, but the chest / shoulder shot at 250+ yds surprised me. I hit quite a bit of bone and still got complete penetration.

Reading the new book. Excellent Job!!!!!


Hi Shawn, great result! In my experience, the vivid wounding is a result of both bullet weight loss (high energy transfer) plus retained velocity (and some SD) throughout penetration and exiting. The overall result is complete trauma.

Had you been using for example a Ballistic Tip, the wound might be the same diameter but it would not extend to such depths.

I have tried to convey how good this bullet can be in the KB (it also has its limits) but many people do not comprehend the extent of my meaning. If you take your result, then read my Swede article, you will have a more direct understanding of what I have been trying to say.

Having an exit wound is not always critical. If the bullet causes a great deal of trauma and kills in a reliable manner, there is naught to complain about. However, if a bullet can exit from a broadside shot, we are at the very least assured that it will penetrate to vitals with angled shots to a certain extent. It is my view that the dedicated bush / woods hunter should seek a bullet capable of creating an exit wound on broad side shots for these reasons as well as for tracking after a poor snap shot has been taken. On the other side of the coin, we do not want to sacrifice wounding for the sake of all out penetration.