Let's play a little game....

1899

1899

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
38   0   0
Location
West
Well the season is over - for me at least - so I thought I'd post a "closing the season" picture along with a "skill testing" question.

Nice, mature whitetail buck, probably 225-250lbs live weight.

Entry side - hit the muscles by the shoulder....
entry_zps3bsn90mh.jpg


angled across and the far side, broke the shoulder. You can see the angle of 1/4 away from this picture...
exit_zpsprsme21q.jpg



As you can see, a fair amount of damage, but not a heck of a lot of bloodshot area. What chambering could this be?
 
Slow chambering at mid range or a faster chambering at long range with any well constructed bullet that had slowed...How big was the rack?
 
H4831 said:
243.
Bruce
Click to expand...

Ah Bruce....I was just going to suggest it wasn't a fair question. You clearly have proved me wrong!

So I had read an article quite some time ago about the 6x45 (.223 necked up to 6mm) for African antelope. The article spoke of the effectiveness of this little round due to bullets holding together very well at the modest velocities produced. There was mention of how well this little cartridge did on game and further discussion on how bullet performance was fantastic at these low velocities. So I put together a reduced load for a .243 which consisted of 33.0gr of IMR 4064 and an 85gr Nosler Partition. Book velocity out of a 24" barrel is 2800fps and out of an 18.5" barrel I suspect the velocity is closer to 2550 fps or so.

Impact velocity was probably around 2450 fps or thereabouts, maybe a bit lower. A super mild load by any account. Yet look at the performance. It just goes to show the incredible power in even such a mild load. The Partition had typical Partition performance - that is to say "excellent". The bullet got hung up - barely - on the far side. You can see the tuft of fur in front of the shoulder on the previous picture.


Recovered bullet:
partition_zpsiccevxux.jpg
 
So I found some pics on the....uh, I mean I went out to my shop and took some pictures... :)

Near shoulder -
near%20shoulder_zpsuhxcxiov.jpg


Far shoulder - right in center of picture at the top of the hair in the photo -
far%20shoulder_zps0djoeqru.jpg


Between near shoulder and ribs
inside%20near%20shoulder_zpsfjgz8q9b.jpg


Between far shoulder and ribs - hole is centered, a little up from middle of picture
inside%20far%20shoulder_zpsiyheppou.jpg
 
This fits in exactly with a story I have on the 243.
About 1974 I took a 14 year old son on a mountain goat hunt in northern BC. Two or three years before this I had bought him a Krico rifle in 243, and this was his rifle on the goat hunt. I also had a 243, a Ruger 77 and had been loading for the243, including the sons, for some time. But, for some reason, the son wanted to take factory ammunition on the goat hunt.
OK, we got him 100 grain bullets in the new IVI Imperial ammunition which had shortly before come on the market. I sat on the rocks beside him while he rested his elbows and shot at a good, big billy goat broadside at about 100 yards. Bang and the goat collapsed in his tracks. The bullet, which looked nearly identical to the one pictured in the story here, was against the far hide.
Later at home, I decided to chronograph the new Imperial IVI cartridges. I shot five from the box that got the goat, over the Oehler 33 and they averaged 2540 fps with an es of125! (My notes are in front of me.)
Thinking something was wrong, without even moving from my seat, I loaded and shot five of my hand loads with 100 grain bullets.
They averaged 3094 fps with an extreme spread of 43!
I have been amazed ever since, at what that little bullet at relatively slow speed, did to an animal that has a reputation for being hard to kill.
 
Bruce - I was amazed too, but it makes sense though - look at the good results people have been getting for decades with slow moving bullets in Africa. Like I mentioned, the article on the 6x45 declaring it an almost ideal Blesbok and Impala load piqued my curiosity and now I have a load that has almost no recoil and kills very well indeed. Of course range would be limited with such a load, but that range would cover a large portion of what is encountered in the field. The performance seems out of proportion to "paper" ballistics.
 
Last edited:
Interesting observations. I wish I took pictures but we had a very similar experience in our own hunting party. My buddy was using his new CZ527 7.62x39 with the Barnaul SP ammunition and the buck he shot looked like the pictures above. The entry hole was massive and unfortunately the animal quartered away slightly so it destroyed a lot of the front quarter on the way out. I shot a larger buck with my 300 WSM and the hole looked liked a laser through the animal. There was a lot of the "magnum jelly" in the wound channel and under the skin/muscle sheath but it was definitely cleaner. The funny thing is that 7.62x39 deer was flopping around when he died but my 300 WSM deer fell straight down.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom