TackDriver284
Handloader
- Feb 13, 2016
- 2,559
- 2,139
Woke at 3 am, took a shower, and packed my gear, headed to a local store to grab coffee and a taco. Met up with the hunting guide at the ranch and loaded my gear and my 300 Win Mag in the guide's truck, we drove some short distances to scout waterholes and several nilgai cows scurried off due to our presence. We back tracked up the road and headed around ahead of those nilgai and waited for them to walk by and there they were, they got wind of us left the area. We stalked other waterholes and we saw a big herd of about 30 to 40 nilgai cows and bulls mixed in, the bulls were young and I passed up on them. I decided to take down a full grown nilgai cow at a range of about 150 yards. I had a plan to test the 200 grain ELD-X on bone and without bone, this cow I aimed a couple of inches behind the crease of the shoulder, and the rifle barked and spit the pill at close to 3100 fps and heard the thump of the 200 ELD-X and it ran off into the thick brush. We waited about 5 minutes and we headed over to where it was hit. I found a nice sized piece of lung that measured roughly an inch on the ground, no blood was seen there or on the trails in the thick brush, we scouted for roughly 15 minutes but no avail, the hunting guide moved further into the brush while I backtracked to where it was hit and meticulously looked carefully for any sign of blood, about 40 yards into the brush, i came across 2 small drops of dark red blood, a yell to the hunting guide to alert him that blood was found, and we tracked carefully, seeing small drops every 15 -20 feet, and larger drops were found, and we found her further left of where we started looking earlier, she expired roughly 60 yards from where she was hit. High fives between us and we hacked a route into the brush to bring in the Jeep with its motorized hoist to haul it out and we had her gutted. The 200 grain ELDX entered in the ribs and traveled its way out the other side and turned her lungs into mush. No bullet recovery and the entrance and exit is just a caliber sized hole. I had mentioned that its skin is elastic and tends to close the wounds, the drops of blood we found on the ground was from her mouth, not from the wounds. We headed to camp to wash her down and put her in the cooler, drank some water and headed back out again to search for a 2nd cow nilgai. Thirty minutes later, we came a across a herd that scurried off and we headed up a side road and waited to see if they will cross a road, about 20 plus cows and bulls ran across the road without stopping, except for a few cows which stopped and curiously looked at the Jeep from close to 300 yards away. I scanned them and chose to take down the biggest one of the bunch, clicked the ATACR to 2.8 MOA and settled the crosshairs on the center of the shoulder right up the front leg and squeezed and another hard thump, the cow nilgai buckled and I noticed that her shoulder broke when she hobbled off, about 30 yards in, she expired. After gutting her, the bullet entered the shoulder, shattered the bone, shredded the lungs and only dented the inside of the opposite ribs. We lost the bullet in that discard pile, I was hoping to find it, but no bullet sadly. Washed down the 2nd nilgai and put her in the cooler for an hour and loaded up the nilgai in my truck and filled the cavities full of ice and wrapped in a tarp and headed off to the butcher about 30 miles away. I signed up for chorizo, crumbled breakfast sausage, fresh grilling sausage with jalapeno and cheese, 70 /30 ratio ( nilgai / beef brisket ) for hamburger grounds, backstraps, loins and roast. Should be ready in 3 weeks.
I want to make a suggestion if using the ELD-X on big game, the bone of those shoulders will wreck the bullet and may prevent it from exiting, due to a soft bullet. Shooting behind the crease resulted in a pass through. I would suggest using a Barnes, AccuBond / Partition if hunting nilgai. I am not satisfied with ELD X not being able to penetrate the opposite shoulder at all after hitting the shoulder bone. I expected the bullet to travel through both shoulders and rest under the skin or make an exit. Next time I'm hunting nilgai, I'll go back to the Accubonds. They work wonders.
First cow
Entrance
Exit
Entrance
Exit
2nd cow
Shoulder entrance
On the way to the butcher
I want to make a suggestion if using the ELD-X on big game, the bone of those shoulders will wreck the bullet and may prevent it from exiting, due to a soft bullet. Shooting behind the crease resulted in a pass through. I would suggest using a Barnes, AccuBond / Partition if hunting nilgai. I am not satisfied with ELD X not being able to penetrate the opposite shoulder at all after hitting the shoulder bone. I expected the bullet to travel through both shoulders and rest under the skin or make an exit. Next time I'm hunting nilgai, I'll go back to the Accubonds. They work wonders.
First cow
Entrance
Exit
Entrance
Exit
2nd cow
Shoulder entrance
On the way to the butcher
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