As everyone who reads my posts knows, I am a big fan of AccuBonds. In fact, the only bullets that I have acquired and tried in the last three years have been ABs (with the sole exception of a couple of boxes of 150 gr 7mm E-tips that I traded for here on the 'fire).
For the last three years, I have been trying to take an elk with my Ruger No. 1H in 9.3x74R. The first year, I carried another rifle in bad weather and killed the largest bull that I have ever taken. Last year, I passed up a number of so-so 5x5s and ended up getting skunked.
After splitting a beef with a neighbor last year for winter meat, I was determined to bring home some elk venison this year. I had only one tag: an either sex tag for the first rifle hunt in Colorado. Late in the afternoon of the second day, I had a chance at a middling 5x5 at about 165 yds. Remembering all of those that I had passed on last year, I decided to go ahead and take him.
I was carrying my 9.3x74R with 250 ABs that chronograph about 2,650 fps 15 ft from the muzzle. The first shot went a bit awry, breaking the near shoulder, destroying the dorsal lobes of the lungs and clipping the scapula on the far side as it exited. The animal dropped at the shot, but struggled back to his feet. The second shot went where the first one should have: it entered just behind the near shoulder about 1/3 of the way up from the bottom of the chest, taking out the rest of the lungs, breaking a rib going in and another on the far side going out. The exit holes were between the size of a quarter and a half-dollar.
I was concerned that the first shot had ruined a lot of meat, but the bloodshot tissue was confined to a very small circle around the shattered humerus. I have had similar results on large bull elk in the U.S, and on plains game in Namibia with 260 ABs in a .375 H&H. I had the same results with a 200 AB in a .300WSM on a very large bull elk two years ago.
Last edited by mudhen; 10/26/09.
