I am planning my second trip to Africa, an this time Buffalo is on my menu. At the same time I am planning to hunt the larger plainsgame (Eland, Sable, Zebra and Kudu).
I have choosen a CZ 550 .375 for the job, and I am speculation on which bullet to use, I believe it should be a 300 grain soft/ solid combination.
Please help me get wiser! Do you have eny experience with the .375 on Buffalo.
Thanks
J. Heimann

Heimann,

Welcome to the forum.

My recommendations is to stick with some of the Premium bullets that are widely available right now.

First choice is those bullets that are made of copper, such as the Barnes X.

Second is those that have a solid copper shank, like the Trophy Bonded Bear Claws.

Third is are the partition type bullets, such as the Swift A-Frame and Noslers. If you choose to use these, you might wish to take a few solids with you. Just in case you need to shoot a departing buffalo after it was shot.

I would not even consider using the normal soft point bullets on buffalo.

A combination of 300 grs Swift A-frames for plainsgame / 1. shot on the buff and 300 grs Barnes Super solids/ Woodleigh solids/ Trophy Bondes Sledgehammer solids will do the job nicely.. Just make sure they shoot to the same point of impact.

Thank you for the fast reply...
What about the woodleigh combination soft and solid? Do you regard it as a normal soft point?

I have many good experiences with the TB Bearclaw, and have used it for game as small as roedeer (60 pounds) all the way up to Kudu, Wilderbeest and Moose, with one shot kills.

J. Heimann

Follow up on TB Bearclaws...

I have used them in a "dirty old Six" 30/06 - 180 grain loads at 2880 fps.

Hi Saeed
I am going with Heimann on the buffalo hunt, so his question goes for me too. I understand that you would never use a softpoint... Does that apply to Woodleigh RN SN as well?
I will be shooting a .416Rigby cz550 and have had very good experience with that particular bullet, not on buffalo though, but on moose in a 9.3 cal.
My initial thoughts were 410grs Woodl. RNSN and 400grs Barnes solids for follow up's.

Thanks for the great place AR is

Woodleigh makes a protected point..I believe it is for deeper penetration on animals like buf...The Barnes X will rip of and do alot of damage...The swift has a front core of lead and will pentrate deep and still have alot of bullet left to keep doing damage as it passes thru the animal..
An alert buf will be tensed up and adrenelin in him and he will be hard this time solids might be in order...I will be using Bridger bullets and North Fork bullets for Africa this summer for buf and plains game..

Good luck and great shooting,
Mike

Niels,

I have only heard good things about the Woodleighs, but have never used them personally.

Still, I would personally use those bullets made of solid copper as my first choice, followed by those with a solid shank shank, and then the partition type bullets.

Of course, if none of the above is available to me, Woodleighs would be my first choice out of the softs.

The reason for this is that on some occasions, one will not get a good angle to shoot a buffalo. And I would personally hesitate to shoot a buffalo in the rear end if I did not have the right bullet.

Of course, on some occasions, that might be the only shot you get.

We had good results in Zimbabwe in 2002 using 270 grain Winchester FailSafes.

Some say they are just a Barnes knock-off, but I can't seem to get Barnes bullets to shoot very well. However, I developed a load for the FailSafe that shot MOA.

For that matter, their factory ammo in 270 grain FailSafe shot pretty accurately as well--in my rifle, a Winchester Model 70, mid-nineties vintage.

As much as I hate to agree with anything a certain troll on this forum has stated, I really don't think you can go wrong with Rhino Bullets. They are imported to the US by Bill Eisenbarger in Texas. They are cheaper than the Woodleighs and an excellent comprimise between a solid and soft. There are several reviews by good hunters and gun writers on their site, http://www.rhinobullets.co.za

I have had excellent luck with the .375/380gr rhinos so far. I was a Swift Aframe kinda guy forever until I used these. I normally keep my scope zeroed for the Aframe and my Iron sights for the rhinos (they are much heavier). Just for curiosities sake, I cut the nose off of one and weighed the solid shank alone, the shank weighed 290gr by itself. In the unlikely event the bullet comes apart, you still have darn near 300 gr of solid continuing on. You gotta like that!


The images on the right (top and bottom) are of the bullet taken out of one of my animals in 2002. Image from their website.

h&h you got contact info for Eisenbarger? I am always interested in a new bullet. Thanks D

I'm not an avid reloader so I like to work up loads and stick with them forever. In .375 H&H I'm using Nosler Partitions (300 gr.) and Hornady FMJRN encapsulated (300 gr.). I thought these were old standby's but they've received few votes here. Are these bad choices?

In the .375 H&H last year I used the new 350 gr. Woodleighs on Buffalo and they are a super bullet, combine them with a Bridger solid and you have the ultimate killing combination..They seem to put the old 375 in the 416 class.

I have used Nosler, Northforks, and Woodleighs in softs in the 375 H&H on Buffalo, and all worked for me...

Thanks!
I dont believe that there is a whole lot of difference between Rhino bullets and Bear Claws (except the bullet weight) and Rhino bullets is hard to find i Denmark, I tried them i my .30 though back i 2001 in Namibia..

Heimann,

Saeed really said it all. The X-bullets just don't shoot very great for me but the Trophy Bonded, Swift A-Frame and Noslers have worked exceedingly well for me. With a few solids for follow up or for the little guys and your covered for everything.

Welcome aboard,

Mark

I base my own bullet choises on the vote of more experienced people who have used that particular bullet on hunts.
If I have experience with the animal and the type of hunting my self, I usually base my choise on that. But a good bondfire talk can get me to go in another direction. Like Heimann says it "you never stop learning" That means trying something new (once in a while)

I really liked the looks of those expanded Rhino bullets, I like those ragged propeller looking wings, they tear things up pretty darn good I would bet...I need to try them.

I have a problem with perfect mushrooming bullets that just melt into a smooth ball, the Swift being one example, as sometimes the don't work so hot on lighter game...

Ray I like the idea of a 350-380 gr Rhino bullet in the 375. What twist rate is needed to stabilize such a long heavy bullet. I think mine is a 1 in 14. Any knowledge? D

I'm kind of with Ray on admiring those recovered Rhinos. Though I am restricting my African battery to the .318 and the .404 this year, there could come a day when I would want to take Lily Martel back to the Dark Continent even though she's really designed to be an Arctic rifle. Yeah, if you have a contact point for Eisenberger, please post.

Minumum twist for a 380gr. should be at 13.7".

Sarge,

rhinobullets.com

Here is Bill's info:


rhino-man@huston.rr.com

Tell him Rob in Florida referred you. He won't give you a discount, but he may give me brownie points!

So far I have used them in the .375, the .500 Jeffrey and a 7x57. The 7x57 mushroomed a bit, but still had a huge frontal area, the .500 and the .375 were spectacular. Very accurate as well. The first shot on a blue wildebeest was a bit far back, as the critter was running flat out almost straight away. Hit him at 350+ meters. Second shot followed immediately at +/- 400m (this is the bullet above). Classic Freestate heart shot. Path of bullet was enter right buttox, 10cm off center, penetrated liver, stomach, edge of left lung, nicked top of heart, stopped near left shoulder. You could stick a broom handle thru the wound channel if you laid him out just right. I actually cut my finger on the recovered bullet! Retained weight was about 367gr.

Correct me it I'm wrong (and I have all the confidence in the world that you will), but aren't the Rhino and the TBBC very similar in construction? Their cross sections look identical.

If so, why not just go with the Bear Claws, which are available right here in the good ol' USofA?

The rhinos are also available here, and the tbbc isn't available in 380 grainers. Pesonally, and this is just mho by way of personal experience(I don't want to start anything on this), My luck with the tbbc has peen pretty crappy. I may be loading them too hot, but they lose petals and break up on me. I have recovered two that hit shoulders and just broke up into small pieces. On one of those the heaviest piece recovered was 133gr. I had one rhino .375/380 go to pieces on me and all I found was the shank. It weighed 258gr and looked like I could have loaded it in my .38 as a super wadcutter. I've been heavy into terminal ballistics and bullet perf for a few years now, and these are the best I've used for hunting.

GA HUNTER do they make 375 bear claws in 380 gr? If so I am seriously interested. Yep, Bear claws are great bullets, but not available( best I know) in these heavy weights. 350 and 380 grain bullets may just put the old 375 H&H in a different class. Spectacular pictures of those "tiger lilly" expanded bullets. Good Hunting, "D"

Rhinoman address has fatal errors. Got a ph #. Thanks, D

I haven't emailed Bill for a while. If you go to their main website, there is a banner linking to his contact info. Look for something like "now available in US" or something, in case anyone else wants to get ahold of him.
If he ever stops importing them, we need to get people who are going over to bring them back for the rest of us!

citori3,

Noslers work just fine, especially on lighter stuff, including zebra. The reason Swifts usually do not work so well on lighter game is they take longer to open up, and hence act more like solids. On light game such as impala, they run for a few yards with Swifts but drop stone dead with Partitions.

I have always had good luck with Swift on buffalo.

There is always room for improvements, but I wouldn't panic into thinking that Partitions and Swifts are now "bad."

citori3,

If that's the old 300 grain Hornady steel jacketed RN.. I believe that they quit making them and replaced them with a
homogenous type solid. I have a fair supply of the old steel bullets. It wasn't broke but they fixed it anyway!

Rich Elliott

/

Thank you all, for you good advice �n this very hot topic.
After reading all your posts, and then som at this great forum I have setteled for a woodleigh 350 grain soft/solid solution for the .375 -
Unless someone screams at me!!!! DONT!

I would have loved to try the 380 grain Rhino bullet, but the agent in Sweden is steeling candy from kids with the pricing of the Rhino bullet ( 2 US dollar a bullet) !!!!!

I can by Woodleighs at half that price !!

If you have a load data for the 350 I would love to hear about it...

Thanks

Jan

HI Jan

I thought I would be the last to scream at you If you went with the woodleighs. But I'll take a scream at you, nevertheless.
Those pics. of the Rhinos looked too good not to try them out.!!
There must be a way to get around the swedish agent, so that we wont have to find you among the homeless after buying bullets from him.
Even though it is close to impossible to get bullets from the states, nowadays, I just learned that it might be a trick to buy from Australia.

(to those of you out there, reading this. Yes you are right on.. It is cheaper for a Dane to buy bullets anywhere on planet earth, as long as it is outside Europe.
Cheaper meaning A LOT cheaper. Rhinos in 416 or 375 are about 3$ per bullet... (that is three US dollars) (a little more actually but who's counting when we talk about to figures like that. It is insane, just imagine how much it cost to work up a load. Talking about getting worked up, I better end this post before I start pounding the PC)


For those of you who live in the US and reload. I envy you.

But in a good way

Lookin at the pictures of the solids, it looks like they are of the right kind too. I think I like that flat meplat, Just in case we cannot get any bridger solids either.

Really... If I were to say just one little thing that is negative, about this forum, it would be that I see so much good stuff and learn so much of what is out there, which is quite frustrating, since most of it is not available to us or just too insanely expensive for non idiot danes.

Ignorance is sometimes a bliss..