1 - In the more common double rifle calibers .458 .475 & .510 which bullet company makes the best penetrator of Elephant skulls?

2 - Now what about in the lesser used calibers .465 .483 and .488?

500grains wrote a report on penetration with different bullets. It was a very informative read. I will try to find it for you. I think the flat nose solids came out ahead on the Ele skull but not by as much as on the heart lung shots due to less of a vapor bubble forming IIRC.

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I was referring to the super cavitation effect where a gas bubble forms reducing friction on the bullet. Isn't that why FN solids out penetrate RN solids in flesh? I could be wrong but I thought that was the reasoning in 500gr's post.

Check out these links;

http://www.grosswildjagd.de/penetrat.htm

http://www.grosswildjagd.de/fundamen.htm

I am pretty sure the GS Custom website has more on this but for some reason it wont load at the moment.

quote:

Originally posted by BigFiveJack:
1 - In the more common double rifle calibers .458 .475 & .510 which bullet company makes the best penetrator of Elephant skulls?

2 - Now what about in the lesser used calibers .465 .483 and .488?

Use ANY full metal jacket bullet, they have been killing elephants for donkey's years.

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If you read 500 grains report you will see that Bulldog563 got it backward and that steel jacketed solids penetrated as far as flat nosed homogenous solids on ele head shots but not quite as far on soft tissue shots. I have used steel jacketed solids (Woodleigh and Hornady)in 375, 468 and 458 diameters on buff and elephants with complete satisfaction. I will be using Woodleigh solids in 474 diameter in a couple of weeks on elephants in Zim.
I can find no listing for 468 diameter solids from Bridger, North Fork or GS. I haven't looked for the other calibers you mentioned. Woodleigh does make them all.

465H&H

Woodleighs are the standard to which all others are compared and have been succsessful for years. You won't go wrong there.

That said, IIRC, 500 Grains test showed better penetration from flat nosed bullets in elephant skulls too.

450 NE No2 is in Zim trying some of each and has 12 elephant lined up. Can't wait for his return and report!

JPK

Saeed beat me to it. Flat nose bullets are probably better from a straight line penetration standpoint but one should worry more about placement than bullet brand. Any strong solid will do.

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Alf,
Thanks for the crash course in elephant cranial anatomy.

I agree with you on the bullet penetration theory as stated. I am an old dog open to new tricks, though maybe a little slow in learning them.

Is there any validity to shoulder stabilization of a flat nosed solid traversing a varying/nonhomogeneous impact medium?

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BigFiveJack,

PM sent to you.

You might want to check out this thread.

https://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/1411043/m/983106434

Andy