The Rifle Calibre (Chambering) Is Only As Good As The Bullet

This A-frame (.460 S&W Mag) was pulled out of one very dead Cape buffalo. I always look the same no matter what they are used on. Great bullet.

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This A-frame was removed from a Cape buffalo a friend shot last year with a BFR (revolver by Magnum Research) in .460 S&W. Irrespective of the game, these bullets pretty much always look the same.

Andries, I'm not one who subscribes to the notion that a single-shot, 14-inch barreled, rifle cartridge chambered firearm is a handgun. I am strictly a revolver hunter.

I'm not a big fan of the .44 Mag on really large animals although it has been used successful on virtually everything when loaded properly and placed correctly. I don't avoid bone on even large bovines. A good monometal solid will easily punch through. We get quite good penetration from our revolvers. I shot a Watusi bull in thest with my .500 JRH/Punch bullet combo and it ended up in the tail. Penetration we have in spades. That said, if I was determined to use a .44 Magnum, I would opt for the Kodiak Punch bullet. It's a brass bullet with a small lead insert. I believe in .44 Mag it weights 280 grains. I would push it as fast as possible and aim for the heart. I much prefer the .454 Casull, .480 Ruger and larger for large bovine. However, the .44 will get it done as long as the hunter does his part.

Max, I need to talk to you a great deal more about handgun hunting - and by handgun I do not imply a bolt action rifle cut shorter at both ends.

I had a client from Michigan for elk in Colorado with his rifle and he wanted to come and shoot a Cape buffalo here with his .44 Magnum. About his first question was what calibre rifle will I use to back him up. I asked him what his confidence level was in his .44 Magnum and he said "100%", so I said "I'll back you with my Star 7.5" .44 Magnum". Of course I was being mischievous, but he took the bait and said "I do not expect anything smaller than a.375 H&H Magnum".

The second buffalo I shot in my life was with my 30-06 and a 220 gr SAKO Hammerhead bonded bullet. I was close and unnoticed and I waited for the inner leg to move forward so that I needed only to penerate a rib on entry and not had to break the humerus bone first. The bull went the usual 60 yards and died. So, if all is well and the shooter and I have the time to choose our approach AND the moment of shooting, your own experience and those of others clearly shows that it can be done with a handgun.

That style in fact is in any case the way I do it with the .458 Lott hunter as is posted elsewhere in this forum - but not necessarily waiting for the inner leg to move out of the way of the bullet as that is not necessary. If the PH does not need to kill the buff then the handgun kill is legitimate in my book. :-)

I’m a handgun hunter exclusively. The one bullet that has impressed me the most over the last couple of years has been the A-frame. A colleague of mine killed thirteen animals in South Africa last year ranging from warthog to Cape buffalo with his .460 revolver loaded with 300 grain Swift A-frames. All recovered bullets, irrespective of animal looked identical in appearance. It’s a fantastic bullet. I used A-frames (in .454 Casull) on Nyala and Red Lechwe and Kodiak Punch solids in .500 JRH on Cape buffalo.

"The fire arms industry was and is well aware of this trend and manufactures components for that situation. It's a sad statement but true."

Pity, that fact - it only exacerbates an incorrect hunting ethic - as well as supports a culture of disrespect for the wild game being hunted.(https://www.bullet-behavior.com/forum/the-heart-of-the-hunter/photographing-your-trophy)

This industry fix is like putting an ambulance down in the valley below a cliff from where hikers regularly fall off due to lack of knowledge about the hazards along the trail.

Hunter education is the way to prevent this and that objective resides at the heart of this website and forum. When the lightweight, fast bullet fad reared its head in South Africa in the 1970s hunting organisations started hunting education clubs for boys and these included competitions, focusing on proper stalking, range estimation, heart and brain shots - and particularly the practical behaviour of fast, lightweight bullets both in wind and on an animal as opposed to heavier, slower bullets.

This education paid of in a most satisfying manner and the Hunting Rifle Shooting competitions has become the biggest local and international shooting sport - with presently seven countries attending the two-yearly international competition held in South Africa and Namibia. The performance of the European shooters have increased tremendously in the 6 years since the first international event. No team from the USA has yet entered the internationals due to some demands expressed for allowing a number of rifle modifications. A number of US individuals and others from Spain, Italy, Belgium and England participate and the best five amongst them combine as an international team in the final event.

One positive benefit is clearly seen today - the younger generation hunter in South Africa is swinging towards even heavier bullets and of stronger construction than I grew up with, and heart shots through the low shoulder is the only way it is done, with brain shots preferred by many.

In South Africa the hunting rifle competition attendance is HUGE - with the main educational object that expensive tools do not necessarily make a consistent, accurate heart or brain-shooting hunter. The man behind the trigger is the pivotal component for that. Maybe the following links in this website will illustrate the benefit of these competitions:

https://www.bullet-behavior.com/hunter-education-comperitions

https://www.bullet-behavior.com/hunter-education-comperitions

I am just today new to this forum and have been reading the different sections. Just found the forum on Preimium Bullets. I understand the desire for controled expansion to reduce meat loss. I am not in total agreement for keeping bullet expansion to 1 1/2 times bullet diameter. The Nosler partition that I praised above does expand more than that perameter. I personaly have not had consistant issues with the Nosler seperating the lead front core from the bullets jacket as was indicated in the other forum. It Has infrequently happened, twice that I can think of. My personal experience has been lead loss, but at about 50-60 percent of the front lead core, with that core welded to the curls of the front of the jacket as it curled back to the center partition. I have recovered and in my possesion about 4 such bullets. I don't keep all the bullets I recover and I don't recover all my bullets. I understand the use of the Heart/Lung bullet placement, but I personaly place my shots into the neck/spine just above the shoulder. I loose some meat from the neck but everything else is intact and I never have to track down an animal. What I'm saying is that if the Nosler bullet will hold together when hitting the neck bones on an animal like an Elk or Moose and mushroom and retain close to 80% of overall weight it is doing something right. That has been my experience overwhelmingly with the Nosler Partition on soft skin nondangerous game.

The concept of a seperating core was to inflict alternative damage to the animal to insure a kill. A lot of hunters are poorly skilled in handling firearms and larger wound chanels and the aformentioned extra wound chanels were meant to augment poorer placement of the shots and a possible blood trail to track a poorly shot animal. This may not be acceptable criteria for a skilled hunter/marksman, but truely how many people fall into that catagory. My experience has been far fewer than people would like a person to believe. I grew up in Michigan in the US midwest and the common hunter was termed the Weekend warrior. They lived in or near the major cities and shot their firearms just before season opening and hunted the first weekend of open hunting season and then went home. If they shot an animal it was more shear luck than any type of hunting skill. The fire arms industry was and is well aware of this trend and manufactures components for that situation. It's a sad statement but true.

This forum is a good choice for educating people on better performance criteria and could help lift those with determination to improve do so.

I agree the Aframe is an excelent bullet. The Nosler Partition is a forrunner and I personaly believe they work as well as any partition bullet made. In practice a 150 grain partition at 2900-2950 FPS has accomplished some 32 one shot kills on game from whitetail to Moose. I watched as a friend shot a Shiras moose at 650 pounds uphill through the chest and it litteraly picked the Moose up and landed it on it's back. The Moose probably assisted a bit but it was dead when it hit the ground, It happened very quickly. I never saw the animal move after it hit the ground. That to me shows performance from a bullet.