I need some advise on bullets and their perfomance.
On a recent hunt I used a box of factory ammo, unfortunately in zambia reloading is against the law and you can only buy factory ammo.
The ammo is manufactured by a company called Sellier and Bellot.
The calibre was 300win mag and the bullet was 180grs
the picture below was recovered from a wildeebeest shot from about 60m.
On small game like puku and impala the rounds all exited, so I could not recover the bullets but on game like water buck I recovered similar bullets as in the pictures below.
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http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid107/pdaacec516cf6ff2f21aadd50025d657b/f9659ddb.jpg[/image]

My worry is that I have purchased a few boxes of this ammo and should I use these bullets on more hunts or just blast them on paper targets.
Also if any one could shed some light on why the bullets are performing this way, because I normally use PMP and have never had a problem, I bought these rounds thinking that being more pricey they would be quality.

Impact vel. is too high. I would stick to smaller antelope &/or longer range w/ those bullets. If you hunt all types of terrain w/ your "Winnie", see if you can get hold of some ammo w/ Swift, Nosler partition, Oryx or sim. "premium" bullet. They will be more forgiving up close &/or on larger game.

Hi,
Well since you recovered the wildebeest I guess the bullets did their job to a certain extent. I have limited experience with these bullets but also noticed that they exited easily with lots of expansion on smaller game (mouflon) but when shot at a stag, none exited and the jacket/core separated as in the picture. I used the SPCE bullets which are useful in that the entry wound also bleeds and leaves a trail. On the other hand, PMP ammo has never fallen apart on me and expands well, looks like a magazine ad in most cases! BTW did you find the core and jacket together? In this case they fell apart AFTER doing their damage, rather than if the jacket remains in the entry wound and the core penetrates. The bottom line=PMP for me! Has worked on hartebeest, warthogs, wildebeest etc...

I killed many Texas whitetail deer - about the size of an impala - with bullets that acted like that. Only after I started reloading did I start using better bullets and recovering "good" bullets from game.

As you have demonstrated those bullets will kill - even if the bullet "fails". You can see that you should not use these bullets except on broadside chest shots, but there is no reason to throw them away - especially if they are all you can get. I would not use them on game larger than waterbuck or wildebeast, and I would avoid the shoulder bones, but they beat the Heck out of throwing rocks or even arrows!

often times the separation occurs as the bullet is coming to a stop and flips over. The jacket and core are found next to each other, more is made of this than neccessary in my opinion. They worked for your purposes, don't go throwing them away.

Zambian, I think that if the weight of both the jacket, and the core are close to the origenal weight of the bullet, the bullet is fine! The two things I'd ask are:

#1 Were the two pieces found together?

#2 how far did the game travel after the shot?

If the answer to #1 is yes, then the bullet performed correctly, though being very close range, put undue stress on the bullet! If the answer to #2 is "About the same distance as with other bullets you've used,under the same conditions, then the bullet performed correctly.

S&B ammo is OK, but not top of the line, for sure! However, as long as you stay away from heavy bone, on larger animals like Cooksons wildebeast, and Zebra, and shoot no closer than the 60M you discribe, it should work fine! In any event, it will be very usefull on small things like Impala, and Puku. I wouldn't try it on Hippo, or Buffalo, but for all else, if you are careful to shoot into the heart/lung area, away from large bone, you will get good use of the ammo, IMO! Next time you buy, try to get ammo with control expansion bullets like the Nosler Partitions, Swift A-Frames, or even with Win Fail-safes, for use on larger animals like Buffalo and Eland!

In the USA, S&B ammo is considered bargain basement ammo! However I use it on large wild boar, and deer, and Black bear in my 9.3X74R double rifle, and in my 8X57 JR cape gun, with good success! The velocity is rather lower than the 300 Win Mag, however! For Eland, in either of those rifles, I use Woodliegh, or Nosler Partitions, along with solids of verious makes!

Here's Zambian's second picture