Hi Folks

Thought some of you might be interested in this.

I had to put a close range coup de grace shot into a (41 inch) buff we shot in the Selous last week and chose to use a woodleigh sp that I'd usually use for Lion...... here's the recovered bullet.

That 1.25 in. diameter sure should open a hole, must have been a .458. It certainly stuck together with a lot of expansion.

.500 Jeffery from about 5 feet.

Not bad,

How was the penetration ?

Through the stomach on through the chest cavity and heart and it ended up under the skin at the front of the opposite shoulder.... if that makes sense.

Was the client carrying a .500 Jeff for a lion hunt?

No the client was carrying a 375 H&H and had hit the Buff 3 times and had an empty magazine. The animal was down and pretty much out, but not quite out. I was then asked to put in the final shot, and as I wanted to put the animal out quickly, I just swopped my mono solid for a Lion Load.

Steve,
Nice results with the big bullet 570gr?

Hope to see you in Dar on the 23rd or 24th...or passing thru camp...


Mike

2 days till the Selous

that's simply awesome....wow...

Great recovery and thanks for posting the photo.....woodleigh has a good reputation for making excellent bullets.

Mike,

It was the 535 grain. As you say, lets hope we manage to get together during your stay in Tz.

Generally, Sorry the picture quality isn't very good.... my first try with this camera.

Shakari,

Have you chronographed your lion load?

And have you had a chance to weigh the bullet yet?

Good penetration for so much frontal area Id say, but I do not think it would look so good if it had hit any bones.

Have you used your soft points on a shoulder or hip shot yet?

You have my admiration for shooting a real big bore! How much does your rifle weigh????

Andy

Haven't put it through a chrono for a while but I seem to remember it was around 2200 fps.

As to weight, my scales only go to 500 grains and it retains more than that (original bullet weight was 535 grains).....but I don't know how much more. I wouldn't usually use a Lion load but had one that a bit knocked about and needed using up so this was a good chance to use it.

I used a PSP on a running (previously wounded) Buffalo a couple of years ago and took an off centre Texas heart shot. (didn't hit any big bones though) The bullet travelled the entire length of the animal and stopped just under the skin in the opposite side of the chest. It spun the animal 180 degrees and dropped him like a sack of coal.

The rifle weighs 12 lbs unloaded and has a mercury tube recoil arrestor in the stock. Recoil is considerably less than other .500 Jeffery rifles I've fired.

Most of the DG hunting I do is at close to very close ranges and also dealing with the wounded ones has made me want a big stopper that handles real fast. This rifle fits the bill nicely. I love it dearly and wouldn't swop it for the world

I put a Woodleigh soft (500gn 470NE) into a quartering away buffalo at about 70 yards a few years ago. Recovered it from in front of the off side shoulder - it weighed 507grains suggesting that I hadn't quite got all the blood and muscle off.

Woodleigh is serious about the recommended velocities - I shot a zebra in June at 50 yards with a 9.3mm 286gn Woodleigh soft at a muzzle velocity of 2525fps. Side on shot at the only bit of zebra I could see between the trees. It broke the offside shoulder and was under the skin, but it lost about half it's weight. It did not fragment however, (apart from the lost bits, of course) but behave like a Nosler Partition. Woodleigh recommend a an impact velocity of max 2200fps for this bullet and I was glad I wasn't shooting at a buff.

The Woodleigh Protected Points are recommended for higher impact velocities than the round nose softs, a fact of which I was unaware.

For me, though, the best featrure of Woodleigh bullets is that they are always available in Oz, whereas if you work up loads for any imported bullets you inevitably finish load development and then find that whatever you chose is no longer imported.

mike

Here are a couple of Woodleighs pictures to add to the pile.

They are just very good very reliable bullets.

These were recovered from one of my Buffalo in Tanzania in 2002. The first was a broadside shot @ about 70 yards went through the on shoulder was recovered in the skin on the off side. The solid entered just forward of the hip joint went all the way through the buff length wise and was recovered in the skin of the neck.

The rifle was a .458Lott the bullets are both 500gr and were doing about 2250 fps at the muzzle.

Good information, guys and thanks for the pictures of the recovered bullets. I am carrying a custom .416 Rigby to Zambia in a month to hunt buff, hippo and croc and will be using a combination of Woodleigh Weldcore softs and Woodleigh solids. I can get close to the same POI with them in my rifle so I will be carrying them in the usual "soft on top, solids below" configuration. This info was timely!

quote:

Originally posted by shakari:
Through the stomach on through the chest cavity and heart and it ended up under the skin at the front of the opposite shoulder.... if that makes sense.

Shakari!

Nearly the same on buff:

30 meters distance hit on the shoulder.

The woodleigh Sp did not! break the first shoulderbone! 500 Jeffery!

This hunter will never ever use woodleighs on buff...

quote:

Originally posted by vapodog:
that's simply awesome....wow...

Great recovery and thanks for posting the photo.....woodleigh has a good reputation for making excellent bullets.

Cant see a nice result in this performance!

out from a big thumper like the 500 Schüler the bullet should exit the buff and i bet a TSX or A-Frame would have done!

I think the bullet performed exactly as it should. It was a SP usually used for cats - not a PSP.

Safarischorsch,
I personally do not want a soft to exit as this is one of reasons for using one, so as not to hit any game behind the one targeted.

I once supplied a PH with 458 550grn woodliegh softs for his lott. He was impressed with these big softs after literally knocking over some Buffalo.
I have also recovered two 470 Woodliegh softs under the skin of a Buff once, all in similar shape. Great prefomance in my eyes for such a soft.
I use Swift A frames when I need a bit more penetration, such as when using light for game calibers such as 9.3X62 for Buff.
ozhunter

Those folks who have had problem with Woodleigh penetration in the 500 NE, 505 Gibbs or 500 Jeffery, were you using the 570g or 600g PPs or the soft points? Were you using the Woodleighs inside their recommended velocity range?

My only concern with the Barnes TSX as an alternative would be the earlier reports of them occassionaly failing to expand. That may well have been solved by now.

It seems like Woodleigh could go to an even thicker jacket on the PPs with maybe some kind of "core-lokt" feature to limit expansion to the front two thirds of the bullet. Their ability to expand as they do and maintain weight retention is nothing short of amazing though.

Thanks,

Chuck

quote:

My only concern with the Barnes TSX as an alternative would be the earlier reports of them occassionaly failing to expand.

I have a feeling that has less to do with lack of bullet performance and more to do with brush being hit and the bullet entering the animal backwards. Hence it doesn't expand. The bigest worry I would entertain is them loosing a petal once they enter the animal, but they still will likely have better weight retention than most other bullets even minus a petal. In other words don't sweat it.

Brett

I just got back from the range and recovered some woodleigh bullets from the dirt mound at 100 yds.I shot all the 500gr bullets below with the same charge,from the same rifle(Ruger lott).It seems that the aframes all held together in the form of a mushroom,and the Woodleighs flattened out before breaking into pieces.No Woodleigh softs for me.The aframe I used when I shot my wounded buff up close through the head was recovered in the brain.There is no way the Woodleigh would have reached there.[URL= ]10 aframes[/URL] [URL= ]woodleighs RNSP[/URL] Someone needs to call up Bill Hober and ask him to come up with a Swift solid. I would not use the 500gr Woodleigh on a lion.I would prefer instead the 500gr aframe for lion and most of my african hunting.