.600 Nitro Express - Another video

[Certus]

Would love to own a .600. I know I wouldn’t enjoy shooting it though, ha!

That sounds more dangerous because then you need to get close to sedate it first..?

 

[Scanos]

I have heard of arranged hunts on private preserves where dangerous game was sedated before being shot to keep everyone safe. Sounds more like euthanasia than hunting to me. To each his own. That buff looked awfully sedate to me. Who knows, but it is about the only explanation for near total lack of reaction from the animal.

I don't see that at all. You have to be pretty jaded to go there. It looks to me like fairly poor shooting, but the large caliber. 600 causing pretty traumatic shock to the buffalo. I once shot a buffalo with a .500 Jeffery that exhibited similar reaction, looking like no effect, until he fell over dead. The shooting is not great, but, I don't see this as an indictment of the capability of the .600 NE.

 

[mgstucson]

They sedate polar bears in the wild from helicopters with dart guns for wildlife studies. It is not that difficult on game preserves. I found it hard to believe people actually did this at all, but I have learned to never underestimate what some people will do for a dollar. I am not saying that this is what happened in the video, but it is one of very few possible explanations.

 

[mgstucson]

@Scanos Did you shoot him 5 times without visible effect? Or did you put one in the boiler room and the stunned animal just stood there until it slowly collapsed? The animal in the video is slowly walking and grazing in between 2 round volleys, repeatedly.

 

[Scanos]

@Scanos Did you shoot him 5 times without visible effect? Or did you put one in the boiler room and the stunned animal just stood there until it slowly collapsed? The animal in the video is slowly walking and grazing in between 2 round volleys, repeatedly.

No one round until collapse, my point is you never know what effect a big powerful bullet can have. Nobody is shooting sedated bulls, let alone Tim Sundles.

 

[375Fox]

Did you shoot him 5 times without visible effect? Or did you put one in the boiler room and the stunned animal just stood there until it slowly collapsed? The animal in the video is slowly walking and grazing in between 2 round volleys, repeatedly.

We actually don’t see the first impact because it cuts to the hunter. I thought it was grazing after shots initially too but if you look carefully it only has its head down and appears pissing uncontrolled. It’s clearly hurting even if responses to shots are nonexistent.
I highly disagree with a lot of South African game farming practices, but even I think the suggestion of hunting a sedated animal for safety is a ridiculous suggestion that doesn’t happen.

 

[mgstucson]

Maybe it is just internet rumor, I certainly hope so. I have never shot one, so I am certainly not an expert on shot buff behavior.

 

[BJH65]

Damn, pretty tough crowd based on all the comments! I think we’d all like to picture ourselves performing like Michael Douglas in The Ghost in the Darkness but then there is reality, we may not be infallible either? Some good points were made, best not to not shoot DG uphill and potentially over a ridge, not using shooting sticks, although it was probably just him and his cameraman since it’s his own privately owned 15,000 acre hunting ranch in the Eastern Cape. When you’re the owner, you can do what you want.

I wasn’t horrified by what I saw. He seemed calm and collected while he continued to pump rounds into the buffalo, and continued to repeat and rinse when there was no noticeable effect with some clear vital hits. He didn’t appear to wet himself or flee, stayed in the fight until the buffalo was dead. While I don’t know the specifics of his load for the 600 NE used I’ve seen strange things happen with bullets. Perhaps not all animals react in the same way when being shot, I know for a fact humans don’t.

Was thinking of our first hunt in Africa hunting the Northen Transvaal back in the mid 90’s with my brother. He was using his trusty Remington 700, 350 Rem Mag with custom reloaded 225 grain Barnes X. The original ones without the driving bands like the later redesigned and updated TSX.

I was as with him when he placed a deliberate and precise shot into the vitals of a zebra stallion at 100 yards, just behind the shoulder and watched with amazement with no noticeable effect. He fired 2 more deliberate and precise rounds into the zebras vitals, again with no noticeable effect. The zebra then proceeeded to rejoin the herd and began feeding on the grass! Brother and I looked at each other in amazement (our PH Dion Cilliers previously left us to hunt on our own, so he wasn’t present). After observing the zebra for several minutes and brother was going to shoot again, the zebra collapsed and died.

That same day, brother got into a protracted battle with a black wildebeest, he and I were hunting alone, almost the same exact scenario except this time he pumped 7-8 rounds, all into the vitals of the wildebeest which took damn near forever to die! Interestingly enough, we shot mostly the same animals and most of mine dropped instantly to my 300 win mag using the old Winchester 180 grain Fail Safe, I think the best bullet ever made for African game. The skinner recovered my brothers original Barnes X bullets for the zebra and wildebeest and both had the classical picture perfect Barnes x expansion, pretty enough for an advertisement yet they had a noticeable lack of killing effect?

Yet I’ve used the more modern Barnes TSX and TTSX with absolutely great effect on large game in a variety of calibers? Anyways, I suspect Tim Sundles has killed many, many of the Big and Dangerous 7, he’s a very experienced African hunter and while I don’t personally know him, I respect his business Buffalo Bore Ammunition, and believe him an accomplished hunter of North American and African game, seems to be an interesting and self made man, I like the guy!

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

The video showed the following:
1. Range looked a little long for an iron sighted .600 NE double rifle. I would have low crawled 20 or more yards closer.
2. Shooting a large double rifle with significant recoil (or extra heavy rifle...) offhand rather than using a set of sticks to steady the rifle. Recoil is not condusive to accuracy. Sticks are your friend!
3. Shot #3 was a miss.
4. Shots #2 and 4 were too far back on the buffalo. Also #2 was high and near the top rear tip of the lung shown in the picture below. Shot #4 would have hit low and behind the lungs.

Shot placement, shot placement, shot placement is most important even with extra big and powerful rifles and cartridges.
View attachment 662150

@Mark A Ouellette
I agree with you plus he was shooting up hill with what appeared to be the animal silhouetted on the skyline.
I was waiting for the recoil to send the bloke rolling backwards back down the hill.
.
Bob

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

I totally agree, I have passed up a few animals simply because they were on the skyline. Especially when using large calibre rifles.

@BlueFlyer
I pass up shots even with smaller calibre rifles.
I was once asked to help cull some deer on a farm. The farmer wasn't happy that I didn't shoot the six in the paddock. I told him from where I was his house was directly behind them and I didn't want to put any bullets thru his walls.
He just said so what I can patch up the holes.
I never went back there again.
Bob

 

[Wyfox]

I’m yet to see a video with a .600ne used effectively on either buffalo or elephant; seems to always end up in a rodeo.

If you have Instagram account, follow Corey Knowlton https://www.instagram.com/coreyknowltonhunts/

He hunts elephant pretty exclusively with a VC 600 and posts a ton of kills on huge bulls. It is nothing less than amazing performance wise on ele's. It would be safe to say him and his Dad have probably killed more large bulls than anyone else in the states living today.

He has one video where he lines up 10 or so 55gallon drums full of water and shoots them with a 600 and it penetrates them all.

 

[grand veneur]

If you have Instagram account, follow Corey Knowlton https://www.instagram.com/coreyknowltonhunts/

He hunts elephant pretty exclusively with a VC 600 and posts a ton of kills on huge bulls. It is nothing less than amazing performance wise on ele's. It would be safe to say him and his Dad have probably killed more large bulls than anyone else in the states living today.

He has one video where he lines up 10 or so 55gallon drums full of water and shoots them with a 600 and it penetrates them all.

I don't know how meaningful shooting at water drums can be when it comes to test the depth penetration of a bullet. Such target media are very homogeneous, what the body of a living creature is not. There are some barriers down to the depth that can influence the path of a bullet. We don't think much of such experiments here in my countries. Shooting at gelatin blocks is also something very theoretical.

In practice and as far as the cartridge 600 Nitro Express is concerned, it is difficult to evaluate in comparison the depth penetration of the bullet because much more big game was shot with the cartridge 577 Nitro Express than with the cartridge 600 Nitro Express. However, with a suitable modern bullet the working of both cartridges is certainly very comparable.

Aside from that, who often shoots the same big game with the same big bore cartridge convinced with the working of this.This applies to many big bore cartridges that are used by hunters who can handle them well. I am therefore not convinced that the cartridge 600 Nitro Express is far superior to other classic big bore cartridges, meaning cartridges caliber .510 and up.