PHOENIX PHIL
AH ambassador
Just thought I'd post some results/thoughts about using these for the first time on our recent hunt with HartzView. In short, I was very pleased with the results.
Austin's Springbok was probably not much of a test for his .308 shooting the 165gr version, and it was a high shot that spined the ram.
On my eland however I was very impressed. I had planned to use my .375 for this big animal, but due to scope issues, I had to use my .300WM shooting the 200 grainers. The first and subsequent shots were all fairly close, roughly 75 yards. However, the first shot was in the lungs with bullet coming to rest under the offside skin, it nearly broke through. A couple of finishing shots to bring the big boy down, but I'm confident that even without those shots the bull was going to go down in a relatively short distance.
My Gemsbok took 3 shots, one to the neck which dropped him and a couple of finishing shots. Two because my first was not where it needed to be. From close range, only the finishing shot to the shoulder completely passed through. Whatever the case, the bull was not going anywhere.
Austin took his impala with a frontal shot that caught the bottom of the heart. Massive blood trail. Bullet did not exit, I'm guessing by the angle it was found in the back end of the animal. Ram went 40 yards and dropped dead.
Having put my scope from my .300WM on my .375H&H, the next animal taken was my Red Hartebeest. As I recall the shot was at 190 yards. First shot was quartering too me, the bull's back end to midway forward was on the ground. A second shot to the now broadside shoulder dropped him for good. Neither bullet exited.
On my blue wildebeest, the shot was 175 yards broadside. One shot to the lungs. Easy to follow blood trail, the impact side was covered in bright red, frothy blood. The bull went roughly 100 yards and dropped. Again no exit of the bullet.
The most impressive performance in my mind was on Austin's eland which he took with his .308 Win, again as mentioned in my hunt report not something I'd recommend. However, the 165gr bullet plodding along at 2600fps at the muzzle broke the shoulder and I'm sure was a mortal shot at 190 yards. It took some finishing shots to bring the bull down. But this was not a long drawn out chase, certainly much credit goes to Jacques' wonderful Jack Russels. But credit must be given to the bullets too. They wounded and kept a very large animal from being able to move with any speed and thus gave the dogs a chance to keep the animal at bay.
With all of the bullets that did not exit, for some reason only two of them made it back into my possession. We just kept forgetting to pick them up at the skinning shed. But here's a picture of two the 200gr .308's that I did get back. Both of them weigh right at 190 grains with perfect mushrooming.
Now with respect to lack of exiting. From my viewpoint, there's two ways to look at this. If you get an exit wound, you of course have another hole to leak out of and makes blood trailing that much easier. But, if the bullet exits, it therefore also has energy. Energy which is now wasted. So at least without the exit you know it's imparted all the energy it had at impact into the animal.
Whatever the case, if the animal dies quickly, that in my opinion is all that matters.
Austin's Springbok was probably not much of a test for his .308 shooting the 165gr version, and it was a high shot that spined the ram.
On my eland however I was very impressed. I had planned to use my .375 for this big animal, but due to scope issues, I had to use my .300WM shooting the 200 grainers. The first and subsequent shots were all fairly close, roughly 75 yards. However, the first shot was in the lungs with bullet coming to rest under the offside skin, it nearly broke through. A couple of finishing shots to bring the big boy down, but I'm confident that even without those shots the bull was going to go down in a relatively short distance.
My Gemsbok took 3 shots, one to the neck which dropped him and a couple of finishing shots. Two because my first was not where it needed to be. From close range, only the finishing shot to the shoulder completely passed through. Whatever the case, the bull was not going anywhere.
Austin took his impala with a frontal shot that caught the bottom of the heart. Massive blood trail. Bullet did not exit, I'm guessing by the angle it was found in the back end of the animal. Ram went 40 yards and dropped dead.
Having put my scope from my .300WM on my .375H&H, the next animal taken was my Red Hartebeest. As I recall the shot was at 190 yards. First shot was quartering too me, the bull's back end to midway forward was on the ground. A second shot to the now broadside shoulder dropped him for good. Neither bullet exited.
On my blue wildebeest, the shot was 175 yards broadside. One shot to the lungs. Easy to follow blood trail, the impact side was covered in bright red, frothy blood. The bull went roughly 100 yards and dropped. Again no exit of the bullet.
The most impressive performance in my mind was on Austin's eland which he took with his .308 Win, again as mentioned in my hunt report not something I'd recommend. However, the 165gr bullet plodding along at 2600fps at the muzzle broke the shoulder and I'm sure was a mortal shot at 190 yards. It took some finishing shots to bring the bull down. But this was not a long drawn out chase, certainly much credit goes to Jacques' wonderful Jack Russels. But credit must be given to the bullets too. They wounded and kept a very large animal from being able to move with any speed and thus gave the dogs a chance to keep the animal at bay.
With all of the bullets that did not exit, for some reason only two of them made it back into my possession. We just kept forgetting to pick them up at the skinning shed. But here's a picture of two the 200gr .308's that I did get back. Both of them weigh right at 190 grains with perfect mushrooming.
Now with respect to lack of exiting. From my viewpoint, there's two ways to look at this. If you get an exit wound, you of course have another hole to leak out of and makes blood trailing that much easier. But, if the bullet exits, it therefore also has energy. Energy which is now wasted. So at least without the exit you know it's imparted all the energy it had at impact into the animal.
Whatever the case, if the animal dies quickly, that in my opinion is all that matters.
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