" SOLID/BRASS BULLETS

**Sweet** · 17-08-2010, 16:12

Guys, I cannot agree more.

Reload quickly and get your animal into your scope field of view as quickly as possible. On plains game, if you shot a good heart shot and the animal is still on its feet, you will see the blood clearly and can follow its progress to its dropping point. If you do not see blood where you expect to, let wrip with an insurance shot. Meat damage is one thing, and you may feel bad about it for a while doing the slaughtering. A kwesbok that gets away will stay on you mind a lot longer.

That said, it is not always that easy:
- if the animal joins the heard immediately, you are in a spot of bother and certainly do not want to have potentially 2 animals wounded.
- if you are in a bushveld situation and cannot positively ID your buck, you should probably also wait for the dust to clear.

Good advice (that I only learnt the meaning of far too late) is to "mark" where the animal stood at the shot.

Back to the theme of the thread - I am far happier with the Swift A-frame/Nosler Partition designs what always retain some of their mass (even if it is an old design Nosler P with only ca60% retention) and have reliable expasion, than with the newest fastest thing made out of some uber cool designer metal. But maybe I am just stuck in the past.

Sweet

**pietskiet** · 18-08-2010, 18:17

the problem was shot placement,not the bullet. If you dont hit the vitals it does not matter wat caliber or bullet you use,the outcome wil be the same-a wounded animal. I also had my doubts about them when they came out but now i like them. The thing is they must be launched fast to work efectivly... I realy like them in the larger calibers,especialy the 200gr .375. Think about it:the bullet is afordabile so you can even practise whith it which in turn helps you to get too know your load alot better. You can use 1 bullet and load for all your hunting since since it is flat shooting for those long rang shot and it doesent spoil as much meat as a fast expanding bullet in the bush. Wont use them in a small caliber like 243...

**jmb** · 18-08-2010, 19:24

I agree that they may be a good idea in a 375 but I seriously doubt their effectiveness in anything smaller. There are vitals and then there are vitals. When you hit the heart,the brain or the spine, bullet size or wound channel size is of no importance. However shoot for instance a Gemsbuck high through the lungs with something that makes only a small .300 hole all the way through and boy oh boy are you in for some fun.

**Ross** · 19-08-2010, 07:26

I generally only hunt with Barnes X TSX bullets. Very accurate, great performance! Load 150gr (2800 fps)and 168gr (2600 fps) in the .308 and 450 gr in the .458 WM. (2350 fps) Only caution is that you have to be careful of shooting into a herd of animals. In all the rounds I've fired I've only recovered 4 bullets, these hit large bones.
The rule of thumb is, when you've fired the shot, reload immediately! Even experienced hunters / shooters can duff a shot and you may be required to put in a follow up shot very quickly!

**Frederik** · 24-08-2010, 13:38

Originally Posted by Stefan1274

I have been looking into better bullets for next time, like Barnes TSX and Federal loaded with Noslers. I am a bit weary of these bullets being too "hard" though. Would they have difficulty expanding at extended ranges with low 308 velocities? Has anyone had experience with these bullets performing like solids?

Stefan, you will not have to worry about Noslers and the barnes TSX open at lower velocities as well. If you are worried about the speed and bullets opening you could always go down a notch in weight for instance the 165gr Barnes TSX.