Rubberhead
AH fanatic
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2021
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- 577
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- Location
- South Carolina
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- 39
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- 5
- Hunted
- South Carolina, South Africa
I’ve talked about it before but I got a 1981 Browning Superpose in .30-06 in April 2020. It has a regulation quirk that I solve by shooting a 150-grain bullet in the under barrel and a 180-grain load in the over barrel. I know that would drive some of you crazy and I didn’t like it at first either but I quickly got comfortable with my new reality. Of course the price of dealing with this quirk is that I have to keep the cartridges for the under barrel identifiably different from those for the over barrel. I lucked into that too.
Nosler makes three great 180 loads – one with a Partition bullet, one with a Ballistic Tip, and one with an Accubond so I buy the 180 grain loads from Nosler in the traditional brass casing.
Federal loads Nosler bullets in two loads: a 150-grain Accubond and a 150-grain Ballistic Tip both in their Premium line. The neat thing is that they use a nickel-plated casing. So, I get my 150 grain loads from Federal and it’s easy to keep their nickel-plated casing separate from the Nosler brass casings.
I hunted RSA in late June and early July. Here’s my two-shot target from the initial morning. You can tell the PH was happy with how the gun was shooting.
I had four animals I wanted most on my list – two big, wildebeest and zebra and two small, impala and warthog. I planned all along to start with the heavier bullets on the big animals and lighter bullets on the small animals.
I’ll spare everyone the story, but I chose Accubond bullets for both loads after initially wanting to carry have one load in Partition and one in Accubond. I also tried to get my hands on Swift A-frames but couldn’t. In hindsight, if I ever go to Africa again, I will have no problem trusting Accubonds in any round I take with me.
The blue wildebeest bull bang, flopped without taking a step to a 180 grain Nosler. He was still alive when we got there so the PH had me hit him with a second shot on the ground. I used a 180 for that too.
The zebra was a perfect heart shot with the 180 and went only about 20 yards total.
The impala was heart shot too but with the 150 grain. It went less than 50 yards and stayed in our sight the whole time.
I had a brain fart (or maybe a whitetail flashback) but I shot the warthog back in the ribs and either got the back of his lungs or his liver with the 150 grain. I didn’t pull the shot. I meant to shot there I just don’t know why. It really was a mental error on my part.
The pig turned and ran so I put a second shot in his backend with the 180 grain as he was heading almost straight away. The bullet broke his leg then angled through his midsection to his front shoulder but he kept going into some thick brush. It was a little tense following the PH in very thick grass looking for Schrödinger's warthog but he only went about 30 yards and was laid over on his side in the grass like a kids bike thrown down at a fishing hole. As a courtesy, the PH had me put another one in him too but he wasn’t really moving.
The PH wasn't so happy after my warthog shooting...
Dropped to the shot with one 180-grain Accubond. One finsihing shot also with 180 grain Accubond.
One 180-grain load of Accubond - stone dead in 10 seconds, < 20 yards.
One 150-grain load of Accubond - dead in 5 seconds, < 50 yards
2 x 180-grain Accubond, 1 x 150-grain Accubond - totally my fault
Nosler makes three great 180 loads – one with a Partition bullet, one with a Ballistic Tip, and one with an Accubond so I buy the 180 grain loads from Nosler in the traditional brass casing.
Federal loads Nosler bullets in two loads: a 150-grain Accubond and a 150-grain Ballistic Tip both in their Premium line. The neat thing is that they use a nickel-plated casing. So, I get my 150 grain loads from Federal and it’s easy to keep their nickel-plated casing separate from the Nosler brass casings.
I hunted RSA in late June and early July. Here’s my two-shot target from the initial morning. You can tell the PH was happy with how the gun was shooting.
I had four animals I wanted most on my list – two big, wildebeest and zebra and two small, impala and warthog. I planned all along to start with the heavier bullets on the big animals and lighter bullets on the small animals.
I’ll spare everyone the story, but I chose Accubond bullets for both loads after initially wanting to carry have one load in Partition and one in Accubond. I also tried to get my hands on Swift A-frames but couldn’t. In hindsight, if I ever go to Africa again, I will have no problem trusting Accubonds in any round I take with me.
The blue wildebeest bull bang, flopped without taking a step to a 180 grain Nosler. He was still alive when we got there so the PH had me hit him with a second shot on the ground. I used a 180 for that too.
The zebra was a perfect heart shot with the 180 and went only about 20 yards total.
The impala was heart shot too but with the 150 grain. It went less than 50 yards and stayed in our sight the whole time.
I had a brain fart (or maybe a whitetail flashback) but I shot the warthog back in the ribs and either got the back of his lungs or his liver with the 150 grain. I didn’t pull the shot. I meant to shot there I just don’t know why. It really was a mental error on my part.
The pig turned and ran so I put a second shot in his backend with the 180 grain as he was heading almost straight away. The bullet broke his leg then angled through his midsection to his front shoulder but he kept going into some thick brush. It was a little tense following the PH in very thick grass looking for Schrödinger's warthog but he only went about 30 yards and was laid over on his side in the grass like a kids bike thrown down at a fishing hole. As a courtesy, the PH had me put another one in him too but he wasn’t really moving.
The PH wasn't so happy after my warthog shooting...
Dropped to the shot with one 180-grain Accubond. One finsihing shot also with 180 grain Accubond.
One 180-grain load of Accubond - stone dead in 10 seconds, < 20 yards.
One 150-grain load of Accubond - dead in 5 seconds, < 50 yards
2 x 180-grain Accubond, 1 x 150-grain Accubond - totally my fault
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