AFRICA HUNTER QUEST© 

Chapter 4 - THE EMPIRICISM 

     Donny drove home from the range, his mind numbed by disappointment. He just didn’t want to think about his 270 Winchester issue, nor a potential trip to Africa. Chores had been neglected on his trips to Harrisburg and to the range to find GG. He needed to catch up, confident that his subconscious would sort out the issues as he focused on his farm work. Something would come up; it always did. 

     Two days later, as Donny was doing maintenance on his planter in preparation for planting spring corn, the thought occurred he could have been too hasty in summarily dismissing the information that GG had given him. GG had asked a series of questions that he thought were irrelevant. What if they weren’t? What if their answers were needed in some way to expeditiously arrive at an answer to his question? He recalled he didn’t know the answers to many of them, and had been embarrassed as a consequence. Would knowing where he wanted to hunt and the shot distance expected have gotten GG to answer his question? Maybe his admission that he didn’t hand load was an issue, but how could that be? Come to think of it, his preferred ammunition answer prompted the question about different chamberings. That didn’t make any sense at all. How could his rifle and ammo be wrong if they had been used successfully by others to hunt elk? 

     Donny contemplated this series of questions that his subconscious had germinated. “Dang,” he thought. “More questions and no answers.” This whole 270 Winchester thing was like chewing raw squid; the more he chewed, the bigger it got. 

     Donny resigned himself to the inevitability of having to decipher what GG had given him and he reluctantly retrieved the folded paper from his truck’s console. He unfolded the paper and focused on the contents. 

     At the top of the page was the title of a book: The Perfect Shot by Kevin Robertson, published by Safari Press. GG had underlined the words ‘Second Edition’ multiple times. He had also written the following: “Read the first five chapters of Robertson’s book before tinkering with the empiricism below.”  

     Directly below the book title and GG’s instructions was a formula: 

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EPGW (Pounds) = W² x V x 7.5

_____________________

                             1,000,000

where: 

EPGW   =   Estimated Plains Game Weight, pounds

V            =   Bullet Impact Velocity, feet per second

W           =   Bullet Weight, grains 

NOTES: 

1)                         Do NOT use this empiricism for dangerous game.

2)                         EPGW could vary by 15% or more.

3)                         Assumes broadside shots on the shoulder intended more to stop the animal than just kill it.

4)                         Impact velocity must be compatible with the bullet’s generic design and manufacturer’s guidance/recommendations. 

     Donny stared at the paper. “Read a book,” he thought. “No way.” It was like so old school. 

     He brought up the calculator app on his phone. “Let’s see,” he thought. “The bullet weight is 130 grains. Muzzle velocity is 3200 fps. Wait, that wasn’t impact velocity.” 

     Donny didn’t want to take the time to determine what the impact velocity might be. He punched in the numbers and math functions, then read the number given after the equal sign: 405.6 is what his phone display indicated.  

     “405.6,” thought Donny. “What? Pounds? That seems low. That can’t be right.” He quickly recalculated, thumbs flailing rapidly with the known formula sequence. Same answer. 

     Donny didn’t know how much an elk weighed. If the formula was even remotely accurate, an elk could be expected to weigh around 400 pounds. That seemed way too light. 

     Donny fired up the internet access on his phone to determine how much an elk weighed. He was frustrated to discover that there seemed to be no consensus for such a simple question. Two web sites that should have been authoritative, and thus

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in agreement, gave varying weights for both bull and cow elk. Between the two web sites, he found out that a Tule cow could range from about 300 to 400 pounds, and a Tule bull from about 400 to 700 pounds. A Roosevelt cow could range from about 370 to 670 pounds, and a Roosevelt bull from about 400 to 1100 pounds. “Dang!” thought Donny. “GG’s formula says my 270 Winchester and ammo are only good for taking elk cows, and small ones at that!” 

     That just couldn’t be. He brought up the internet site of his ammo manufacturer and sourced both his bullet and ammo. Sure enough, the manufacturer had put an elk picture next to Donny’s selected bullet, indicating that it was okay for hunting elk. He also found the elk picture next to his selected ammo description. It seemed definitive to him; the manufacturer thought it was okay to use its bullet and ammo for hunting elk. 

     To Donny, it was apparent the old coot obviously didn’t know very much about ballistics and the game-killing power of modern high velocity cartridges. Encouraged by his rapid-fire research at the ammo manufacturer’s web site, he decided to see if there were any other formulas that calculated game weight from known cartridge ballistics. His thumbs punched in “game weight equation”. 

     Bingo. He discovered that in 1992 a man by the name of Edward Matunas had published a formula that gave a prediction of what he called “optimum game weight”, also based on the bullet’s weight and impact velocity. The formula he found was: 

where OGW was the optimum game weight in pounds, V was the impact velocity in feet per second and W was the bullet’s weight in grains. 

     Donny had to brush up on his scientific notation, as he thought he had left that bad dream way behind him in school. He plugged in the same velocity and bullet weight as he had for GG’s formula. After several trials and a confirmatory check, he was convinced that the answer was 830.67 pounds, proof positive his 270 Winchester was a legitimate elk rifle.  

     Donny sat back, immensely pleased with himself. GG’s bogus formula had provided the impetus for him to quickly find one that was in keeping with what Jack

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     O’Conner had said about the capabilities of the 270 Winchester and the weights of elk he had researched. It all made perfect sense. 

     Encouraged by his success, he then punched in “kudu weight” on his phone’s internet app. He quickly discovered that kudu bulls typically weigh from about 420 to 600 pounds, with a maximum of about 700 pounds. Even though the velocity he had used in the Matunas calculation was at the muzzle, he had at least a 130-pound cushion. He was convinced that his 270 Winchester and his favorite ammo were the perfect combination for his Africa trip.  

     Donny was well into the afterglow of his eureka moment, reviewing and validating the steps that had led him there. The irony of it all was clear: GG hadn’t provided an answer, but he had provided the motivation, in a backhanded way, for Donny to discover one on his own. 

     Donny did not consider his encounter with the Old Man to be very pleasant. He had been made to feel juvenile, as if he had to be taken by the hand to solve a problem or comprehend its solution. In short, Donny knew his ego had been dinged, and he didn’t like it. He felt some sort of recompense was in order; nothing ugly, but something demonstrable that clearly showed he was not the village idiot. He would have preferred to send GG a text or possibly an email to show that what the Old Man had furnished was incompatible with published, mainstream thinking. Furthermore, and more importantly, he had effectively answered his question on his own. However, Donny had no contact information. It would have to be done in person.

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