What's it like in the Low Veld near Hoedspruit ?

**Ds J** · 21-10-2016, 00:07

Abrum, please give us some ballistic details, please? Bullet speed and drop as well as charge and type of the loads?

**Abrum** · 21-10-2016, 01:12

Good idea.

700 grain hard cast at 1750-1800 fps. 115.5 grains of Vit N550.
This is a mid range load for the .577NE but it's about all that I can handle.
If I remember correctly, the .577NE has 3X the recoil energy of the 375HH. Correct me if I am wrong. (rifle weighs nearly 15 Lbs.)

N550 is preferred for it's slow burn rate and flat pressure curve. The action/ receiver on a Handi rifle as not the strongest.

The bullets are a special alloy mix that includes antimony for hardness and copper and arsenic for toughness. They are heat treated to a BHN of 22. They performed like a monolithic solid.

The barrel is 26.5 inches long. The muzzle flash with that slow powder is rude. I am going to try N540 next. (The Vit 500 series powder have a nice flat pressure curve for this application.)
One of these bullets went through one shoulder, smashing it to hell, throught the top of the heart and stopped under the skin on the far side. Please see Kobus cutting the bullet out in the video. Bullet deformation and weight loss were minimal. One bullet lost only 12 grains of weight.

I don't know about the trajectory. ( I know I should!) I have been focused on close shots of 50 yrs or less. I need to learn more about that. I just finished building the rig before the hunt.
It's definitely a short range rifle.

Because of the work of the 45-70 afficiendos, there is a new "old-School" notion in North America that 1500 fps is a good velocity for maximum penetration. My terminal velocity is probably around that. I know that for years we all thought that if you didn't have 2200 fps for dangerous animals then you were under gunned. That was the big complaint about the 458 WM.

**Abrum** · 21-10-2016, 18:52

Ds J, I looked on Jannie Otto's website again. It looks pretty interesting. I am am going to check into his services further. Thanks for the tip.

"Otherwise I would refer you to Janno Otto Safari's. I know him personnally and to the best of my knowledge he has a lot of happy US clients."

**Abrum** · 28-10-2016, 19:44

Hello Ds J, I was doing some light web research on the cape lion. Maybe you have already heard this. (Don't shoot the messenger.)

- There are paintings of him that show he had a jet black mane and a huge wide face.
-Reportedly thes great loins would try to climb the high stone wall of that dutch fort in Cape town. ( having been to that fort, I find it hard to believe.)
- Recently an authority found, after a 30 year search, decendants of the cape lion in the Novasibrisk Zoo in Siberia. The story goes that cape lion cubs were taken to Europe and then cross bred
with European lions. I guess this on in Siberia has the big jet black mane.

**Ds J** · 29-10-2016, 00:09

Hi Abrum, the cape lion is indeed one of the african legends. The last live specimen I know of was "Grootpoot" and lived in the Klaseri area - not too far from the Hoedspruit area you hunted. Whether he was indeed a true cape lion I am not sure but the people there showed me a track as big as a soup plate in the mid 80's.

I have wondered whether the famed cape lion was a subspesies of the regular lion. That could explaining the colour scheme. Of course, it would be a delight if the genes were still Alice. The cape lions were also said to be extra large, but Ron Thomson spoke about the enormous lions he shot as a young man. The bases of their tails were as thick as his thigh!

**Abrum** · 29-10-2016, 03:30

Thanks Ds J, This is really interesting! Brian

**Ds J** · 29-10-2016, 10:25

I would most definitely not mind one of these:
Attachment 24415

and this probably qualifies as "sufficient damage":

Attachment 24416

**Abrum** · 29-10-2016, 19:54

Ds J, Thanks for posting it. the Bullet lost about 12 grains after going through the shoulder bone and the chest cavity. Bullets has a BHN of 22.
They seemed to work as well as a North Fork and Cutting Edge Bullet solids that I have used on cape buffalo.
Most people thing that cast bullets are second rate for terminal performance. It's all in the alloy, I'm told and I got a lot of help figuring that out.
Check the wide flat meplat. That is supposed to be good for penetration and a perminant wound channel.
My mix was an Alloy of:
- 10 lbs of Lyman #2. (contains 5% antimony which makes it hard but still too brittle. A little copper makes it tough, I'm told.)
- 6 lbs of pure lead
- 1 oz of tin and a little copper sulphate. (Tin absorbs the copper, if I remember correctly.)
- 3 lbs of hard lead shot which contains about 4% antimony. (added the extra antimony for luck.)
- Heat treated after casting at 420 in oven for one hour then dumped in ice water.
Used custom nose pour mould.

Casting the bullets was as big a deal for me as making the rifle. Abrum.

**Ds J** · 29-10-2016, 20:09

How did you make the rifle? The one photo looks much like a barrel insert?

**Gert Odendaal** · 29-10-2016, 21:17

Abrum, here are a few good books on the history of the Lowveld..all these books and more can be purchase on BID or Buy :
http://www.bidorbuy.co.za/jsp/trades...radeSearch.jsp

Enjoy your reading...