My buddy is importing the Rhino bullets from Africa to the US. I understand that he is the only one in the USA. He's asked me to be one of his "testers" when we go to RSA for his wedding & safari. The PH's from Steyn Caracal seem to think that they are IT.

What have you guys from across the big pond think of them? I've seen some pretty impressive damage from his .375 H&H to oak stumps!

Bill,

I know I'm gonna get ear ache for this but I had a big problem with them and because of that, won't use 'em again. Admittedly, I might have got hold of just one dodgy batch of bullets, but that's one bad batch too many for me.

3 or 4 years ago, I'd just got my .404 Jeffery and was due to go to Tanzania about 2 days later but was planning to leave the 404 behind, because I hadn't worked up any loads for it. That afternoon, I got a call from my buddy who was already up there, telling me he was in the shit and had to have a scoped DG rifle within a few days and could I help......... needless to say, I told him I'd bring the 404 come hell or high water.

An hour later, I was at the gunshop buying cases and whatever bullets I could get my hands on, which turned out to be Sabi mono solids and Rhino softs. As I didn't have time to try a variety of loads, I just looked at the manual and took a thumbsuck guess at what would work best (turned out to be about perfect as it happened!) and loaded the lot.

That day, as soon as I'd loaded the ammo,(saturday) I tried cycling all the rounds through the rifle. The Sabi solids were all fine but I couldn't close the bolt on a single rhino soft...... instant panic was followed by a call to Sabi Rifles who told me they wouldn't let me down, would keep the shop open and to take everything to the shop immediatly......... (I was due to fly the next am)

We first got busy with the micrometer and it turned out the softs were either 1 thou or a tad more oversized. (can't remember now) The only quick answer was to pull the bullets, stick 'em in the lathe and resize them. It worked, we could now cycle the bolt OK.

When I arrived in Tanzania, I gave the client the rifle (we were sharing a camp) and the next day they went to the range and then went hunting.

Bear in mind, the client opted to use softs and left the solids in the truck. Hs first shot was a texas heart shot on a Buff and the soft entered just under the tail, went straight through without expanding at all (by the looks of it) and exited through the nose.

The second shot was at another Buff and the bullet did the same thing, this time a transverse chest shot and the bullet zipped straight through, went about a yard, hit and went straight through a tree of about 14-15 ish inch circumference and half way through another tree and the tracker cut it out with his panga and gave it back to the client. I saw that one and it was as straight as a mono.

I either took 25 or 50 softs up with me and by the end of the season, they were all used up but all appeared to do the same thing.

As I say, it could be that i was just unlucky and I do know that lots people who use 'em, love 'em, but I for one lost confidence in them and won't use 'em again. - That said, Ive seen quite a lot of other poeople use 'em since and none have had any problems.

quote:

Originally posted by Karamojo Bill:
My buddy is importing the Rhino bullets from Africa to the US. I understand that he is the only one in the USA. He's asked me to be one of his "testers" when we go to RSA for his wedding & safari.

Wish I asked one of my buddies to come and test a bullet at my wedding,wait...make that 2 bullets,forgot about mother in law...

quote:

Originally posted by Steiner:
Wish I asked one of my buddies to come and test a bullet at my wedding,wait...make that 2 bullets,forgot about mother in law...

I’ve used Rhino’s in .30 & .404, on various species ranging from blesbok to white & black rhino. They’ve killed every animal that I shot through the vitals. I like them.

I tried a lot of different bullets. The rhino's works for us and we use it for all our bushveldt hunting. Penetration great, expansion great and they mess the animals up. Do not try and push them to 300 yard shots though, they are not great long distance bullets. I use the ballistic tipped Barnes for that.

This statement is based on shooting about 30 animals in 2008 myself with a .375 H&H and .308Win.

I have not used them on any DG.

quote:

Originally posted by Karamojo Bill:
My buddy is importing the Rhino bullets from Africa to the US. I understand that he is the only one in the USA. He's asked me to be one of his "testers" when we go to RSA for his wedding & safari. The PH's from Steyn Caracal seem to think that they are IT. What have you guys from across the big pond think of them? I've seen some pretty impressive damage from his .375 H&H to oak stumps!

Bill,

What calibers do you intend bringing and what game are you thinking of hunting and where or what will the terrain be like and/or range?

Trust the advice of you PH; I am sure he has done his homework in the bullets that he tested. I have done a fair amount of testing myself in certain calibers. I am particularly fond of their .284/160 gr, .366/286gr and .375/300 gr bullets. A friend of mine is using their .277/150 gr bullets and are very happy. Here is a photo of various 9,3 bullets that I tested - the bullet on the far right being the Rhino bullet.



I have stated before here on AR and in an article to SA Hunters (magazine) that all bullets should be used within their threshold strength or operating velocity bands.

Just remember there is no perfect bullet under all conditions and all velocities. It also depends very much on your idea of what good bullet perfomance is - we have various schools of thought on this. Some people have only one simplistic yardstick, and that is whether it can kill or not.

There are many great custom bullets today that are readily available, Rhino is just one of them. Rhino's are vailable in most gunshops throughout SA or you can also order directly from Rhino Bullets. I assume you want to try various controlled expansion bullets on your trip and then stack them up against the Rhino's.

We would love to hear your results and see some pictures.
Good luck and happy hunting.

Warrior

I have used the Rhinos on plenty trips to Rsa and also on hunting here in Scandinavia and have never had a bad bullet !i am hunting with a 375 and 300 grain bullets and i have not seen any bad bullets recolated from the animals!

My favorite load in my 375 H&H 270gr Rhino running at 2550 fps. Bang flop animals hasnt complained yet.

Seriously the bullets are suberd dont expect match shooting accuracy shooting smaller groups than 1" but just plain old good hunting accuracy not more than a 2" group at 100 meters.

Penetration, weight rentention and with some bullets opening up to almost 2 1/2 times the bullet diameter what more do you want ?

I got some of the 425 gr .458's from the last USA importer ... any experience with these on game smaller than Buf?

Thought I'd take my .458 AR to Africa on an Eland and Wildebeast hunt. (I know it is not needed, but thought it would be good to get some experience with the rifle and caliber.)

I've killed a number of game with Rhinos. I REALLY like them. I've had great luck with them. I think that they perform better on game than Barnes X or TSX.

I did hear that the early ones were having some non opening troubles.

quote:

I got some of the 425 gr .458's from the last USA importer ... any experience with these on game smaller than Buf?

Here is my good friend prof Koos Badenhorst with a kudu he shot with a 425 gr Rhino bullet in his 458 Express. He showed me the bullet. It had a perfect mushroom and retained almost its full weight. He was one of the very first people to try this bullet out on game soon after the bullet was launched.



Warrior