Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Winchester Power Points for zebra?

I will soon leave for the RSA to hunt kudu and zebra. Question: will 180 grain Power Point factory loads out of a 30-06 hold together well enough? Thanks...

I bet they will work, but I would opt for a tougher bullet if I were making the trip to Africa. JMHO

My bet is they would hold together, but penetration might be lacking.

When I went on a month-long cull hunt in South Africa in 2007, one of my hunting partners brought a .325 WSM with the 220-grain Power Pont factory load. His PH eventually told him to put it away and use his .375 with Trophy Bondeds instead. The 220's held together but expanded VERY widely, to the point where one didn't make it all the way to the far side of a zebra. If I recall correctly, it barely made into the far lung, and they had to chase the zebra around for a while.

ok. Thanks for the input...

Ive come to the conclusion that the small part of the expense of the hunt is the bullet. Thinking along those lines, the cost of a dozen(one shot kills) Barnes TSX, Nosler Partition, Swift, Trophy bonded , good premium bullets wont even cover the cost of parking at the airport. True poor economy if you only loose one animal-remember if it bleeds you bought it. Not to mention needless suffering.

Power Points are way too soft a bullet for Zebra. A-Frames, TSX, Trophy Bonded or any other "premium" bullet is what you need. Zebras are tough animals. In an '06, I would prefer a monometal or bonded bullets. I would not use a Partition, either.

"the small part of the expense of the hunt is the bullet"

no doubt!

In a nutshell the above saves you a whole night of worrying if you will retrieve the animal or not. Save on taxidermy by going with European mounts, but NEVER try and save cost on ammunition.

I don't hear that very often. When I do it usually comes from a mono/copper fan.

I've done a lot of testing of various bullets, both in game and various kinds of media, and it's very difficult to find a .30 caliber bullet that will out-penetrate the 200-grain Nosler Partition.

In a typical .30-06 it's easy to get at least 2600 fps from the 200, and some rifles will get around 2700. At that sort of muzzle velocity it works great for the typical larger plains game such as zebra, kudu and blue wildebeest, and shoots flatter than most people would believe.

The 200-grain Winchester Power Point was my absolute bullet of choice in my .338-'06 for many, many years. The 200 PP at 2,750fos just simply worked perfectly on elk, large black bear and all sorts of large game.

Typically, the recovered bullets opened to .750" to .850" and weight of the recovered bullets typically ran 190-grains or so.

The largest animal I shot with the 200PP was an Oregon black bear that I killed up the Middle Fork of the John Day River. His hide squared 7-feet, 6-inches and the carcass weighed 392-pounds hanging.

Having killed almost 60 head of Afrikan plains game with the .30-'06 and 180-grain bullets, I have a fair idea of what the comvination will do. The 180-grain Power Point is simply one of the finest big game bullets every made.

I would trust the 180 Power Point for up to and including adult/mature eland bulls. Yep, I've killed them with the 180 in the .30-'06, too.

Zebra???? Absolutely NO SWEAT!!!!

God Bless,

Steve

I'm with Mule Deer. Maybe not quite as tough as an A frame, but a great bullet still!

In my tests in various kinds of media, and my hunting, Partitions have penetrated as deeply as A-Frames of rthe same size, and often deeper, despite not retaining as much weight. This is because they don't end up with as wide a mushroom, and the rear end doesn't ball up like it often does on A-Frames when they hit bone.

There also ain't any flies on the 180 Partition from the .30-06 on plains game. I've taken a bunch with it, including a Rowland Ward springbok and a good Cape kudu that required the second-longest shot I've attempted in Africa, close to 400 yards. (The longest was made with a .22-250, on another springbok, but that's another story.)

There's a real good article at www.guns.com/do-copper-offer-the-same-performance-to-hunters etc.

This article had a test ran, shooting 150gr core-lokt bullet, in the 308, against at 110 and 130gr Ttsx in the same round. Ttsx penetrated deeper, and actually had a bigger wound channel ballistic testing material. Lot of good info to consider, even if you don't decide on the Ttsx bullets.

I borrowed my PH's .30-06 with 220 grain soft points for my kudu and the combo worked great.

I've shot several Kudu and Zebra with the 225 Gr. Nosler Partition out of my 338 Win. Mag. Everything was either DRT or dropped within a few yards. You'll be well served with the partition, it's been killing game for many years.

Springbok and Kudu are "soft" animals. I would expect a .30/06 to deal with either, even with a relatively 'soft" bullet.

I simply don't like Partitions for anything but cats and the smaller species of plains game. They are, for instance, a good leopard bullet. But so is a Core-Lokt. For larger animals, you can do better when selecting a bullet.

Partitions are also made in .375 caliber. If you think they're such a great bullet, try shooting a Cape Buff with one (if your PH will let you). Better to check the expiry date on your Global Rescue membership before you try that, though. Just in case the bullet fails and you have to dig him out of the bush.

Mule Deer, how many Cape Buff have you dropped with a Partition? Inquiring minds want to know!

Most I've taken, along with water buffalo. And I've seen my companions shoot a few more, no problems, and have yet to run into a PH who doesn't like them for buffalo. A PH who's my best friend in Africa (and has been doing it for decades, along with control shooting before that) has killed hundreds of buffalo with Partitions, down to 180-grain .30's, and thinks its one of the best softpoint designs. But apparently you have more experience with Partitions on buffalo than all of us combined.

And now, because the sum of your posts indicates you know everything about hunting and shooting, despite having only been on guided hunts in Africa, I'm putting you on ignore.

Tipped bullets make me nervous. I bought three (3) boxes of Federal Trophy Bonded Tipped in .300 Winchester magnum for T&E and the tips fell off more than half the time when cycling the bolt hard whilst shooting off the sticks. The now disembodied plastic tips made their way into the bolt raceway and the magazine elevator, thoroughly tying up the rifle. Not acceptable!!! Fortunately, this was at the range.

Anybody want to buy the two remaining unopened boxes of .300 Win mag 180 grain Federal trophy bonded tips? No warranty, though.

Perhaps the TTSX bullet doesn't do that. In my limited testing, Vortex TTSX factory loads in .300 and .338 winchester have had no failures and have provided match grade accuracy. Still, I prefer the TSX simply because it has no tip to fall off and does it's job admirably without one.

You are a a real gasbag, mule deer. Your posts are just as much BS as are your articles. How many Cape Buff have you actually, personally killed? Not Water Buffalo, but Cape Buffalo personally? How many free range Lions have you killed? Ever taken a Rhino? How many Elephant have you PERSONALLY shot? I'm not talking about being there when someone has killed one, but I mean personally?

Have you taken the Big Five yet? Why not? Just grow some b-lls and do it! Maybe then you will have some credibility with people who have. Until then, you have absolutely no credibility regarding DG.

If you are such a hotshot, why haven't you actually gone out and taken the Big Five under free range conditions instead of just giving advice about what you've never done?

Boddington is a real hunter who opines on things he has actually done, multiple times. You sit at a computer and pretend to be the real deal, when it is obvious you are nothing but a gasbag.

I invite your reply so you can enlighten us with your personal African Dangerous Game experience.