Ladies and Gentlemen,

Walter established himself as the man to do the BBQ for so many years now.

And this year he was also selected to shoot the BBQ menu.

He shot this impala with my 375/404, using our own 300 grain Walterhog bullets.

This is the exit wound.

We know - at least we think we know! - what caused this.

The first person to guess the cause of this extraordinary wound will win a set of DVDs of our hunt of this year.

Did the bullet blow out part of the shoulder bone thru the exit wound?

I shot an impala in 2005 where by bullet broke off a chunk of the shoulder bone and the exit was huge and several inches long. It did not take part of the hide off but it looked very odd.

bullet struck a branch prior to entry then tumbled causing the damage at exit? jorge

I seem to remember you posting that some of the copper used to make a batch of Walterhogs had air bubbles. Could that be the cause?

It was shot while it was laying down next to a rock.

The shoulder was broken by the exiting bullet, and either ripped the broken part of blade out, or it caught on something as the impala fell or ran. Good picture!
Regards,
Graham

I don't know anything about Walterhog bullets but maybe the walterhog was somehow mistakenly annealed dead soft?

The bullet was loaded backwards in the case by one of Walter's friends as a prank. The backwards bullet became unstable in flight and tumbled, causing an unusual wound.

just a guess...

Walter used the bumper of the Landie to deliver the coup-de-grace?

The impala bit off his skin.

It was leaning against a tree, when the bullet passed through.

Guess number 2: It was leaning against a fence, when the bullet passed through.

The humerus became a projectile exiting horizontally snagging the hide and tearing it off in an upward motion. Either the shot was taken at a position below that of the impala or , as I suspect, the bullet was deflected upward immediately before entering and tumbled.

That's my guess.

It looks like a knife was used to cut the hide to examine the bullet wound after the animal was recovered,
Mike

You filled the tip with some kind of explosive?

Walters Velcro gloves had to much stickyness to them?

So far only one answer is relatively close.

Walter is so happy he has managed to hoodwink everyone; saying "ha ha ha! EXPERTS you said! They know NOTHING! I am going to prove to them my trick is totally beyond them to answer! If you and Roy were not there in person, you two EXPERTS would have been scrtaching your heads too! God, I am SO CLEVER! Moments like these make all the hardships I endure while on safari well worth it!"

Now everyone here is set to prove to him he is NOT as clever as he thinks.

I will let you know what develops.

Actually, this is great, as they can all be busy planning nasty tricks on Walter, I can get on fixing a friend's rifle without any unwanted "help". Especially from Walter!

...a knife was used to cut the hide in a hart shape (bad one tho) on the exit wound - someone is trying to impress us with his shot placement

P.S. One may wonder where the entry wound was ?

The picture is of the second impala the bullet went through.

My question is where is the entrance wound?
It looks like the bullet hit the ground and was ricochet up and hit the impala at an upward angle.

James

I'm assuming multiple guesses are OK.

It could be the exit and entrance is on the same side.

The impala was shot while laying down and the bullet hit right where the body lay against the ground.

If the wound was altered post shot (i.e. knife,etc.), we all must cry foul. Saeed's email presents the image as the exit wound and even suggests there is some uncertainty as to what really happened.

If it was cut away. It wouldn't surprise me if Walter made a hairpiece out of it and paraded around with it on top of his head!

Did Walter cut an X in the tip of the bullet like in the movies??

No one touched the animal at all.

This is exactly how it looked as we got to it.

...now the funny part is gone ... IMO considering the blood on impala`s mouth there is no point in guessing on entry wound - it is clearly some kind of a lung shot...I am almost certain that the missing hide was not entirely bullets work - well at least the upper part, how ever interesting parallel vertical cuts on both sides - I guess - after shot impala got knoted in the exit wound by his own horn (blood stain above right ear) and pulled out the missing part of the hide with it ?

mouse93,you already lost

The tip of the bullet was pounded to make it sort of a wadcutter or flat nose.

The tip of the bullet wass drilled out......

Holy cow! After looking at the impala's mouth and Saeed's assurance that the wound was not altered, I realize the animal reached over to the wound site and bit at it grasping a flap of skin and ripping it off - not unlike a hyena biting at it's wound! The blood on the ear and base of horn is from the bloody skin flap as it flew upward in the impala's mouth and struck the upper head.

I don't think for a minute the impala bit the wound but it is possible he caught his horn tip in the wound and ripped the skin off.

I guess we'll learn someday what Saeed and Walter believe to be the cause of the wound. As unlikely as it seems, after seeing the blood smear in the right side of the mouth I still believe he bit it.

Walter obviously was holding the rifle backwards with his thumb in the muzzle. On firing, the rifle flew through the air and passed completely through the impala, leaving Walter holding the slug. The scope caused the odd shaped hole.

when will we know who won?

quote:

Originally posted by shootaway:
when will we know who won?

No one has won yet!

walter hit a rock/branch/tree which splintered and became a projectile that killed the impala causing the odd wound.

Or he actually chased the impala down and then bit him to death!

Just in case anyone wonders, we did not find that missing piece of skin either!

anther animal must have preyed on the wound

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
Just in case anyone wonders, we did not find that missing piece of skin either!

oh no - now all the fun is gone

- hum as we saw walterhogs gain cylinder shape when passing through target - with sharp edges on both sides:



- simillar wound (tho smaller)can be seen on bushbuck from Saed`s hunt with PVT:



- so after all, bullet did exit (or even enter) broadside horizontaly with sharp edges of the walterhog causing parallel vertical cuts - that cut and took the mising cape with it (similar - like jorge mentioned before)

The well defined vertical cuts, combined with a horizontal tearing of the hide is confusing, especially so in that the underlying membrane does not appear to be penetrated. Almost looks like the heart-shot buck ran into something.

I've seen "extra hide" removals on running animals, lying animals and even nervous standing animals, with the offside leg pulled up close to the body. Interesting wound, this.

- dead on Nick - same hide wounds also found on game hit by vehicle - tho hard to fit in situation