Hello tydaws,
I will happily respond to your question, knowing that my strong views on bullet terminal performance has tended to annoy some people in the past. So, I say ahead of time that I make the following comment with the best possible intensions.
I assume that, like me, you want a hunting bullet that provides consistently excellent terminal performance for a quick, safe and humane kill. Right?
The factors that contribute to ideal terminal performance in tough African animals are not present in the Accubond bullet.
These factors are common knowledge and you probably already know them, but to answer your question properly I will mention them here.
Accubond bullets
sometimes kills plains game very quickly. I try to select a bullets that
always kill very quickly.
( Another bullet that
sometimes kills well and has been very popular is the Hornady dangerous game bullet. It is, like the the Accubond, an inconstant performer. I shudder to think how many cape buffalo hunters have gotten into trouble by using Hornady bullets.)
Consistently good terminal performance comes from straight line, deep penetration with a large permanent wound channel. If you aim for the heart from any angle you want the bullet to hit the heart, even if it has to plow through bone to get there. On some shot you may intensionally intend to to break an important structural bone like the shoulder.
Obviously, this requires deep, straight line penetration which is largely a function of the weight and configuration or shape of the expanded bullet.
Deep, straight line penetration is largely a result of high retained weight, controlled expansion and to some degree the rpm of the spin of the bullet. Also, it is very important that the bullet does not tumble.
Examples of bullets that reliably provide this kind of performance are the awesome Barnes Mono series of bullets, the Swift A-Frame and the North Fork SS and PP expanding bullets. Of those three choices I go with North Fork for cape buffalo which are the only animal that I hunt any more. I am actually a Cutting Edge Bullet nut. My boys and grandson hunt PG and you can be sure that they don't use any Accubonds.
The "quality" of the wound channel contributes significantly to the quickness of the kill. A large and non collapsing wound channel is ideal, obviously.
As mentioned above, the wound channel is a result of the the configuration/shape of the expanded bullet.
These days there are more good bullets on the market. It makes a big difference to your hunting confidence and experience if you you use one of the better bullets instead of one of the poorer ones.
Sorry if I am "preaching to the choir" here but I like the old expression that the only piece of your hunting equipment that touches and kills the animal is your bullet.
It goes without saying that the bullet can make a significant difference to your hunting experience.
