Spent the last several days chasing caribou in unit 13. Yesterday a little east of the McClaren River I spotted a few caribou. After they went behind a little ridge I put the stalk on. Much to my dismay they weren't there.

I spotted a lone caribou a ways further out and dropped into a gully to put me in range. Once again, no caribou. After checking a few more ridges and draws I headed back to the truck. I popped up over a small ridge and there they were. How they got around behind me I don't now. They must have gone over one ridge while I was in a gully between a couple of others.

There were 9-10 cows and calves about 350 yards out and one lone big cow lagging behind at what turned out to be about 200 yards from me. She was standing butt to me so I whistled once to turn her. Instead of turning she started trotting quartered away. I led her a little and held a bit too high thinking it was further than 200 yards. The 300 grain Barnes TSX entered at the third rib from the last and angled forward taking out the top of the lungs and exiting through the left shoulder.

No problem with the TSX performance other than the blood shot meat. That seems to be endemic to the TSX. The previous two animals I've taken with the 400 have been with 400 grain bullets and had no blood shot meat. I know, just trim the blood shot meat but the 400 grain bullets do so well without leaving the blood shot mess. I'll save the TSX's for bears and shoot meat with the 400 grainers.



The entrance wound



The exit wound

Nice shooting!
I love hearing about those 400's taking game.

I am in the process of building a 400 Whelan here, in Australia. What 400 grain projectiles do you favour?
I only just this afternoon resized 340 gn 416 Woodleighs down to 411. I am hanging to get my Whelan back from the gunsmith.
Cheers Malcolm

Malcolm,

My favorite bullet is the Woodleigh .411 400 grain round nose over 58 grains of H4895. My rifle loves them and they perform well at the 400 Whelen velocities. I could be happy with the Hawk 400 grain as well. It performs very much the same as the Woodleighs.

I had the Barnes X bullets left over from load development and decided to try them this year. I'll go back to the Woodleighs.

I've taken one caribou and one moose with two different 400 grain round nose bullets, the Woodleigh and the Hawk. Both performed similarly with fist size exit wounds and not enough blood shot meat to fill a tea cup.

Mart

Mart: Simply outstanding! You guys in Alaska are so darned fortunate.

I'd say you held about right Mart! Thanks for sharing the hunt!

Nice shootin! I hadn't heard of the 400 Whelen. I'll have to check it out.

Great shooting Mart. I'll prolly do a good run down of the bullets available for the 400 if I build one . I have had great success with the 400 gr 416 bullets in the 2200 fps MV range on Sitka Blacktails . Eat right up to the bullet hole . But sufficient horsepower to dump an inbound bear while I was packing meat out.