Once again I shot a critter with a cast boolit and wasn't able to recover the slug because it exited the animal. A large spike bull was running quartering towards me at about 75 to 85 yds when I fired the .35 Whelen loaded with 358009 at 2150 fps. The boolit passed behind the left front shoulder, went thru the lungs and exited on the far side a little further back. The good news was that he crashed on the spot. I have no idea why he did, as no major bones were hit and there was little blood shot meat. I did all the butchering with help from my son, and am still amazed as to why this animal went right down and others I've hit in the lungs have traveled a fur piece before piling up!--Shuz

Way to go Shuz! You got pics?

Ray,
That's one of them unanswerable questions. Good shooting as bullet placement is everything. Sure you didn't sever something and just didn't see it. If the checst cavity was full of blood then I would suspect you bled him out fast.
Congrats on a successful hunt. Mark

Congratulations Ray,
Please give us the specifics on the boolit.
I wonder if the RCBS 35-200 would be enough on elk with broadside shots? Hey, this just might be the excuse for getting Dan to cut a heavier mould for my .358 Win. -JDL

Yea! What Maineboy said. That is one awesome boolit! sundog

Congratulations! That'll be some nice eating this winter.

Can't remember where I read this, but some work was done that indicated that animals that dropped on the spot were shot just as the heart was contracting. They looked at the brains of animals shot and did a comparison between ones that dropped on the spot and those that kept on trucking for a bit.

The pressure in the circulation system spikes when the heart contracts. The bullet impact also produces an instantaneous blood pressure spike. The two spikes together ruptured many blood vessels in the brain and the animal goes down immediately.

Sounded good, anyway.

Leadsmith

We didn't have a digital camera along, but we did manage to take some pictures with a disposable camera after we got the bull skinned,quartered and packed back to our wall tent. The head is still intact behind my shop and I'll try and get some digital pictures in the next day or so. We were fortunate to get the quarters hung within 4 hours of the kill because the weather was really warm. The temp was in the low 60's all day Sunday the 26th and didn't drop below 50 Sunday night. same scenario for Monday the 27th. It didn't drop to 40 until early Tuesday morning. I was really concerned about the meat spoiling, but evidently allowing air to circulate around the quarters as they hung in meat bags between a couple of Ponderosa pines was sufficient for the meat to not spoil. We've eaten tenderloins and ground elk and jerky; and, so far, so good! Also, as I butchered, the meat smelt OK. Temperature sure was a concern tho, whilst out in the bush!
Now about the boolit. It was Lyman's now discontinued 358009 280g RN cast from 3:1 (ww:lino) alloy and quench cast to a Bhn of nearly 35(Saeco 12). Rifle is a Rem 700 in .35 Whelen with a Douglass 1:12 twist bbl. Load was 48g of AA4064 chrono'd at an average of 2150fps.--Shuz

Shuz - Congratulations again on the elk.
I'm still having fits with my .358 Win. I've got the 1-12 Douglas on it, and it so far has left something to be desired as far as accuracy at your velocity. I'm going to keep working at it, trying a lube change next. I'd been using FWFL, and seem to recall I was a bit short on an ingredient the last time around, so hopefully I can get it shooting better. Castor oil, and a touch more lanolin is being added this evening in a small test batch.
It sounds like your alloy is harder than the hubs of hell, so I may try something a bit harder, although I have tried some asenic enriched quenched bullets that run in the 26-27 Bn range.
What kind of hundred yard groups are you getting with the Whelen?