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As some may recall from earlier posts I bought a Thys double in 458wm in Febuary. Considered rechambering to 450NE 3 1/4" but was concerned about the dilema between practice time vs gunsmith time vs a hard travel dates and decided to leave the rifle a 458wm for this trip. I got back yesterday from my trip to Zimbabwe.

With this rifle I shot two tuskless cow elephant, two buffalo bulls, a buffalo cow and a Zebra.

The rifle performed flawlessly. Loading and extraction were perfect.

Due to concerns about dust etc I did a quick clean and regrease every day I carried the rifle and at least every other day whether it came out of the gun slip or not.

My PH prefered that only solids be used for buffalo and of course elephant. My ammo was loaded by JJ using 500gr Woodleigh bullets and it performed well. I never got the chance to crono the loads but best estimate is between 2050 and 2090fps (2050fps out of 24" barrels according to the book but my riffle has 26" barrels). Every recovered Woodleigh was perfect, with just a bit of lead pushed out the base.

My take is that for buffalo this is just the ticket. No exit from a front on shot but an exit on a hard quartering away shot which entered behind the last rib, exiting a bit inside the offside shoulder. Exits on broadside shots but not on a through the spine insurance shot.

For cow elephant my take is that this combo is just fine. Exit on side brain shot. Exit on missed frontal brain shot. This shot entered at eye level just to left of center (my veiw) and passes about two inches directly over her brain and exited a couple of inches above and behind her left ear (edited, should read "her left ear hole"). She was looking at my PH, several steps to my right. With this shot she shuddered and her eyes went blank and she was absolutely out on her feet. She fell over and never moved a muscle or reacted to frontal heart shot. Curiosity about her reaction had us cut open her skull to see how far off the shot was. Taylor wasn't all wrong.

Not so sure that this combo has enough juice for frontal brain shots on bulls. Didn't shoot one but their heads are just huge.

I got hit with food poisoning from something I ate at the airport in Jo'burg on the way home. Very difficult trip home. Will post on the hunt when I get the photos squared away and get some energy back.

JPK

Edited by JPK (26/10/05 04:27 AM)

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