We have all read about shooting grizzly bears with muzzleloaders and having to fight the wounded bear with just a bowie knife and a club (the unloaded muzzleloader).
But what about really big game? Muzzleloading for hippos, cape buffalo and elephants...
Back in 1973, a couple of big game hunters (George Nonte & Val Forgett) went on an African safari in Tanzania using a .58 caliber, half stock, Hawken-style rifle.
They had the heaviest Minie type bullet they could find. A custom made, simi-wadcutter, minie-ball with a thick shirted hollow base, weighing in at thumping 610 grains.
The molds for these bullets were made by Shiloh Products.
To gain maximum effectiveness from these heafty chuncks of lead, Nonte & Forgett worked up loads as high as 200 grains of FFFg
(a tremendous amount of powder and lead for a 9.5 pound rifle with a 26-inch barrel)
The load was reduced and refined to 180 grains of FFFg with the #11 percussion caps being replaced with musket caps and nipple for better ignition.
Nonte & Forgett states that they can get 4 1/2 inch groups at 100 yards using this set-up, the most they were expecting to shoot was 50 yards or less.
The African guide carried a modern .458 Winchester Magnum with a 500 grain solid bullet as a back-up to the muzzleloader.
The first test for the .58 was a large male hippo, it had 21 inch tusk and weighed 4000+ pounds. (over 2 tons) The shot was fired at 60 yards and hit the hippo in the neck, plowing it's was through 17 inches of bone and muscle.
The .58 caliber bullet expanded nearly 50% of it's diameter and loss very little of it's original weight, killing the hippo almost instantly.
The same load was used on the cape buffalo, shot at nearly 80 yards away the bullet entered low between the buffalo's neck and fore leg, passed through the heart, lungs and paunch, then came to rest somewhere in the animals hindquarters.
The 610 grain bullet passed nearly the full length of a mature 5000 pound bull, easily one of the planet's baddest animals ever to walk the modern earth. No small accomplishment for a modern magnum, let alone a muzzleloading rifle, vintage 1850.
Val Forgett's bull elephant found a simular fate to the .58 caliber muzzleloader, probaly the only elephant taken with a muzzleloader in more than 100 years, he stated.
The elephant weighed in at about 8 tons, the 610 grain bullet penetrated more than 18 inches of cellular bone for a classic side brain shot.
The shot was takened at a skimpy 25 yards away, Forgett aimed just ahead of the ear's hole and squeezed the trigger. The bull was spun around and dazed as Forgett's shot placement missed the brain, before he could reload the 8 ton bull charged through the dense cloud of black powder smoke just a few yards in front of him.
The guide quickly dispatched the wounded animal with the West Richards double barrel .458 Winchester Magnum.
The 610 grain bullet of the .58 caliber muzzleloader penetrated more than enough bone to kill the elephant, only 12 inches of penetration is needed to dispatch the animal, via a brain shot.
Forgett just missed the brain by a few inches, the shot passed through 12 inches of bone and muscle, 4 inches of matter and started out the other side of the skull another 2 inches. Had the shot been placed at the right spot, the back-up gun wouldn't have been needed.
But what about really big game? Muzzleloading for hippos, cape buffalo and elephants...
Back in 1973, a couple of big game hunters (George Nonte & Val Forgett) went on an African safari in Tanzania using a .58 caliber, half stock, Hawken-style rifle.
They had the heaviest Minie type bullet they could find. A custom made, simi-wadcutter, minie-ball with a thick shirted hollow base, weighing in at thumping 610 grains.
The molds for these bullets were made by Shiloh Products.
To gain maximum effectiveness from these heafty chuncks of lead, Nonte & Forgett worked up loads as high as 200 grains of FFFg
The load was reduced and refined to 180 grains of FFFg with the #11 percussion caps being replaced with musket caps and nipple for better ignition.
Nonte & Forgett states that they can get 4 1/2 inch groups at 100 yards using this set-up, the most they were expecting to shoot was 50 yards or less.
The African guide carried a modern .458 Winchester Magnum with a 500 grain solid bullet as a back-up to the muzzleloader.
The first test for the .58 was a large male hippo, it had 21 inch tusk and weighed 4000+ pounds. (over 2 tons) The shot was fired at 60 yards and hit the hippo in the neck, plowing it's was through 17 inches of bone and muscle.
The .58 caliber bullet expanded nearly 50% of it's diameter and loss very little of it's original weight, killing the hippo almost instantly.
The same load was used on the cape buffalo, shot at nearly 80 yards away the bullet entered low between the buffalo's neck and fore leg, passed through the heart, lungs and paunch, then came to rest somewhere in the animals hindquarters.
The 610 grain bullet passed nearly the full length of a mature 5000 pound bull, easily one of the planet's baddest animals ever to walk the modern earth. No small accomplishment for a modern magnum, let alone a muzzleloading rifle, vintage 1850.
Val Forgett's bull elephant found a simular fate to the .58 caliber muzzleloader, probaly the only elephant taken with a muzzleloader in more than 100 years, he stated.
The elephant weighed in at about 8 tons, the 610 grain bullet penetrated more than 18 inches of cellular bone for a classic side brain shot.
The shot was takened at a skimpy 25 yards away, Forgett aimed just ahead of the ear's hole and squeezed the trigger. The bull was spun around and dazed as Forgett's shot placement missed the brain, before he could reload the 8 ton bull charged through the dense cloud of black powder smoke just a few yards in front of him.
The guide quickly dispatched the wounded animal with the West Richards double barrel .458 Winchester Magnum.
The 610 grain bullet of the .58 caliber muzzleloader penetrated more than enough bone to kill the elephant, only 12 inches of penetration is needed to dispatch the animal, via a brain shot.
Forgett just missed the brain by a few inches, the shot passed through 12 inches of bone and muscle, 4 inches of matter and started out the other side of the skull another 2 inches. Had the shot been placed at the right spot, the back-up gun wouldn't have been needed.
