Going on my 1st African hunt. I am planning on using my 375,and 300gr Nosler Partitions. One of my hunting partners (who does have a bit of experiance with Buff) Recemended Trophy Bonded Bear Claws or Swift A Frames instead. Just wondering what others might think would be the best choice of a soft point and which solid would be a good.

My pick would be the TSX or the Fail Safe these are the deepest penetrating expanding bullet that I know of and every thing that I have shot with them go down very fast Great Bullets!

I shot this buffalo with a 300 gr. Partition out a .375 H&H. It went down plenty quick. In fact it ran less and went down quicker than a buffalo I shot in the same place with a Swift bullet out of a .460 Wby. Both bullets on both buffalo were balled up under the hide on the off shoulder.



There are lots of bullets that are "sexier" (and more expensive) than the Partitions but it's still pretty hard to fault their overall performance.

Best of luck,
Kyler

Thanks Kyler. I have had good luck with the partitions on other game. Which solid would you recemend?

For buffalo only I would use the North Fork cup nose solid.

http://www.northforkbullets.com

Or the Bridger brass solids.

Thanks for the information and link to North Fork. Also a belated thanks for showing the regulations concerning the use of a ....45-70 on DG !!!!!!

You'll be FINE with the Partition or the TBBC. Use the one your rifle shoots best and forget all the hoopla. jorge

There are several soft points that will be more than satisfactory for your application, many of which have been mentioned. I would add to those Woodleighs and they have a round nose and a protected point.

You may want to check as see which of the soft points will shoot to the same point of aim as your selected solid or get several solids and several of the soft points and see which ones will shoot to the same point of aim. I had problems with this "harmonizing" and had to change my loads after I had determined that I'd use one brand of solid and another brand of soft point. Both were accurate, but they would not shoot to the same POA, so it was back to the drawing board.

Hope this saves you some time and effort. Kudude

quote:

Originally posted by leemar28:
Going on my 1st African hunt. I am planning on using my 375,and 300gr Nosler Partitions. One of my hunting partners (who does have a bit of experiance with Buff) Recemended Trophy Bonded Bear Claws or Swift A Frames instead. Just wondering what others might think would be the best choice of a soft point and which solid would be a good.

Lemar28 , the only one shot kills I have on Cape buffalo have been with a 375 H&H, useing 300 gr Nosler Partitions @ 2550 fps. Everything else I've used have taken at least three shots regardless of bullet type or caliber! I carry my rifle loaded with a Nosler partition in the spout, and three Barnes Super solids in the magazine! You will get all the penetration you want on Buffalo with the NP!

Now, that is if you want to use a conventional bullet! If not, then I reccomend the North Fork cup point for everything, in your 375 H&H. It will work on everything from jackrabbet, to hippo, Elephant is another matter. For him I'd use something bigger, and tougher, like a Woodliegh steel jacketed solid, or the flat point NF solid!

Good luck on your hunt, and if you use any of the quality controled expansion bullets, if you place them right you'll be OK!

I like the Noslers, Northforks (both soft and cup points), and Woodleighs, I have used most all the available bullets in .375 and 416 and these are the ones I liked best..the Nosler is one of the best penetrating bullets out there in soft point persuasion.

The cup points from Northfork are my all time favorite buffalo bullets hands down in any caliber, they nearly always leave two holes and I like blood spewing out both sides...Most premium soft point bullets fail to exit and all you get is nose and mouth blood...side blood spewing out both sides chest high in the high grass of Tanzania lets you track with out looking down, or even looking for that matter. Nose blood means everyone is humping along bent over looking for drippings and something is out there watching you!!

I also used a 375-caliber 300gr Nosler Partition at around 2525 fps for the 1st shot on the only buff I've taken to date. It was a front-quartering shot that hit the crease where the neck joins the body....broke the neck and weighed 200+/- grains on recovery. Dropped on the spot.

This is typical of almost every Partition I've ever recoverd ---- 2/3's weight retention on the main bullet.

There are a lot of good bullets availabe but I wanted to use one expanding bullet for everything from warthog to buff and leopard and the Nosler's gave the best accuracy and allowed me to adjust my solid's load so that when the 300gr Nosler printed 1" high at 100 yards the solids printed dead on a 50 yards.

I did have solids in the magazine.

quote:

Originally posted by DB Bill:

That's a nice Buff Bill, where were you hunting?

It was a couple of years ago in Matetsi 6. I shot him on day 4 or 5 of a 15-day hunt, We saw at least a dozen later that were about the sam size and we saw 2 or 3 that would have been a couple of inches bigger.

Ray and Dan, I have some new Bridger Bullets for you to give a go if you want. They are a solid copper bullet but with a bit of turning in the nose to get them to open up a bit. I am shooting for either just under the offside skin or barely a pass through.

I want to have a bullet for shooting into herds with little risk to animals on the far side of the intended target. Groups have been great and they will add 100 to 150 yards to your shooting in the 375 and 416 cal guns. The BC will be impressive for both .375 and .416 caliber bullet. Accuracy is very good and pressure is where you would expect a driving band bullets design to be. I’m looking for a DG load that will double as a good PG load all in one loading. One less thing to worry about (do I have the right bullets in the gun) I've been getting most loads to print under an inch for 3 fast shots. After that the heat starts to show its magic and opens it up a bit (1.5†or so) I think RIP tried a few in 375 and really liked them. RIP any input here. I'm calling them the Bridger Hog in honor of Walter and Saeed who has to put up with Walter's shenanigans. I've only taken an antelope and a decent Mule deer and penetration was complete with massive amounts of internal damage. The Mule Deer dropped at the shot (276 yds range finder) while the lope went 5-8 steps and fell (478 yards range finder). He was one very sick critter and struggled to go that far. No follow up shots were required in either shooting.



Regarding the topic at hand, the Nosler PTs are a great bullet and I would have no reservation at all about facing Mbogo so armed. I would like to have the remainder of the magazine filled with my Bridger Bullets Solids for either a going away Texas heart shot or an I’m gonna kill you sucker charge. I realize I’m completely biases but with good reason. The dam things just work. They are accurate, and penetrate as well or better than other bullets available. Plus I’ve ended some sticky situations with the solids that I would not have so easily done if I had a different bullet loaded and in the chamber. This is my opinion of course but I’ve shot thousands of my bullets and thousands of the others and I have complete faith in the Bridger Bullet Design.

Good hunting all.

John

My sone and I used 300 grain trophy bonded bearclaws. Two buff were one shot kills and the third would have been if had not of ran right at us. I was finished off with solids. I used Partitions as well, but my rifles did not like the partitions.

Fritz,
As you probably know I tested the Bridger FN solids for John about 3 years ago and still use his FN solids..They are a great bullet and a bit harder than most others...I use the 350 gr. Bridger FN almost exclusively in my 10.75x68 for everything, but have not had it in Africa as yet, next year will be is baptism...It will kill a deer or antelope very well and in a hurry with never a recovered bullet, forget that.

The bullet you describe is very simular to one of the wonderful Northfork cup points so I am sure it is a dandy as that bullet has proven itself to me for buffalo and plainsgame, I have shot a lot of buff with that bullet in several calibers, it workds..Good move on your part, its a great design and I look forward to trying it in .416, 375, .423 calibers and .470 if you are going to produce it in the bigger calibers...

Please forward me all your contact addresses and information on your line of production..As you know John and gang has booked with us for 2007, and thats a great opertunity to test these mean babies, Pierre uses the FN solids in his 500 Jefferys as I loaded up about 100 of them for him some time back...

Ray. Just for your info Fritz454 and John at Bridger Bullets is the same guy. ME

The fritz handle is an old name I got years ago when working in the shop. I would run around really focused and the guys thought I was a mad German scientist. The 454 is my favorite engine size and not a bad handgun caliber. Ah the old drag racing days.

I'm so looking forward to the hunt with Pierre. I'm going to be doing a lot of bullet testing while I'm there and will try to convince some of the other guys in camp to do the same. I want to take more than the standard two guns so I can test a larger velocity spread. I may compromise on 3 but I really don’t want the headache of even that many when traveling.

I think you’ve seen a prototype .375-300 gr bullet I’m going to try out. It has a brass tip and a tapered hollow point. I’ve shot an elk with it and it performed great. The idea is to make a stout bullet that is an excellent choice for DG but also “soft†enough to expand well on soft skinned game. It also has a great BC for the snipers out there and for hunting on windy days.

I just got in 15,000 pounds of material on Friday. I’ll be starting to turn the stock for Neal on Monday. I figure it will take me a couple of months to run thru all of that but then you will be able to buy from stock any of the standard calibers and weights. Neal should be seeing his first shipment of bullets end of next week. I’m going to start with .375 and then .416.

I will be adding the softer bullets to work in tandem with the solids soon after that. Since I use a non-standard mix of copper and zinc I need to buy in 15000 lb lots. It’s not a off the shelf material. I tried several hundred mixes before I came up with this one but it does seem to work very well, tough but not brittle.

I’ll call you next week. I want to get some info on your PG hunts in RSA. I’m thinking of adding two weeks either before or after the hunt with Pierre. This will be my semi retirement hunt. It has to be one for the books.

John
Bridger Bullets

John, I would be interested in trying them out, if they are a driving band design. Can you send me 5 pieces in .366 and 5 pieces in .510"? (I would ask for more, but don't want to appear greedy. )

500grains
As of now I have only done them in .375 but dropping to .366 is simple. The 510s are a new program, still not a problem at all.

I'm dedicating all machine time right now toward getting Neal a full stock of solids. As soon as I'm done with that I'll get you some samples (more than 5 ) I think you'll like them.

I also have some without the brass tip. This allows the bullets to be a bit shorter but does decrease the BC. RIP has shot some of these and spoke highly of the accuracy he got.

Eventually I'll need to decide which one to offer as having both is redundant.

John

500grains, I forgot to mention, they are a driving band bullet. That is the only type you will ever see me making....except for bore riders which are very similar in design and function

Heck John, I thought Fritz was the guy selling them!!! Let me know when the new bullets are available and I will certainly try them out and I'll be sure and take Pierre some for his 375, 416 and 500 Jeff to Dallas if they are available by then...He will give them a workout as will I next year...I still have a small supply of the 350 gr. Flat nose solids in .423 and they are set aside for my 10.75x68 and I run them out a 2350 FPS, that should wack an old Dagga boy pretty good...

The new expanding bullet is very interresting, but I am not real sure what the principle is or the construction...Looking forward to that...