The Accurate Reloading Forums THE ACCURATE RELOADING.COM FORUMS Hunting African Big Game Hunting GS Custom Bullets,Feedback threadGo | New | Find | Notify | Tools | Reply | |
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Tell us how your GS customs have performed in the field. | ||
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They nearly shot through the same hole in the rifle I tried them in. But they wouldn't feed consistently so I never hunted with them. That rifle didn't feed several different bullets so it may not have been the bullets fault. Kyler | |||
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None better ! i.m.h.o. There is nothing as permanent as a good temporary repair. | |||
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Here is what I posted on http://www.nitroexpress.com
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I just returned from Zambia on a 2-1 buff hunt. There were two buffalo taken, two hippo, and some plains game. The 404 Jeffery was using 380 gr. North fork Tecknology bullets and the 416 Taylor was using the 380 gr. GS/FM solid. GS/FN solid shots; Hippo head shot full penetration side to side. The hippo just went down. The buff was standing facing us at about 80 yard. The shot entered the midline under the lower jaw and exited the left hip taking out the entire top of the heart with the great vessels. At the hit, the bull simply shuddered violently, turned to run and made about 20 or so yards and collapsed. The insurance shot in the back was done although not necessary. My wife, who was supposed to shoot a croc on this trip was unable to do so as there were none left on the quota when we got there. Instead she shot a couple of the animals on my quota. She hunted and shot a wonderful waterbuck and the only rifles we had were the 416 and the 404. She loves my 416 and took it to take the waterbuck. The shot was at about 100 yards. The bullet hit solid on the shoulder where the bull went down in a heap. The insurance shot finished off the animal and ma got a black eye from the second shot for creeping in on the scope. She was very close and the light failing. None of the bullets were recovered. I would say the GS customs are wonderful. I wish they were made here and they and the North forks would be all I would load. I attempted to buy bullets in RSA this trip. I brought enough cash for a BIG order. Called them and they had nothing in stock (9.3, 375, 416, 404, 458, 505, 510.). How can you hope to run a business with no stock. I would have taken back any portion of an order but they said they had nothing. They are working on a US supplier but are a year or more away. I wish someone here would buy their technology and do the damn thing right. It is too good a product to let die due to inept business practices. As a side note. WE took 14 animals, some of them big and dangerous and the PH never fired a shot. Sarge, the game scout, and the trackers had never seen buff respond and die as quickly and beeing as visably shaken up at the hit as were the two buff. They were really impressed. Anyone having GS custom bullets they want to sell especially in the calibers mentioned above please e=mail me. square shooter | |||
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I have shot a dozen of so Buffalo with the GS Customs FN solid in 375, 404 and 416 as I recall, all with excellent results...Also had excellent results on plainsgame with them....I have seen other buffalo shot with them on nemourous ocassions, again with excellent results.. I have also shot a number of plainsgamw with the HP versions and they always performed 100 percent.... I can say the exact good words for Northfork and Bridger FN solids and the Northfork softs are among the very best.... They are just darn good bullets... Ray Atkinson Atkinson Hunting Adventures 10 Ward Lane, Filer, Idaho, 83328 208-731-4120 rayatkinsonhunting@gmail.com | |||
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Wonderful to hunt with excellent bullets! No feeding problems, reliable shot after shot. Follow this link. OWLS My Africa, with which I will never be able to live without! | |||
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one of the AR posters used the GS CUSTOM proj in his 375 ...i think it was CANNACK and his proj did not perform well ..i think he posted a picture of one that did not even open up Gerard said he would investigate and post the results but to this day there is no news on that failure daniel | |||
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Yes it with my skinner when we found that bullet that did not open but rather just had a bent tip. The animal was a waterbuck bull. Canuck is a deadly good shot with great equipment. When that story was told about the bull being hit and running off requiring follow up shooting It was certainly not typical of Chriss's shooting. After we finsihed with the skinning the reason for the situation became more clear as the bullet followed a bizzare curving path and did not open at all. When the expanding Monolithic bullet design performs they are great but there seems to be this random issue with consistant performace. The Barnes X have been struggling with this for years now. One other noticable issue with the game is that very often the exit wounds are identical in size to the entry. I have had to play over the events in my mind to recall the side of the animal shot because the two holes are so similiar that it's not instantly easy to see which is which. This leaves me wondering if they have opened up at all? Since the penetration is often complete recovering bullets is quite rare. Seeing as many animals shot in camp as I do each season I'm still not convinced that the expanding monolithic bullets are the best choice. I have seen 100% consistant performance with bonded bullets made by several different manufacturers. For solids all the monolithics are fine, but for expanding designs I'll be sticking with bonded core bullets. | |||
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JJ I assume you are talking about the HV bullets, NOT the FN's? Peter. Be without fear in the face of your enemies. Be brave and upright, that God may love thee. Speak the truth always, even if it leads to your death. Safeguard the helpless and do no wrong; | |||
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I, like Hack, have seen this happen on more than a few ocassions with BarnesX, and once with the Triple Xs, so I suppose it can happen with any monolithic... That said I have had perfect success with the GS Customs HV bullets on both buffalo and plainsgame, but a fact of life is "any" bullet can fail, and those that do will become known over a period of time... The problem as I see it with any monolithic bullet is they perform so well 95% of the time, and only fail on ocassion, but when they do the fail in spades....just my opinnion. Ray Atkinson Atkinson Hunting Adventures 10 Ward Lane, Filer, Idaho, 83328 208-731-4120 rayatkinsonhunting@gmail.com | |||
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M98, Here is the picture of the bullet that Canuck posted. The issue here is not one of expansion. The issue is instability as it is clear that the bullet tumbled on impact. Below the picture is Canuck's comment on the matter. We will determine why the bullet tumbled and, once the cause is known, we can then advise Canuck on the steps neccessary to prevent a recurrence. Until we know, speculation remains just that: speculation. The reason for the delay is apparent from Canuck's post and, once he is settled we will work out what the problem is. We take incidents such as this very seriously and, where many other manufacturers will shrug off such incidents as the inevitable percentage of failures that are acceptable to them, we do not hold that view. JJHACK, Your description: "the bullet followed a bizzare curving path and did not open at all." confirms that the bullet tumbled as only a severely asymmetrically deformed bullet or a tumbling bullet will do what you described. 
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Looking at the GScustom 265gnHV(.375)figures, If you launch that bullet at about the same as the 270FS, The GSC has more at 300yds than the 270Fs has at 200yds,That tells me we have a good 300yd Eland formula. GSC 265gnHV/.375 M.....2675/4154 100...2538/3791 200...2421/3451 300...2307/3132 270gnFS/.375 M......2670/4275 100...2447/3590 200...2234/2990 300...2033/2478 | |||
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Apparently some Winchester M70 rifles of recent make had barrels that were a bit loose, like my friend's 470 Capstick from the Winchester "Custom Shop." His rifle would keyhole with GSC FN's and North Fork FP's, bullets landing flat sideways on paper, whereas The Barnes XLC's with greater (full contact shank) bearing surface would make round holes in the paper with so-so accuracy, despite a rough spot in the rifling near the muzzle (another issue that). My McGowen barreled 470 Capstick with 10" twist would shoot one-hole groups with the GSC FN's and minimally banded North Fork FP's. XLC's gave much bigger groups in my rifle. The lesser bearing/contact banded bullets were just not gripped well enough to spin properly in the loose Winchester barrel. Canuck was using a borrowed Winchester M70. Apparently it did better with other bullets than with the driving bands. That could explain the bizarre results. I have used a GSC FN .416/380gr at 2500 fps on a cape buffalo (one shot kill) and have dropped a departing +1800 lbs Bison carrying an XLC in his chest by shooting him in the rump (south side) with a GSC FN .510/570gr at 2400 fps. It exited his neck (north side). | |||
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Article by Randy Wakeman, also refer AR post for more detailed discussions as well as other articles referred to in the post. I think it is obvious that one should use a premium quality rifle when expecting top class results from premium bullets like GSC HV's or FN's. On numerous plains game hunts I have never been able to recover a single GSC bullet, hitting bone (cervical vertebrae) or not. Excellent performance each and every time with GSC's bullets. In my mind the best manufactured and researched type of bullet available on the market. As to availability, GSC's business practice of not keeping stocks is a healthy financial decision taken by them AND after their production facilities were expanded last year they do supply bullets within a very reasonably short period from time of order placed. My latest order was produced and delivered within one month - May 2006. OWLS My Africa, with which I will never be able to live without! | |||
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Actually RIP, I was using my own M70 on the latest trip (the one with the instability issue with the 375 HV bullet). Gerard was going to send me a twist checker for my 375 after I settled in (I moved back to the Kootenay's shortly after returning from Africa), but it has not arrived. Probably stuck in the vortex that is South African mail. Cheers, Canuck | |||
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As copper bullets are longer than their lead-core counterparts, typically it is a good idea to go with a slightly lighter weight in the copper unless your rifle has a fast twist barrel (such as 1-10" in a 458 Lott). Otherwise, instability is possible and/or likely. This has been shown repeatedly in the field with the Barnes .416 400 grain X-bullet and the Barnes .458 500 grain X-bullet. | |||
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Canuck, O.K., still a WinM70. Most Winchester barrels have been excellent for me. But the lemons have been known to show up in Winchester M70's (and Rugers and CZ's and etc. factory rifles). Winchester used a 12" twist as standard for their .375 H&H. Could they have screwed that up somehow? I would assume you had fired the GSC's in preparation for the trip. No keyholing or accuracy problems noted? You were using 265 grain HV's when you got the squirrely results, bent bullets that did not expand and did not track straight, eh? I am still suspecting a barrel that was oversize for the minimal driving band bearing surface. Such a barrel might do well with a bullet such as a Swift A-Frame that obturates a bit more as well as has greater bearing surface, yet produce marginal stability even with a .375/265gr GSC HV. A good barrel with 12" twist has been superb for .375/300 grain monometals for me. The occasional sloppy Winchester barrel does happen, I know this for a fact. It's called "the heart break of bore-iasis." | |||
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I love em if only I could get a hold of them in a more predictable and constant manner! | |||
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Alf, your a 9.3x64 man, have you tried the 260GScHV?....looks like a ripper! | |||
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The heart break of bore-iasis.  | |||
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RIP, I was with Chris during that hunt, and I don't recall any surprises with regards keyholing when we check zero'd the rifles... Does range have any effect on instability? I mean is possible for a bullet to be key holing at one range but not at another? Regards, Pete | |||
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I shot 2 elephant bulls in Chewore South this April with 410 gr .416 GS Custom flatnose solids. Both heart shots penetrated completely and exited. One side brain shot penetrated completely. The other was a frontal brain finisher that penetrated a measured 60 inches. I also shot a bull hippo with a 300 gr .375 flatnose that penetrated 60 inches as well. I don't have any experience with their hollow point bullets. | |||
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Hey RIP, I didn't have any problems with keyholing at 100yds. I had a limited amount of bullets so I didn't do tonnes of load testing at a bunch of different ranges. I quickly found a load that would group just a little over an inch at 100yds and went with it. Did all my practicing with other more readilly available bullets. I haven't been able to slug the bore, or check the bore dia with pins. I am not sure if it is sloppy, but I don't think so. It is a real fouler, and when it is totally clean you can clearly see tool marks on the top of the lands. If anything it may be a little tight, as I have gotten pressure signs with powder charges that should have been quite safe. I also haven't been able to check the twist yet either. I don't have it in my possession any more, as I traded it off to a buddy. I can get hold of it anytime I want it though, should Gerard want to investigate this further. Cheers, Canuck ps: RIP, when I see your signature pic my mind starts to belt out "Good ole kopje top, kopje top Botswanny" (to the tune of Rocky Top Tennessee). Is that the effect you were going for? | |||
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Canuck, On the GSC banana bullets, I give up. Only us hillbillies are supposed to think like that. Is Bluegrass big in BC? What did I mean? Just "Joy to the World" ... Now do you hear Three Dog Night belting that one in your head. I do. Jeremiah was a bullfrog.  | |||
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SO I GUESS THE INDIVIDUAL BARREL COULD BE THE CULPRIT, GOOD WITH SOME BULLETS AND TOO "SLIPPERY" WITH OTHER BULLETS? HOW DO WE GET A GRIP ON THIS SUBJECT? ALF? | |||
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A bullet which has been fired through a barrel that has a twist rate too slow for the bullet length may not keyhole at all on paper. But when it strikes flesh, the slow twist becomes apparent because the bullet tumbles. In other words, a bullet that is stable in air may be unstable in flesh. But increase the twist rate and the bullet is stable in both. All bullets become unstable at extreme range as velocity falls off. | |||
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RIP, This is OT but my M70 Lott rechamber on a .458 Winnie has a .460" barrel. Shoots fine with most slugs but like Canuck's, it's an incredible fouler. Looks like leading to the naked eye. The rifle shoots well enough (2-4moa with an aperture sight) and at expected velocities from a 23" brl. | |||
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OK, 500grains has a good point there. Can't tell the marginal stability by paper at fixed range alone. Impact medium and extremes of distance, near and far, that is part of the banana peel too. PWS, Thanks for that. Another example of M70 "bore-iasis." The heartbreak of bore-iasis.  I seem to recall that Mike Brady of North Fork has seen a lot of bore-iasis in Winchesters over the years. | |||
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I agree. Gerard and I have discussed this as well. Although I admittedly didn't try too hard, I couldn't get a load to group under an inch with that bullet, even though I haven't had any problem getting other bullets to do so (eg. 300gr Swift A-frames and 270gr Hornady Spire Pts). Marginal (in)stability may have been the culprit wrt accuracy as well.
I wouldn't say bluegrass is big in BC, but it has a following, in all the western provinces. I am just a small town red-neck, and quite enjoy bluegrass festivals. 
I do now.  Cheers, Canuck | |||
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