Hello,

just a question of fancy. When I shoot boar in California, I shoot the most powerful round I have, which happens to be a (now discontinued) Brenneke full bore slug weighing 600 grains (1 3/8 oz) at 1760 fps, with a calculated energy of 4200 +/- ft lbs.

I shoot it out of my Remington 870 with a rifled barrel. It puts the big pigs down like a truck! Recoil is not fun at the bench, but goes completely unnoticed while hunting!

Whilst bored one day, I got to thinking - what if one were to use a tungsten slug (similar to the slug now offered by Hevi-Shot) in such a load.
What animals in Africa (assuming it is legal) could such a load be used on successfully and safely?

It is probably obvious that I have no experience with big bore rifle loads, so forgive the amateurism!!

Thanks.

That's hot for a 12ga shotgun I would think and equivalent ftlbs to the old 12 bore elephant guns of the late 1800's.

To answer your question these were probably what was considered the absolute bare minimum for dangerous game in the 19th century.

Below the 12 bore were usually the 577 blackpowder cases, which were not considered dangerous game rifles.

The common standard was the next one up the 10 bore with a 875gn bullet at 1500fps or so and a few hundred more ftlbs than the 12 bore.

The 8 bore, larger again was considered the serious medicine for stopping charges with similar velocities but bullets up to 1200grains or so.

The heavyweight champ was the 4 bore with lower velocities but bullets up to 2000grains.

That said even the largest of these were not a sure thing on the ultimate test of a big game solution- Frontal shot on elephant skull.
They rarely killed with this shot apparently.
Side shot to head was fine and other shots on lesser charging game okay but never 100%
sure.

A tungsten bullet were you able to make and fire it would not offer much advantage over a hard cast lead projectile I would not think, since it is the great diametre and low velocity of the old slugs letting them down as much as the hardness.

By the way when the 450 nitros came out in the 1890's, with essentialy 500gn jacketed bullets at 2100fps, the old bore guns became obsolete,
because amonsgt other things the frontal elephant shot was now covered.

In fact a 30-06 with a 220gn solid will kill with more surety for such a shot than a bore rifle slug. Although on lesser game like buff an argument can be made for the great diametre of the larger bore guns.

The above is open to a lot of debate (which you may get ) but that is the basic run down for a someone new to the genre.

Karl.

Wow!
Thanks a lot for the speedy and detailed reply.

The load certainly is on the upper end for my shotgun, and certainly seems to pound more than the 2 oz turkey loads.

For a very short moment, I had the delusion of shooting a Cape buffalo with a $350.00 Remington 870!
Looks like I'll be saving for something a tad bigger.

Paul.

Paul,
A reply purely from the reading of books.
But probably the general consenseus anyway.

You could certainly shoot a buff with your 12 ga and even kill it since people are taking buff with muzzleloaders and even bows these days as a stunt.
The thing is by modern standards a normal 12 ga is also getting into stunt territory.

The original 12 bore muzzleloaders 150 years ago were even weaker, but the idea was to ride around the animal on horseback shooting and reloading dozens of times until it fell.

Karl.

Paul-Karl- Get some 730 gr hard cast 12 ga Dixie Bullets.I will be trying some when
we get my
12GA FH going And get a heavy thick barrel on
the 870. Dixie has loaded rounds also for regular shotgun pressures, but if you reload with brass cases with heavy barrel you should
get 17-1900 fps. 5000 ft lbs or more..Ed.

A 50 cal tungsten sabot slug the size of a conventional one oucer would weigh 742 grains and have a sectional density of .424. Longshot powder can drive this to 1500 fps at 11,000 psi, just as it does with conventional 1 5/8 oz shot loads.

It can be designed to break into 3 long pieces on impact with devastating results to put it mildly. That would be about the only way to slow it down in less than 5 feet of tissue.

I would rather have this than a 458 Lott in bear country, even at a cost of $5 per round.

I'd say that 1760 FPS would be generous for a 12 Ga. slug.

I would not suggest hunting any of the big 5 with that muzzle velocity regardless of how big the bullet is....perhaps a Leopard, maybe...but then that is up to the shooter as long as its legal...