Going Ballistic - The Life and Adventures of John Nosler
By John Nosler as told to Gary Lewis
What should work and what will work are sometimes two different things. And sometimes it takes not just a visionary, but a man with passion. Passion and an unstoppable drive to succeed, whatever the cost.
In the last 50 years, John Nosler’s name has become synonymous with bullet performance. Today, from Africa to Alaska, Nosler bullets are used by more sportsmen than any other brand.
The life of John A. Nosler is the uniquely American story of a young boy with a gun in his hand and grease under his fingernails. He grew to manhood in a world full of possibilities, in a country poised for greatness. Life on the ranch prepared him for the challenges he would face as an adult. Just as it did for thousands of others in his generation.
In 1941, John headed to British Columbia to hunt moose for the first time. He returned to BC every year for almost a decade. In 1946, he carried a Winchester Model 70 chambered for the 300 H&H Magnum. Toward the end of the trip, hunting moose in a marsh, he came upon a bull feeding in a patch of willows.
The animal stood broadside. His polished antlers gleamed and his body was black with caked mud. John could hear the rasp of his breath and smell the sweat caked on his body. He raised the rifle, found the bull in his scope, pushed the safety to “fire” and squeezed the trigger. At the shot, the bull shook his head, but didn’t fall. After the fourth shot, the animal stumbled. Several shots later, the animal was finally on the ground.
John and his guide, working with their skinning knives, found that John’s bullets had splattered on the hard, mud-caked hide. His 300 H&H Magnum sent its bullets at such high speed that the projectile’s thin copper jacket couldn’t contain its soft lead core. Though John was shooting from close range, most of his shots didn’t even penetrate to the vitals. His high-powered rifle was too powerful to kill a moose with the best bullets then available to hunters. “I knew right then that I would have to find a better bullet if I wanted to keep hunting. What I didn’t guess is that I’d be the one to design and build it,” John recalls.
John Nosler’s ardor for the hunt and his passion for performance drove him to design the Partition, marrying the exclusive qualities of penetration and expansion in one projectile. With the publication of his life’s story, you can read of his many failures and triumphs.
John Nosler - Going Ballistic, with over 150 photos and practical wisdom on every page, will give you insight into the mind of the world’s foremost bullet designer and the confidence to press on, whatever the cost.
About the authors:
Legendary sportsman John Nosler has become the world’s foremost bullet designer.
Gary Lewis is an award-winning author and television host.