Well, I have an update.....
Went out with my good buddy "Wedgy" from the forum on a successful back country elk hunt. First thing in the morning once topping the Mountain, he spotted the large herd of elk, about 2 miles away, so we beat feet down the mountain, then up the mountain to where they were.
They were on a sloping hillside in timber, but directly across the canyon on from them on the ridgeline we had a decent vantage point. After a few hours of glassing through the bulls and waiting for them to stand and give an opportunity, I picked one out. We ranged him at 883, I put in the dope and sent the shot. First round went just high, we figured out later that the wind was doing crazy things in the canyon, including an intense up draft on the far side of the canyon. I was able to spot my impact with my .338 Norma, adjusted, and the bull gave me another shot. At impact, I watched his back legs come up and smack his belly, his rear end dropped, then his front, and he slid about 200 feet down the hill until he got caught up in a tree, I watched him for a little bit, and no movement, I assumed he was done. Impact speed was 2113 fps and 2678 ft-lbs of energy.
We hiked around the back of the canyon and up to him, to find him down, unable to move anything but his legs a little bit, but still alive. I used my anti-bear .44 mag to finish him off. I saw my impact was where the neck meets the shoulder, a little far forward, but I have hit other animals there with devastating outcomes at times, however no vital internal organs were hit. Upon boning him out, I was surprised to find the bullet. The bull was facing to the fight upon impact, strait broadside. It entered center body for elevation, penetrated the entrance side of the neck just outside the thoracic cavity, hit the bottom of the vertebrae, then turned up and to the left, and was found under the back strap against the off side of the spine. Total penetrating was 12", maximum, half the neck, then up and to the left a little. Wound channel was relatively small, but acceptable. Pictures of the bull and bullet below.
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Afterwards once out of the back country, I contacted Jason and George (bullet designer and company owner) to talk about what I observed and report my information. After talking about my rifles twist rate, velocity, and some other details, Jason was surprised at the lack of penetration. I asked him about expansion, and he said that is typical, and that they use the hardest copper available (explains the early pressure generally seen with these bullets). George also seemed surprised, and said that what likely happened is that just clipping the vertebrae, which he said is the densest bone in an animal, likely caused the bullet to turn, and when frontal area increases, the rate at which it looses speed quadruples, so if the surface area was 4x the size, it would slow down 16x's faster, and that is what likely caused it to stop so abruptly and slide along the muscle up to the left. As far as expansion, he said that is what he expects from this hollow point design at those speeds, maybe slightly more, and that it was at one point much larger diameter than that, before the petals folded over and rolled back.
I am somewhat torn. I personally am surprised that the bullet didn't punch through, I wonder if a tighter twist would have helped, or if it is just circumstance. I didn't put the bullet in the vital organs, I was off on my wind call by .75 MOA or so, wind was anywhere from a slight whisp up to 15+ mph at times coming from 7 or 8 o'clock where we were, but was going to the left out in the canyon around 5ish mph judging from mirage, and swiftly up hill over at the elk, and I missed the mark on the wind. I have a hard time making a decision or call on bullet performance if it is not placed properly, and generally dispell any information I get from a kill if I didn't do my job as the shooter, but I also am having a hard time accepting that a 270 grain bullet still going over 2100 fps couldn't even punch through the neck of an elk, even with hitting the spine. On the other hand, the bull dropped and didn't get up, though he was still alive, but again, no organs were hit, and the clipping impact to the vertebrae did not cut the spinal cord.
Pretty much all my big game is done for the season, I will likely have my wife use this rifle for her elk and may get a better idea on a shoulder type hit, but this interesting experience has raised my eyebrows at least. Overall I would like to see a little more bullet expansion at these low velocity impacts (after all, it is obviously a long range bullet, low velocity impacts is where it should shine) and if I rebarrel down the road for these bullets, I will do an 8 or 8.5 twist. However, this is just one elk. I try to be objective, and get a good amount of field data prior to making any assumptions about a bullet. Hopefully my wife gets an opportunity, and we can see what happens there.
On a different note, Wedgy made an awesome 987 yard shot on a calf elk on the third day with his 300 RUM using 227 Hammers, she tumbled down the hill close to mine, and my buddy that came along took his first ever elk, a large cow, at 1002 yards with a perfect heart shot from his .338 Norma Mag using 300 Bergers. It was an amazing hunt, but more on that in another thread.....
Thanks all!!
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