Anyone have any experience (or opinion) with the 430 gr. North Fork bullets in the 404 Jeffery?

Any better/worse (or about the same) than the 400 gr. Swift A-Frames that I have used?

I am primarily thinking of Cape Buffalo.

Thanks in advance for your replies.

They are an excellent bullet for Cape Buffalo. They expand into perfect mushrooms every damn time..I field tested them for the original owner of NO. Fork..you wont be dissatisfied. I prefer them or the Woodleigh 400 gr. bullets, both work great..and better than the 400 gr. IMO...I also found the 450 Woodleigh to be a great bullet.

Not to say the 400 gr. swift isn't a great buffalo bullet, it is..but I like the extra weight and it seems to me, right or not, the heavier 40 caliber bullets jump themselves to 458 Lott effectiveness. That ought to stir the 45 caliber boys from head to toe..

Had to make a late change in the bullet weight in paragraph one, sorry about that but caught it late..

Thanks Ray for the opinion.

I noticed the 430 gr. 404J bullet has equal sectional density (.343) as the 500 gr. 458 Lott bullet (.341).

Pretty impressive.

That's what I used for my elephant in 2014.

430 gr NF Solid
79.5 gr H4350
3.59" COL
Norma Brass, CCI #250
24" Barrel
2,200 fps

I really liked them - one big hole at 50 yards on paper; love the pressure bands.

Also whacked a bushbuck at 180 yards with one. Thought the 380 gr SP would do to much damage.

Austin Hunter:

Thanks for the reply and information!

I love those NF solids and softs, but the NF cup points are about my all time favorite bullet for DG under most circumstances, or barring head shots for elephant where the flat nose solid is king of the hill.

I have some 450 gr NF loaded up for my 458 Win Mag (which I bought from you Ray) that I'm itching to shoot a hippo with,

Since we're talking a solid here, all we care about is penetration.

Which solid bullet do you think would have the most penetration:
The 400 gr. at 2,300 fps or the 430 gr. at (2150 or whatever)?
Or even a 450 gr.? This is all in 404 Jeffery of course.

Thanks for your opinion.

the difference would me minimal, and dependant on what each of those bullets encountered, such as a belly full of grass or a tusk for instance or just honeycomb...I would lean towards a 450 gr. solid at about 2100 to 2200 FPS, but for no particular reason other than its something I have never tried except on Cape buffalo..For Hippo any would work just fine, but the 450 Woodleigh has always amazed me. but I have an interest in them since I had a small say so in that bullet, and was the one who field tested them in Africa them for Woodliegh in my 404 and 416, also the 375 350 gr. Woodleigh. They seemed to give me a one upmanship to a 458 Win. or LOtt perhaps. The one thing I noticed is when that 450 gr. soft in my 404 hit a buff he shuddered all over, that impressed mw for whatever that's worth..The solids just went thru buff as expected. North forks flat nose solids or GS Customs flat nose solids work fine on anything that walks.

Thanks Ray for sharing your experiences, knowledge and opinions.

Greatly apprecited.

I can't say I have experience with that particular bullet, but I did use NF's exclusively on a recent trip to Zim in the 375. Using a combination of SS's and CPS's I shot 12 animal's. I used a 300 grain SS on the first shot for the Buffalo and Eland. The buff was punched through both lungs breaking the offside shoulder with the soft and 2 more CPS's angling into the left side through the rumen, one of which went through the top of the heart, dead buffalo. The Eland was facing towards me and a soft into the shoulder destroyed it and most likely would have killed him but a couple more CPS's did serious damage. The Giraffe warfare consisted of 4 CPS's and a Giraffe piled up in a tree 50 yards from the first shot. The rest of the trip consisted of one miss on a Klipspringer that gave me a last look on top of a Kopje, and 9 one shot kills with either SS's or CPS's on animals from size of Klipspringer to Waterbuck. Needless to say I am big fan of Northforks, they where very accurate in my gun,the only two SS's found held all but a few grains of weight, the CPS's where near 100% also.

Give them a try, they will do fine

I agree with Gale on those North Fork cup points, again I had a hand in there development, and got to test them in Africa..If I was only allowed one bullet for all DG, world wide it would be the cup point, at least in .375 caliber and upwards..Ive used it in the 375, 416, and 404 J., and to a lesser degree in the 9.3x62, but even in the 9.3x62 it was decent Cape buffalo killer..The best thing about it is you can call it an expanding solid, that's a perfect match for Africa.

Ray out of curiosity, which bullet you were not part of genesis?

these are the only one's the skinners recovered, we saw a soft on the offside of a Zebra just under the skin, but it got lost or I did not receive it.





cant say enough good about Northfork, thanks Ray for helping them out

Thanks Gale for the information and the photos!

Surefire7

Medved,
I worked with Jeff at Woodleigh on the 350gr 375s and 450 gr. 40 calibers...I worked with North Fork on the cup point and flat nose solid..Thats it. My payment was in about 600 bullets to test for them in in Africa in both cases, and most appreciated...Grand bullets they are.