I've been whacking stuff with handgun boolits for a while now, but just recently started hunting with cast rifle boolits. What I've noticed is that there is definately something different going on with the way the rifle boolits kill, compared to the handguns. These cast rifle boolits seem to just STOMP critters all out of proportion to the modest recoil and report I get from them. I'm pushing 30 caliber ad 35 caliber fn's to right at 2,000 FPS. Last summer in Africa, using a 35 remmy levergun, I punched a 35 caliber 190 grain ranch dog boolit through the shoulders of a BIG warthog at about 65 yards. The impact rocked him and blew the dust out of his fur. He made two forward flips as his backend tried to run, but his frontend didn't work anymore. He kicked a few times and just died. My PH was blown away by this performance. Yesterday, I made a very poor shot on a buck antelope with my 308 gunsite scout rifle. I hit him high and too far back, from about 90 yards away with the MIHEC hunting boolit. A shot like that with jacketed rifle bullets, or with my 45LC handgun would've resulted in a long drawn out chase. Instead, this buck ran in a 40 yard circle and collapsed. I'd like to hear your thoughts about hunting with rifle boolits and your experiences. How far down the velocity scale does this killing power begin to wane? What is the maximum distance I can expect to retain this kind of killing power, assuming a 2,000 fps MV? This is just very interesting stuff, and I'd like to hear what you guys think.
Thanks,
Dan