All 45-70 bullets are 405 gr Kodiak bullets. They leave the barrel of my 1886 (22") at 2000 fps and change.
Left to Right:
1 - Eland - Range was under 50 yds. Hit some bone. Penetrated approximately 25 inches. Dropped right there. Weight 326grains, diameter .80. Animal weight is 1650-1800 pounds.
2- Eland - Range less than 15 yards (we ran up on it when it fell at the first shot). When the animal was lying on it's side I shot up between the front legs into the brisket. This is the best shot for any animal lying on it's side. You can get heart and lung and if the bullet goes far enough, spine. If it exits the hole will not effect the hide for mounting. No meat is ruined. The bullet clipped the heart, torn open one lung and broke two vertebrae loding under the skin behind the hump above the shoulders. Weight 308 grains. Diameter .935
3- Blesbok - Range 75 yards. Entered behind rib cage- pierced liver, one lung and broke opposing shoulder and foreleg and chipped the neck. Bullet lodged under the skin low in neck just above shoulder. , Animal weight 125 pounds. Bullet Weight 377 grains. Diameter .776
4- Blesbok - Range 12 yards. This was the second shot after tracking it. Hit back low scapular and broke shoulder and top leg bone, travelled through lungs, broke opposite shoulder shattering a 4" piece off of it, travelled up the neck vertebrae breaking three of them. Animal dropped right there. Animal weight 120 pounds. Bullet Weight 301 grains. Diameter .732
5 - Gemsbok - Range 174 yards. Entered low and broke top leg bone, cut right through middle of heart and broke opposite shoulder point with a chunk blasted out and residual cracking throught the shoulder. Animal weight 458 pounds. Bullet weight 316 grains. Bullet diameter .689
308 Winchester 165 grain Nosler Partition at 2550 fps.
6 - Waterbuck - Range 60 yards. Hit the neck right on the last vertebrae before the spinal vertebrae. The bullet turned slightly towards the front and penetrated two more vertebrae before lodging under the skin on the opposite side, mid neck. The animal weiged 362 pounds. The Bullet Weight is 90 grains. Diameter is .412. Most of the front of the bullet is gone. From the partition to the base is intact as is most of the frontal jacket.
If you've ever read Bullets for Hunting which is a combined effort of Boddington, Van de Zwoll, et al, they classify bullets by the performance they are designed to reach. In this case, the Kodiak bullet and the Nosler Partitions would both be labelled Expanding Penetrators (EP's). There design is foremost to expand in a controlled manner, but they are made to retain weight and stay in one piece to facillitate penetration. This is opposite of what they classify as Penetrating Expanders (PE's) PE's would be Barnes Triple Shock, Swift A Frame heavy jacketed and Winchester Fail Safe to name a few. The difference between EP's and PE's is that PE's are primarily designed to penetrate with some expansion built into the design.
The EP's tend to create more frontal area by more expansion from caliber diameter, but in real world game shooting they penetrate to over 82% of the depth the PE's do. The PE's don't open up as much or as quickly so the narrower frontal area helps then travel further. With very close range shooting where the velocity is still high the EP's open up a lot where the PE's expand very little. On the other end of the spectrum, EP's will expand decent at very long ranges while PE's expand only a little. You see, both designs rely on velocity and resistance to act as intended. Either design is well suited to African plains game. I would consider the size of game, terrain and shot distance averages and where my point of aim preference is (ie: point of shoulder or heart/lung soft tissue shots) when picking my bullet. I like the Kodiak in 405 gr because it has the weight and momentum to be reliable on point of shoulder shots, my choice. With that in mind, I am aware that the trade off may be no exit holes. On the other hand, the 350 gr Kodiak - Alaska Bullet Works biggest seller in 45-70 BTW - is not as reliable on point of shoulder shots. The 55 grains of weight makes enough difference that the expansion is noticably more rapid and penetration less ( with bone or hard resistance). The Nosler Partions, especially in the light to mid weight per caliber is especially well suited to heart/lung shots or point of shoulder on narrow, light weight animals like the impala. We shot blesbok, zebra, impala (2 of each) and waterbuck and only recovered one NP bullet. On the other hand, we shot impala, blesbok, zebra, and eland with 180 grain NP in 30-06 velocity 2855 fps. One was in the zebra and one in the eland but we couldn't find them. The others also penetrated through and through. The added weight 180 vs. 165gr was necessary to withstand the added velocity 2855 vs. 2550fps.
We hunted bushveldt where it is thick and shots are close to medium range usually. We also had good trackers, a tracking dog and a lot of practice shooting. Plus, none of us were shy about shucking the lever and taking a quick follow up shot. These bullets worked great.
