Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 260 Nosler Partition in 375 H & H for Eland

Gunwriters,
I'd be interested in those experienced if they think I have sufficient bullet weight. Should I go to the 300 NP or perhaps change brands and weights? What does your experience tell you.

I'd go with the 300 rather than the 260. (I also posted some more information on the thread you started in Express Rifle and Big Bores.)

Thanks JB

Ive killed 2 Eland,one Buffalo,many Kudu (well over a dozen), a couple of Wildebeest and many lesser game with a 375H&H and Nosler 260gr Partitions. It was my standard African load and I never had a failure.

Eland are roughly the same mass as a cape buffalo. 300gr bullets are the rule for buffalo with a 375, why not for eland?

It only makes sense. Kevin Robertson once told me a 375 H&H with stout 270-300gr bullets are his recommendation in a bolt rifle and a fast handling 9.3X74R DR with 286 solids are an excellent choice. Today he would no doubt recommend 286gr Nosler Partitions. He doesn't particularly like A-Frames.

I'm not a gunwriter, so take it for what it's worth. I haven't shot an Eland either. But I did hunt them in Zim and I had the same type of thinking going in as was mentioned above, that they were the same size and mass as a Cape Buffalo, which I was also hunting. I had my .416 Rem. Mag loaded with 400 gr. A-frames and my .338 Win. Mag loaded with 250 gr. A-frames. When we went after Eland, I grabbed my .416 and took off. Halfway through the stalk, my PH noticed that I had my .416 and asked why I brought the big gun. He thought I was crazy for bringing it for Eland and warned me not to take a shot if there were others animals standing behind the bull. I never did get to fire a shot at an Eland so I can't tell you much more than that, but I took from that experience that the PH thought Eland were a lot easier to kill than buffalo. I don't think I'd have any qualms about using the 260 gr. AB on an Eland. I've got a friend that killed one with a .338 Win. Mag, so the.375 should do the trick I would think.

This has been a very interesting thread, what little there is of it.

The OP's question was whether to use the 260 or 300 Partition--or maybe another bullet. But I read it mostly as an either/or question, and that's how I answered it.

Have used the 260 Partition (and AccuBond) in the .375 and seen them used on a number of animals, including the array mentioned by zimhunter. Either will definitely kill anything on that list. But so will a .338, or many other cartridges. In fact I know people who've killed plenty of Cape buffalo with the .30-06, and plenty of eland with the 7x57.

As for the .416 and .338 story, the PH in question is apparently one of many PH's who is rather ballistically naive, who directly equates bullet weight and caliber with penetration. I have some experience with .416's and various bullets, and plenty with the .338 Winchester. Based on that experience, I sincerely doubt the 400-grain A-Frame stands any better chance of shooting through an eland than the 250 A-Frame from a .338. That's because A-Frames tend to expand pretty widely, which limits penetration. In fact, I have shot completely through a big bull eland with a .338 Winchester and a 250-grain Partition, which partly illustrates my point.

Yes, eland are easier to kill than Cape buffalo. That has nothing to do with the question at hand. Eland are still big animals, and a bullet has to penetrate to their vitals. Based on my experience, i would rather use the 300-grain Partition than the 260 on game that size, because it will penetrate deeper.

There also isn't any real downside to the 300, in my experience, except perhaps for slightly more recoil. When both are loaded to their velocity potential, for all practical purposes the 300 shoots just as flat at typical African ranges--but it penetrates somewhat deeper. If deeper penetration is a negative, why by all means the 260 is the better choice, but I don't see why it might be.

I certainly wouldn't stay home from an eland hunt if my choice was a .375 with 260 Partitions. I also wouldn't if it was a .338 with 250-grain Partitions, or a .30-06 with 200-grain Partitions. But if I were going eland hunting with a .375 and my choices were the 260 or 300-grain Partitions, I'd take the 300's, because I have enough experience with them to know what they'll do on animals weighing well over 1000 pounds.

The only thing I'll add to John's treatise is: The only Eland I shot soaked up four 300gr Partitions before succumbing, likely to lead poisoning.
We found the first bullet perfectly expanded in the rumen (qartering away @ 250 yds). It had not reached anything vital.

So I guess my point is if you might have to take a less than perfect shot, the 300 is a better choice.

MD,
I agree completely with what you said regarding the relative penetration of the 416 400gr Aframe vs. the 338 250gr Aframe.

Yeah, my PH was not one who knew much about rifles, bullets, or ballistics. He said he liked A-frames, but he also had me load all solids in the .416 when we were after a particular buffalo bull at one point. I never thought of it until just now, but perhaps he thought I had solids loaded in the .416 when we were after eland? He happened to have a push feed M70 that was chambered in .416 Rem. Mag. One time, he was carrying it on a buffalo stalk, with me following him, when his floorplate, magazine spring, and all cartridges suddenly dumped out of his rifle onto the ground. Turned out that the action screw had come out somewhere along the way and we never did find it. He wasn't much on gun upkeep apparently or even basic observation!

test1328,

Thanks for the additional info!

Yeah, in my experience, the rifle knowledge of African PH's is all over the place. I've run into some very knowledgeable PH's, and some not so much....