Book Chapter 39-Home

Hunting Bullet Metrics

Apply Terminal Performance Truth

AFRICA HUNTER QUEST©

Chapter 39 - THE PILGRIM’S SAFARI: DAYS 10 & 11

Donny met his PH for breakfast. Donny expressed his appreciation for the exceptional professionalism and expertise that both he and his tracker had demonstrated on the hunts. He would savor the experiences for the rest of his life. Donny spent about a half an hour participating in the mandatory record keeping required by the South African government. He confirmed the animals he had taken and the mounts he had requested. Among other things, the chambering and bullet he used were recorded, along with his name and passport number. Not only did the paper work serve to satisfy the South African government requirements, it also served as a confirmatory basis for final fees and payment.

His outfitter soon joined them. His PH excused himself from the final settling up. The outfitter went over the charges as he prepared the bill. Everything was as promised.

Donny was asked what he wanted to do concerning the taxidermy associated with the mounts. He had wrestled with the ‘South Africa versus U.S.A.’ issue and decided that the taxidermists in South Africa likely knew how to do it better. His outfitter recommended one that had been in business for over 25 years, and Donny elected to use the recommended company. His outfitter had done everything he had promised, and Donny saw no reason to question the trust that had been established.

That being said, his outfitter surprised him with a charge he had never mentioned: tips. It was a valid consideration, but it made Donny slightly irritated and uneasy. He couldn’t help but suspect there might be other ‘lurker’ charges or fees that were going to be sprung on him at the last minute.

He had successfully fought his urge to push back. First, tipping was the right thing to do, regardless of not being discussed beforehand. Second, he wouldn’t be charged for a kudu. That fee had already been budgeted and could justify being allocated as a tip fund. His outfitter provided guidance on reasonable amounts and had cash on hand that could be put into envelopes and distributed. Donny allocated money for his PH, the tracker, the skinners, the lodge housekeeping staffs, and the chefs. He prepared separate envelopes for each lodge. His outfitter said he would present

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the envelopes to the support staff at the first lodge when he returned. Donny wanted to present the envelopes himself to the current staff, his PH and the tracker.

The gesture was gratifying. Everyone had done a marvelous job contributing to the memories of a lifetime and needed to be shown by both word and compensation. They were all genuinely appreciative.

His PH took him back to the airport. Donny used the time to ask a direct question he had avoided late yesterday afternoon.

D: Given what you now know about me, my rifle and my ammo, did I do the right thing yesterday by not taking the shot?

PH: Right or wrong is for you to decide. It simply wasn’t a high percentage shot. There was significant risk of not recovering the bull if you had taken it.

D: Were there things you saw during my hunts that would support that assessment?

PH: There were two keys to that shot: placement and penetration. I've seen enough of your shooting to be confident the placement would have been correct. Your ammo is accurate as hell, and the bullet would have gone where you aimed it. But penetration of the bullet was in question.

D: I thought it penetrated well. What led you to believe that the 180-grainer was penetration challenged?

PH: The broadside on the zebra.

D: Broadside?!

PH: Finn Aagaard had a rule of thumb I tend to agree with. It is based on pure broadside penetration. He believed a bullet that would not always exit on a broadside shot to the ribs was unlikely to have sufficient penetration from other angles, particularly the rear quartering, to be reliable on that size animal. The only real broadside you had through the ribs was on the zebra, and the bullet didn’t fully penetrate. It only smashed one rib bone. The shot was high on the zebra, so the width of the animal that the bullet traversed was less than maximum.

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D: What about the success I had with front quartering shots on the gemsbok and wildebeest?

PH: A front quartering shot is more challenging than a broadside in terms of penetration. Your bullet did very well at that shot angle. However, a left rear quartering shot is the most challenging of all in terms of penetration. Granted, a zebra isn’t a kudu. But a full pass-through on that broadside shot would have been significant and potentially could have indicated the true penetration potential of your bullet. But your bullet didn’t pass through the zebra. That one data point had to be taken as statistically significant and told me rear quartering penetration could potentially be a problem. Your sample population of one is far from conclusive, but it’s all you had.

Donny sat in silence for several minutes, processing and pigeonholing his PH’s assessments.

D: There’s an ol’ boy in our gun club that is ate up with hunting in Africa. Up until now I thought some of what he believed and told me was too complicated and just too damn hypothetical to be relevant. In my mind, the hunting situations and issues he kept talking about just weren’t real. He was being driven almost crazy with evaluating bullet performance based on the rear quartering shot, something that maybe 90% of hunters coming to Africa would never have to consider, let alone deal with. Based on what happened on my kudu hunt, I am beginning to understand why.

PH: The rear quartering shot is all about penetration. The easy solution is to just shoot solid copper bullets and be done with it. I don’t understand why there would be drama. Sounds to me like he was just creating a problem instead of solving it.

D: He is convinced the time needed to dispatch an animal is related to the volume of the wound cavity. More cavity volume means a quicker demise. He doesn’t want to sacrifice generating wound cavity volume simply to gain penetration. He knows that the bread-and-butter shots over here are broadside and front quartering. He wanted to max out wound cavity performance on those shots, and have satisfactory penetration for reasonable rear quartering ones.

PH: Even so, sounds like needless hair splitting.

D: I don’t know enough to say one way or the other. If he hadn’t done ballistic gel testing of some bullets, I would totally agree with you.

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PH: Gel testing?

D: Twenty percent synthetic gel. Tested four generic bullet designs. He wasn’t impressed with the solid copper bullets in either 30- or 35-caliber. He seemed to think their terminal performance was too one-dimensional, pretty much focused on penetration. Of all the bullets he tested, the best performer was a cup and core 35-caliber, 250-grainer with a muzzle velocity of less than 2500 fps. He claimed its terminal performance had excellent balance between wound cavity formation and penetration. He seemed to think that those results validated tried-and-true Africa old school.

Donny’s PH was silent for at least a minute.

PH: Did he test any other 30-calibers besides the solid copper?

D: Yes. The one you would likely be most familiar with was a 180-grain dual-lead cell with the bonded front cell. He used his 300 Winchester as the launch platform. The 250-grainer significantly out-penetrated it and apparently kicked the crap out of it in terms of wound cavity volume.

Again, a protracted silence from his PH.

PH: Potentially 318 Westley Richards performance. Sounds like he wasn’t so much splitting hairs as he was attempting to understand why things are as they are. In the case of the Westley Richards, why that particular chambering and bullet weight were so effective.

D: Trying to understand why things are as they are is why I watched my animals being skinned. I've seen wounding from my .277-caliber bullet, a 7-millimeter bullet, a 30-caliber bullet and a 35-caliber bullet. Does caliber make a difference?

Donny’s PH was silent for a considerable length of time, almost to the point of a compelling need to repeat the question.

PH: Depends on various assumptions, performance evaluation criteria, and what you mean by difference.

D: Another simple question with no simple answer, right?

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PH: Right. Finn Aagaard made a statement that people want to bastardize to defend their 6-mm choice over something like a generally preferred 9.3 mm or larger. He said “caliber seldom makes a noticeable difference”. People conveniently leave out his statement’s preposition which is “within reasonable limits” as well as his fundamental assumption that the shot under consideration is a lung shot. Unfortunately, Finn made no stipulation concerning bullet expansion and never explained how he was judging “noticeable”. Furthermore, getting a room full of hunters to agree what “reasonable limits” are is pure fantasy.

D: So, proper shot placement on the shoulder is a given. I should have stated that when I asked the question. I should have also stipulated complete pass-through on a broadside shot. With these stipulations, what is your terminal performance objective as a professional hunter?

PH: A recovered animal.

D: Does caliber make a difference in achieving that objective?

PH: Yes, in terms of tracking ease. A bigger hole means more blood available to find and follow a track, factors that are important based on ground conditions and vegetation. A bigger hole also means there is less likelihood of tissue below the hide to self-seal.

D: What about travel distance?

PH: It can, but most of the time not to an appreciable degree. From my perspective, it is the volume of the blood trail that is important.

D: So again, from your perspective, a bigger caliber is better, all things being equal, for the assumptions and stipulations I have made.

PH: Yes.

D: If the shot placement is satisfactory, the bullet expansion is as expected, but the bullet doesn’t exit, is a bigger caliber better?

PH: More likely than not, simply because the entrance hole is larger and will produce a greater initial flow volume, regardless of what weeping through the nose may subsequently supply.

D: Again, from your perspective, is full penetration to exit more important than wound cavity volume?

PH: I don’t know, but I suspect yes. Better wound cavity, regardless of caliber, would be gravy.

D: Does that mean a 30-caliber bullet that passes through the boiler room and exits the animal is potentially better than a 35-caliber bullet that produces a larger wound cavity as it passes through the boiler room but is retained on the far-side hide?

PH: I don’t know, but I think that reverts back to splitting hairs.

Donny fell silent and contemplated how the entire conversation with his PH had evolved. He realized his initial question about his decision not to take the shot was a primary indicator he had not achieved closure on the subject. He finally admitted that he never really had. He realized he was disappointed to the point of slightly being pissed that he hadn’t gotten his kudu, the sole reason for hunting in Africa in the first place. Whether intentional or not, he now recognized he had used his decision question as a basis for gaining insight for a way forward should he decide to try again for a kudu. He needed more time to process the things he had learned in order to gain the perspective required to formulate any future attempt.

Donny spent the remaining time with his PH discussing family and politics. When they got to the airport, his PH helped him tote his kit to check-in. They exchanged contact information, and Donny assured him that if he ever got back to South Africa, he would request that the outfitter retain him for the hunt. He sincerely thanked him for his efforts and insights.

The screening and boarding process were different in South Africa compared to the U.S. An airline employee rather than the South Africa police checked his rifle serial number versus the approved permit. While he was waiting at the gate, personnel judged to be airline employees checked his passport and did a formal inspection of his carry-on.

The flight back was no less an ordeal. The only benefit was he had an aisle seat with extended leg room. He vowed that if he ever came back, he would make reservations early enough to assure he secured similar seating.

He arrived back in Atlanta without getting any real sleep. He got off the plane with the hope that passing through customs would be faster than in South Africa so

that he could get home for much needed recovery time. But he was horrified to find that his flight was one of at least three that had basically all arrived at the same time. They were all being funneled to a grand total of three agents checking credentials. Donny bit his tongue and persevered.

The three agents checking passports were not the final insult. That honor fell to the CBP agents checking rifles. He was personally escorted to a secured area where that occurred. The only good news was that the area was adjacent to the baggage carousel. He was so tardy that his bag had been removed and placed off to the side to make room for another flight. Rather than take a place in the long line of obvious hunters waiting to have their rifles checked, he opted to retrieve his bag. He was later glad he did.

The secured area was an enclosure of what appeared to be Plexiglass. Locked doors were on either end. No more than two hunters were allowed in the enclosure at once. A door was unlocked to let them in, then relocked. A door was unlocked to let them out, then relocked. Armed CBP personnel were accompanying those ‘set free’ from the enclosure to the exit.

As Donny watched, hunting boots were produced by the hunters to be sprayed down with disinfectant. He quickly rummaged through his bag for his boots so there would be no delay for him gaining access to the enclosure.

The CBP personnel in the enclosure checking compliance with CBP Form 4457 were as humorless, officious, and seemingly impressed with their own importance as the ones who had initially checked his rifle. He supposed part of the ‘humorless’ was the zero-dark-hundred hour of the day. Even so, he was a U.S. citizen, not an illegal caught crossing the border or a terrorist on some watch list. He understood safety and security; incivility and condescension, not so much.

He was finally set free, rifle in tow. He dragged his baggage and kit (thank God for luggage wheels) outside and met the shuttle to take him to his truck. Gawd it was hot. He asked the shuttle driver about traffic. Donny was advised to find a good spot for breakfast and an extended coffee time to let it clear out.

It wasn’t until he got to his truck that he was reminded of his ‘normal’ daily life in the U.S. The familiarity of his truck was reassuring, as was the fact that the steering wheel was on the left side. Riding ‘on the left’ in South Africa with no steering wheel or brake pedal had been unnerving.

The facility was dark and relatively cool. His truck was cool. When he got behind the wheel, he suddenly felt drowsy. He reclined his seat for just a quick cat nap. When he awoke, he discovered his cat nap had been an hour and 40 minutes. Traffic had likely cleared, and it was high time to head for the house.