This eBook was originally published online in 2022 to assist hunters in planning and preparing for hunting thin-skinned, non-dangerous African plains game. The topics and content were based on five personal hunting trips to South Africa prior to 2020 and the results of personal, 20% synthetic gel testing of 11 selected hunting bullets conducted in 2020 through 2021. This hunting experience and the gel-test results identify issues, as presented in this eBook, that hunters of any thin-skinned, non-dangerous game may wish to consider to enhance the odds of a successful hunt.

The eBook is fact-based fiction about a first-time, North American hunter who has concerns about his rifle’s chambering and preferred cartridge being capable of taking the plains-game animals on his bag list. His quest to understand his cartridge’s terminal performance capabilities results in a tumultuous student-mentor relationship with a hunter with extensive African experience who repeatedly disregards accepted terminal performance norms. The terminal-performance and cartridge-selection lessons the hunter’s stubborn tenacity compels him to learn are validated during his stalked hunting experiences in Africa.

Embedded in the storyline are technical explanations of how expanding hunting bullets of various generic designs produce wounding in big-game animals. These explanations are based on engineering mechanics/material strength principles, wounding research published by the US Army physician Colonel Martin Fackler, and a personal wound cavity analytical model, called the Guppy, that is based on the simulated wound cavity produced in gel by expanding hunting bullets. The Guppy model can be accessed by clicking on the “Guppy Model” tab on this website’s header.

The eBook’s storyline presents the ranking of the 11 gel-tested bullets, determined from seven Guppy-model metric values. These seven Guppy-model metrics are mathematically defined and can be accessed by clicking on the “Guppy Tech” tab on this website’s header.

The eBook’s “Table of Contents” link, found above, accesses the eBook’s chapters via hotlinks. These eBook chapters can be downloaded and printed by clicking on the screen-visible “pdf” icon. The “Album” link, also found above, accesses photos that attempt to portray Africa’s profound hunting magic, as experienced for the first time.

The Guppy-model terminal performance concepts presented in the eBook’s storyline were validated based on analyses of both field and skinning-shed autopsy data obtained on a self-funded zebra management hunt conducted in South Africa in July of 2023. The data obtained, discussions of the results, and terminal performance conclusions based on the hunt data can be found in a complete, comprehensive report accessed by clicking on the “2023 Hunt Report” tab found on this website’s header.

The eBook presents far more than terminal performance concepts and generic bullet rankings. Reading the Introduction will identify storyline “how-to” content beneficial to all hunters.