An awful lot of the African hunters on this forum are bullet recovery hounds. This is great info, thanks for that guys, I enjoy those threads and pictures.

I think too many folks tend to dwell unduly on the external ballistics of a cartridge versus the terminal performance of the bullet used itself. Velocity and trajectory are probably the number 1 and 2 topics folks expound upon the most when discussing cartridges. It's refreshing to see the bullet, and read the accompaning analysis after it has done it's job.

Having read numerous threads posted here. Some claiming "Failure! of ..." or "Great performance with...". I can't help but notice that the bullets terminal weight retention seems to be criteria by which the bullet is often judged.

I am humbling asking. Is this truly reasonable?

I understand if the bullet was advertised to retain 100% of it's weight then it should or it does not meet it's own advertised spec. But all bullets obviously are not designed to do so. Maybe thats OK.

Let's say a bullet by design only retains 80% of it's original weight. I would like to suggest the following. Consider 80% of the bullets weight at the velocity it achieved while at full 100% weight. Would the lighter bullet at the slower velocity still be considered adequate for harvesting the target game animal?

Ex.

In a 30-06 load the bullet weighs 220gr and has a muzzle velocity of 2410fps. At 100yds the velocity is 2130fps.

If it strikes something at 100yds, the subject bullet only retains 80% of it's weight and it becomes a 176gr(essentially 180gr) projectile at the 2130fps velocity. Experience tells you that weight and velocity will provide more than adequate penetration on particular pursued species. You also have the added benefit of the energy expended in the animal during the projectile's weight loss.

I suspect the wound channel in such an incident would be significantly larger with the bullet that only retained 80% vs the 100% bullet.

Granted you may need every grain at the subject velocity to get the penetration you need on certain animals or shot placements. In this case maximum weight retention bullets are absolutely required.

In some cases, on some animals and shot placements, it would seem bullets that are slightly frangible actually have an advantage.

It would be interesting and educational to see what folks here consider minimum grain weights and velocities for certain african game.

I expect the Nosler Partition to expand violently and then punch through light skinned game. If my 270 grain 375 cal bullets were found laying on the ground on the other side of my dead pig/antelope/zebra and weighed in at 160 grains I would consider it 100% successful.

If my 375 cal 300 grain Barnes TSX opened a 2" hole in the off side shoulder of anything I shot, I would consider it 100% successful.

For my use, it's not so much retained weight as bullet integrity. I wan the bullet to hold together & penetrate from any reasonable angle. For a small Kalif. blacktail, that might be a heavy for caliber std. bullet or NBT. For bigger deer & elk, it would be a NP or Swift or NF. The end result is usually greater retained weight but in the case of the NP, great expansion & in my case, almost always ab exit even on extreme quartering shots or shots full front.

I measure bullet performance by how well it kills, not % weight retention as seems to be all the rage now in the gun mags and campfire discussions.

I use Nosler Partitions and X bullets almost exclusively on big game and have never been disappointed.

I am sure there are others that work very well, I just have not needed them. Why mess with success? If it ain't broke...

My bullet of choice for Africa is the Swift A-frame. It has great weight retention, but more importantly it has performed flawlessly on every animal I have taken in Africa except buffaloon which I have used Barnes solid. CHEERS

I'm an avid bullet digger and have shoeboxes of recovered bullets....What I want is two holes a caliber size entrance hole and a quarter size exit hole if I can get it, but a nickle size exit will suit me fine...

I like the Nosler, even when it blows off the front section which is seldom these days, it may loose the lead and look like an expanded barnes X.....but it will almost always make an exit hole of some kind and that leaves a blood trail...

Bullets that hold together well get you an exit and kill slower than fast expanding bullets, so you don't get that exciting electricution of the exploding bullet..Thats fine with me I would rather get full penetration and a good blood trail for 50 or whatever number of yards, than take a chance with fragile bullets that sometimes don't kill as quickly as they are expected to and they leave NO blood and the animal is lost on ocassion...Take your pick, many take the fragile bullets based on a couple of quick kills and later learn a sobering lesson...

The standard cup and core bullets such as speer, Hornady etc. kill very quickly on animals when the correct caliber and weight is used. As animal weight goes up their failure rate increases. Premium bullets such as the Swift, X or Fail Safe kill slower but penetrate much deeper. What I like about the Partition is that it opens quick even on small animals yet still penetrates deeply on small or large animals as long as you are resonable in what you ask it to do. The best of both worlds.

465H&H

quote:

Originally posted by Atkinson:
I'm an avid bullet digger and have shoeboxes of recovered bullets....What I want is two holes a caliber size entrance hole and a quarter size exit hole if I can get it, but a nickle size exit will suit me fine...

I like the Nosler, even when it blows off the front section which is seldom these days, it may loose the lead and look like an expanded barnes X.....but it will almost always make an exit hole of some kind and that leaves a blood trail...

Bullets that hold together well get you an exit and kill slower than fast expanding bullets, so you don't get that exciting electricution of the exploding bullet..Thats fine with me I would rather get full penetration and a good blood trail for 50 or whatever number of yards, than take a chance with fragile bullets that sometimes don't kill as quickly as they are expected to and they leave NO blood and the animal is lost on ocassion...Take your pick, many take the fragile bullets based on a couple of quick kills and later learn a sobering lesson...

I couldn't have said it better. In fact I totally agree on this point.


But Ray.....how'd you wind up with shoe box' full of bullets if you try to get exit wounds?????

Vapodog

quote:

But Ray.....how'd you wind up with shoe box' full of bullets if you try to get exit wounds?????