Book Chapter 2-Home

Hunting Bullet Metrics

Apply Terminal Performance Truth

AFRICA HUNTER QUEST©

Chapter 2 - THE GROUCHY GEEZER

GG stared at the 200-yard target through his 12x42 variable power scope, cranked up to its full 42 power magnification. He was irritated. His third shot had dropped well below the bug hole formed by the previous two. In polite company with genteel conversation, the third shot would be called a leaker. In GG’s parlance, it was a damned progressive democrat, delusionally convinced it had impacted correctly and the other two were just plain wrong.

The sun was still below the range berm’s eastern tree line. The entire range was in shadow, with a heavy frost still present on the grass. GG liked early mornings at the range, as mirage tended to be minimal and the wind customarily calm. He preferred Wednesday morning. He had discovered from his at least once-a-week excursion to the range that no one seemed inclined to show up before 10:30 on this particular week day, especially in early February. He favored the solitude that facilitated concentration on his shooting technique and load evolution. The library-like silence between shots allowed him to critically evaluate the hand load as he shot various combinations of powder charge and seating depth. The progressive stinker that had declared itself on his third shot indicated a slight increase in powder charge was likely necessary to close up the group.

Sometimes, like today, everything had been preloaded at the shop according to a strategy suggested by group patterns obtained from the previous range session. Other times he preloaded powder, weighed to the nearest tenth of a grain, into small plastic tubes. The group patterns obtained during that day’s range session dictated which alternative powder charges would be selected to potentially obtain a smaller group. He brought a small funnel to transfer the powder from the tubes to prepped and primed brass. He also brought an arbor press and a bullet seating die with a micrometer head that enabled adjustment of the seating depth by one thousandth of an inch. These tools enabled him to load rounds at the range with powder charges and seating depths of his choosing.

GG’s objective on this brisk morning was to finalize a new hand load for a 300-grain, cup and core lead-tipped bullet, shot from his 375 H&H Africa hunting rifle. As he gazed at the results chronicled on the target 200 yards away, he began to question the wisdom of his effort. He already had a load with this bullet that had successfully taken 11 African plains game animals at distances from 90 to well over

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400 yards. Six had dropped to the shot, with the other five running less than 90 yards afterwards. The load had a muzzle velocity of 2445 fps, and had produced a three-shot group slightly greater than six tenths of an inch, center to center, at 200 yards. The load certainly wasn’t broke, but GG couldn’t resist trying to fix it anyway. It was his nature.

GG had been seduced by the whore Velocity to the point where he was tinkering with a different powder to increase the muzzle velocity to at least 2600 fps. In doing so, he figured he could increase the maximum effective range of the 300-grainer from about 220 yards to 320 yards.

GG’s terminal performance objective was simple: if an animal was alive 10 seconds after the shot, that was 9 seconds too long. He knew that consistently achieving such performance with any big game chambering and bullet combination was not possible. But to even come close, the bullet had to reliably expand to a reasonable mushroom diameter. GG believed there was a minimum impact velocity at which that occurred. In the case of the 300-grainer, he believed that this minimum impact velocity was 2100 fps when the impact was on the shoulder of the animal. At an impact velocity less than 2100 fps, GG’s field experience indicated this particular bullet would not expand to achieve personally acceptable terminal performance. If he could get a muzzle velocity of at least 2600 fps, a ballistic analysis indicated he could get the impact velocity of about 2100 fps at around 320 yards.

GG had found an on-line practitioner (hunter who writes) whose opinion and field experience supported that particular bullet’s impact velocity threshold. Nathan Foster, on his web site BallisticStudies.com, had indicated a 2200 fps lower bound velocity for this particular bullet. Foster’s field experience indicated 2200 fps was appropriately conservative, as GG’s observations indicated it was around 2100 fps. Even so, picking up about another 100 yards of effective range was important to GG. He believed such an increase added to the versatility of the 300-grainer as an all-around plains game bullet for shots less than 300 yards.

Of course there were down sides, as solving one problem can typically create another. The first potential down side was the increased muzzle velocity could cause the bullet to structurally fail at high impact velocities at close range. In doing so, the bullet could potentially not fully penetrate or even reach the animal’s boiler room. However, GG’s reading and recently completed gel testing indicated an impact velocity greater than 2700 fps on the animal’s shoulder would be needed to significantly affect the structural integrity of most cup and core bullets. With a target

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muzzle velocity of 2600 fps, an impact velocity at any distance was well below his upper impact velocity of concern.

The minimum distance at which GG had taken any animal in Africa was 90 yards. This distance further reduced the impact velocity by at least 150 fps. GG knew the odds of him actually having a shot at any distance less than 90 yards were as likely as a vegan PETA member chowing down on venison. The reason was very simple: his field craft sucked. He was beyond clumsy to oafish. If there was a rock to trip over or a bush branch to get tangled in, he would automatically find them. The resultant noise and commotion resembled a bull in a china shop.

The second down side, and the one he feared the most, was his blatant lusting after the whore Velocity could irreparably offend the goddess he passionately worshipped: Accuracy. He paid homage to Her by insisting a hunting bullet group size for three shots at 200 yards be no bigger than ¾ inches.

In a fit of jealous pique, She could capriciously reject his load development efforts, inflicting retribution in at least two ways. The most obvious was the financial pain and suffering associated with a burned-out barrel and a checkbook depleted from futile powder, primer, and bullet purchases.

But it was Her psychological pain and suffering he dreaded. She could be a bitchy Diva, teasing unmercifully with innuendo bordering on outright lies. The keys to placating to Her demands included using a bullet She liked, launched just so using a precise powder charge and seating depth. But GG had found that the harmonics produced by the ignition of a specific powder were the key to Her courtship. She would tell which powder it was. But GG had learned the hard way: he had to ask.

GG had devised a simple way to not only identify the powder, but to concurrently come reasonably close to determining the quantity of powder that indicated a yield pressure in the brass. There was no clear cut, logical scientific reason why it worked. It just did. He had countless load development and 1000 yard benchrest targets to prove it. But the procedure was so off the wall, the select few he shared it with basically looked at him like he was daft. If they said anything at all, they objected to the notion that the method was not dependent on velocity nodes, which anyone who knew anything about load development positively knew were essential for success.

But GG didn’t care. He was used to ‘the look’.

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It had been most apparent during his career as a consulting professional engineer. He could adapt and modify technology and analytical methods from other engineering and scientific disciplines and successfully apply and implement them in his own. The result was typically received as wonkery gone wild. To him, however, the end result wasn’t a casual, esoteric exercise: the Frankenstein ‘stuff’ he conjured had to work or both he and his company would be sued out of existence.

Oddly enough, such innovation often-times fell under the heading of ‘good deeds seldom go unpunished’. The reason was fairly simple: innovation meant altering or even eliminating familiar thought and procedural patterns. This was seldom well received by clients, design teams, or contractors because folks believed that the ability to predict outcome was steadfastly linked to the pattern. Every bureaucracy known to man was testimony to that notion.

Working outside the pattern meant thinking had to occur. The thinker was then responsible for the outcome, totally without the presumed protection afforded by the pattern. Clients and other design professionals thus intrinsically understood that buying into innovation meant that they, too, would be classified as thinkers, and thus be vulnerable for a poor or unexpected outcome. The irony of it all was although almost everyone embraced the notion of innovation, they also tended to believe it was preferable to be a non-thinker and typically resented anyone that asked them to think.

GG discovered there was a corollary to ‘good deeds seldom go unpunished’. Answers to questions concerning any aspect of the deed ideally needed to be answered yes, no, or with an exact number. A response otherwise forced the questioner into the dreaded think cycle. The net result could (and had) devolve into the questioners being convinced that the innovator was a crazed, pedantic, and evasive a$$hole.

But GG didn’t care. He knew his powder evaluation method worked and resulted in ammunition that contributed to his dozens of 1000 yard benchrest relay and shoot-off wins. His bench rifles produced five-shot groups at 200 yds that were between ¼ and ½ inch.

Hunters, however, seldom concerned themselves with that degree of accuracy. His stated hunting rifle accuracy objective of three shots less than ¾ inch at 200 yds almost always resulted in ‘the look’, typically accompanied by the sagacious ‘minute of animal’ response as being good enough for lung shots at 100 yds.

But GG didn’t care. He understood completely. However, his target wasn’t the lungs but the heart, or at the very least, the plumbing on top of the heart. In doing so, the bullet would pass through the shoulder and debilitate the function of at least one leg, ideally perforating both lungs. Accessing the heart through the shoulder was GG’s definition of ideal shot placement, with nothing left to the imagination concerning where he wanted his bullet to go. GG had conservatively assumed the animal’s heart was no bigger than 5 inches in diameter. Consistently hitting a target that small out to 300 yds required stringent ammo accuracy, shooter skill, and premeditation of the shooting position.

GG had, in fact, consistently hit the heart. Of the 28 animals he had taken in Africa, he had hit the heart or the plumbing on top of the heart 22 times. He had done it with five separate loads and bullets with his 375 H&H, and two separate loads and bullets with his 358 Winchester. The 358 Winchester was his ‘little engine that could’, exhibiting the ballistic performance of a 35 Whelen with both a 225-and 250-grain bullet, all from a 21-inch barrel. All shot distances had been from 90 to well over 400 yards. Shots typically less than 250 yards had been made off of sticks. Shots typically greater than 250 yards had been made in the seated position with a bipod.

Some media types (writers who hunt), blogsperts, and postsperts could provide expert testimony on GG’s somewhat questionable mental state for even bothering to polish a 375 H&H load that used a 300-grain, cup and core turd. They would sagaciously opine that a 375 H&H was too much gun; the recoil somehow impeded consistent shot placement. Cup and core bullets traditionally lost too much weight upon impact and were thus penetration challenged and damaged too much meat. Cup and core bullets inevitably shed their jackets, an inherent fatal flaw and unforgiveable terminal performance transgression.

But GG didn’t care. Recoil was not an issue. He was not male hormone challenged, as he had hit the heart or the plumbing above the heart on 20 of the 24 animals he had taken with his 375 H&H.

Yes, recovered 300-grainers lost 30 to 40 percent of their weight. Yes, there was significant meat damage. Yes, two of his 300-grainers had shed their jacket.

But GG didn’t care. He wasn’t in Africa to hunt meat for his freezer. As far as he was concerned, bullet fragmentation and weight loss meant more shrapnel, which meant greater wounding, which meant a quicker demise. Six animals

dropping to the shot and the remaining five traveling less than 90 yds were testimony to that bullet’s performance, weight loss and jacket-core separation be damned.

What GG did care about was achieving his terminal performance objective. He felt he owed that to the animals. As far as he was concerned, the 300-grainer had essentially met that terminal performance objective. None had lived anywhere close to 10 seconds after the shot. GG figured Elmer Keith would approve. That performance indicated he had done all his hunting before the shot.

GG redirected his attention to his target. The group looked to be at least 2 inches, all vertical. His pressure and harmonics testing indicated he was about 4/10s of a grain shy of maximum pressure. If he added at least 2/10s, possibly 3/10s of a grain more powder…..

GG stopped in mid-thought. Someone else was at the range. He sat up, turned away from his scope and looked behind him. Yep. A young man was standing at a respectful distance. His body language suggested he ‘had his hat in his hand’ and was seeking some indication that it was okay to ask the question that GG knew was coming. He wished the question would be “Could we make the range cold so I can post a target?”, but the young man had no kit or rifle with him. GG took a deep breath, then exhaled, trying his best to look at least semi-interested. He was, however, in no mood for a “What caliber is that?”