BenKK
AH elite
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2018
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- 1,443
- Reaction score
- 2,487
- Location
- Northern Territory, Australia
- Media
- 176
These CEB 475 grain Safari Raptors were at the Post Office yesterday, so today I loaded a few with 95 grains of 2208. The gent who supplied them recommended using 2206H from his Quickload calculator, but another gent recommended 2208 - which is what I had in the cupboard. I’ll try 2206H at some point.
I took three to chronograph, but first wanted to chronograph my 570 grain Hydros that use the same load.
Well, I was a bit unintelligent in that I placed the chronograph on a rickety old wooden chair atop an ant pit, so upon letting the first Hydro go the whole thing crashed to the ground, bending one of the chronograph rods and giving a reading of 49 fps. I found a spanner somebody dropped and straightened the rod as best I could. Then I simply sat the chronograph back on the chair - this time on the ground, which meant I had to kneel.
The next Hydro read 2126 fps. The Woodleigh manual listed 2150 fps for that load.
So then I fired-off three Safari Raptors, and got 2203 fps (fair enough), 2178 fps (okay) and then 2109 fps (what!?!). I am very careful and particular with loading, so I knew all three were identical. I also crimp, and don’t fancy departing from that habit anytime soon for big bore hunting.
So, there’s a mystery. I will have to check my chronograph sometime with loads I know - didn’t have the usual 600 grain PPSNs with me.
I loaded just a handful more of the little Safari Raptors when I returned home, and around mid-afternoon I went strolling.
I forgot to mention that these Safari Raptors feed perfectly in my Sako .500 Jeffery.
The first creek I stalked turned-up nothing.
The second creek turned-up a herd with a very wary cow that sensed something was amiss and forced me to try and wait her out. There was a bull I was interested in. Eventually the bull fed closer around a little spur coming down to the swampy creek, and the distance and angle between him and the cow (and now herd) was such that I chose to attempt a blatant stalk on him despite being quite visible to her. As he arrived at the swamp grass I was able to rapidly close the distance in full view of another approaching bull who chose to focus on his opposition instead of me. My chosen bull was thrashing trees and shaping-up for a fight. He was facing away from me at 35m but then presented broadside and wore the little 475 grain CEB Safari Raptor through the heart. He jogged 30m closer towards me in about five seconds, appearing unhurt, then stopped to face me with unseeing eyes through the long grass and collapsed in some mud, never to stir again. So, he was down in about five seconds, maybe ten at the most. He was about 800kg of animal.
I then went digging for the shank and found it in the meat of the offside shoulder, weighing 369 grains.
I’m just playing with a few different projectiles and compiling anecdotal notes for my own interest, for each buffalo I shoot with this .500 Jeffery. My hypothesis is that they will all kill them pretty quick if put in the right place, and that it will be hard to beat the Woodleigh 600 grain PPSN or 570 grain RNSN for value. We shall see, happy to prove myself wrong but so far have seen some impressive results with PPSNs, Hydros and now CEB Safari Raptors. I do acknowledge that I probably don’t have the CEBs at the ideal speed yet (more on that below).
Now, I do have these CEBs and the Hydros feeding fine, but for some reason I feel I need to be on the alert a bit more than with the traditional bullets in terms of feeding. Call it trust issues! I need to prove the good feeding more to myself.
I feel cautious about how far to go pushing these, as I’m not sure about my chronograph after the accident and I think I might be seeing the primers just a whisker on the flattish side - feedback appreciated on that.
Pictures to follow.
Cheers!
I took three to chronograph, but first wanted to chronograph my 570 grain Hydros that use the same load.
Well, I was a bit unintelligent in that I placed the chronograph on a rickety old wooden chair atop an ant pit, so upon letting the first Hydro go the whole thing crashed to the ground, bending one of the chronograph rods and giving a reading of 49 fps. I found a spanner somebody dropped and straightened the rod as best I could. Then I simply sat the chronograph back on the chair - this time on the ground, which meant I had to kneel.
The next Hydro read 2126 fps. The Woodleigh manual listed 2150 fps for that load.
So then I fired-off three Safari Raptors, and got 2203 fps (fair enough), 2178 fps (okay) and then 2109 fps (what!?!). I am very careful and particular with loading, so I knew all three were identical. I also crimp, and don’t fancy departing from that habit anytime soon for big bore hunting.
So, there’s a mystery. I will have to check my chronograph sometime with loads I know - didn’t have the usual 600 grain PPSNs with me.
I loaded just a handful more of the little Safari Raptors when I returned home, and around mid-afternoon I went strolling.
I forgot to mention that these Safari Raptors feed perfectly in my Sako .500 Jeffery.
The first creek I stalked turned-up nothing.
The second creek turned-up a herd with a very wary cow that sensed something was amiss and forced me to try and wait her out. There was a bull I was interested in. Eventually the bull fed closer around a little spur coming down to the swampy creek, and the distance and angle between him and the cow (and now herd) was such that I chose to attempt a blatant stalk on him despite being quite visible to her. As he arrived at the swamp grass I was able to rapidly close the distance in full view of another approaching bull who chose to focus on his opposition instead of me. My chosen bull was thrashing trees and shaping-up for a fight. He was facing away from me at 35m but then presented broadside and wore the little 475 grain CEB Safari Raptor through the heart. He jogged 30m closer towards me in about five seconds, appearing unhurt, then stopped to face me with unseeing eyes through the long grass and collapsed in some mud, never to stir again. So, he was down in about five seconds, maybe ten at the most. He was about 800kg of animal.
I then went digging for the shank and found it in the meat of the offside shoulder, weighing 369 grains.
I’m just playing with a few different projectiles and compiling anecdotal notes for my own interest, for each buffalo I shoot with this .500 Jeffery. My hypothesis is that they will all kill them pretty quick if put in the right place, and that it will be hard to beat the Woodleigh 600 grain PPSN or 570 grain RNSN for value. We shall see, happy to prove myself wrong but so far have seen some impressive results with PPSNs, Hydros and now CEB Safari Raptors. I do acknowledge that I probably don’t have the CEBs at the ideal speed yet (more on that below).
Now, I do have these CEBs and the Hydros feeding fine, but for some reason I feel I need to be on the alert a bit more than with the traditional bullets in terms of feeding. Call it trust issues! I need to prove the good feeding more to myself.
I feel cautious about how far to go pushing these, as I’m not sure about my chronograph after the accident and I think I might be seeing the primers just a whisker on the flattish side - feedback appreciated on that.
Pictures to follow.
Cheers!
