Gary,

Your bison hunt with the .58 Yukon was very interesting, and it demonstrated the effectiveness of the bigbore airgun killing power. Can you describe the deadliness of the .58 bigbore against the 1000 lbs bison again for all of us to read. We all would love to discuss bigbore airgun effectiveness against large games. And what do you think about the 600 fpe .58 Yukon against similar sized games like moose and elks, and bison up to 2000 lbs? I would lile to hunt large games and bison with the bigbore one day, and I'd like opinions. Thanks Gary!

Hello Peter,

The Yukon did an excellent job on the Bison. I shot the beast from 50 yards. The 469 grain slug hit a rib on the way in. It punched a round hole thru it - pretty much looked like it had been drilled. A Bison has a wide rib, that is flat on the outside, and double beveled on the inside (making a triangle cross-section). The slug then went thru the top of the heart, and struck the inside of a rib on the way out. The bevel inside configuration of the rib caused the slug to spin. That put it flat side to the direction of travel, and it stopped under the skin on the opposite side.

The Bison went down within a very short time. Quick kill. You can make more power. It wasn't needed.

Gary

That sounds very effective and deadly to me. I'm sure, if the 600 fpe .58 Yukon could take down a 1200 lbs bison like that
It could take down similar large games sized. And I think the big .58 slug also helped to bring the beast down relatively fast. Sniper99 shot the 2000 lbs bison with 2 shots in the lungs with the 550 fpe .45 bigbore, but it took the bison 15 minutes to go down (the guide told him it's normal to take that long even with centerfire hit). For really large animals, I believe the .58 up to .87 is a wise choice. Big, heavy, large front diameter bullets kill better. I've shot a lot of large games with .50 muzzle loader and centerfire cartridges, and the .50 muzzle loader killed large games quicker than with the smaller centerfire bullets.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/30/2009 03:45AM by peter-n.

Let me jump in here and add a detail or two: The buffalo hunt being discussed here is documented here: [www.glbarnes.com]. The gun is the Yukon that Julio now owns and has groups posted elsewhere on the site. I don't know what exact power Gary ran the gun at for the buffalo hunt but it currently makes 700FPE with 450gr slugs.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/30/2009 02:50AM by Jerry.

Took me awhile to find it . . . you beat me to it Jerry!

However, I can one-up you: here's Gary's Yukon comparison page, where details the differences between the Yukon and Yukon II, and discusses features, "control surfaces," etc.

-- Jim

I see I'm not even needed here. Thanks guys.

Gary

Thanks Jerry and Jim for the links!

Gary, that was a great hunt, you knew exactly what you were doing. The .58 looks and performance were a perfect match for a bison hunt.
I really would like to hunt a bison with the bigbore one day, and I think my 600 fpe Bontrager 20 guage slug gun would do the job.

I'm going to list the ideal minimum calibers and fpe required to hunt biggames with the bigbores. This is just for entertainments, speculations, and discussions based on my knowleged over the years reading of successful hunts on the forums, my extended research on the subject of the killing power of the big caliber slugs on biggames, and some of my own personal experiences of biggames hunting. Everyone is welcome to join in for the discussions.


Deers and wild boars(up to 250 lbs) .45, 180 to 300 fpe.

Elks, Red Stags, wild Russian boars(up to 450 lbs) .45, .50, 500 fpe.

Mooses, bisons up to 1200 lbs, .50, .58, 600 fpe on up.

Mooses, bisons, up to 2000 lbs, Brown bears, grizzle bears, .72, .87, 20mm, 800 gr slugs and 1000 fpe minimum! ( now, I don't recommend hunting big bears with single shot bigbore airguns, but with proper backups, it could be done. They have been taking down with bow and arrows with only a mere 80 fpe, all the time!). These big caliber ultrabores with only 1000 fpe, but will kill like a 5000 fpe .375 Magnum centerfire due to their big, large front diameter, heavy, massive slugs.

This is just for entertainment and discussions.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/30/2009 06:02PM by peter-n.

Except in Montana, where it is not legal to hunt big game with an air gun......

errr,,,,,,,,,

Dan,

The other part of the story is ... there are large game reserves which manage private herds. There are businesses from a few hundred acres, to a few thousand acres. They are not bound by public game laws. You present yourself, your guns, and demonstrate your skill. If the business considers that you have a humane kit, and are a skilled shooter ... then they may offer you the chance to hunt their game.

That's all I know. I just wanted to lay out, that public hunting laws are not the total sphere of what exists.

Gary

I've checked out some of the hunting preserves on the net, and some of them stocked elks, bisons, Russian boars, and almost all of the African game species. Some of these places so vast you could get lost in there. It's not a bad idea to hunt your dreamed games with the bigbore in there. And the place is vast enough and the animals are wild enough for a good fair chase hunt.

Yeah ... part of it depends upon how much of a "fair chase" you want to give the "game": to kill you?

Life's full of compromises. If you want to hunt with an airgun, and can't arrange to be born two hundred years ago ... then you have to make exceptions.



Gary

barnespneumatic Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
, that
> public hunting laws are not the total sphere of
> what exists.


Your right. given the immense amount of publically accessible land in this area, I forget that there are other options for folks not otherwise blessed with public lands. you get spoiled.....

Ive emailed with the agency in charge of that kinda thing, and even tryed to explain that there are airguns that exist that are powerful enough to rival centerfire in its killing energy, but they dont want to hear it. Ah, the downside to living in Paradise....

Hi Dan,

I'd personally suggest that you NOT persue that course of action. Going waaaaay out of your way, to inform government agencies that their are extremely powerful airguns rivaling centerfire guns ..... NOT exactly what I'd do.

The fact that there are countless game reserve businesses open to us, makes me wonder why it would seem so important to change the entire game management system, just for us to go someplace else. You can already hunt with firearms, black powder guns, bows, even crossbows ... nearly everywhere. Big Bore airguns are a microscopic special interest group. I'd just enjoy them, and not keep trying to focus attention on them. The government has never seen anything that it didn't wish to regulate (and tax).

The other thing is ... go varmint shoot. Nobody cares about that. Nobody has to shoot a trophy Elk to have a great airgun hunt.

Best,
Gary

barnespneumatic Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi Dan,
>
> I'd personally suggest that you NOT persue that
> course of action.

. Nobody has to shoot a trophy
> Elk to have a great airgun hunt.
>

I'm not. For a variety of reasons. the two biggest being that airguns are part of larger shooting continuum that I have mostly covered with a variety of weapons. The other is the sheer immensity and density of the government of the state of Montana-- soemthing as state employee I deal with daily........ and have no desire to take it on as a part of a personal crusade. Some airguners in California got their laws changed to favor the airgunners, but given CA's restrictive gun laws, that made sense. Montana's firearm laws are so liberal, it is to some degree a moot point.

But... the "deer hunting" was my primary justification with the wife to get on the ledger ( way back when. this was 2 or 3 years ago).........

I have Yukon .58 Gs on the ledger looking forward to the day I see pics of that being assembled woo hoo, ha ha, Not only is it impressive what this large bore airgun can do on large game but what the Yukon did to the wild boar those are tough; and as I recall there are pics somewhere of the results Tasty Sausage on the grille.

I believe this is what you were thinking of Eric: [www.glbarnes.com].

Yup that is the one, ain't she a bute! ill have to keep my eyes open for a case that will fit it haha.

Cabela's, carries the longer cases. If your surfing for one, they are usually listed under muzzleloader cases. Dory



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/03/2009 09:02AM by Dory.

Eric, you are one luck son of the gun! He..he.. The .58 Yukon is impressive in looks and performance. With the .58 bore size and 600 fpe plus, you can pretty much hunt any biggames you want. I wish I was on the ledger for one.

back to the earlier posts , 15 mins for a kill sounds a lot to me like something has gone wrong with the plan . in fifteen mins you could just talk it to death. i really find it hard to believe that that time frame is thought of as either exceptable or normall , i didnt think i was that far out of touch , mind you , ive never shot anything other than deer. and thats been with centrefires.
lung shots and fifteen mins , some one tell me thats not the norm.
thanks
tom

Personally, I don't care for the sound of that either. For me ... my buffalo was running the pastures of Heaven in about ... oh ... 3 minutes? If that? I guess it's about things I don't know. I hear the slow ... leave it alone ... let it go lie down ... is proper. Makes the game less stressed. Might make the meat better? Seems I've heard that - myth or fact. However; the drop stone dead is my goal. I prefer that.

Gary

My nephew found a nice buck in woods. That had been shot in the butt, had been dead probably a week at least. He was hunting after the slug season, in the muzzleloading season. You wonder how long it lived before it died. Dory

I agree, 15 minutes are too long, and the 550 fpe .45 bigbore was underpowered for a 2000 lbs bison. A .62 up to .87 caliber with at least 1000 fpe is more appropriate for animals that big. However, I still give Snipper99 credit for having the gut to try it and proving to the World that powerful bigbore airgun is capable of taking down one of the largest biggames. No one knew what it would take to take down an animal that big with a bigbore airgun for a quick kill, had he known it he probably would have used a bigger and more powerful bigbore.

fair enough , i just would dread to think it was the norm , if it was the norm , i would stop shooting at that target with that range of power. personally , anything longer than i can hold my breath for is totally unacceptable . i like to stay in my 3 second zone. not allways pos , but i consider it as the humane limit. the three seconds or so i use as the referance is the amount of hold over i have after a shot , so its not a stop watch thing , just a natural progression thing , hope that makes sence.
rant over
thanks
tom



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/12/2009 09:36AM by Dyson Diver.