I got back from Namibia last week, I had my first failure with a premium bullet.
It was a 196 grn H mantel in a 8x68.
I shot a mature, but not huge kudu bull for biltong /sausages at the farmers request. It was a broadside shot at 80 yds or so, onto the shoulder. A loud WHOMP and the kudu went down, but right back up and gone.
A very long tracking job followed, with almost no blood and Johan following a little drag mark from the broken leg. Eventually we got another shot into it to stop it.
The first shot had a nice round hole in the skin going in. When it was skinned out, the bullet had broken the shoulder, but instead of going into the body cavity, it traveled down the leg. The leg was swollen with blood, but barely enough to weaken it they way it ran. If it had been my first shot with that rifle/load I would have been very upset, but it had preformed perfectly up until that shot.

I wouldn't call it a failure, but a strange deflection, it could happen to any bullet I suppose.

TSJ, what is the shoulder "part" that was broken? The shoulder is a muscular region of anatomy not a bone. Just curious if the bullet punctured the scapula or broke the humerous?

I have seen plenty of animals run off with a hole through the scapula. I have shot and recovered game others have shot and put holes in the scapula which had healed up leaving a big gnarly deformed scapula with a hole in it. Hitting the humerous is a far better and more successful bone to break and the one most folks refer to as the Shoulder even though its leg bone.

As far as the way the bullet reacted, well who knows? I have seen plenty of X bullets exit the same side as the entry or have found them under the skin on the entry side. Several were bent into the shape of a banana and not expanded at all. It seems the more game that is shot the more likely you will have some fluke event.

The important thing to me is having the majority or near 100% work as hoped and the few that seem to do something strange are usually caused by deflection or some strange angle etc. upon impact. There are plenty of recovered solids bent in half and or other wise deformed from elephants and rhino, even bufflao. If a solid can bend like that from a moderate velocity rifle then anything is possible.

I would also like to mention that the great majority of non-typical recovered bullets I have found in my career can be traced back to a deflection of bush or grass of some sort. You might also be surprised to see how little flora it takes to deflect a big heavy bullet. Once wobble in flight happens and the impact is not perfectly square to the flesh all bets are off as to performance.

I'm with Kevin on this one....I wouldn't really call it a 'failure' just a strange occurance.....I found out a long time ago....there are no 'magic' bullets.

JJ it would be the humerous that was hit, the scapula I call a shoulder blade, right or wrongly.
The bullet hole in the skin looked square on, thats why I doubt if it was deflected. It smashed the bone into many pieces in a nice circular pattern, then took it's downward path.
Nothing vital was touched with a shot that should have reached vitals, thats why I called it a failure.

/

Alf, yes it was an RWS factory load. The penatration that load had shown up till then was outstanding though. It exited on everything including eland with a blood trail that looked like a grade B horror film. Interestingly, only a neck shot kudu was killed on the spot, everything else ran 40 - 200 yds. I also used a 45/70 and a 9.3x62, both of which had several on the spot kills. My friend needed meat, the farmer needed his freezers filled for himself and the farm workers, he had promised meat to the church ect. We shot alot of animals with several guns and loads, the lower vel rifles/loads worked as well, and on this trip better really, then the "magnums" did.

The H-Mantle has a good reputation, and I have a hunch you could hunt the same animals with the same load for the next twenty years and never experience another such disappointment.

Still, you might try loading Nosler Partitions next time!

AD

Allen is likely correct, as to the prospects for continued use of this bullet. However, as you say, the bullet apparently entered squarely and certainly failed to reach the vitals on an animal not regarded to be particularly tough or heavy of bone. As Alf suggested, I think perhaps the impact velocity was too much for the bullet but I differ in that I'd consider it a failure and would be looking for a projectile that could be relied upon at any range, but especially up close.

The H-Mantel does not have a very good reputation in its homeland anymore, and in your case (game, distance, bullet velocity), it behaved absolutely expectably. You have only been lucky so far. By the way, it is being phased out and replaced by RWS. Its successor is the DK bullet.

You might wish to choose a premium bullet instead.

Carcano

[ 08-29-2003, 23:33: Message edited by: carcano91 ]

Hi, I'm a German Hunter and know the H-Mantle very well as they are German bullets. Their reputation in Germany is not good anymore.

They are a bad choice for African big game hunting. The front part of the bullet explodes into many fragments. The rear part does not expand. Therefor exit holes are very small and a blood trail difficult to follow.

American premium bullets are a better choice, i.e. Barnes X-Bullets or Swift A-Frame.

The H-Mantle is not state-of-the-art.

I'm a fan of the Swift A-Frame.....However it's possible you could have had the same performance with the Swift.

The A-Frame is very similar to Nosler's Partician bullet. Except the A-Frame is bonded in the front partician and the bullet had always been more accurate in my guns. I believe the bullet jacket is machined for nearly perfect concentricity. They usually run $1. each so I use another bullet for practice and sighting in.

$50 worth of A-Frames should last many years properly conserved so the cost really isn't that bad.

I'm with Alf, first of all the short distance and velocity, then, but in a not so important instance, we can discuss about the bullet.

I had some problem shooting roe deers, cows and calfs, with a 7x64 hot charged, light bullets at short distances. They often made 200/300meters in a fast run before die.
If the shooting distance was more than 150 meters they usually falled in their tracks.
By my opinion, if that Kudu were shooted with a slower caliber, like a .30-06 or a 9.3x62 at that distance, or at a longer distance with the 8x68 (150/180meters for example) the story should be different.
bye

I wanted to try the 8x68 as it is about the same thing as the 300 mags that seem so popular with folks. Really, except for that one case the rifle/load preformed beautifully. I often found pieces of lung tissue on the ground and the exit wounds were huge, meaning I belive the nose section wasnt shed. Still, youd hate to loose an animal because of vel., or poor bullets or any reason!