DVD: a little hog is not an Elk or Moose. Believe me when I say that a 165gr lead based bullet might in fact stop in a big pillow full of wet grass and twigs, etc. That's the main reason the Nosler partition and such were developed. Bullets of the day (30's-40's) would not always penetrate throught that kind of stuff. This was also the reason Elmer used 220gr bullets in the 06, and recommended that nothing smaller than a 33 caliber with a 250 gr, and a lot of times a 300gr bullet be used on elk and such. He would agree that on a picture perfect side shot, many bullets would work, but when you hit an Elk/Moose, behind the ribs on the left side, and want the bullet to hit the shoulder on the right side, you better have plenty of penetration.
You need to get a copy of Big Game Hunting, by Elmer Keith and read it to understand the bullets, and hunting of that time. Elmer developed the prototype for the 280 Rem, the 338WM and 340Wby. They didn't have the powders then, that we have now, and sure not the bullets.
Today, there are so many really good bullets, there are a lot of folks don't know there was a time there wasn't. And that time was not that long ago. When my dad hunted Elk in the early 60's he shot an 06, using a load with a 220gr RN hollow pointed Rem. bullet, to make sure the penetration was there. I am kind of skeptical that a 185gr 338 bullet has the mass to keep on trucking if it hits an Elk in a full paunch, to go into the heart and lung area. Especially if a lead based one. While we are talking about Ttsxs here, there are a lot of people who still use the lead based , cup and core, bullets that don't have the penetration ability of the Ttsx.
I was reading Jack O'Connor's
The Rifle Book a few nights ago, and at page 232 (2nd Ed.) he states:
The best all-around bullet for the .30/06 is the 180-grain, The velocity of 2,700 foot-seconds is high enough to give a reasonably flat trajectory, and the bullet is heavy enough to penetrate well. Particularly in the bullets of heavy construction like the Silvertip and Core-Lokt it has all the penetration I want for any American big game. I remember shooting a grizzly on a sandbar in the Yukon with the 180-grain Core-Lokt. Every bullet went clear through the broadside and kicked up sand on the far side of the bear. With the same bullets I broke both shoulders of another grizzly and the bullets went clear through.
And on page 233, a very interesting endorsement:
The 220-grain bullets are for the heaviest game such as moose, Alaskan brown bear, and possibly elk in heavy timber. The controlled expanding bullets like the 220-grain Silvertip and Core-Lokt are probably best for medium-sized and dangerous African and Asiatic game like lions and tigers. With those bullets the .30/06 seems to be an entirely adequate lion rifle.
The Remington Core-Lokts are considered the opposite of "premium" today, yet game of the day seemed to die when shot with them. The biggest moose I`ve ever shot was felled by a 7x57 using plain old cup and core 162gr KS (RWS) bullets.
