30-06 and Kudu vs .223 and Impala

[Adoons]

Valuable input AR.

My rifle has 1:8 twist. I was of opinion that Fusions are more "premium" than what they actually seem now. I have not given a thought to your remark about bonded does not necessarily mean thicker copper and harder lead. Varmint type bullets I will not attempt any shot with. I have brass, dies, propellant etc for loading .223 Maybe it is time now to develop a proper load with a heavy bullet of really decent construction. Barnes or Rhino might be the best options. I favour Nossler Accubonds in other rifles. Will check if they might have something in .224 also.

Your last sentence are precisely my thoughts. It is just too risky.

Second best option for little sister would be to start shooting the .44 Magnum Lever gun. Big bullets make big holes. It is not accurate enough for head shots, but on body shots on Impala at under 80 meter I like that rifle. Flatten them nicely without meat damage. It is a short rifle, but recoil might be stiff for her. Maybe bringing down the velocity a bit might sort that part.

[pre 64]

Through a series of circumstances i found myself on a farm in the Natal midlands for a period of a couple of years in the late 80's. The only rifle available to me was a 223 and a lot of Sako factory ammo.
I shot a few Common Reedbuck,a few Bushpig and a lot of Blesbuck with that 223. Never had an issue , i chose my shots and the animal died BUT there were very few shots where the animal went down on the spot or within a few meters as they would with the same shot placement from a 308 ect.
I have also shot a few animals with a 44 handgun,both Redhawk and Blackhawk and even with Kudu size animals penetration is not a problem. But again,be prepared to track as all you have done is poked a 44 size hole through the animal.
Shot a Blesbuck a couple of years ago with a 420gr subsonic 458 through the lungs. On receiving the shot the Blesbuck looked around in astonishment,walked 10m and started to graze. I was about to shoot again when it got wobbly,lay gently down and died. You can draw your own conclusions on this one.

[Pirate]

Valuable input AR.

My rifle has 1:8 twist. I was of opinion that Fusions are more "premium" than what they actually seem now. I have not given a thought to your remark about bonded does not necessarily mean thicker copper and harder lead. Varmint type bullets I will not attempt any shot with. I have brass, dies, propellant etc for loading .223 Maybe it is time now to develop a proper load with a heavy bullet of really decent construction. Barnes or Rhino might be the best options. I favour Nossler Accubonds in other rifles. Will check if they might have something in .224 also.

Your last sentence are precisely my thoughts. It is just too risky.

Second best option for little sister would be to start shooting the .44 Magnum Lever gun. Big bullets make big holes. It is not accurate enough for head shots, but on body shots on Impala at under 80 meter I like that rifle. Flatten them nicely without meat damage. It is a short rifle, but recoil might be stiff for her. Maybe bringing down the velocity a bit might sort that part.

Apart from not all bondeds being created equal (the Fusion advert in the gun mags show a sectioned bullet with a rather thin jacket all the way to the base... compare that to say a Swift Scirocco or even a Hornady Interbond whos jackets thicken towards the base) you also run into geometry issues for smaller diameter bullets. Your outside diameter is fixed, so either you have to make a larger diameter lead core and a thinner jacket (to keep the bullet as short as required for stabilization) or you have a thicker jacket but a smaller diameter lead core, leading to a longer bullet. I'd wager most manufacturers go the former route, meaning although the core and jacket is bonded, the resistance the jacket gives against deformation remains small.

I seem to remember (TStone?) remarking some time ago that he observed that bonded bullets in smaller calibers (cant remember if he specifically said 6.5mm or 6mm and below) performed markedly worse than the exact same bullet in slightly larger calibers (7mm and up).

So for 223 I'd really look at a mono. With the 1:8 you may well stabilize the 70gr Barnes TSX, otherwise I'd go for the 62gr version. The latter is what I plan to try when CFR one day decides to approve my Howa.