The late Jack Carter sent me one of his first boxes of 500-grain Trophy Bonded bullets, which I promptly loaded over the same powder charge. That fall moose season I had an opportunity to test one. One evening I was sitting on a small knoll with a moose hunting client when an absolutely massive, 74-inch bull moose stepped out of a stand of willows a half-mile away and began ambling toward us. The terrain was open tundra, and there was nothing we could do but sit and wait.
There was a small pond about 400 yards from us, and the bull eventually reached it and stopped. It was getting close to dark, there was no way to stalk closer, and we were afraid we would miss an opportunity of a lifetime. The hunter thought he could make the shot. Lying prone and using my backpack for a rest, he held the crosshairs over the bull’s withers and fired. I was watching through my binocular, and the bull never moved. I saw a splash of water behind and apparently above the bull and called the shot high. He held lower and shot again; this time I saw water splash in front of the bull. His third, and last, shot in the rifle again made a splash behind the bull but appeared to have possibly hit him. He then told me his remaining ammunition was back in camp and asked me to try a shot. The bull appeared to have been hit, and I agreed.
With 500-grain bullets I keep Ole Ugly sighted in dead on at 100 yards. My trajectory table, while not exact, is simple, quick and easy to remember and satisfactory for the large animals I am hunting: one foot drop at 200 yards, 3 feet at 300, 6 at 400 and 12 at 500. Figuring the bull’s body was a good 3 feet deep, I held 4 feet high and fired. The 1,800-pound bull gave a violent shudder, we heard the bullet whack, and he collapsed where he stood.
Upon butchering we found two of the hunter’s bullets had struck the bull low in the chest but had failed to expand and done very little damage. The single 500-grain Trophy Bonded bullet had taken out one rib going in, completely removed the top of the animal’s heart, removed two ribs on the way out and was found under the hide on the offside. It had expanded to over an inch in diameter. Considering the bullet’s velocity had to have been down somewhere around 1,100 fps, it was impressive performance. I remained completely satisfied with both the 500-grain Hornady and Trophy Bonded bullets, but my son Taj got to playing around with his .458, drop tubes and various powder/bullet combinations and got me interested as well. One summer we were presented with a unique test medium when two dead, 40-foot gray whales washed up on our local beach. I’ll spare you the gory details, but by firing over a chronograph at our unique testing facility we obtained some interesting and valid comparisons.
First off, discounting bullets designed for the .45-70, all the bullets over 400 grains held together and penetrated exceptionally well. Penetration, with but one exception, was directly proportional to expansion. The exception was 400-grain Barnes X-Bullets. Loaded on top of 80 grains of AAC-2200, they gave 2,200 fps and penetrated as deeply as any 500-grain bullet yet opened as wide as the super expanders. The four separate petals expanded to an average of 1.1 inches in diameter. The 500-grain Hornady and 450-grain Swift clocked nearly 2,100 fps ahead of 73 grains of IMR-3031 and penetrated almost as deeply as the X-Bullet yet only opened to an average of .80 inch. The 500-grain Woodleigh and Trophy Bonded bullets, over the same load of IMR-3031, expanded to a full inch or better in diameter, which curtailed their penetration by a couple inches. The 400-grain Kodiak bullet, with the same load as the 400 X-Bullet’s, penetrated as well as the 500-grain Woodleighs and Trophy Bondeds but only opened up to .80 inch. Each of them showed 90+ percent weight retention.
Recoil is noticeably less with the 400-grain bullets, and performance is still spectacular. I now primarily use 400-grain X-Bullets, as they shoot well in my rifle, while Taj prefers the slightly faster 400-grain Kodiaks and the 450-grain Swifts. Both of us, however, still carry a fistful of 500-grain Woodleighs or Trophy Bondeds just in case we have to wrinkle a wounded bear out of the pucker brush. Even though our testing doesn’t show it, that big, heavy roundnose somehow just seems more comforting.
Comforting, I suppose, is the adjective that best describes Ole Ugly. I’ve used other rifles and calibers. My .505 Gibbs certainly hits with more authority, and my .416 Rigby and .375 H&H both shoot flatter and offer more versatility. Yet all of them require a long action. The extra little quarter-inch of throw never seems like much on the range, but under stress I consciously have to pull the bolt all the way rearward on a long action; whereas, a slick Model 98 seems to work with just a flick of the wrist. Under worst case scenarios, when things really get tight and serious, and the world drops into slow motion, except for that rapidly advancing nightmare at the end of your tunnel vision, that extra motion can seem like an eternity. That is when the stubby .458 Winchester, in a well-honed, standard-length, rugged Mauser, that fits like a glove is just beautiful.
