It is a well known fact, that the .600 NE is not a reliable cartridge for elephant hunting. It lacks of penetration for frontal brain shots and many of the old ivory hunters gave reports on very dangerous situations. (Schomburgk et.al.)

Now I found a cartridge which points to an attempt to overcome this drawback by loading a light bullet with high velocity. It is a 600 grs at 2400 fps. But as we may know, it is impossible to gain penetration with lighter bullets at higher velocity (same cartridge and pressure). There is no sufficient SD. So this 600 NE light may have about 20% less penetration.

Can somebody interpret the headstamp "MEGRET" The bullet is pure copper monometal with 2.5 mm deep grooves. The cartridge is min. 20 to 30 years old.

Norbert,
now THIS sounds like the 12 ga from hell.

thanks for posting it
jeffe

norbert it was poor bullet construction that caused poor penetration with proper solids the 600 nitro will reach the brain of a elephant from any angle including the frontal brain shot.

john pondoro talor took 50+ elephant with 600 he was impressed with it and had nothing but good comments about it but he did state one must watch out for the early thin nickle ammo and only use the more modern steel jacketed ammo.

i have talked to at least 6-7 people who have used the 600
on elephant non of them had any complaints with proper bullets

the common penetration is about 28-31" with moden steel jacketed bullets on a frontal brain shots now thats not huge numbers but its enough to reach the brain with no problems

My reading confirms what 700 nitro said - any reputation that the 600 NE has for poor penetration on elephant heads arose from those old thin jacketed Kynoch solids. I have not heard any complaints about the Woodleigh solids on elephant although I have talked to several PH's whose clients used a 600.

I also asked a PH who has a number of famous videos about the penetation of his 600 on buffalo. He said that on a running away shot, the 600 would not penetrate to the lungs, and would usually stop in the paunch short of the liver. However, he said that a buffalo shot from the hind end with a .600 usually stopped to rest after about 50 yards, while one shot with a .416 having stem to stern penetration would often go up to a mile. The PH speculated that the shock and momentum of the .600 took the fight out of the buffalo a lot quicker than lighter rounds with deeper penetration.

If anyone has heard of a Woodleigh .600 NE solid failing on an elephant's head, please post the story.

The authors of my readings refer to unsuffient penetration with extreme angles on frontal brain shots. It was not the rule, but sometimes it happened.
In any case the elephant is knocked down and the hunters did a second shot in the neck or the lungs. So they could live with this properties, but if the frontal shot on a charging elephant was the last one, they had a severe problem. And sometimes it is better to knock down an elephant instead of a near miss with good penetration.

The intention of my post is to show the desperate attempt, to improve the penetration of the 600 NE, which in any case is less than the modern 416 - 458 cartridges.
The big NEs are overrated with respect to penetration. I have two accidents reported with 500 NE, unsufficient penetration caused by a too small velocity.

Jeffe-12Ga FH wont be like that, as it will have 1500 grain
bullets.Even 2000 gr will be tested.And lighter ones in working up loads,Ed.

Norbert, I am curious whether your readings were of elephant hunts conducted in the old days or recently? As I recall, there were 2 loadings of the original 600 NE, one lighter than the other. Coupled with Kynoch bullets, that could account for the penetration problem.

Don't get me wrong - I am not saying the 600 NE is a great penetrator. I am just curious about the stories. There are few enough elephant shot with the 600 NE that I need to hear all the stories I can find!

I agree with you that the bullet you pictured is a poor choice for dangerous game, although it could be usd to turn a 600 NE into a plains game rifle.

Herr Norbert
Thanks for the information, very interesting.

It's is a numbers game after all. Bullets with high SD seems to be better at reaching in and touch them Downside is that calibers over 458 often has bullets are light for the caliber.

For some reason Ross put's the 577 NE in the "crusher" category. Maybe he has some nasty bullets around 800-900 grains for it

/ JOHAN