Any recommendations from anyone here? Just spoke to a friend who's going to Africa in Aug. His first time. Plains game and buff. Using 375 H&H and 270 Weatherby. Thanks for the help.

Gimpy,

I have had real good luck with Swift A-Frames in the .375. Very accurate in my two .375s and have worked well on buffalo, and eland sized game all the way down to warthog and impala size game.

Also, Trophy Bonded Sledghammer Solids shoot well out of my guns.

Regards,

Terry

I'd recommend Barnes X or Woodleigh PSP and then a good quality solid for any follow ups.

however I would say that the one bullet you need to avoid like the plague is the Trophy bonded......(sorry to disagree Terry!) They might shoot straight, but I have seen some truly appalling terminal bullet performance with these bullets. Last year I had a client shoot an Eland with one and it only penetrated to the middle of the animal and distorted to the shape of a banana. If it had been a Buffalo and hit a rib on entry we could have ended up with trouble on our hands. If it had been an Elephant it could have meant even more trouble.

In order of prefernnce.

Barnes X
Trophy Bonded Bear Claws
Swift A-Frame
Nosler Partition

If your friend uses the Barnes X, then he does not need any solids.

300gr. Swift A-frames have never let me down, on buff or on plains game.

George

I've had positive results with trophy bonded bear claws. Sorry Shakari, but in my case they fully penetrated the Buffalo.

I will pass this info to my friend.

Steve,

Interesting to hear about the Trophy Bonded bullets. My only experience with Trophy Bonded is with their Sledgehammer Solids. Was your client using the soft (Bearclaws) by Trophy Bonded on that Eland? What caliber rifle was he shooting?

Regards,

Terry

I have used 300 grain Failsafes on a buffalo and hippo with great terminal effect. One shot kills on both. These shoot very accurately in my Winchester 375 H&H. If a sample of two animals is of any help to your friend.

Perry

Ditto what Terry and George said. Swift A-Frames are great on buff.

I shot my buffalo with a 300 grain Swift A-Frame, followed by 300 grain Barnes solids. Worked a performed very well. However, I kind of found the Swift's to be a little too tuff on plainsgame. I was lucky enough to get double lung shots on most of my plainsgame. Just about all (except the 25 lbs. klipspringer) ran at the shot without much indication of being hit and then fell over after about 50 to 100 yards. This included a 25lbs. Grysbuck, 2 Impala, Warthog, Kudu, Waterbuck, etc.

Based upon the above performance, I will either be shooting 300 grain Woodlieghs, or 300 grain Northforks in my 375 H&H on my upcoming buff/plainsgame hunt in Zim this August. However, I will be taking a .416 Rigby, loaded with 400 grain Nosler Partitions, for my buffalo (and anything else that gets in my way while I have it in my hands).

Tim

I used Federal Trophy Bonded Bear Claws for one primary reason: I do not reload and the Federal TB Solids that Federal makes shot almost identically as the Federal TBBC softs. Needing both for a buffalo, this was a critial issue to me. I bought a bunch of .375 Swift-A-Frames (still have them if anyone wants to buy them) but they shot higher than the Federal TB Solids, so the combo didn't work for me. The Federal TB soft and solid combo was ideal.

I did shoot Swift-A-Frames in my .300 Win Mag for plains game as was very pleased with them.

If you're interested, here are the TB softs I recovered from my eland. Here are the TB softs and solids I found in my buffalo.

Terry,

It was a Trophy bonded solid and the shot was just over 200 yards from a .375 H&H. The bullet literally ended up as bent as a banana......I've gotta say that I've seen a few of these bullets underperform but this was the worst example. Most of the failures I've seen have been in .375 H&H, but that's what most clients use, so I guess that doesn't prove anything.

I still rate Barnes X & woodleigh PSP as the very best of the lot. I've never come across a single failure with either of these bullets.

Just discovered my friend doesn't reload anymore, sold all his stuff. That really curtails his options. Guess it's gonna be A-Frames. Thanks again to all.