.30 cal solids for tiny ten types?

[Elkeater]

I was at the reloading bench a couple nights ago loading some .300 Winchester magnum with 180gr Barnes ttsx for an upcoming hunt and my 12 year old daughter wandered into the garage and sat down and started in on her questions about going back to Africa. We started discussing what animals she wants to try for next time which will likely be in 2028. Then she jumped to wanting to take her 6.5 creedmoor which is cool. She mostly wants to hunt for the Impala color variants so nothing large there. I on the other hand would like to be able to take my .300 win mag as I plan on eland for sure and hopefully bushbuck which eluded me on our last safari. Is would also like to take any opportunity on steenbok, grey duiker, or maybe a civet. Not wanting to fly or import more than two rifles (wife will be going too so she could import a rifle as well I just don’t want to deal with more than one double rifle case and paperwork) I realized that neither her 6.5 (she would share with her brother) or my .300 win mag are ideal for the smaller animals. But i know many on here have taken the tiny ten with big bore solids so my question is would a .30 cal solid do the job without blowing a big hole in something like a steenbok or even a porcupine? Northfork makes a 200gr and 220gr solid flat nose bullet for .30 cal. If I could get them to shoot to the same point of impact as a Barnes or other expanding bullet that I would use on eland and such would they work for the tiny ten?

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

I was at the reloading bench a couple nights ago loading some .300 Winchester magnum with 180gr Barnes ttsx for an upcoming hunt and my 12 year old daughter wandered into the garage and sat down and started in on her questions about going back to Africa. We started discussing what animals she wants to try for next time which will likely be in 2028. Then she jumped to wanting to take her 6.5 creedmoor which is cool. She mostly wants to hunt for the Impala color variants so nothing large there. I on the other hand would like to be able to take my .300 win mag as I plan on eland for sure and hopefully bushbuck which eluded me on our last safari. Is would also like to take any opportunity on steenbok, grey duiker, or maybe a civet. Not wanting to fly or import more than two rifles (wife will be going too so she could import a rifle as well I just don’t want to deal with more than one double rifle case and paperwork) I realized that neither her 6.5 (she would share with her brother) or my .300 win mag are ideal for the smaller animals. But i know many on here have taken the tiny ten with big bore solids so my question is would a .30 cal solid do the job without blowing a big hole in something like a steenbok or even a porcupine? Northfork makes a 200gr and 220gr solid flat nose bullet for .30 cal. If I could get them to shoot to the same point of impact as a Barnes or other expanding bullet that I would use on eland and such would they work for the tiny ten?

Provided bullet placement is good, without question. I know of a red duiker shot with a .375HH NF solid. The little ram went down but after a few moments got up and trotted away seemingly unscathed.

The littles I shot with the same bullet....bang/flop. But I'm sure a .308 bullet would do the same regardless of the .30 caliber it was fired from.

 

[RR 314]

Yuuuup. .22 to .458 and beyond solids will work great.

 

[skydiver386]

There are 30 cal non-expanding bullets available if you handload.

.308 168gr MTAC (Match/Tactical) - 50ct

.308 168gr monolithic, solid copper match-grade projectile. This MTAC (Match/Tactical) bullet is a non-expanding, monolithic long-range bullet with a high BC, perfect for match and target use.

cuttingedgebullets.com

Fairly sharp nose and an all copper solid, should zip right through without much pelt damage.

 

[analog_peninsula]

What about reversing a tsx? Seems easy if there aren’t feeding issues.

 

[Elkeater]

There are 30 cal non-expanding bullets available if you handload.

.308 168gr MTAC (Match/Tactical) - 50ct

.308 168gr monolithic, solid copper match-grade projectile. This MTAC (Match/Tactical) bullet is a non-expanding, monolithic long-range bullet with a high BC, perfect for match and target use.

cuttingedgebullets.com

Fairly sharp nose and an all copper solid, should zip right through without much pelt damage.

Hammer bullets also make some solid copper match bullets and I think there are several others as well. Since I do handload I have options. I was thinking the flat point from north fork might be better? Just thinking it might cause a little more damage but not too much. Maybe I’ll buy some in the next year or so and do some experimenting and testing on jack rabbits to see what they do.

 

[375er]

Hammer bullets also make some solid copper match bullets and I think there are several others as well. Since I do handload I have options. I was thinking the flat point from north fork might be better? Just thinking it might cause a little more damage but not too much. Maybe I’ll buy some in the next year or so and do some experimenting and testing on jack rabbits to see what they do.

Cutting Edge makes a 180 gr Safari Solid with the 13 degree bevel, flat point. Accurate in my experimentation so far.

 

[AimSmall]

The CEB solids have been pretty good about matching POI with hunting loads in several calibers for me. They poke a clean hole with deadly results.

 

[Green Chile]

I was just looking at a few boxes of CEB 180 solids tonight. I haven’t used them yet but that’s the intended purpose.

 

[Green Chile]

Those having good results on paper with CEB solids…are your loads similar to your softs?

 

[Brandon.Gleason]

In both 458 Lott and 375 H&H I didn't have to adjust charge weight at all with RL15 between the 470/500gr (458) or 275/300gr (375) bullets for the same POI.

 

[michael458]