Torn between two calibers

[autofire]

30-06 and .375 get my vote. Covers PG and DG, ammo readily available. 416 Rem ammo might be scarce and pricey. If you do your own reloading ammo cost and availability not so important.

 

[CBH Australia]

@CBH
I'd take my Grohman and Ted Mitchell knives as well as some butcher knives for meat
Bob

And Ted Mitchell likes the 35 bore, you brought his knife, coincidence?

Meat? It’s dog bait, we are talking about culling ferals.

The only camel I ate was a bought jerky. It was a bit dry.

I do have butcher knives and the trusty Engel. My wife likes to make Jerky.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

And Ted Mitchell likes the 35 bore, you brought his knife, coincidence?

Meat? It’s dog bait, we are talking about culling ferals.

The only camel I ate was a bought jerky. It was a bit dry.

I do have butcher knives and the trusty Engel. My wife likes to make Jerky.

@CBH Australia
Mate y ou don't know what your missing. 50 million middle fasteners C ant be wrong.
Bob

 

[bruce moulds]

trouble with that kind of meat is getting it back to the vehicle sometimes.
backstrap is the best, but a lot of work to get,
a front leg can be hung in a tree and stripped as you need it in cooler weather.
but a front leg is not light to carry.
and you need a biggish meat bag.
bruce.

 

[CBH Australia]

There are probably a Billion people eat cats and dogs I won't.

Camel, maybe. If I harvest it myself.

 

[Kevin Peacocke]

If you really want a double that looks wonderful, shoots well and only costs half a safari try a Verney Carron 375 flanged magnum. Not too much gun, but enough.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

trouble with that kind of meat is getting it back to the vehicle sometimes.
backstrap is the best, but a lot of work to get,
a front leg can be hung in a tree and stripped as you need it in cooler weather.
but a front leg is not light to carry.
and you need a biggish meat bag.
bruce.

@bruce moulds
Mate if your not saving the skin removing the backstrap is a 5 minute job.
Run the knife down th spine peel it officers the strap. Remove strap.
Bob

 

[bruce moulds]

@bruce moulds
Mate if your not saving the skin removing the backstrap is a 5 minute job.
Run the knife down th spine peel it officers the strap. Remove strap.
Bob

but you have to deal with the hump first bob.
bruce.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

but you have to deal with the hump first bob.
bruce.

@ Bruce moulds.
Nothing a bit of knife work won't cure.
Bob

 

[crs]

Bob Nelson,
Your 35 Whelen sounds a bit like my M77 Ruger .338 Win Mag which performed well on my first African hunt/Safari using Winchester 230 grain FailSafe ammo.
The same rifle with the "old and outdated Nosler Partitions" collected this nice 330 rocky mountain elk a few years ago with a going away Texas Heart Shot! My friend showing rack, rifle, and red spot on left hip which terminated the internals of the chest cavity. Lucky shot I guess.

 

[tarbe]

Something magical (and bad) must happen to Nosler Partitions south of the equator...for them to be sub-standard killers compared to both harder and softer bullets?

Seriously...for a NP to leave animals alive after both Sierra and Swift drop them dead in mid-stride...I find that rather amazing (assuming similar shot placement, angle, and impact velocity...you know...like a controlled experiment).

I am not arguing against anyone's personal observations...just saying I don't understand what might be going on here.

Edit: and this coming from a guy who had a 550gr Woodleigh fail to 59% weight retention, but also still managed to kill a Cape Buffalo quite quickly because it grenaded the plumbing in the chest cavity. When we say something is "better" we should define the conditions? One might say my bonding failure on the Woodleigh worked in my favor...in this very specific instance!

 

[crs]

Tarbe,
Ouch!
You mean that the 400 grain .411 Woodie Weldcore that exited and was never found may have failed even though it put a hole in the heart of my Cape buff? Ouch again as that xxxx bullet traversed 40 inches of buff internals without hitting a bone and ruined the guts, lungs and heart was defective because it did not hang around to be evaluated?
Guess I need to go back to hunting school!

 

[tarbe]

Tarbe,
Ouch!
You mean that the 400 grain .411 Woodie Weldcore that exited and was never found may have failed even though it put a hole in the heart of my Cape buff? Ouch again as that xxxx bullet traversed 40 inches of buff internals without hitting a bone and ruined the guts, lungs and heart was defective because it did not hang around to be evaluated?
Guess I need to go back to hunting school!

No...yours obviously did not fail.

Mine obviously did. The bullet did not make it out of the lungs from a shoulder shot.

I hope you can understand that I was not condemning all Woodleigh bullets because of my failure...in fact, that is an important part of my post. We cannot condemn based on anecdotal evidence. I am sorry you missed the point.

 

[WAB]

Terminal ballistics are very complicated. The range of impact velocities between 10 and 400 yards alone introduces huge potential variability in performance. Add to the the variability in impacted medium, even in a single species, and bullet makers must be pulling their hair out. A fraction of an inch can mean the difference between bone, no bone, direct bone impact, glancing bone impact. I have pretty much settled on Swift A-Frames, Speer soft points and Woodleigh hydros for my applications. That doesn’t mean there aren’t other great solutions, just these work well for me. The only exception to this rule could be elephant if I chose to use my .375 instead of my Lott. In that instance I might choose to load 350 gr Woodleigh conventional solids. The penetration of that particular bullet has to be seen to be believed.

 

[crs]

Tarbe,
Very thoughtful of you to respond to my somewhat sarcastic post. Thank you.
IMHO, your bullet killed your target animal and therefore did not fail.
What more can the hunter ask of a bullet?

I have been hunting for 60+ years and was taught to bring home the bacon with minimal cost and fuss. This involved selecting and buying my own guns and ammo, finding game, killing it, field dressing as needed, and getting it back to camp or home. PERIOD! Occasionally, we kids would wonder how only one pellet could bring down a bird or one little .22 bullet bring down something larger, but all shots were a success if we killed the game, snake, varmint, etc.
As I moved up to hunting big game with a .308, most kills were and still are shoot throughs without bullet recovery.
When a bullet was recovered, it was from a DEAD animal, so, the bullet did its job. In all these years, I have recovered and saved less than 10 bullets, all from dead animals. I am not any kind of expert on bullet failure and am not one who cares to perform or read about penetration tests on media other than live game animals. That is where the rubber meets the road.

PS I did not miss the point and do agree with you on unique anecdotal evidence. However, your shot did kill the game and to me that made your shot a success. In my limited experience with Woodleigh bullets, they have earned their good reputation. Ditto for North Fork, Punch, Remington, Nosler, Kodiak, Winchester, Federal, etc when used as designed and recommended.
Looks like Texas might get its first freeze in the Panhandle this weekend. About time!.

 

[Forrest Halley]

It's thanks to you that I brought my 35 Whelen from being a safe queen to using it quite frequently now. When I 1st acquired it years and years ago I shot it with factory ammo. Nice gun but nothing exciting! Then after all your raving I started reloading for it. Wow what a difference. mind you I am stuffing it with NP's so I will probably get all my exercise tracking wounded animals.

Oh no! A convert fresh from the baptism of Bob. There will no living with him now...haha! He's made a believer of me and I neither have one nor have I shot one.

@Graham Hunter
Just switch to 225 grain accubonds or Woodleigh at 2,800 to 2,950 fps. If you want to go bigger go the 250grain Speer hotcore or Woodleigh at 2,700 fps .
The Whelen will take all you want. If you want the ultimate in penetration go for the 225 grain woodleigh hydrostatic, 280 swift Aframe or the 225grain TSX.
Bob

How is the accuracy with the Accubond 225? The reports I have read put it behind some other bullets.
Do you Aussies get a discount on the Woodleighs or is it a National pride thing?

 

[crs]

Hello again Tarbe,
WRT your observation about the reported poor performance of Nosler Partitions in the southern hemisphere, I can happily report on one NP that worked quite well south of the equator and north of RSA. This rather large and well fed leopard Tom was terminated with one "old fashioned" 300 grain .458 NP Protected Point from another old fashioned hunting tool, this 1886 .45-90 (.458 2.4) from a distance of about 20 yards:

As the Tom was eating a goat in a sandy farmyard, after the NP PP passed through the Tom's body, the hide stretched as the bullet pushed on into the sand and the bullet was recovered as a perfect "old fashioned" mushroom. I have had similar success on thin skinned game with the NP in the Northern Hemisphere. The PAC hunt shooter (not me) did well too shooting my 1886 with "old fashioned" iron sights.

 

[bruce moulds]

crs,
your interesting post reinforces my point.
nosler partitions make big guns into better little guns.
in fact this is their forte.
that same bullet on various bovines could be a widow maker.
bruce.

 

[Graham Hunter]

crs,
your interesting post reinforces my point.
nosler partitions make big guns into better little guns.
in fact this is their forte.
that same bullet on various bovines could be a widow maker.
bruce.

LOL Says the spokesperson for Nosler Partition.

 

[Graham Hunter]

Just a suggestion for those of you having trouble with NP's. Even thogh there is lead on both ends the pointy end still goes to the front!