Anthony George
AH veteran
I’d just finished building my Winy M70 Feather Weight in 458WM, so was a great time to test it out and to boot just finished loading some Woodleigh 550grn RN SN with 78grns of ADI AR2208 behind to push it along.
Anyway with the rifle sighted in for 1” high at 100 we were off to find a suitable candidate
I spotted 3 Bulls out on flood plain around 500m and made a plan to stalk in and try my luck
Clearing the tree line there was PHK All to hide behind, besides tufts of grass etc
A few tricks come in handy for these “Footy Field” Stalks !!
Pepper potting, grass tuft to grass tuft until there was nothing left, had me crawling out through the mud and shin deep water until I managed to close the distance down. My Bushnell rangefinder had the Bulls at 203m, I chose the Bull on the driest ground as we had plans to take the meat.
I settled in to a seated position in the " Driest " spot I could find, wriggling my butt and feet into the mud, sitting in water up to my waste, quick recheck with the range finder still had them at 203m. Well this was it !! preparing for my longest Big Bore shot ever, I judged the drop of these big 550grners to be around 6 inches at that range, as I'd only shot it at range to 100m the day before hand. So settled my breathing and placed the cross hairs of the old Vari X 1.5-5, dialled up to 5x, level with his back and inline high the high shoulder shot. I envisaged the projectile smashing the spine at this distance.
With the shot I barely felt the recoil, but could hear the whistling/buzzing sound as the heavy projectile lumbered its way along and with an almighty thud, I watched as the Bull took the brunt of it and ploughed into the mud. I sent off another 550grner as a security that passed through ribs a bit far back, but it wasn’t needed
A few kicks and the Bull passed
I waited for the two other Bulls to clear off, I just sat there and pondered on what had just happened, taking in the experience.
Got up and trudged back to the car, as I got there the boys commented on how they could just see me and hear the Boom ZZZZZZZT Thud !!
We proceeded to get the car as close as we could to the Bull to recover the meat, by coming in from another angle.
Bit of an effort for the carry out but definitely doable
As we approached the entry point of the projectile was clearly visible and it had done exactly what I had envisaged, but dropped around 8-9"
The Bull went down that hard his horn was buried in the mud to the state we had to dig it out
Rolling him over the projectile was easy to find mushroomed under the skin, it had done a massive amount of work to smash the spine at that range and that impact velocity
We took a minute to admire the Bull and give thanks as he will be feeding a few our our families that night.
He later measured 99 inches, a great Bull and great hunt.
Anyway with the rifle sighted in for 1” high at 100 we were off to find a suitable candidate
I spotted 3 Bulls out on flood plain around 500m and made a plan to stalk in and try my luck
Clearing the tree line there was PHK All to hide behind, besides tufts of grass etc
A few tricks come in handy for these “Footy Field” Stalks !!
Pepper potting, grass tuft to grass tuft until there was nothing left, had me crawling out through the mud and shin deep water until I managed to close the distance down. My Bushnell rangefinder had the Bulls at 203m, I chose the Bull on the driest ground as we had plans to take the meat.
I settled in to a seated position in the " Driest " spot I could find, wriggling my butt and feet into the mud, sitting in water up to my waste, quick recheck with the range finder still had them at 203m. Well this was it !! preparing for my longest Big Bore shot ever, I judged the drop of these big 550grners to be around 6 inches at that range, as I'd only shot it at range to 100m the day before hand. So settled my breathing and placed the cross hairs of the old Vari X 1.5-5, dialled up to 5x, level with his back and inline high the high shoulder shot. I envisaged the projectile smashing the spine at this distance.
With the shot I barely felt the recoil, but could hear the whistling/buzzing sound as the heavy projectile lumbered its way along and with an almighty thud, I watched as the Bull took the brunt of it and ploughed into the mud. I sent off another 550grner as a security that passed through ribs a bit far back, but it wasn’t needed
A few kicks and the Bull passed
I waited for the two other Bulls to clear off, I just sat there and pondered on what had just happened, taking in the experience.
Got up and trudged back to the car, as I got there the boys commented on how they could just see me and hear the Boom ZZZZZZZT Thud !!
We proceeded to get the car as close as we could to the Bull to recover the meat, by coming in from another angle.
Bit of an effort for the carry out but definitely doable
As we approached the entry point of the projectile was clearly visible and it had done exactly what I had envisaged, but dropped around 8-9"
The Bull went down that hard his horn was buried in the mud to the state we had to dig it out
Rolling him over the projectile was easy to find mushroomed under the skin, it had done a massive amount of work to smash the spine at that range and that impact velocity
We took a minute to admire the Bull and give thanks as he will be feeding a few our our families that night.
He later measured 99 inches, a great Bull and great hunt.
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