2023 Big Game Success Thread
- Thread starter MeatBuck
- Start date
RLL
Active member
I think this is a good place to post an update for this thread.
The okes and I just returned from South Africa after a 10 day hunt. We started in the Karoo outside of Colesberg for 4 days and moved down to Kenton on Sea for 5 days to round out the hunt.
Weather was tough, windy and rainy at times but made the hunts even more worth while.
I used a 375 Ruger with 299 SH the whole trip. My buddy used a 7 mag with 160 SH. Load data reported previously.
We were successful in every stalk that resulted in a shot. Lots of one shot kills. 25 in the salt, from warthog, impala, bushbuck, reedbuck, kudu, zebra, eland, buff and others. Hammer bullets proved themselves in Africa once again. And has made me a total convert.
It wasnāt the one shot drops, it was the marginal ones that hammer made up for. In previous safaris with other bullets a marginal shot meant some serious tracking. I never worried about losing an animal this trip. This instills some serious confidence in ones ammo and rig.
Thanks Hammer. Iām looking forward to future safaris with your products.
Here are some pics of our adventures and happy to talk about each in detail if youāre interested in the hunt or bullet/terminal performance.
The okes and I just returned from South Africa after a 10 day hunt. We started in the Karoo outside of Colesberg for 4 days and moved down to Kenton on Sea for 5 days to round out the hunt.
Weather was tough, windy and rainy at times but made the hunts even more worth while.
I used a 375 Ruger with 299 SH the whole trip. My buddy used a 7 mag with 160 SH. Load data reported previously.
We were successful in every stalk that resulted in a shot. Lots of one shot kills. 25 in the salt, from warthog, impala, bushbuck, reedbuck, kudu, zebra, eland, buff and others. Hammer bullets proved themselves in Africa once again. And has made me a total convert.
It wasnāt the one shot drops, it was the marginal ones that hammer made up for. In previous safaris with other bullets a marginal shot meant some serious tracking. I never worried about losing an animal this trip. This instills some serious confidence in ones ammo and rig.
Thanks Hammer. Iām looking forward to future safaris with your products.
Here are some pics of our adventures and happy to talk about each in detail if youāre interested in the hunt or bullet/terminal performance.
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LightTheTower
Hammer Time Executive member
Yes! More, more, more!
RLL
Active member
2 marginal shots I encountered on an Impala and bushbuck. 1 from my buddys Kudu.RLL, I couldnāt agree more with this statement. Great post. Feel free to bore us with the details of the terminal performance if you have time.
First was at the Impala. On sticks, 165 yards, with a 15 mph crosswind. Quartering towards the shot, I sent the 299 SHā¦slipped in the right side back rib traversing the abdomen and exiting opposite the left and now broken hip. Gut shotā¦Immediately it flattened him but he got up, back leg immobilized and made another 40 yards, I shot at him on the run, missing, then the ram collapsed. Moving in to close the distance, he was struggling to get up but mortally wounded, he expired before I got the next shot offā¦rodeo avoided. During cleaning and inspection, the bullet penetrated stomach where the front end fragmented. The shank continued through tagging the liver, intestines and breaking the hip. Frontal fragments radiated shredding stomach, liver and renal arterial function. Devestaing to say the least.
Next my friends Kudu. Good set up, side on shot 140 across across a valley, no wind. On sticks, he sends a 160gr SH from his 7mag, striking low on the shoulder and penetrating low through the brisket. Second shot, even lower through the shank on the leg, 3rd shot through the elbow on the same right leg. Turns out scope got bumped and was shooting 5 in lowā¦That kudu didnāt make it 20 yards before crumbling like a pile of bricks with all those shots. Kudu was in the bag. Back at the skinning shed, first shot proved to be lethal. Shank passed right through low shoulder flesh, into ribs and brisket, barely entering the chest cavity low before exiting. One petal tagged low in the bottom the heart, the others being too low missed both lungs but shredded connecting veins and arteries in the engine room. Amazing how well that worked out in the endā¦
Bushbuck was a similar set up to the impala. On sticks, but no wind, 150 yards quartering to, I sent the 160SH across the valley. It penetrated the back half of chest cavity, exiting the opposite side hip. No mortal liver shot, shank a petals through digestive parts, but one of the petals severed spinal nerve comms to the back half. He went down and we thought all was over. He was in a rough spot to get to quickly, through thick eastcape bush, so we had to maneuver around. When we approached it was evident he wasnāt done but he wasnāt going anywhere and would have expired given time. A second shot was required to put the ram to rest.
The consequences Iāve seen from other bullets on previous safaris meant hours of tracking in these scenarios. Thankfully Iāve never lost an animal but I donāt like wounding animals and putting them through more trauma than humanly possible. This is where Hammer bullets have won me over all other competitors. Iāll continue to sing the praises outside of this community, as I know Iām preaching to the choir here!
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JakeSCH
Member
Posted this under bear bullet choice but my first bear. Bang flop. 300 WM w/ 181 hammer @ 300 yards with ~2750 fps impact velocity.
Bullet hit and turned the lights off. I am not certain if a petal hits the spine more often than not but these 181ās have many bang flops.
Young blonde sow, was ~100 lb
Bullet hit and turned the lights off. I am not certain if a petal hits the spine more often than not but these 181ās have many bang flops.
Young blonde sow, was ~100 lb
MeatBuck
Hammer Time Executive member
Yesterday we had some success. Took my son out after the 1x2 my buddy passed opening morning. He hangs with a group of does. Once my boy spotted the does I told him keep watching for the buck. No sooner did he spot him. Probably 7-7:30a at this time. The buck gave us the slip until 9a when he bedded just right of an oak tree at 430yds. We set up the shooting mat and laid out the rifle. The hill wasnāt flat so prone required all of our extra shirts and gear to be shoved under my sons hip to prop him up. While we waited for him to stand up the rain came on. Light but steady, before too long I started to get a chill. A few minutes later I noticed water pooling on the mat. The buck finally stood up but his vitals were covered by a branch. Then the rain started to pick up so we folded our yard sale up in the mat and headed for cover. We watched from under a manzanita bush as the deer got up and fed around. Tried one time to slip out and set up again but the deer didnāt cooperate and the rain continued so back under the bush we went. About 11:50a we saw him feeding toward and opening. Slipped back out and set up the tall bipod and had butt propped on pack. Then had my son lay in on his hip next to the rifle. Once we got the proper rear elevation with our pile of shirts and squeeze bag he was locked in. Rain just quit. I fumbled with my ear plugs as he was asking if I was ready. The buck stepped out 274yds and I quickly tossed up my binos and told him to go ahead. Bang, whack! Shot seemed good but the buck didnāt go into the normal stagger that Iāve been accustomed to seeing with the 270wsm and 156hh. He just ran a few yards left and stood there obscured by oaks. Thinking liver hit we waited for another shot opportunity but it never came. After a solid 3-4 minutes he finally rolled over up against the base of the oak. Still moving but vitals covered by tree trunk. After hearing him aspirate a bit he finally went belly up. Probably 5-6 minutes after the shot.
Hit was high and back but tore through top of lungs and exited back of off shoulder mid body. Huge exit, biggest Iāve seen with hammers. Not thrilled to see the shape of the exit but the deer is in the meat fridge and the heart is about to be breakfast so I guess it did itās job.
Recovery was fairly easy but did require quartering up the buck. His ācactusā velvet antlers were still soft so dragging him was out of the question. Plus it wouldāve been more work than just quartering. Shot went off just before noon. With the cloud cover and coolest temps of the season we took our time. Was after 7p when we hit the tailgate. We had to rehydrate and eat our food because we got so focused on killing him and hiding from the rain we didnāt eat or drink hardly anything. We also got distracted for a bit as we hit a pocket of obsidian flakes and couldnāt pass the opportunity to look around a bit.
Long day, bucky weather. āDorky forkyā down. Meat in the freezer.
Hit was high and back but tore through top of lungs and exited back of off shoulder mid body. Huge exit, biggest Iāve seen with hammers. Not thrilled to see the shape of the exit but the deer is in the meat fridge and the heart is about to be breakfast so I guess it did itās job.
Recovery was fairly easy but did require quartering up the buck. His ācactusā velvet antlers were still soft so dragging him was out of the question. Plus it wouldāve been more work than just quartering. Shot went off just before noon. With the cloud cover and coolest temps of the season we took our time. Was after 7p when we hit the tailgate. We had to rehydrate and eat our food because we got so focused on killing him and hiding from the rain we didnāt eat or drink hardly anything. We also got distracted for a bit as we hit a pocket of obsidian flakes and couldnāt pass the opportunity to look around a bit.
Long day, bucky weather. āDorky forkyā down. Meat in the freezer.
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Farleg
Hammer Time Executive member
Gday Meatbuck
Congrats to your son & you
stocking that freezer back up is good to see
On the wound reminds me of a Berger reaction in the smaller critters & looked like a ok placed shot to me ( for you guys lol yes I get the meat saver shot just having fun ) & great stuff from your son under those conditions
The shape of exit doesnāt concern me , itās what the entry looks like that will tell more of the story here & what it did on its way through the critter thatās the key
On the wounds what did it hit on the way in & by the great explanation of the deers reaction id say it was a little slow in opening & 1st lung lobe still functioning somewhat allowing him to carry on a bit
The other interesting thing to me is you said hit high lungs with this im puzzled a touch as from the pics it dosent look a high lung so my interpretation may be off somewhat so do you mean the upper half or top of lungs ?
also another couple parts are I donāt know your deers anatomy that well so the lungs may sit a little lower than Iād assume than what they are situated & also secondly ( not a real worry ) on impact the lungs were fully deflated but itās usually seen in a critter thatās been breathing more heavily from getting wound up ( big breaths ) resulting in the look of more edge of lung hits but I donāt think the animals reaction backs this theory up
Did you take Pictures of the lungs & explanation on the above would be helpful to try & work a little more out
Congrats once again
Cheers
Congrats to your son & you
stocking that freezer back up is good to see
On the wound reminds me of a Berger reaction in the smaller critters & looked like a ok placed shot to me ( for you guys lol yes I get the meat saver shot just having fun ) & great stuff from your son under those conditions
The shape of exit doesnāt concern me , itās what the entry looks like that will tell more of the story here & what it did on its way through the critter thatās the key
On the wounds what did it hit on the way in & by the great explanation of the deers reaction id say it was a little slow in opening & 1st lung lobe still functioning somewhat allowing him to carry on a bit
The other interesting thing to me is you said hit high lungs with this im puzzled a touch as from the pics it dosent look a high lung so my interpretation may be off somewhat so do you mean the upper half or top of lungs ?
also another couple parts are I donāt know your deers anatomy that well so the lungs may sit a little lower than Iād assume than what they are situated & also secondly ( not a real worry ) on impact the lungs were fully deflated but itās usually seen in a critter thatās been breathing more heavily from getting wound up ( big breaths ) resulting in the look of more edge of lung hits but I donāt think the animals reaction backs this theory up
Did you take Pictures of the lungs & explanation on the above would be helpful to try & work a little more out
Congrats once again
Cheers
