This October marked the 2nd Annual JRH Holiday, sometimes referred to as the Bovine Bash where handgun hunters descend upon Hondo, Texas at Action Outdoor Adventures for some live bullet testing on really big game. It was attended this year by some folks on here that you will recognize. The whole point is to test calibers and bullets in the best media known to man. In the course of two and half days, a dozen or so animals bought the farm (so to speak) almost triggering a strike by the skinners' union. Boy did they have their hands full. I will post initial results with more detail to follow.

First up and first animal downed was this water buffalo tag teamed by Jack Huntington (JRH) and yours truly with .500 JRHs (imagine that). Mine was my custom Bisley by Huntington, while Jack was shooting a BFR in .500 JRH. Jack was shooting Buffalo Bore 425 grain loads but also had a couple of Punch bullet loads in for just in case. I was shooting 440 grain Buffalo Bore loads with Punch bullets in my cylinder as well. He didn't go down immediately as we buggered initial shots a bit on the moving animal and things got a bit dicey in the thick stuff going in after him. He did fall however.



Another view:



Forum member and handgun hunter and a half, tradmark shot this axis deer with his .41 Mag FA83 at about 45 yards with 210 grain Swift A-frames.



Jordan, a member of the JRH Advanced Gunsmithing team shot this wild hog with a rifle (gasp!) in .30-30 Ackley Improved. The results were decisive to say the least!



And with that, day one came to a close. Standby for days two and three.

That just don't seem right, haha. Like the carpenter who is too busy with other people's projects to build his own house.

Good show, guys!

Man that was such an awesome trip. The talks about bullet theory and level of knowledge in one place was priceless. Everyone shot well. Just have to get everyone to let the video roll before we start blasting. Looking forward to reliving it over again

Awesome!

Hi Michael! Welcome to the site! It was an awesome trip! Can't wait till next year!

It was a very very fun time but even more than that it gave a bunch of really good info on terminal bullet performance on very large game. Wanna know if u can ko someone with a punch? Punch someone. I know it provided alot of info on what works and is reliable and what isnt. Getting good video is a great thing amd was just such a fun hunt as well as being informative.

Congrats!! That kind of hunt would really get my blood flowing!

Looks like you guys had some fun.

Nice work Max and Mark!



Well said

Can't wait to read about the rest of the hunt, and the details regarding bullet performance.

Good stuff! Waiting on report of all the results...very interesting.

Thanks guys!

The next kills will not be in order as I can't honestly remember the order. But, I believe day two began with the aforementioned Jordan, this time shooting a double rifle, built by Jack Huntington in .450/400 Nitro Express, at a Watusi. This was one of a couple of rifle kills during the hunt. Jack backed him with his Chapuis 9.3x74 double rifle.



Michael was up next, I believe, with his watusi. He was shooting 325 grain Swift A-frames out of his .454 SRH. Great load, great bullet, and great shooting!



Jason Menefee blooded the all-new .475 Special chambered 629, for the very first time, by killing this goat.



I shot this watusi with my custom six-shot .45 Colt Bisley loaded with Grizzly Cartridge's 335 grain WFN .45 Colt +P load. I shot the moving target four times offhand before it went down. Recovered one bullet that was badly damaged.



Tradmark made a great 85 yard first shot with his 6 1/2-inch S&W .500. Don't recall the load. Mark, want to fill in here?



More later!

great hunt, it was good to see these things weren't just a shoot. pretty wary and salty, my cousin almost got charged. i shot at 85 yards offhand with a mild smith load of a beartooth 440gr bullet at 1280fps into the shoulder. got a mild reaction and the thing ran off. hunt was on video so i could verify my shot placement. kept running and i figured i had to have some problem with the bullet. i grabbed my 454 loaded with barnes xbp's and the chase was on. we caught up with her in thick brush and had to look hard to see which one was hurt. when the correct animal was determined i tried to stalk in after about a 1000yd tracking job and the bull ran. the only shot thru the brush i had was a head/neck shot and pulled it off at 35-40 yards and down she went. the hardcast beartooth had hit broadside perfectly and evidently smeared or came apart and exited the middle abdomen. no real damage. the barnes took out both carotids and had bled out in about 10 yards.

Definitely no cow shoot in the pasture. Already planning for the next round of testing.

Thanks for filling in the blanks, Mark.

Here's the red deer shot by Jordan with trademark's FA83 in .454 Casull. It was loaded with 325 grain Swift A-frames. This is the animal that was shot at point blank range while still alive with 300 grain XTP Mags (in .45 Colt) that failed miserably.



Here is a photo of what was left of a recovered XTP next to an unfired one.

Hell Whit...the second you guys arrived those critters never stood a chance.....Sorta like owing big money to a loanshark.....Damm...you guys had a great shootout....

You guys are starting to make me nervous about running an XTP-Mag at 2400+ fps out of my 460.

I would feel nervous. They come apart violently, prolly ok for the little stuff. Ive had some epic fails on game with the 240 xtp. Had a few good results but a poor good to bad ratio. I would imagine at that velocity it could be a disaster. Seriously try some 265gr aframes! Incredible performance

I was so hoping for a charge on that watusi once she started pawing the ground. I even wore my red shirt just for that scenario. That being said the whole point of the weekend was to try and get shots that were similar to each other for an accurate comparison on different bullet types. I was extremely pleased with the results from that 325 gr Aframe at 1580 fps. I had an extreme quartering to angle that left only about 6" of her left shoulder. I use an ultra dot sight and was able to put the bullet exactly in the middle of that shoulder. The bullet did it's job and she dropped within 20 yards. That bullet went through the entire body cavity and was somewhere in the gut pile when we started looking. Such an awesome learning experience without having a ton of cash on the line

I was glad she didnt and that u can shoot cuz i woulda had to have droppes the video cam to shoot since theres no backup rifles but it was illuminating finding out that my "perfect" moose load for amanda was a dud. Back to work
With big solids out of the new 480 for a low recoil penetrator!

Let me add that all of the participants here gained a truckload of experience by first hand, up close and personally witnessing these kills. It's years of experience balled up in a few short days of continuous action.

I have more photos to post as soon as photobucket starts working again.

Here are some more animals from Hondo. The only two animals that I don't have photos of are a pair of wild hogs that were killed by the skinner/taxidermist who was hunting with a compound bow.

First up is grip master Rob Rowen and the watusi he killed with his 7 1/2-inch .45 Colt Bisley. It was loaded with Garrett 365 grain .45 Colt +P loads. Rob's shooting was impeccable, mortally wounding it with the first shot, and spinning it with the second.



Forum member CraigC killed this huge by large longhorn with his Super Redhawk in .44 Mag. It was one of the smallest calibers used on the hunt, and one of the biggest animals taken. He used his 355 grain WLN load to great effectiveness.



Lastly, Jason Menefee and Jack Huntington tag teamed the behemoth longhorn with .500 JRHs, loaded with Buffalo Bore 440s and Punch bullets. This animal was easily the biggest one taken weighing right around one ton on the hoof. That's a lot of beef!



While the animal was being gutted, this bison kept coming in menacingly. It was a bit unsettling. He may have been attracted to the blood on the ground, but he seemed agitated.

Great job guys, congrats to all!

I really would like to hunt a water buff someday.

Congrats guys. You did good.

Some great photos and bullet reviews. Those are some cool bovine.

Impressive hunt!

Thank you gentlemen!

This photo is simply for perspective. If your load/caliber/bullet works well on an animal this big, you are on to something good.

We drove past this ornery bull water buffalo on our way back to camp. He showed absolutely no fear and he was a big boy.

He really needed killin'!

Did you guys take pics of the terminal performance and have the ballistic data? That would be awesome to see and learn.

:thumbup:

yes, lots of good info. we will be posting it.

very interesting.

Excellent!!!!

:popcorn:

most is actually video footage and we have lots of bullet pictures. lots. i hope you do like popcorn but it's pretty cut and dry. i've got a special bag of popcorn i take one piece out per day in hopes we one day find out what you're so scared of hiding your face from us all. some of us guess some type of spec-ops, but then again many of us would already know you and none of those guys hides their face here, others guess bartender at mafia owned gay bar turned snitch. yet other further fetched theories involve the village people, one day we may know the SECRET.

thispostwarmedmyheart

YMCA

I KNEW IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I win the pool, now.........Indian or Cop!

The epic stache, of course.

were you in "supertroopers"?