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.