How does one "Enhance" any Cartridge and Increase its effective Terminal Performance In The Field?
Bullet Technology.
The Bullet does all the Heavy Lifting.
15 years ago I developed a series of .500 caliber cartridges for various rifles. The problem I faced with these rifles at the time was that all bullets available were for the 500 S&W and developed for hand gun velocities. Many of these bullets were superb as long as you limited them to their max terminal velocities. But most of the rifle cartridges I was working with exceeded that, or had the potential to exceed that working velocity. If I was going to take these to the field, I needed proper design bullets.
This caused me to embark upon a great adventure, which in the end resulted in the bullets that were required and met the criteria I required. Primarily these bullets came from Cutting Edge and North Fork. Currently now there are some that will meet the requirements from Lehigh as well.
One of my .500s is the 50 B&M Super Short, a 1.65 inch case made from WSM brass, used in Winchester M70 WSSM actions. I run those with 16.25 inch barrels, they come in at 6 lbs with the Winchester Ultimate stock and overall length of 36 inches.
Through proper bullet design one does not require heavy weight bullets to be effective. The 50 B&M Super Short is very much a 500 S&W Rimless based in a Bolt Gun, very similar capacity, and of course the bolt gun can handle and operate at 65,000 PSI, which I normally run anything from 60,000 to 62,000 PSI for field operations. I have pressure testing equipment and these loads are tested throughly. The Bullets we use for Buffalo in this cartridge are 375 gr Cutting Edge Safari Solids (in the beginning these were BBW#13s) along with a matching 335 gr Raptor. Solids running 2200 fps, and Raptors up to 2300 fps. From North Fork we have the 375 North Fork Solids and Matching 375 North Fork EX Cup Points, EX standing for "Expanding"....... These are not only "adequate" for buffalo, they are hammers on buffalo.
In 2012 we went on a Family Adventure with our good friend Paul Truccolo in Australia. I took both my boys, Matthew and Mark, along with our daughter Mercedes, my wife Jaun and myself and good friend Sam Rose. Both boys took their Super Shorts, Matthew with his 50 Super Short and Mark David with his 475 B&M Super Short (.474 caliber version of the same cartridge). They each ran through 10-12 buffalo including some big bulls and the little rifles were hammers on them, far more effective than even I would have ever thought possible. It was eye opening to say the least. Both Sam and I were using larger cartridges, Sam using a 500 NE with various new Cutting Edge Bullets, and from our observations of how the buffalo were taking the Super Shorts Sam made the comment that the 50 B&M Super Short was every bit as effective as his 500 NE. We were watching buffalo reactions to taking the bullets, and neither Sam or I had to do any backup at all. Paul was on site of course and made the same observations.
Before this excursion I had always considered the Super Short "adequate", and had always recommended the larger 50 B&M for folks that wanted to hunt primarily the heavies, buffalo, hippo, elephant. However, after seeing just how good this combination of rifle, cartridge and more so the bullets, I no longer considered it just adequate, not only would it do the job, but it would do it very well. On saying this, I would still want the larger cartridges for "stopping", but Sam disagrees with this and considers the 50 Super Short more than capable of doing any mission required of it.
None of this possible without Bullet Technology, and bullets designed for the mission.
This is my Son Matthew McCourry with a huge body bull and his 50 B&M Super Short. The boys were extremely fast with their guns, Matthew was using on this bull 375 North Fork EX Cup Points, and backed with a 375 North Fork Solid. Two fast 375 EX CPS through heart and lungs, followed by the Solid, the two CPS were found on far side of the hide, the solid was shot at more of an angle from the rear and exited after over 4 foot of buffalo.
)...Having fired full house 500gr loads I would say the recoil is no worse than my 12 ga 870 firing 1-1/2 oz high brass loads. Not much fun off the bench, but I hardly feel it in the field. Also it's not a sharp recoil impulse (ala 300wm), much more like a shotgun.
