WB
Author John Ramsey Miller had a Black Widow in .410 GNR
Thursday, December 07, 2023, 15:14

outfitted with a Burris 2x scope, no sights. We both set out to shoot Bison with handgun at one of the TN HHC's. John pulled down on a cow Bison around 45 yds. distant and fired. Water threw in the air some 50-75 yds beyond the Bison. She didn't even flinch. John adjusted his point of aim and fired again. Same result, a spew of water and mud, off beyond the animal. She still didn't move. It was getting pretty noisy by then and she finally turned around. That is when we could see a little bit of pink lung tissue poking from a side wound exit hole. He did NOT miss but had two solid lung hits. The 255 gr. hard cast LBT bullet sailed through without hitting any bones at all (by odd chance) and seemingly lost little velocity. I think they were running close to 1500+ fps. We had quite a chase on after that which required two more to finally put the hardy beast down. It was a memorable experience.

I was second up and had my .510 GNR #6 Improved. From Gary's original publication I remembered his load of only 1000 fps sailing right through Bison that he harvested. My home designed 410 gr. slug (a shortened version of the .50-70 Govt. 450 gr. carbine bullet) was running 1050-1100 fps. Still hard to hang onto. Not wanting to make the same issue as John I aimed at the shoulder bone at about 25 yds. A solid hit put the young bull on his nose, he couldn't move. Down for good but still alive. The bullet too passed right though BOTH shoulder bones and lungs. A second shot did the same. I had to wait as the other bulls came upon the wounded bull and gave him a poke with a horn or head butted him gently. The guide told me a sign of change in pecking order of the heard. After they all got finished we approached and I shot him in the neck. Where GNR told me to in the first place. Lights out , DRT. But I didn't think I could hit the 2-3" neck bone shooting offhand initially. I took the safe route. All shots passed through completely.

You may have seen this pic several times. That's the story that goes along with it, linked to the Black Widow. Made me think of it. Good times.

The .410 GNR Black Widow was way more than what was needed to do the job. John lost his wife to cancer and money got tight, he lost interest and sold the gun to a willing enthusiast. It's out there somewhere!