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Thread: .308 kill an eland?
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11-01-2020, 14:39 #21
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Re: .308 kill an eland???
The question is how many eland hunts will you have in the future or bigger game? Is it really worth it to buy a new rifle just to shoot an eland now? And by the looks of it will you have the license approved and printed by June this year?
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11-01-2020, 20:52 #22
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Re: .308 kill an eland???
Well ive seen guys shooting with 270, 30-06 and 308 on Spring Buck. And with bad shot placement those bucks were off like a flash. And found much later. Some dead the next day only after the search stopped due to light. So it all comes down to shot placement. And above that the skill to shoot where you aim in field. Lot of shooters shoot of bench on range. Then add a Bipod or mono pod for hunt. And dont realize it affects the shooting. Practice on range with exact setup your going to use on hunt.
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13-01-2020, 00:53 #23
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Re: .308 kill an eland?
My brother shot a Giraffe bull last year with his Remington 700 tactical in 308 Winchester.
He used 200 grain Sako Hammerhead and the bullet entered under the right eye. It did not exited the scull. Dropped it on the spot.
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13-01-2020, 09:02 #24
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Re: .308 kill an eland?
Confidence is a major part of hunting, unfortunately it only comes through previous success.
For example you wound one big animal that you don’t recover and then blame the cartridge, where it’s quite possible there is a 90% + chance the shot was just bad.
Personally I cannot see how the mentioned combo will fail, but I fully understand that unless you have a lot of experience with the combo you cannot have confidence in it. Forums doesn’t make it easier either, you ask a question and 50% is this way and 50% the other, that itself creates doubt, where if 100% said it would work then it sounds much more convincing.
Success is only up to two things, the gear and the shooter, if you have a big gun with strong bullets the success lies only with the shooter. But can the average person shoot a big gun as good as a 308?
I say use the combo, get in close, don’t take shots further than your skill set allow, don’t pull the trigger if you are not comfortable with the shot in any way, do that and you will be fine.
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13-01-2020, 11:12 #25
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Re: .308 kill an eland?
Very sound advise.
Our late neighbour on the farm could shoot a cow any day of the week with a .22lr and slice its carotid before it hit the ground. He though always used a 270 Win as his bakkie gun, because he said he have a larger margin for error when shooting Kudu's and baboons. I myself use a 30-30 when I shoot a cow for slaughter, because thats the margin I feel happy with.
Shot placement is everything, bullet construction is vital, energy is needed to be transformed into tissue damage to cause death.
If any three of this triage is missing, you will have a wounded animal that will walk for hours.
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16-01-2020, 08:41 #26
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Re: .308 kill an eland?
easy kill! very capable weapon, but as all things, shot placement is key.
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17-01-2020, 11:11 #27
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Re: .308 kill an eland?
Shot placement and bullet choice is important. My friend shot an eland bull near Tosca with 180 gr PMP 308 and it stopped between the shoulder and ribs, without entering the thorax.... The standard PMP bullet mushroomed perfectly...(He killed it with a lucky second head shot!) Obviously you are using better bullets but if you have a bigger caliber I would rather use it. I have shot several eland bulls using a .375 H&H. A big eland bull is massive.
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17-01-2020, 12:11 #28
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Re: .308 kill an eland?
If I knew I was going after an Eland, AND I knew I would only have my 308, I would have bought a packet of the heaviest Peregrine VRG3 that would stabilise in my rifle and develop a load specifically for this purpose. For 1:12 twist a 180gr is 31.5mm long and has a stability factor of 1.68 at 2450ft/s, while the 200gr is 34.5mm long with a stability factor of 1.34 -- still good! -- at 2200fps. You can use solid VRG2s with exactly the same load to practise on the range.
Above is based on the assumption that you'll be hunting in the Bushveld so shots won't be longer than 150m, therefore trajectory issues are non-existent. The VRG3 will give you the heaviest bullet for a given length, the flat nose gives excellent penetration, and it will also expand to a certain degree. All these will combine to give he best chance of reaching the vitals, with some margin should you hit heavy bone. I doubt that you'll get a solution with deeper penetration than this from a 308.
Given the cost of the animal, I definitely believe the added cost and effort is warranted.
:- P
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17-01-2020, 13:14 #29
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17-01-2020, 13:51 #30
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Re: .308 kill an eland?
You don’t necessarily have to use mono’s to hunt eland, neither do you have to break the bank in order to load proper bullets.
A quick check on a large GS website shows 180gr Federal fusion at R500 for 50, 180gr Norma Oryx at R620 for 50, 180gr Nosler partition at R590 for 50, 180gr Rhino at R660 for 50, or 200gr Rhino at R670 for 50.
Personally I’d use a 180gr Partition at around 2500ft/s any day of the week, hell you can load 200gr Rhino’s at 2400ft/s if you feel like needing more. Those two are not going to fail you, and they are cheap as well. People must not fall into the trap thinking a 308 is a little cartridge, it shoots the same bullet as a 30-06 and 300wm, just slower, meaning less chance of bullet failure. Actually if you ask me to hunt a big eland in the bush, and use a conventional bullet, I’d take the 308 over the old six or 300wm for that very same reason. I would load it slow and heavy, a recipe that never failed, it just got out of fashion.
That is if you didn’t own a 338 for example, which incidentally I’ve got, because overkill is underrated :)
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