Well guys, Mike and I are back from Tanzania. I'll try to file a more complete report later but thought I would address the looming question regarding interbonds on buffalo. You might recall I offered to test them on buffalo after recieving full assurances from Hornady.

Bottom Line - much too soft.

I dropped two nice bulls in the span of 60 seconds. I had loaded soft, solid, soft, solid (.458 Lott) in anticipation of a "two-fer" opportunity. After a few long days of tracking bulls only to get busted by the fickle wind, we lucked in to a large herd of about 500. There were about 20 old bulls leading. I shot one in the heart at about 20 yards with the interbond. I then jumped up and put a solid in his chest. The area was quite open and the herd (luckily) stampeded away from us. The bull was clearly hurt by the first shot ( interbond) and let out a bellow. An even better bull came to his aid so I let him have the other interbond in the heart followed by a solid (about 40 yards). Both bulls were staggering but still on their feet. I amazed myself at how quickly I reloaded (Thanks to the AR member that recommended the Uncle Mike's ammo belt!) I was loading Hornady "solids". I put three more in the first bull and dropped him as my PH put two .470 NE Bear Claws in my second buff who was staggering toward the thick bush. The PH'S shots had no effect but to turn the buff toward him. As he was reloading his double I put three more solids in the second bull. the PH fired a couple more and they both were down. I put a solid in the spine of each and it was over.

Unfortunately, when I spined the first buffalo, I was standing next to the second buff which put me about 60 yards away. I didn't notice his horn tip and busted it with my shot. I guess my taxidermist will have extra work to do.

Upon quartering the animals we found the first buffalo to have a large hole in the top half on his heart. The second buffalo's heart looked like Jello. The recovered interbonds that were fired into the hearts were no more than 50 percent of original weight. the "mushroom" was of good diameter but wafer thin. It was obvious that about 40 - 50 percent of each interbond fragmented and was no longer a part of the bullet. If I had shot those bulls on the shoulder, I am not confident that the interbond would have penetrated to the vitals. I will not use interbonds on buff in the future. The Hornady solids peformed very well.

Hornady should not represent its Interbonds as good for thick-skinned, heavy-boned dangerous game.

BTW, my PH's bear claws were pefect mushrooms with very high weight retention.

How did the Hornady solids look?

All of my shots were broadside (can you believe it?) and the solids exited.

Hunter: Thanks for the great report and looking forward to the long version. In your absence there's been a lot of discussion on this bullet and on the Nosler equivalent, the Accubond here and in another forum.
On the Hornady, there's a short blerb on Steve Hornady's hunt there and the Ibs were as you descriibe. Also some rather poor performance from the Noslers out of a 338 Win Mag on animals as small as bushbuck.

One thing's for sure, those buffalo continue to amaze me. I was a bit disappointed with my 41 Rigby when my buff took three, well placed shots from my 416 using 400gr Swift A Frames and the old Hornady solids to put down my buff, but I see your 458 Lott fared about the same.

Thanks again for the report, jorge

Jorge,
My Buddy Mike was using a .416 Rigby and Barnes X bullets. His buffs were soaking those up too. They're tough critters.

I felt better holding the Lott rather than my .375 H&H (my light rifle on this trip) but based on my reading I was not surprised it took several rounds to make them go down following an initial, solid heartshot on each.

I think the best approach is... keep shooting.

I wish that Hornady would go back to making the Inter-Lock. As it was a .50 cent practice bullet. Their new IB is now priced the same as Woodlieghs, $1ea, and the Woodlieghs are a proven design. So no "need" for the IB.

Hog Killer