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[Nathan]

Hi all, been a long time since I put in a decent post as we have been very busy. Anyway, herew is a story I wrote about a wild cattle hunt with the .375 RUM. Hope you enjoy it.

Cheers, Nathan

http://www.ballisticstudies.com

The big bull and his herd had turned up once again. On their last visit, the mob had broken through a boundary fence into lush farm land, grazed, then disappeared back into the forest taking some of the farmers heifers with them. The herd, numbering nine feral animals and the three tagged heifers stayed hidden in inhospitable country for several months before venturing back out into more broken land.

There was not much time to prepare; we had spotted the herd about a mile away while on our way home from stalking pigs. I suspected that the herd would stay around for at least a day, enough time to kit up for a hunt and load some ammunition for the .375 RUM, but not enough time to obtain my preferred bullet for such situations.

The .375 Remington Ultra Magnum was introduced in 2001. A hell bender amongst medium bores, the .375 RUM is loosely based on the .404 Jeffery’s case blown out to maximum dimensions. While factory loads are powerful, these are very mild in comparison to this cartridge’s full capabilities. Maximum safe working velocities for the 26” barreled Remington M700 rifle include 3400fps with the 210 grain Barnes, 3350fps with 225 grain bullets, 3300fps with 235 grain bullets, 3200fps with 250 grain bullets, 3150fps with the 260 grain Accubond, 3100fps using 270 grain bullets, 2950fps with 300 grain bullets and 2700fps with 350 grain Woodleigh projectiles.

The .375 RUM produces significant stress to most projectiles at close to moderate range impact velocities. This, because most projectiles are designed for the somewhat milder .375 Holland & Holland Magnum. Although my preferred big game medicine for the RUM is the 300 grain Barnes TSX bullet, I was out of stock and would have to use the 300 grain Woodleigh Protected Point Weldcore of which I had a good supply. While the Woodleigh is an extremely good projectile, the 300 grain PP is only rated to a maximum impact velocity of 2600fps, producing optimum performance at normal H&H muzzle velocities of 2500fps and impact velocities between 2400 and 2200fps (between 25 and 125 yards in the H&H), not to dissimilar to most other .375” big game bullets.

I sat at the reloading bench and considered the options. The .375 RUM could easily be downloaded with slow burning powder to increase the reliability of the Woodleigh. On the other hand the RUM is at its most spectacular at full velocities, I also knew the limitations of the Woodleigh, that I could at least expect penetration into vitals with all but tail on shots. In the end, I chose high velocity, every ounce of it. If the Woodleigh failed to produce outstanding performance then that would be my fault for using it incorrectly, if it performed exceedingly well, that would just be great kudos to the manufacturer. I loaded up a batch of ammunition which in my rifle with its generous throat length, gave exactly 3000fps over the chronograph at the range.

Using full velocity would also allow me to further my studies of hydrostatic shock on large heavy game. Hydrostatic shock occurs when a high velocity bullet imparts its energy to game in such a way that shock waves are spread to the central nervous system resulting in loss of consciousness. The effect is often described as “poleaxed” and is no different to a boxer taking a heavy blow to the chin and becoming knocked unconscious by his opponent. For my book Hunting cartridges of the world, a great deal of time was spent studying which bullets produced the most hydrostatic shock, at what velocities and whether the results were able to be repeated consistently.

Regarding hydrostatic shock on heavy game, the late African game guide Peter Hathaway Capstic gave this example of the tenacity of the Cape Buffalo: The client was armed with a 460 Weatherby Magnum firing a .458” calibre 500 grain bullet at 2600fps. After locating and stalking up on a bull, the client fired a well placed shot. At the shot, the birds perched on the spine of the bull were all knocked unconscious and fell to the ground. The bull on the other hand simply absorbed the initial burst of energy of the .460 Weatherby bullet throughout his thick hide. Although the bullet found its mark and produced a clean kill, the bull was able to travel a significant distance before succumbing to the shot.

The following morning saw my wife Stephanie and I back in the hills. I carried the RUM, Steph was armed with a camcorder. Unfortunately this first stalk was a complete failure. The animals had ventured out onto grass during the night but made their way back, deep into steep, dense rain forest to rest up for the day. There was plenty of fresh sign but no game. We could have gone on but we also wanted the opportunity to retrieve meat. If we could catch the herd out in the fringe country, we would at least have a chance to get the quad bike within a reasonable distance.

We tried again that night but to no avail, the animals were either gone or were waiting until well after dark before venturing out. We decided to try again the following morning, but this time we would try from a different angle, blocking their escape route and would start at a much earlier hour.

Finally we struck success. In the half light of dawn we spooked two cows in the bush and knew the main herd was still ahead of us. The cows we spooked darted off silently but at great speed, fortunately in a direction away from where we anticipated the main mob would be. As we crept on the adrenalin started to kick in. We were sidling along a steep ridge face and the bush track was narrow, about one foot wide in some places. I could hear Steph’s breathing becoming heavier as the adrenalin changed her cycle of breath. Then it happened, we met the mob just about to enter the bush after a heavy nights feeding, the range was around 30 yards.


The mob knew something was up, the cows were on heavy alert, the bulls just stood, front on and ready to face any danger, watching the bush edge where we crouched. As Steph crept close to me in order to record the event, I saw the big bull and whispered to her “see him, the big Fresian type”. He was a massive beast with a good set of horns and stood facing us front on. I barely had time to look him over as the herd was poised to break. I rested the crosshairs of the Leupold on the centre of his chest and fired. At the shot the bull went straight down as though a slasher had cut off his legs. A moment later he tried to regain his footing, rose to his knees, turned but then fell to the ground dead, I had taken the troublesome lead bull.




The rest of the herd had bolted at the shot but as their escape route was blocked, the herd regrouped and paused in a moment of confusion further along the bush edge 150 yards away. Steph now took the .375 RUM as although I had already taken an animal, the meat would be tough and rank on the older herd leader. She quickly lay down and lined up on a young bull that was quartering on to us. I grabbed the camcorder but unfortunately the batteries went flat just as Steph was about to fire. A moment later Steph fired, but as she did so, the young bull took one step forwards and instead of striking the bones of the foreleg, the bullet struck behind the foreleg into the rear lungs. At the time however, the shot seemed an outstanding success, the bull dropped as if hit by lightning and lay motionless on the ground. Impact velocity was around 2630fps.

As we approached the young bull, he slowly rose to his feet and due to vegetation blocking a clear shot, Steph had to cover a little more ground to get a clear shot. As Steph moved forwards, the bull attempted to move into the bush but Steph was ready for him and from a standing position at 70 yards she took a neck shot which dropped him once again, this time for good. I was quite shocked at Steph’s ability to shoot the RUM so smoothly and enquired “how the hell did you manage to take that shot so well” to which Steph replied “trigger control, it’s all about trigger control”. The RUM had however knocked Steph around but she gave her shoulder a rub and carried on happy that for all of the recoil, the rifle had served its purpose.


We got to Steph’s bull first, found the entry wound just behind the shoulder and then found the second entry wound dead centre of the neck. At this point we sat down to take in the mornings experience and have a drink, wild cattle hunting is an absolute thrill! After the brief rest, Steph started about back skinning her bull while I started the journey back to retrieve the quad bike and bring it as close as possible to the bulls.



By the time I got back, Steph had taken off the back steaks and was already going about the autopsy. The first shot had not gone quite so well. The bullet entered just behind the foreleg, travelled upwards (the bull was uphill from us when Steph took the shot), destroyed a portion of the rear lungs, bounced off the upper offside ribs in the direction of the tail, entered the back steak and travelled down the back steak for about one and a half feet. As for the second shot, the bullet had travelled through the neck, broken the spine, but as the bull’s offside leg was in forwards stride, the bullet had then entered the off shoulder, broke the ball joint of the leg and came to rest under the offside skin.


The reason that the Woodleigh had failed to penetrate in a straight line on the first shot was because at the velocity used, the Woodleigh lost most of its sectional density (its form so to speak) as it over expanded during initial penetration, my fault for driving the Woodleigh at such high velocities. Yes, the Woodleigh struck the bull at an impact velocity only just outside of the manufacturer’s recommendations but it was still a very high, stressful impact velocity considering that this bullet was designed for .375 H&H impact velocities. Nevertheless, the performance of the Woodleigh on the second shot was outstanding, especially considering that Steph’s bull, although young, weighed around 400kg (880lb). Retained weight of the first bullet was 256 grains, the second weighed 210 grains.


After retrieving our meat including the meat off the legs, we moved on to my bull. He had come to rest at the edge of a creek and I would have to roll him over in order to see the full picture. I rolled him over and he fell fully into the creek, it was then that I saw just what a magnificent creature he was. I estimated his weight between 650 and 700kg (above 1400lb) with a good set of horns. My shot had struck him in the lower neck as although I was aiming for his chest, his head was down and the bullet would have to penetrate through some of the heavy neck muscle before reaching the chest. The bullet had then entered the chest, past just below the lungs and had produced a 1.5” wound channel through the top of the heart. The bullet went on to destroy the autonomous plexus, a major nerve centre that runs between the heart and the lungs, it carried on through the liver and into the gut.


After taking off a limited amount of meat for the table, we cut up the rest of the beast with an axe so that it could be removed from the water system. I then went back to the bike and grabbed my spade. From the beginning I had anticipated that the Woodliegh would probably come to rest in the rumen from a frontal shot. After digging out copious amounts of grass and browse from the bush, I found the remainder of the Woodleigh bullet, as expected, resting against the rumen lining. This bullet had really been made to work when used on an animal of this size at such high velocity. The Woodleigh had expanded right back to its base but its core bonding had helped it to retain a weight of 195 grains.

All in all the hunt had been a great success and I had once again collected some valuable information. I would not recommend the Woodleigh for use at .375 RUM velocities unless used by someone who fully understands its limitations. The Barnes solid Copper TSX is still one of the best performers on heavy game, older models of the Barnes bullets have caused complaints but this most recent bullet is the culmination of Randy Brook’s ability to listen and learn from customers.

Ever since I have owned and used the .375 RUM I have been thoroughly pleased with its performance on game of all sizes. I have also had no problem getting the RUM to shoot very tight groups at the range. As for the young bull that ran, when shot placement suffers from error in the field resulting in a rear lung shot, the key to fast killing is the broadest possible wound. Although the RUM produced outstanding hydrostatic shock on Steph’s bull, the bullet did not have enough energy or frontal area (even though it fully expanded) to destroy a large enough portion of the lungs. The wound through one lung was approximately 3” in diameter (small considering the full size of the lungs), the other lung merely bruised due to the angle of the shot.

To produce both hydrostatic shock and extremely broad wounding for shot placement error, I believe that the correct combination would be something like a 500 grain .458” expanding bullet driven at 3000fps, a cartridge humanly impossible to shoot in a sporting weight rifle. To this end I am still very happy with the .375 RUM, a fine medium bore with plenty of reach and power providing a suitable bullet is used and shot placement is reasonable. The RUM really knocks the stuffing out of big heavy game allowing plenty of time for follow up shots if needed.

[Nathan]

Here are a few more pics.

[kevin davis]

very good story. did you get your heifers back? :evil:

[Nathan]

Thanks, no we never got the heifers back and they were written off the farmers books. A new fence has been constructed on the boundary between the bush and the farmed land. The fence was built tough but it will be interesting to see what happens when the farmed heifers and cows come into season. There is still a big brindle bull in the mob (can't see him in the pic, don't quite know where he was lurking) who doesn't seem to mind pushing through anything in his way. For now, the mob are still in the bush, its winter here in NZ so most wild cattle will be quite away back in the bush where there is good feed and shelter. I guess if there is a big hole in the fence come summer, I will have to go through it and into the bush for another go.
Cheers, Nathan.