Nilgai/Blue Bull Cartridge/Load Selection
Going to shoot a bull on a buddy's ranch next weekend. Probably will also take deer with the same rifle/load.
There was a time when I would have bought into the standard Safari goer suggestion of 375 H&H, or a .338 Win Mag. But I'm not doing that. I will take the .300 Win Mag but I don't load for belted magnums yet, so I'm stuck with factory ammo. The 165gr. Barnes TTSX and 200gr. ELD-X in Hornady Precision Hunter are the loads I own and that I know shoot well.
Will the lighter Barnes bullet hold up better/penetrate better than the heavier ELD-X?
I'm not worried about either with good shots, but heat a lot about a "dermal plate" on these animals that can supposedly cause problems combined with their thick hide.
Suggestions? Experiences?
Nilgai/Blue Bull Cartridge/Load Selection
Thank you for talking me through this, I think I'm just nervous and overthinking it because it's new, and a free opportunity to do something people pay a lot of money for.
400-600 lbs is average for a bull(though I'm not completely against shooting a cow given that there is already a breeding population on this ranch and only one other person hunts it.) The cows are smaller though I don't know how much smaller.
The longest stretch I've seen there is fairly short...probably 300 yards. And there's a ton of mesquite and other brush which should hopefully allow us to not worry about distance/bullet performance at distance/wind conditions, though I do really like the ELD-X so far...in terms of accuracy and good numbers at distance, but have never put it on game. Hornady does claim pretty decent weight retention at higher velocities (inside of 400yds) and still decent expansion beyond that though. Something like 50-60% retention at 2800+fps and 90% while still expanding at 1800fps(which in my rifle isn't until 900yds.)
From my reading online, it seems that there are two trains of thought. Either that Nilgai are equal to moose/elk and are quite tough but nothing special, or that they're damn near mystical in their ability to escape harm from cannons. I do know that most of the game ranches that sell hunts request 30-06 and up(some allow the big 7mms) but none offer much guidance on bullet selection, at least not on their website.
I'm always skeptical of gun writers' accounts of good shots, but he tells of lung-heart-lung shots that required followups as they ran away etc....
https://www.safariclub.org/what-we-d...of-south-texas
Chuck Hawks has a more reasonable suggestion list.
http://www.chuckhawks.com/exotics_nilgai_cartridges.htm
Other sources online suggest that it's an opportunity to add the .375 H&H that I didn't know I needed etc.... I disregard this as total bullshit.
My guess(and maybe I'm using this as a way to talk myself through something new to me) is that the truth is somewhere in the middle. That is to say that they're as tough as an elk is with a good double lung shot, and that in fact the dermal shields(I guess it grows to protect their vitals from puncture given the pointy nature of the horns) can in fact screw things up with light for caliber bullets and/or poor shot placement.
I figure on shooting ~2 ribs back from the "shoulder" like I would on a deer/elk and if the damn thing keeps going I'll look to crush the bone in that shoulder to take his legs out from under him or the neck if I can manage it.
I don't want to headshot it because A) I've seen a deer missing its jaw and the memory stuck, and B) I'd like to do another European mount to go with my others. And while a neck shot may be the next best bet, they look awfully meaty in the neck and I'd like to avoid messing up as much meat as I can.
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Edited because apparently my initial rambling wasn't enough in my mind and really needed to make it practically unreadable. My apologies.