Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting 7mm Mashburn 175 Bitterroot recovered

I recovered this bullet in the offside hide of the cow I took this Fall. Shot was 145 yards on the nose and I put the bullet tight behind the near leg about 1/2 way up the body. It was "IN" the skin on the far side. Upon looking the bullet had dug itself into the skin and sorta looked like a big pimple. I nicked it with my knife and popped it out.

It was the fastest kill on a pure lung shot elk I have witnessed. Coming off recoil she was DOWN. Very cool to see that and after recovering the bullet I understand why. It left a soupy mess in the chest and with nearly .9" expansion if must have been similar to a boat prop running through the animal.

Retained 143 grains..











Off side hole under the hide..



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This bullet chrono'ed at 3020 out of my rifle. Needless to say, I am glad I have a bunch more of them.

Nice. Good to see you using those great ol' BBC's!

I hear you there Guy.. it's good to finally put one into an elk.

Nice Scotty. That hole in the vitals looks like it was made by something bigger than 7mm.

The BBC's at velocity are like a bomb going off in the chest cavity,and I have seen the "soup" many times,as well as the DRT business shooting Bitterroots.

Ferocious expansion upsets lots of vital tissue and the high retained weight maintains the momentum to keep that big frontal area moving through muscle, vitals and bones.They may not penetrate like a Barnes or partition but IME they consistently penetrate far enough. Sometimes they will penetrate a well....depends on velocity.

It's said you can't have high retained weight and instant kills with soft tissue hits but I think that is possibly a mono situation,and not what I have seen from BBC's.

That bullet of yours actually lost more weight than I have seen from a BBC: usually retained weight is over 90%. That core did not slip but I suspect there may have been less than perfect bonding; looks like the lead smeared off. Still, 80% weight retention isn't bad. The bullet had enough muscle for tougher going.

Scotty both of those bullets look solid. Shame they don't make BBCs any more!

Those 175's look looong with a huge bearing surface! Looks like a golf pencil. Lol.

Did a number on that cow for sure.

No doubt fellas. Comparing the wound channel and soup left behind id likely have guessed a 338 or better with a big front end myself. I was very impressed with the bullets and I'm a little loony, usually looking for an exit before much else upon recovering animals.

Bob, it did lose a little more lead than I thought it would but I'll keep running them. I'm pretty sure no elk is going to walk away easily with one in the good stuff.

Would North Forks be the closest equivalent to the BBC's?

Probably yes.

Would agree,

Not as good as the original...

Awesome job Scotty. Good deal. How did your son do with his 300wby?

He didn't hunt this year BSA.. Had school.

Northforks and A-Frames seem like the closest competitors, the bonding both is pretty awesome but I haven't seen anything push out flat like a BBC has. Not saying it matters but it doesn't hurt either.

I remember John Jobson calling them "wicked little bullets", when referring to the .270 130 gr.

Always wanted to try them but never could find any.

Thanks for the write up and pics.

My 225 grain 338 NF weighed 197.1 grains upon recovery this past October 2nd. It's my third bull taken with this bullet and it works like a charm. See link for a pic of the bullet...picture perfect expansion. By the way, congrats on your kill...great job.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbth...10448/all/NM_elk_success._Not_by_biggest

Damn, that sucks. I was hoping to hear he got one with that 300WBY...

Me too, but he is 18 and trekking it out his way... I'm almost thinking of borrowing it for a little elk hunting myself...

I'll agree about the Northforks though, awesome bullets and usually pretty danged accurate as well. They are on my bench to try.

Gosh, I remember those bullets... they were something else when it came to performance. Had a friend use them all the time with outstanding luck but they just didn't shoot well from my rifle so I stuck with Nosler Partitions. I think it was a fellow by the name Bill Steiger that made them and he was really nice to deal with even to the point of giving me some to try. Thanks for the memory....

May I ask what alternatives there are?

This discussion is in line with a concern of mine, i had a recovery problem with an Accubond (.284 140grain / 3000fps(m) ) lack of soft tissue expansion at distance.

My thoughts include Berger VLD Hunting bullets.
Along with BTs and Accubond LDs.
Thinking urgency, I only have about 350 days or so to get this next experiment right.

Solonek: Not Beretz, but that's interesting....what happened ? What were details of shot and recovery?

The BBC's are not made anymore but a pal used the 150 Swift Scirocco this yearn two elk with very nice results. This bullet came from a bull elk at 460 yards.

Actually, I've found Norma Oryx's and Woodleigh Weldcores closest to the BBC's of any currently made bullet. Have seen the "soup" often with them, and when recovered they look a lot like BBC's.

North Forks are fine bullets, but the frontal expansion is limited by the solid shank, so they tend to penetrate deeper than wider-expanding bonded bullets. They're sort of a BBC/TSX combination.