28 Nosler vs Nilgai

I was invited to make a quick trip down to the King ranch to try to take a Nilgai bull. I have always heard how tough they were and that along with the fact if you shot that was your animal got me thinking my 280 Remington might be borderline.The friend who invited me toted his 30-378 WM so I decided to make a call to Derrick at Horizon and he was gracious enough to offer his personal 28 Nosler with ammo loaded with the Nolser 175 LRAB. I grabbed it a few days before the hunt so I could take it to the range and get comfortable shooting it a few times and verify zero.

Turned out to be just the ticket for the "tank" (the term the guide used) of a bull we were fortunate to find late in the afternoon. Shooting from sticks at 255 yards as the Bull turned from broadside to slightly quartering toward me upon noticing the guide and I standing there.
The shot took the Bull at the left shoulder and neck juncture breaking that shoulder. He buckled but di not fall and managed to run about 60 yards before piling up.



The Bull field dressed 488.5 lbs on the ranches digital scales and one horn measured just over 9 inches and the other exactly 9 inches. Just for perspective my friend shot an average Bull and it weighed over 200 lbs less than mine. My first time to even see a Nilgai and I would guess we looked at about 30-35 before taking this one.
Wanted to post here to say Thanks to Derrick once again for lending me his new toy for a few days since I know he will see it here.

quickly moving up on my bucket list

Big Bull congrats

28 Nos will be my next thumper. Great bull

But, but 7 millimeters won't kill big mammals....

Congrats on a great hunt, and awesome harvest! Very, very kind of Derrick to loan you his rifle.

Envious. That is some great meat. I'm pretty sure Nilgai is going to be my hunt next year. I've been wanting to do it for a long time. I have three rifles that should be up to the task. The 338 Federal with 210 partitions, the 350 Rem Mag with 200 TTSX and the 9.3x62 with 250 Accubonds.

Dang Chad lit a couple of those off on Thursday I wasn't even on the shooting platform and it rang my bell. That thing is LOUD!!

Find the bullet? I guess the Accubond LR held together well enough to get the job done.

Congrats on a huge bull!!

No and thats on me I should have dug thru the guts to see if I could find it as it was in there somewhere.
The guide took this picture of the heart as he thought the hole was where the bullet entered??
I think the bullet passed near the heart shredding aorta and destroyed lungs as well and the bullet continued on. Derrick showed me the LRAB he recovered from his elk and it was a perfect mushroom but the shot was over 450 yards IIRC.
With the muzzle break on the 28 Nosler I saw the impact and watched the Bull stumble so I knew he was hit hard.

That looks more like an artery to me. Way too perfectly round and looks like a liner in the hole(artery wall)

I thought the same.... the blood trauma around the hole is what made me think the bullet struck near there.

We built a custom 28 Nosler and I'm playing with the 180 VLD and 195 Hybrids now. Next will be the 175 LRAB. This rifle is one of the most accurate rifles I have ever shot!!!! Same hole at 200 yards!

Nice bull! We used to have an "in" on the Kenedy ranch years ago and got to hunt them for free. In my opinion it really is like nothing else in North America. Congrats on the successful hunt... and the full freezer. Nilgai is some of the best eating meat out there.

Is the barrel life really short on them like the 26 Nosler?

Honestly, not sure. The 26 Nosler is crazy over bore. The 28, not as bad. I would think somewhere around 800 to 1000 rounds. From my conversations with Bartlein and several other sources, 26 Nosler is about 500 rounds.

That's the number I've read also. I have no plans for either, just curious. You pretty much have to guess lucky during load development to minimize wasted shots. I just started playing with 7mm bullets (7mm-08).

Actually, I calculate everything out on where to start for load work up. Berger and Nosler have data on it and it's a good starting point. But what I have seen is both are very conservative on their powder charges, and to get the desired speed on this round, you have to be above the listed max.

Same as I did with the 7 Rem Mag.

Get Retumbo up in the shoulder and start there

Those are great animals. We will be selling hunts for Nilgai very soon here in South Texas.

I have never been much of a exotic fan but i must admit it was an enjoyable hunt.

That's awesome congrats.

How fast is the 28 nosler cranking out that 175 grain ABLR?

Nice Bull David!!!

I chronographed the 175's at 3068fps and loaded a couple of 180 Hybrids to see what they would run and they were slightly faster but I used Reloder 33 instead of Retumbo that Derrick loaded.
Seems 3100-3150 with that weight range is certainly doable.