Lioness with revolver

[454]

After bumping the lioness numerous times (as close as 7-8 meters and once well after sunset), a near spine miss in the shoulders, and a kilometer track, she stood for a fight tail swishing and growling. After lifting her head in advance of the charge, I placed two quick shots offhand in the spine at 25 yards through the brush. The moly coated Hornady 300xtp-mags at 1733fps, that worked so well on numerous wild boars, waterbuck and kudu, completely fragmented against the lioness’s spine and shoulder. This is the largest bullet fragments from three hits.

 

[Nyati]

Well done !

What did you use, revolver/caliber ?

 

[454]

Freedom Arms Model 83 in 454 Casull with 7-1/2” barrel. That is a Burris FASTFIRE 2 4MOA sight with a Freedom Arms red dot base.

 

[JimP]

Sounds like a quite interesting time.

A year ago I went looking for some hunting bullets for my 44 and 357 and all I could find were the Hornady XTP's, and was skeptical of them performing like a hunting bullet should.

I have hunted big game here in the western US with a pistol for over 40 years but always with a jacketed soft point and have never had any real good results with any type of hollow point on big game.

 

[Rafiki]

The moly coated Hornady 300xtp-mags at 1733fps, that worked so well on numerous wild boars, waterbuck and kudu, completely fragmented against the lioness’s spine and shoulder. This is the largest bullet fragments from three hits.

Interesting; on the other game you didn't hit bone? I shoot XTP, not the "MAG" version, out of my 458 SOCOM but so far only paper. That changes on the 17th for Florida hogs so your comments are timely. I would have used a different bullet but that's what I had loaded.

I don't believe XTP's are bonded and Hornady "weakens" the case to promote expansion; I'll take a wild-ass guess and say that the combination is largely responsible for it decoring on your lioness. In any case she's dead and your not so congratulations.

 

[Hunter4752001]

Congratulations on your lioness. A well deserved trophy.
I used Honady XTP Mags on my last trip in 2014. My biggest animal was a Kudu. All shots were complete pass through with no projectiles recovered. However after seeing your results, I think I'll use Swift A Frames for the coming trip.

 

[dchum]

What is the medal you placed on her

 

[454]

It is kind of a joke back home. That is the club pistol shoot medal (plastic) I won just before my trip. I did the same with the buffalo I shot a couple years ago.

 

[potatojudge]

Congrats on getting it done. The 454 is certainly enough gun, and the XTP did the job. Core separation is not uncommon in XTPs, but stories of core separation come from recovered animals so there's that.

In the future, a bonded, A Frame, monometal like Lehigh or Cutting Edge, or cast lead would probably give a little more certainty.

 

[454]

I would use the swift A-frame if I do it again, I also had a number of the old 300gr nosler HG partitions loaded up but I choose the XTP based on previous performance and Doctari’s suggestion to not use premium bullets (at least for a rifle).

 

[WASHED-UP-VET]

Well done on the hunt friend! I used to hunt with a Ruger Super Redhawk 454 casull with Hornady 300 gr xtp as well. I shot several whitetail deer and a pronghorn antelope with that combo. I think Hornady makes fantastic ammo. If I was going to hunt larger or dangerous game I would likely have switched to the Swift A-frame 300 gr load. Thank you for sharing.

 

[454]

This is the typical expansion for the XTP from the 454. The bullet was retrieved from a log after passing through both shoulders of a wild boar. I believe it lost about 25 grains of the original 300gr weight.