Kyler Hamaan,

My comment about the bullets doing what they were designed to in no way communicates my opinion of their effectiveness. It was simply a statement of relative fact. The bullets did the job they were intended to. Now, I have never and will never use the Accubond in Africa. Everytime I've been there I've used Woodleighs in the 375 and Nosler Partitions in the 7mm. Those bullets will go with me the next time as well.

All the published info on the Accubond states how they are designed to function and that is basically a hybrid between a bonded core and a ballistic tip. Nobody should complain when the bullet performed exactly as intended. Trying to expect more than the bullet is physically capable of delivering is just foolish. If you want complete penetration, you must have sectional density, adequate velocity and the bullet must stay intact. The Accubond was not designed to do this and it never will. By attempting to market a hybrid, the Nosler Company has proven the Accubond will not perform as well as either parent. It's trying to exist in a gray area.

Use Woodleigh Weldcores, Nosler Partitions or Barnes X bullets and you are talking about a whole new ball game. If one of those fails to penetrate, then you have a legitimate complaint.

Just my 2 cents worth.

Mac

Having now used the Nosler Accubond bullet in the field, I find myself surprised and a bit disappointed. I might add that this is the first time I've ever had a Nosler product perform at a lower level than what I expected, and I've been using them on game for a long, long time.

For a trip to Africa last month, I loaded some 225 grain Accubonds for my 338 Winchester. They shot pretty well - got 'em handloaded into 1 1/8" groups of 3 shots at 100 yards, which is very acceptable hunting accuracy (and then a bit) for Africa. Chronographed at 2810 avg., and I was quite happy.

My wife shot an impala at about 60 yards, bullet went all the way through (no surprise) and wasn't recovered. Impala dropped after about 100 yards. As you hopefully can see, it was fairly well hit behind the shoulder, and there were no real surprises.




A couple of days later, she shot a waterbuck at about the same distance, square in the chest from the front. The recovered bullet is the one in the middle, and now weighs 140 grains. Note too that daylight you can see peeking through on both sides of the base - not encouraging, that!



Shedding almost 40% of the original weight without hitting a major bone (only the sternum), and a separating jacket both left me very concerned. Especially since she would soon be chasing eland. Two days later, she connected on an eland, at about 70 yards. Bullet wasn't recovered, but as they skinned it out, I checked the performance. It hit a rib, and got one lung. Not two, just one before it stopped. The PH had a 458 along, so the eland only ran some 400 yards after he was hit a few more times with the 500 grainers. Certainly the first shot would have been fatal, but the bullet performance again left something to be desired - a rib and one lung ??! That kind of performance will let an eland run a long, long ways and maybe not be recovered.

Finally, I shot a kudu in the neck at 160 yards. That's the bullet on the right. Weighed 149 grains, so it too lost about 40% of it's starting weight. No major bones, again, and indeed the jacket and core peeled way back for a shot of that distance. Especially for a bonded core bullet!

By contrast, here are some 470 bullets. Two are Trophy Sledgehammers, and the third is a Woodleigh soft point, all Federal 500 grain factory loads. Soft point weighted in at 395 grains, removed from a buffalo shot at 50 yards. Lost 22% in a very tough animal. Got rib, heart and both lungs. The two solids are from my elephant, and one has a slight bulge that you maybe can see.



So I guess my conclusion is that the Accubonds get to stay home from now on. I'll still use Nosler partitions, or Swift A-Frames, or Trophy Bonded Bearclaws. But the Accubonds are a little too soft for my comfort level. Perhaps I'm being too picky, but I would add that the two PHs also shared my concern over the waterbuck bullet and were both relieved when we got the eland. I do know that if we'd had some other 338 bullets in camp, I would have switched after the waterbuck.

A sidebar note would be to not scrimp on the bullet or the caliber when going after really large stuff, like eland. They truly are both big and tough, even if not considered dangerous game. I continue to believe that a 338 is adequate, but believe I'll use another bullet next time.

All this is like re-inventing the wheel.



A 225 gr. .338 bullet is like shooting a 30-06.



Use Partitions on the little stuff.



Use tough bullets on heavy stuff, like Swifts or X bullets.



Because Sledgehammers bend, which they do, does not necessarily mean they fail.



What is the point in using 225 gr. bullets in a .338?



A 225 GR. .338 is not a 300 gr. .375 H&H.

It seems to me they did just as advertised. According to Nosler they retain 60-70% of their weight. I have a recovered 200gr/30 cal that broke both shoulder bones on an Eland and had roughly the same retained weight %. You can not compare a Bullet that advertises it retains 60-70% of its weight to one that advertises over 90% or a solid. Besides if you recovered the Bullets the Animals must have been dead which means the Bullets must have performed okay!

Thanks for the field report. Before my next African adventure I need to change rounds and was considering switching to Accubonds in my .338 Win. Mag. but may just start with Nosler partitions instead.

Thanks for the information. As a suggestion you may want to take a look at the Barnes Triple Shock Bullets. I have had very good performance with these bullets both in terms of accuracy (they are the most accurate hunting bullet we have yet to find) and terminal performance on Big Game.

I recently got back from Tanzania on a 10 day Buffalo Hunt (some plains game). I shot two Buffalo with my 458 Lott using 500 grain TSX at nomial 2250 fps. On Shoulder shots this load will break both shoulder and exit. I shot one Buffalo front on shoulder shot went through the entire Buffalo broke the back leg and came to rest in the ankle...complete penetration on a Cape Buffalo...the recovered bullet weighed 499 grains!! This was the only bullet I recovered and it was a perfect mushroomed "X". With this load I do not see the need for a Solid Bullet or any other Soft.

Using 375 H&H 270 grain TSX...I shot a Zebra that was at a tough angle...at 200+ yds I had to go behind the last rib. The bullet went through half the animal into the lungs and out the neck...ran about 150 yards and dropped. Shot a Kongoni at 125 yards through both shoulders...complete penetration through the animal... that just dropped dead.

Good luck,

JJS