[Click images to enlarge.]

Note: I take full responsibility for the condition of the bullet. North Fork makes a great product, and I think user error led to this. This is not a negative post about North Fork in any way.

Edit: To be sure this is on topic, this is (originally) a 450-grain .458.

Please tell more.
What was it recovered from and what did it hit along the way? Range at impact?
Rifle and load specifics? Velocity and Twist?

Chief Thunderstick and I have some .475/500-gr FP solids by North Fork to test in his sloppy Winchester Custom Shop barrel that keyholed with the older .474/500-grain FP's. My McGowen barrel shot the .474's perfectly and should do the same with the .475's. His barrel and mine are both 10" twist.

Well...darn it....are ya going to tell us how it got that way?

quote:

Originally posted by RIP:
Please tell more.
What was it recovered from and what did it hit along the way? Range at impact?
Rifle and load specifics? Velocity and Twist?

Aren't you supposed to conjecture before I give it all away???

.458 Win Mag at an estimated 30 meters.

It was fired from an over-sized barrel and ricocheted off a rock on the ground before impacting the scrotum of a cape buffalo, where it was found lodged in the left testicle?

I am not sure I see any rifling marks on the bullet bands, just scratches from the rock on the ground.

Was it one of Rob's smoothbore experiments?

Either that or he is pissing off the range master again by tearing the hell out of the slanted steel backstop at his local indoor, 25 yard shooting range.

I don't even think I can see evidence of it being shot....is there lands/grooves on the bullet from the rifling?? Maybe he used it as a soft punch.

Cheers,
Canuck

No richochet. The shot was low and outside. Ball one. Nothing between the rifle and the beginning of the target, but that is where it appears to have gone wrong.



The picture is a bit misleading as the shot probably entered a bit lower down. The bullet ended up at the spine but did not break it, rocking the cow but not putting her down.

Slightly better luck, or better shot placement, and it would have been an entirely different matter.

quote:

Originally posted by NFMike:
Either that or he is pissing off the range master again by tearing the hell out of the slanted steel backstop at his local indoor, 25 yard shooting range.

They never get mad when I do that!

With better shot placement I got a pass through on number two...

Edit: This one passed through the skull as well. Just seems to have hit something on the way through. The consensus of the PHs in camp (all two of them) is a molar, extremely dense bone in an old cow like this one. Apparently took enough steam off to keep it from breaking the spine.

Send it back to Mike for another pass through the screw lathe. There's enough alloy for a .375" solid still.

The other bullet made it to either the Atlantic or the Indian ocean.

Is it true that some elephants chew on rocks?

If it passed that far below the brain, I'm not surprised it didn't knock her down.

The potential problem with high penetration it would seem is that too much is penetrated and the energy/momentum isn't really used to stun the animal. Conjecture on my part on the elephant but it would seem to make sense. Pass-throughs on buffalo can have little effect.

Here is a picture of a 450 grain NF FN at 2550 fps that met an elephant skull at 9 paces (far right).

450 Dakota, 1-12 twist.



And you can see the engraved rifling on this one.

PS The deformed 465 grain RN actually did hit some molars. Poor shooting on my part.

Andy

And we see much better rifling engraving , which is of faster twist to boot.

I believe Charles has admitted his bore is oversized, on another thread, but he has not done so here yet.

BTW, my friend Chief Thunderstick had keyholing with the old .474/500gr North Fork FP solid.

He got a sample of the new .475/500gr North Fork FP and CP that are .475" and have more bands on them like the ones Andy and Charles pictured above.

Those shot cloverleaf groups in the oversized Winchester Custom Shop Big Five 470 Capstick.

Obviously it is not that badly oversized, since it only took .001" extra (and a few more bands added to the bearing surface) to make that barrel shoot well.

I didn't know I need to admit anything here...

Do you think it has any bearing on the shearing off of part of the bullet?

Did you chrono the revised .475's? My bore is one-half of a thousandths over in one dimension (the lands??? -- would have to check.).

Anyway....Gerard Schultz offered to make some GS Customs to my bore size if I got some more accurate measurements, but I am not sure that is needed at this point. If it was, I probably should just slug the bore and sent that over!

Just yanking your chain Charles.

Chief Thunderstick's Winchester M70 "Custom Shop One of 125 Made" 470 Capstick gave 2297 fps (24" barrel of 10" twist) with the .475/500gr North Fork FP. Within a few fps of the velocities he got with the old Barnes XLC and the old brass RN solids by Barnes. All were just under 2300 fps with the same load: 85 grains of H4895 with CCI 250 primer in A-Square brass. That is what he says.

quote:

Originally posted by RIP:
Just yanking your chain Charles.

Chief Thunderstick's Winchester M70 "Custom Shop One of 125 Made" 470 Capstick gave 2297 fps (24" barrel of 10" twist) with the .475/500gr North Fork FP. Within a few fps of the velocities he got with the old Barnes XLC and the old brass RN solids by Barnes. All were just under 2300 fps with the same load: 85 grains of H4895 with CCI 250 primer in A-Square brass. That is what he says.

I always rise to the bait -- I am so easy that way!

Thanks for the info. As I said in the other thread, I would chrono the loads before using them again. I did not this time because Superior Ammo felt good about them and it meant a long drive to borrow use of a chronograph, and due to the delay in getting and trying out the revised FPS my time was short. If I cannot get decent velocity from the NFs I would either go with Woodleighs or talk to GS Custom about a special run of their bullets.