Recommended dangerous game bullets and cartridges?

[375Fox]

Sometimes View attachment 629542recovered from a Sable in June, .416 400 grain Swift A-frame View attachment 629543

83% is still very good performance just not exceptional for an A frame but the mushroom is perfect. The last accubonds I used were only 60% weight retention and very ragged. Swift A Frame is superior to Accubond for DG and heavy bone if weight retention is what you want to see.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

Terrible, if there are no more Swift A-Frame bullets available, hunting in Africa will no longer be possible for some hunters, at least they believes so, but I can calm everyone down !

One can shoot buffaloes with other bullets, including classic SP bullets, also with those from Hornady, bonded or not, the difference is minimal.

Oh my. Someone get a stake and some firewood. Damn heretic.

 

[358 Norma]

83% is still very good performance just not exceptional for an A frame but the mushroom is perfect. The last accubonds I used were only 60% weight retention and very ragged. Swift A Frame is superior to Accubond for DG and heavy bone if weight retention is what you want to see.
View attachment 629552

Not saying it's perfect, but it worked! I guess anything made by man can fail.

 

[Rule 303]

Terrible, if there are no more Swift A-Frame bullets available, hunting in Africa will no longer be possible for some hunters, at least they believes so, but I can calm everyone down !

One can shoot buffaloes with other bullets, including classic SP bullets, also with those from Hornady, bonded or not, the difference is minimal.

Re reading the thread I see I did not take this post fully onboard. I find I have do not agree with the last sentence. I have shot animals with non bonded soft points and needed more than one shot to put the animal on the ground or had some lengthy tracking. I have found the bullet did not get to the heart where as bonded did. Also that Barnes just penciled through and did not open. These horrendously large and tough animals................just pigs and goats. Oh these failures were not from using light for calibre bullets.

So what I am saying is if using a non bonded soft point test it to make sure it will go the distance. If using a mono metal, do the same, keep them in their velocity parameters so they work.

 

[375Fox]

Re reading the thread I see I did not take this post fully onboard. I find I have do not agree with the last sentence. I have shot animals with non bonded soft points and needed more than one shot to put the animal on the ground or had some lengthy tracking. I have found the bullet did not get to the heart where as bonded did. Also that Barnes just penciled through and did not open. These horrendously large and tough animals................just pigs and goats. Oh these failures were not from using light for calibre bullets.

So what I am saying is if using a non bonded soft point test it to make sure it will go the distance. If using a mono metal, do the same, keep them in their velocity parameters so they work.

It’s not the first time that member has put out that advice. It’s irresponsible advice to me when we have better bullet choices today. Would buffalo hunting stop if we didn’t have bonded bullets? No it wouldn’t, but non-bonded bullets have a higher likelihood of failure than a bonded bullet. Swift got their reputation because they reliably worked every time. Hornady DGX non-bonded lost their reputation in a hurry because there were too many documented failures. Shot placement on DG doesn’t matter if the bullet can’t hold together to make it to the vitals.

 

[grand veneur]

Oh my. Someone get a stake and some firewood. Damn heretic.

It was not all that heretic about 40 years ago as I started with Big game hunting. Swift A-Frame bullets did not exist and whether Nosler Partition bullets worked well on Big game or not was discussed in various papers. The safe side was still the classic SP bullets. Certainly a lot has changed and the bullets were improved, but nowadays there also is the internet and with it the influencers, which seriously hinders critical thinking and the developing of a personal opinion, also when it comes to choosing a bullet.

 

[rookhawk]

My favorites:

Solids:
Woodleigh Traditional Solids
Trophy Bonded Sledgehammers
Hornady DGS

Softs:
A-frames
Woodleigh Weldcore SPs


I’ve also used Norma Softs and Solids, but I don’t know what they call them and I’m not sure they sell components any longer for the large bores.

 

[Frederik]

At least we have a bunch of good local bullets to be found.

SBC (Safari Bullet Company)
Rhino Bullets
Claw bullets (bonded softs)
Stewarts (Think they are starting up again)

Then a few Monometal makes

Peregrine bullets
Axe Bullets
Frontier
Kriek bullets

I might have missed a few but those are the better ones.

Powder and primers is another issue.

 

[Novice Huntress]

Hi Alll,
This popped up on YT this evening,

I appreciate this is not DG but the Eland certainly has some mass.
The North Forks recovered show the level of expansion achieved.

I feel like I'm North Forks unofficial salesperson!

But ultimately they are located in Sweden, so for European hunters, in theory provide a choice when others are in short supply.

 

[CZDiesel]

Here is a picture of a 480 grain .458 Hornady DGX Bonded that completely failed on a cape buffalo.
View attachment 628848

So this pic of the failed bullet has bothered me for some reason since I saw it!
And now it just hit me! The new Bonded DGX is a steel jacket that is copper clad…
That doesn’t look like a copper clad that shed? And where is the steel jacket?
Something just doesn’t add up?

 

[ActionBob]

So this pic of the failed bullet has bothered me for some reason since I saw it!
And now it just hit me! The new Bonded DGX is a steel jacket that is copper clad…
That doesn’t look like a copper clad that shed? And where is the steel jacket?
Something just doesn’t add up?

Doesn't that look like copper in the top of the picture?

I can't tell you if it has metal bonded to it. That's a picture sent to me. We were gone by the time that situation was resolved.

 

[Brian]

I would not use Hornady or Accubond for cape buffalo There are much better choices. JMO Brian

 

[CZDiesel]

Doesn't that look like copper in the top of the picture?

I can't tell you if it has metal bonded to it. That's a picture sent to me. We were gone by the time that situation was resolved.

No it does, totally does but that is what I’m saying. It looks like a thin copper jacket of a cup and core and not a steel clad jacket…
I don’t see anything of a steel jacket in there and I can’t believe that the copper that the steel jacket is clad in would look like that?
Did you forward these to Hornady or send these remaining pieces back to them?

 

[Sheldor]

All I know is that if I owned a bolt-action dangerous game rifle, it would have controlled feed/extraction/ejection, like the Mauser or Winchester Model 70.

Push feed is for dead hunters.

 

[Rule 303]

All I know is that if I owned a bolt-action dangerous game rifle, it would have controlled feed/extraction/ejection, like the Mauser or Winchester Model 70.

Push feed is for dead hunters.

Your another one that has drunk the CRF cool aid. I have had Mauser M98 do everything that a control round feed is not to do some same cant but let me assure you they can and do.

If push feed was so bad the military would not use it. Yes, it is easier to mass produce but it is still extremely reliable.

 

[ActionBob]

No it does, totally does but that is what I’m saying. It looks like a thin copper jacket of a cup and core and not a steel clad jacket…
I don’t see anything of a steel jacket in there and I can’t believe that the copper that the steel jacket is clad in would look like that?
Did you forward these to Hornady or send these remaining pieces back to them?

I've had friends send stuff like this to Hornady and get nothing but denial. Not planning to waste my time with them.

 

[CZDiesel]

I've had friends send stuff like this to Hornady and get nothing but denial. Not planning to waste my time with them.

That’s unfortunate

 

[mark-hunter]

All I know is that if I owned a bolt-action dangerous game rifle, it would have controlled feed/extraction/ejection, like the Mauser or Winchester Model 70.

In my African hunting I am emotional and subjective.
So, my choice was CRF rifle. I dont want to hunt Africa with some modern rifle which is not CRF.
However Blaser R8 has established its reputation in Africa.
So, it is personal choice.

I think that in a choice of rifle there is much bigger problem then CRF vs PF debate.
That is medium action vs magnum length action.
This in another words mean caliber choices and variety of calibers.

There is no more magnum lenght actions in factory rifles produced today.

In these two dilemmas of factory rifles, CRF vs PF, and medium action vs Magnum action, the future will more and more lean towards the blazer r8, which includes the highest variety of calibers as well. and still keeping the price lower then modern brand new factory made DWM Mauser 98 in two action lengths.

 

[mark-hunter]

Back to subject.

What do you guys think about Nosler solid bullets for DG (Elephant)?
Acceptable, or not?

 

[Rule 303]

I have never used them or even seen one. Just the advertising for them. They look to have a decent sized metplat and claimed to be all the one metal, no lead. So in theory they should be good. Watching other answers with interest.