DANGEROUS GAME CARTRIDGES ------------ :Love your magazine. Could the .45-70 in Africa, where he used So, it may be logical, from Q you guys do a study on the a Cor-Bon 400-grain solid to shoot Brian's account., to assume the .45-70 in comparison to other dan­ a Cape buffalo, whereupon the .45-70 is perfectly adeq uate foJ' gerous game cartridges'? Perhaps bullet exited the bull and killed a Cape buffalo - assuming one is test the Garre t and Buffalo Bore cow buffalo that had gone unno­ using a 400-grain solid at appl'oxi­ rounds against the .375 H&H or ticed on the other side of the bull . ITlately 1,800 fvs and the range is .458 Winchester Magnum or LoU'? The bull took off, and Brian shot. it limited to 100 yards or less. Most If you check out many of the fo­ in the south pnd where the solid folks would be tempted to ask rums, you will see heated debates penetrated to the heart., ending whether Brian's hunt would have on this topic. Would be a great the affair in fairly short fashion. turned up similar results if he had seller ror you guys and a great read for liS!! - C.AL., via Int.ernet used a 400-grain softnose. Either way, it's a bit of a stretch to com­ pare Brian's load in the .45-70 to a 300-grain solid at 2,400 fps from a .375 H&H, or a 500-grain solid at. 2, 100 or 2,300 fps from the .458 Wirrchester or Lott. U's plainly ob­ vious, or should be, that t:he two .4:')8 belted cartridges pack a lot more clout t.han the .45-70, regard­ less of which performance crite­ 1 2 3 4 rion anyone migl1t choose, i .e. A: Good idea, but the n'uth is, kinetic energy or Taylor's knock­ there is no comparison between out formula. the .45-70 and the .375 H&H, .458 The comparison, Olen, should re­ Winchester Magnum <;>f .458 Loti.. ally address t.hese cartridges in And, at the risk of possibly incit­ Anyone can hunt potentially terms of performance potential on ing a riot on the Internet, I'll tell large game, o}' at what point is a you why. dangerous game with the .45-70 (1), but fighting cartridges like the cart.ridge consic\ered adequate or Right off, I would imagine this (2) .458 Winchester Magnum, acceptable in terms of producing "debate" is somewhat inspired by (3) .375 H&H and (4) .458 Lott are a high percentage of one-shot kills the stor-y Brian Pearce did about. in a completely different class. on buffalo, lions or even elephant. 6 www.ri{/emagazine.com Rifle 213 Obviously, the performance eval­ it should be plainly obvious that if B,ullet Swaging uation has to include bullets, soft­ one is to error in cartridge selec­ Stuff noses, solids or whatever, like the tioll for such work, it is best to Equipment, Information, X-Bullet. If we restric t the dia­ elTor 011 the heavier side. At that, Used & Surplus Gear logue to softnose bullets, the .45- there ill'e countless hOl1'or stories An online at: 70 with a 400-grain Kod ia 1< or of Cape buffalo taking multiple www.rceco.com Hawk with a .050-inch jacket is hi ts from .458 Wincheste rs or probably acceptable for Cape buf­ .470 NE doubles, or combinations RCE Co" 4090 Colver Rei, falo, assuming proper blllleL place­ r,hereof, b(~ fort' giving up or Phoenix, OR 97535 ment. That also applies to the ,375 stomping on some llnfortunate Tel: 1-541 -512-0440 H&H with a Swift A-Prame or soul's body parts. There is even a Fax: 1-541-5 J 2-9433 well-documented episode where a E-Mail [email protected] NosIer Partition. Bllt, no matter how you cut it, a 500-graill, .468- huge Cape buffalo took a 400- inch bulleL at 2,000 fps impact ve­ grain ,bullet through the heart locity delivers a tremendous blow, from a .404 Jeffel)', and it waited WORLO'S FINEST PRODUrCTlON' even on soft body shots. The same in ambush for 30 minutes, at RIFLE BARRELS could be said of the .470 NE or the which time the hunter approached .404 .Jeffery and .416 Higby or and the bull got up and charged, Remington Magnum. All assum­ receiving another slug in the eye ~LAS ing, of course, the bullet is up to at spitting distance. UL TRARIFLED the job at hanet. So, it's not adequate to address BARRELS IN MOST SIZES, I'm also reminded that there arc the problem of how carLridges SHAPES AND CALIBERS. hunting cartridges and fighting might compare in normal hunting . Stainless steel or chrome' moly' cartridges, the latter being those sit uations. It is only when the -AFFORDABLE aUALlTY- that: are required to adminisLer a worst: possible scenario is consid­ Wrile (0' tree information to' one-shot st.op in a fight that wa" ered that tIle wheat is cl early sep­ DOUGLAS BARRELS, INC. started with a .375 H&H, for in­ arated from the chaff. " 5504 Big Tyler Rd" RM5 :;c- - stance. So, while it may be possi­ .j Charleston, WV 25~ 13 VIS( I The point of all t his is that we • _' _ 304-nli-1341 FAX 304-776-8560 ' ble to stop an enraged four-footed could argue La th€ point of re­ a,ntagonist with a .45-70, the .458 ductio ad absurdum as to whether LotL and .470 NE are superior or not the ,45-70 is the equal of tools for the job. other, more established danger­ Then there's an experience my ous gante caJtridges. But it is i11\­ friend Martin Pieters recounted pOltant t:O keep in mind that the one evening as we lounged around animal is only dangerous if t.he sit­ the campfire in the Okavango last uation is screwed up or gets out oJ August:. It seerns one of his cUents han(!. So, let's consider, hypotheti­ cally, if the bull Brian shot turned wounded a. Cape buffalo, and th(~ y the other way and came back at f;'li1(~ d to find it hefore the client had to leave. So, Martin went back them. All of a sudden, lhe lables out and spent two days searching have turned, and the animal be­ tlu'ougn a little less than 2,000 buf­ comes a selioos threat. Would the falo before he found the wounded .45-70 with a 400-gl'ain solid at bull, which promptly took exc-clr 1,800 fps be enough to stop the lion to M.artin's intl'\lsion and bull before it hooks a horn into charged. Martin responded wi th a someone? SOO-grain .470 solid, between the I'm also mindiul of the fact the eyes, ancl the bull fell dead at his most vocal critics of any C<lJ1xidge feel. He would have tried the are, in large part, those who have frontal hf~ ali shot, but the bull was n ever used it" or simply used a so close that thE;' angl e was nol bullet. that was ill-suited to the right. The effect, no doubt, would task. This brings to mind Elmer have been the same had Martin Keith's conli'nents regarding the used a GOO-grain solid in th e .458 .30-06, danming with faint praise, Lott or .458' Winchester l'VlagtlUJ,T\ when in fact, he was talking about eo or 400-gra.in solid in the .416 Rigby the bullets of his day. llJRNINg Oll9'RE9 INTO U,I ITY or Hemington Magnum. If you load the .45-70 right to the It might also be claimed the .45- gunne ls with powder under a (7 19] 667- 1090 70 \.'lith a 500-grain solid would heavy solid, either copper or hard VIVoJW 11f'( IJ~.lj·H'l~ • ... (11"1 have stopped thaT, bull as well, bnt eelSt lead, in a Ruger No. I, the old 8 www.rif/emagazine.com Rifle 213 black-powder cartridge takes on an entirely different personality. WALNUT GUN STOCK BLANKS (Hornady lists lo~.c1s for its 500- From Tree to Sawmill to You - No Middleman grain solid at 1,800 fps ill t.he .45- 70 Ruger No. \.) The same could FREE Brochure • Visit our Web site: be said for the .450 Marlin, .450 clarowalnutgunstocks.com AJaskan, .45-90 WCF and, to SOlne degree, smokeless loads in the .50- CLARO WALNUT GUNSTOCK CO. 100-450 in modern rines. There's 1235 Stanley Av~ .• Chico, CA 95928 even the .50 AJuskan to consider, Phone: (530) 342-5188 • F.ax: (530) 342-5199 especially when it tosses 450-grain - Since 1949 - buBers around at a bit over 2,000 fps from all 18,[~-inch barrel and 535-grain bullets at 1,BoO fps I'rom Still cleaning the old smelly, messy way? a 2fi-illCh tube. These .60 Alaskan Buffalo Bore loads are creeping Why? ... When there is the 10SSO way! right up on the ,458 Winchester Magnum. The IOSSO Bore Cleaning System was developed (or the most meticulous shooter. qeaning is I've used all t.he al)ove, except done effortlessly, in 15 minutes or less with no smell, and the .450 Marlin, to take deer-sized no running or splattering of fluids. game, elk and bears, and 1 wonlc! 105S0 Bore Cleaner removes: be harel pressed to distillguish the • powder fouling and carbon burn • copper, lead, moly end result produced by any of • plastic wad them from thl:' rest - where the • surface rust right bullet is used for the task at.