Ferguson Custom Rifles
Ultimate precision and extreme velocity are the factors that separate Ferguson Custom Rifles from other custom rifles. James Ferguson’s criterion is to create a rifle of supreme accuracy that is dependably capable of shooting game out to 500 yards with no holdover.
To achieve his criterion, Ferguson’s rifles must achieve hyper velocity – approaching or exceeding 4,000 feet per second at muzzle. The difference between hyper velocity and magnum velocity (3,000 feet per second) is dramatic and best illustrated by a test done over 50 years ago by the godfather of American ballisticians, P.O. Ackley.
For his test, Ackley shot a 48-grain .220 Swift factory load, a 100-grain .270 Winchester factory load, and a military armor-piercing .30-06 round into ½-inch armor-plate from the frontal area on a U.S. Army half-track from a distance of 30 feet. The .220 Swift bullet traveling at 4,000-plus feet per second cut a laser-like 3/8-inch hole completely through the ½-inch armor plate. The .270 bullet made nothing but a shiny spot on the armor plate, and the .30-06 armor-piercing round made only an insignificant shallow crater. Ackley’s test proved that hyper velocity plays by different rules!
James Ferguson has taken hyper velocity to a new level by enabling hunters to shoot heavier bullets at hyper velocity. His “Hot Tamale” (7mmSTW necked down to .257 caliber) and his “Habanero” (Weatherby .300x.378) both achieve hyper velocity – the Hot Tamale with a 100-grain bullet and the Habanero with a 130-grain bullet. In both cases the rifles are zeroed only 2 ½ inches high at 100 yards and allow shooters to aim at game without holdover out to 500 yards.
In actual hunting tests on large North American and African game animals, including prairie bison, moose, elk, zebra, eland and many others, both calibers dropped animals in their tracks and exited the offside of the animals even when shot through the center of the shoulders.
Hyper velocity creates such intense hydro-static shock upon impacting game animals that the destruction must be seen to understood. P.O. Ackley called this “shock down” power. Liquid cannot be compressed, so when a bullet traveling at hyper velocity enters an animal, the bodily fluids and bone fragments explode away from the point of impact so violently that they become like shrapnel, doing tremendous additional damage. The old adage that “speed kills” was never more true -- and the higher the velocity, the faster the kill. It is amazing to see an African eland or a 2,500-pound American bison shot through the center of the shoulders with a 4,000 foot-per-second 100-grain .257 bullet and see them fold up as if hit by lightning. But that is a typical scenario.
James Ferguson is a modern ballistics pioneer, taking full advantage of the latest powders and bullet designs to create the most accurate and deadly hunting rifles ever offered to the hunting world.