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"Grand Slam", "Game King", "Supreme", "Fail Safe" - you name them and they break up on big game.
My latest experience is with Winchester Supreme "Ballistic Silver Tip" and "Fail Safe" bullets. Like Nosler Partitions the "Fail Safe" breaks up in two to three pieces, some which go right through but the amount of meat damage is unacceptably gross on the opposite inside of the animal due to tumbling and the bullet's innards flying about.
The "Ballistic Silvertip" bullets behave identical to Nosler Ballistic tips - complete break up at the moment of entry with slivers of lead and copper deposited in the meat and huge exit holes on the light weight blesbok by the tumbling rear end. On big game at 30-06 impact velocity these bullets most probably will fail against the first resistance of shoulder and rib. Like the Nosler Ballistic Tip it is only good for brain shots.
On a young black wildebeest the 165gr Winchester "Fail Safe" broke up on the scapula and first rib and made two separate holes, each the size of a golf ball on the exit side. Most of the opposite scapula had to be thrown away. Clearly both pieces of the bullet had tumbled after break up. Inside the meat was a mess caused by smaller diverse pieces.
On a big blue wildebeest the exit damage caused by a number of "Fail Safe" bullets passing through the opposite side of the animal was a disappointing sight when the meat was processed. Because I am unfamiliar with the design I shall section a Winchester Fail Safe bullet and post photos here.
Winchester "Ballistic Silvertip" bullets were used on blesbok for body shots. Meat damage was severe - exactly the same as my experience is with Nosler Ballistic Tips, Speer Grand Slam and Sierra Game King at 30-06 and .308W impact velocities.
Erich I have quite a bit of personal experience with the South African made Peregrine monolithics and know other hunters who use the locally made Rhinos as well as the GS Custom series (the latter also has a factory in the US).
The lathe turned pure soft copper bullets are beyond any criticism out here. The lathe products do not suffer surface hardening of the copper caused by the cold rolling to calibre and extrusion processes, which means the surface does not get hard and brittle. This has the effect of preventing opening of the petals on Barnes bullets (tested here in 7mm and .308") below about 2,200 ft/sec impact velocity, while above 2,600 ft/sec impact the petals get flung backwards and either break off or get fused to the shank of the bullet. That is neither here nor there with a direct heart shot (as South African hunters) do but with the style of shooting "behind the shoulder" where there is no heart (and only some lung on elk and deer and not even lung on Africa animals the bullet zips right through with a small wound channel. Member Dom Crimy is a past master with Barnes TSX bullets from his 6.5mm rifles and has many, many success stories. His cartridges, bullets and shooting distances ensure that 2,300-2,600 ft/sec impact velocity window.
The Peregrines with hollow point and brass plunger always expand in a perfect round 1.5x calibre mushroom (no petals) from about 1,600 - 3,100 ft/sec impact velocity (proven thousands of times over in the field).
I know American hunters are loathe to use 100% solid flat nose bullets but Peregrine and GS Custom and Rhino and Impala bullets can be used on any animal with exactly the same effect as any expanding bullet. The flat nose causes hydraulic shock (please not hydrostatic shock...) by the unattached supersonic shockwave it introduces and flings forward into and ahead of the bullet's flat frontal area. This shockwave cuts a 4x calibre permanent wound channel with the bullet sides never touching any flesh. We use it in Mozambique on everything from lion, leopard, the little duiker or bushbuck (for camp meat), to buffalo and problem elephant. Because the solid bullet hardly slows down through the thin skinned animal there is mostly zero bloodshot meat. (Raw velocity does not cause small vessel rupture - it happens where the bullet expands and slows down in my experience).
My co-director in our new international safari club has a 500 grain Peregrine VRG-2 .458" solid that was used and then reloaded 4 times from a .458 Lott - each time having killed an elephant with a frontal brain shot and the bullet stopped in the atlas-first neck vertebra connection. It was removed and reloaded and it can be reloaded again if needed. No bending, swaging or anything untoward - the only marks are the rifling and some bone nicks on the frontal face.
Yes, in Colorado I like the price-performance ratio of the Hornady Interlocks because I choose the heaviest bullet weight in any cartridge which will give me 2,700 ft/sec muzzle velocity and impact velocity of about 2,300 -2,400 ft/sec. The Interlock is the USA twin of our local PMP ProAmm series. On elk shoulder the 175 gr Interlock from my .280 Rem or 180 gr from a 30-06 / .308W, or a 160gr from a 7x57 will break the inner shoulder bones, cut the heart top chambers, break the opposite shoulder bones and get stuck there. On mule deer they will go right trough both shoulders. No non-DG animal will go more than 30 yards after such a shot.
Out here in South Africa I have since two years ago standardised on the 168gr Peregrine VRG-3 expanding flat nose for my .303 Brit at 2,600 ft/sec, but I am considering to change to the 180 Peregrine VRG-2 monolithic solid at 2,500 ft/sec simply because I have seen that it does the same job in the same way. That very light weight Lee Enfield is my rifle for non DG guiding in the dense and open savannah areas as well as in the denser bush like where I have just been for a ten day advanced PH course.
About lead free restrictions: I do not shout it out, and that is not the reason for my change to lead free, but I did see an X ray of the front torso of a kudu shot with a Nosler Partition and an impala shot with a Nosler Ballistic tip. The spread of lead is frightening in both instances - particles of lead down to molecular size more than two feet to the sides of the entry wounds
I know you are generally a fan of the Hornaday Interlock bullets. I use them for whitetail. What is your opinion of the monolithic solids, mostly copper solids to comply with lead free restrictions? They're touted by manufacturers as delivering better penetration and most have a cavity to ensure some expansion. Have you had any experience with these?
Bullet weight and ballistic behaviour:
For 30-06 and .308W shooters coming to Africa it is strongly advised to use not lighter than 180gr bullets. There is no difference in trajectory when sighted for a 1.8" above and below sight line point blank range between the 180gr and 165gr bullets. The former has more material to withstand deforming and appreciably better impulse retention. Shooting distances are very rarely beyond 230 yards and never at 250 ; for 99% of all shots aiming will be dead on.
If your rifle is a .300 Win Mag use nothing but a 220 gr bullet or a 175 gr for the 7mm Rem Mag. Best option is to buy the very accurate locally made PMP ammunition and save the $200 that Delta Airlines will charge you for carrying your ammunition. Even three boxes of the supreme quality African Elite ammunition will cost less than $200 for non-magnum calibres.
Forgot to mention: On the kudu the shot was taken through some dry twigs into the frontal throat from about 50 yards. It seems the Fail Safe bullet broke up on these into three pieces that entered the frontal neck, one of which cut the spinal cord. None of these made any exit.
Some internet research on the Winchester Supreme Fail Safe bullets showed the following:
It appears to be a bullet designed for soft tissue and not for an animal with substantial bone structure. The loss of the petals is a distinct disadvantage and the subsequent tumbling is unacceptable behaviour for the large amount of meat damage it causes.
Apparently Winchester had stopped production very soon after its introduction, ostensibly it being banned by BATF for being "armour piercing". If that "armour" refers to the English language term of hardened vehicle metal it is pure nonsense of course. If it refers to human body protection - well I have access to just the proper facility where that ability is tested and shall forward a number of rounds to be evaluated.
Looking at the bullet on the right in the photograph immediately above, the two exit holes I referred to earlier appears to have been made by the rear lead having separated from the jacket. The complete flattening of that segment of the bullet indicates the same loss.
It is difficult to at all understand the thinking behind the soft steel cap over the lead core. That thick copper partitioning already shields the lead from deforming. It only makes for a greater amount of un-bonded mating surfaces which causes the innards to easily divorce themselves from the surrounding jacket. The "Fail Safe" moniker evidently is the age-old marketing ploy to use a product's weakest feature and advertise it as its best beneficial advantage; people fall for esoteric descriptions and often field results prove these to be falsified.
The so-called Winchester Fail Safe is not a bullet advisable for serious big game hunting.
Here is a photo of an in-elegantly sectioned .308" 165 gr "Fail Safe" bullet:
It looks like a complicated RWS H-mantel:
The nose section has a hole into the copper jacket for about 1/3rd of the bullet length.
Below that is a 1/4" solid partition
Below the partition is a 1mm thick metal cap supposedly made of steel which had been swaged around a mandrel during manufacture -
meaning it is not "steely" steel as such.
Below the metal cup is a bowling pin shaped cavity into which a piece of lead wire sits, not bonded in any way and protruding into the metal cap above it.
The lead wire (not shown) is held in place by a small copper disc (not shown) around which the base of the jacket is folded, also acting as a hot gas shield for the lead wire.
Results on big game shot with this bullet indicate that this composite contraption flies apart at impact with any bone and only the heavier components exit the animal individually.
The design philosophy of this complicated arrangement is unclear. Had the rear end merely been filled with molten lead and a bonding flux this may have been a good bullet. Compare this design with the no-nonsense Rhino, GS Custom, US made Swift A-Frame, or even the plunger fitted Peregrine bullets and one can see why the latter bullets designed and manufactured by big game hunters actually do a proper job on big game all the time.
The ammunition under review:
Considering the $200+ that US hunters need to pay to get their US made ammunition onto Delta Airlines after already having paid good money to buy it, and the often disappointing performance of these, it will be far better to buy South African made ammunition once in the country - or the imported Federal Fusion which is a proven trustworthy bullet on big game. As an example: for $200 three boxes of top of the line PMP 30-06 Africa Elite 180gr can be bought - the term "fail safe" certainly can be applied to these with a higher level of honesty.
50 Peregrine 165gr VRG-4 bullets can be bought locally for $50. 50 PMP 30-06 cases and PMP primers will cost another $50. A can of Somchem S365 propellant will cost $20. One morning at a range with a friend, or your friendly PH will ensure a pleasant hunt.
If the American hunter insists on bringing his own loaded ammunition my sincere advice is to load with Barnes TSX or even Hornady Interbond bullets - or order South African designed and made Peregrine or GS Custom bullets from the US suppliers. Using premium bullets in Africa is a good investment.