African Game Reloaders ? / BIG bore reloaders ?

[blarby]

Just curious how many REALLY big bore reloaders we have out there ?

I'd like to see more than 45-70 and 50 BMG !

Basically looking at african game calibers, but if you load something else really big and really cool, I'd like to hear some of your stories !

Shows us your cool stuff, tell us your cool stories about your BIG cartridges !

 

[Nordeste]

Interesting topic. I know a guy who does this kind of "dangerous game" hunting. This fellow is pretty well-off and has been to several locations in Africa, North America and Asia, hunting from large bovines to an elephant in Africa. I personally don't approve on killing a living animal you don't intent on eating (but that's ME, I'm not judging others) and I told him so. He's a relative of my girlfriend and he's close enough so I could make this comment confidently without offending him. He replied that he hunts for the trophy, but that the rest of the animal is donated to the local population so they take advantage from the meat, skin, etc. I don't know to what extent this is true, but that was what I heard.

He spoke of .450 Nitro Express and .460 Weatherby as some of the calibers he used for this, amongst the large collection of rifles he owns. He didn't mention .50 Browning. He doesn't reload either, all he uses is commercial ammunition. I wonder how many big game hunters out there do reload their own ammo. It appears to me that whoever can afford this kind of expensive expeditions and rifles can also afford the highest grade ammo, so reloading for economy won't be a factor. I told him about tailoring the ammo to your rifle so as to attain the best ballistic results, but then he said that in these cases you don't usually shoot at large distances...

Big bore rifle reloaders, please show up. We're eager to read your opinions.

 

[TenDriver]

I don't, but my neighbor loads .416 Rigby and .375 H&H. He says he hasn't done it in a while though and the rifles haven't left the house in years.

I have fired a friend of a friend's 375 reloads many years ago. First was a light cast bullet load, second shot was a full power holy crap my shoulder hurts load. It got me over my fear of recoil in one trigger pull.

 

[BruceB]

I have never hunted outside North America.

However, in the late '60s /early '70s, when we lived in Canada's Northwest Territories, it became possible for residents to hunt completely-wild Wood Bison just by buying over-the-counter tags.... no draw, pay $25 and go hunting.

These animals can be enormous, being somewhat larger (and darker in color) than their plains-bison relatives. The biggest bull I ever killed yielded 1700 pounds of MEAT IN THE FREEZER.... meaning a live weight of around 3000 pounds. His hide spanned our 12-wide "house" of those days, from up-one-wall to up-the -other-wall. The horns span 30"....I'm looking at them as I write.

Anyway, we quickly found that our normal "moose rifles" were less than great at quick kills on these heavy-woodland bison, and a wounded animal could easily vanish into thousands of square miles of dense bush. So.... I wanted something to put them down NOW, not later.

I found a Cogswell and Harrison Mauser in .404 Jeffery on the used rack of an Edmonton gunshop. After teaching myself to load with Berdan primers, I had excellent success with the 400-grain Barnes Original .404 bullets, killing about a dozen of the bison over the years we hunted them.

My last bison hunt was in 1996, by which time only fifteen tags were available to residents on a draw basis, and the hunt was held in a different area as well. That was the first time I hunted with my then-new Ruger #1 in .416 Rigby, but I was not successful in bagging a critter.

However, these events sparked a deep interest in larger calibers which persists to this day. Since emigrating to Nevada in '97, the larger rifles have become entertaining test beds for cast bullets, and they perform superbly with cast lead. I've fired TEN-shot .416 groups under 1" from 100 yards with only a 4X scope, and the .404 is pushing that performance pretty hard as well. (My Hoch bullet mould for the .50BMG drops a bullet weighing 888 grains with my wheelweight alloy. THAT is a serious bullet!)

There is a place for the big rifles, even if their utility is somewhat specialized. I'm sure glad I had my chances at "big animals and big guns". I also carried my .50-2.5 Shiloh on a moose hunt, once upon a time.... never got a shot on that occasion.

 

[JerryND]

I worked in Cedar Rapids IA in the summer of 1962. Our landlord had us out to his house shortly before we left. He believed that you only need 3 rifles. .22 target for target, 30-06 springfield for rifle target (he had a beautiful 03A3) and a .458. Could shoot everything from gophers to elephants. I later had the opportunity to fire a Herters .458. Was surprised. The recoil was not as bad as I suspected, but a 9.5 lb rifle.

 

[56hawk]

I reload 458 Lott, 460 Weatherby and 600 Overkill. The 600 Overkill is kind of a pain since the dies are a larger thread size. Have to swap out the bushing on my Rock Chucker to load them.

 

[FROGO207]

45-70 for a Ruger, 458 WIN and 500NE are the only ones that I would say are biggies for me. Yes I reload for all of them. I have the brass, primers, bullets, and dies for 50 BMG. BUT still do not see the justification to add one to the safe yet. If I do it'll be a Ma Duce I think.

 

[390ish]

I reload 458 Lott.

 

[fiftybmg]

Most of the guys on http://www.bigbore.org/ reload, otherwise it's too expensive to shoot regularly.

 

[Swampman]

Welllll... I load for two of Karamojo Bell's favorite elephant calibers.

7mm Mauser AND .303 British!

Among less "Safari" type big calibers would be helping a friend load for his Lahti L-39 anti tank rifle in 20mm.

That'd probably kill an elephant pretty quickly.
Heck, even if you were completely out of ammo, making him carry it would probably drop him in his tracks from exhaustion within a mile or two.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

He replied that he hunts for the trophy, but that the rest of the animal is donated to the local population so they take advantage from the meat, skin, etc. I don't know to what extent this is true, but that was what I heard.

Sorry I can't tell you about the really big bore cartridges because the biggest cartridges I've reloaded are the 45-110 and the 50-70.

As for the above, it's true...

I got this information from the TV show TRACKS ACROSS AFRICA.
The trackers used on the show are real tracker/hunters who would normally supply their village with food. They are the warriors of their people so they do supply the food but in their case they track the game but let the paying hunter shoot the game. The trackers are given the meat to feed their people. In the case of an elephant, that can feel their village for an entire month!

I used to be against trophy hunting but no longer in Africa. Safaris are saving the wild animals. Because the safari business brings so many jobs to the area and the game is used as food the people of the village stop the poachers from killing the animals. Rumor has it when they find a poacher they skin them and hang them in a tree at the outer boundaries of their land as a warning to other poachers. This was linked to The Maasai people. (good for them!)

 

[Grumulkin]

Just curious how many REALLY big bore reloaders we have out there ?

I'd like to see more than 45-70 and 50 BMG !

Basically looking at african game calibers, but if you load something else really big and really cool, I'd like to hear some of your stories !

Shows us your cool stuff, tell us your cool stories about your BIG cartridges !

"African game calibers" huh? The last PH I hunted with carried a 308 Winchester. Before that I hunted with a PH who was on his 3rd 22-250 barrel having shot truckloads (yes, really) of things like Zebra, Wildebeest, etc. with it. The biggest gun any PH used that I hunted with was a 416 Rigby.

 

[50 Shooter]

FROGO,
All the .50 stuff and you don't own? LOL stop whipping that horse and get one already. For a semi look at the Serbu BFG-50A1, bolt AR-50, State Arms shorty...

On topic, I don't think you can hunt with a .50 BMG in Africa as its a military round. You would have to check or use a wildcatted .50 like DTC, 416 Barrett, 460 Steyr.

 

[Nordeste]

Sorry I can't tell you about the really big bore cartridges because the biggest cartridges I've reloaded are the 45-110 and the 50-70.

As for the above, it's true...

I got this information from the TV show TRACKS ACROSS AFRICA.
The trackers used on the show are real tracker/hunters who would normally supply their village with food. They are the warriors of their people so they do supply the food but in their case they track the game but let the paying hunter shoot the game. The trackers are given the meat to feed their people. In the case of an elephant, that can feel their village for an entire month!

I used to be against trophy hunting but no longer in Africa. Safaris are saving the wild animals. Because the safari business brings so many jobs to the area and the game is used as food the people of the village stop the poachers from killing the animals. Rumor has it when they find a poacher they skin them and hang them in a tree at the outer boundaries of their land as a warning to other poachers. This was linked to The Maasai people. (good for them!)

Good to hear that