Has anybody out there used Rhino bullets for hunting?

I have, was less than impressed, and will add my experiences, but I would like to hear from anybody else who has as well.

Yes - shot 4 kudu with them this year.

#1 with 300 Win Mag using 200 grain was shot by my young son at about 80 metres, quite a big E Cape bull (46,5") the bull was half facing him and the bullet entered just left of centre, hit the right front leg bone and deflected into ribs, broke about 3 or 4 of them and then travelled between ribs and skin - a nice wide mushroom but a little lopsided with 99,5% weight retention.

As an experiment to minmise meat damge I shot a smaller bull (44") with 375 H&H using the massive 380 grain buffalo bullets. Distance also about 80m but broadside so didn't recover the bullet. The trial was a tremendous success with very very little meat damage.

After that shot 2 cows with same 380 grain bullets with same good impressions but unfortunately no recovered bullets.

All 3 kudu shot with 375 dropped like a tonne of bricks with a very large wound channels and minimal bloodshot meat.

My personal opinion is to load them on the slow side for relatively close quarter use, if you want to load for huge speeds and long shots then their design makes me feel there would be more accurate bullets available.

My experience and conclusions are exactly the opposite of yours!

I loaded 180-grainers in my .30-06 at almost 2 800 ft/sec and they absolutely failed to expand! Entrance and exit wounds were exactly the same size and I spent a loooong time looking for everything I shot with them. They behaved exactly like .308-calibre solids.

A friend of mine used the 165-grainers in his .30-06 (about 2 850 ft/sec) and the 380-grainers in his .375 (about 2 200 ft/sec). The 165-grainers expanded very little and caused very little damage as well as a result - his gemsbuck and kudu ran off and had to be shot again. He shot a big wildebeest bull through the shoulders with the 380-grain .375 and although the bull went down in short order, penetration was poor, to say the least. We found the bullet against the bone of the opposite shoulder (which wasn't even cracked, let alone broken), severely over-expanded. Taking into account that penetration coupled to a big wound channel is the reason for that bullet's existence, and after looking at the damage to that wildebeest's chest cavity, I will not use it on a buffalo, no matter who says or claims what about that bullet.

The rumour over here locally is that Rhino Bullets are having trouble getting the same quality of copper (or whatever it is they use for their bullet jackets) on a continuous basis. This forces them into an almost never-ending cycle of experimentation and the end result is sometimes erratic bullet performance.

To be honest, I know people who are extremely happy with Rhino bullets, and I accept the claims they make for the bullets with no qualms. For my money, however, I will not touch them ever again. They are very expensive as well, and costs about the same as Woodleigh's over here.

Looks like you were lucky enough to get bullets from a good batch.

I bought both the 375 and 308 bullets about Feb 2007, so one could safely assume they were made at the end of 2006 or so, which is probabaly before the worldwide shortage on commodities (and hence price increases) took effect.

Funny you should should mention the aspect of sub-grade copper. I would have thought that being a pure metal (ie, not an alloy) copper is copper but apparently not so - speaking to Gerhard from GS Custom - apparently he goes to great lengths to procure copper from one consistent source because the purity and characteristics differ so much from producer to producer.

Thanks for the tip though - if I run into a buffalo with my 380 grainers I'll have to remember to pull the trigger extra hard!

quote:

Originally posted by jvw375:


I loaded 180-grainers in my .30-06 at almost 2 800 ft/sec and they absolutely failed to expand! .

I had one such experience with Rhino.

Anyone have any experience with the 425 gr .458 Rhino? Looks to be an almost ideal bullet for the .458 AR at 2350 fps and up.

Interesting post, jvw, and quite serious if the explanation is true. One feels for them not being able to get material. What have other SA users said about the bullets lately? No use finding opionions from the earlier batches.

Not sure what the situation is lately, everybody I knew who used to Rhino's no longer do so!

Most of the complaints I've heard centred around smaller calibre bullets, though, so it seems to be less of a problem with the larger caibres (9,3 mm and larger).

Rhino Bullets are popular in SA. I have been using them for some 10 odd years now, and I am quite happy with them. Most PH's use them as well in the bigger calibers.

I will find out about the reference made to the copper issue not being consistent in quality and if it is indeed true that copper is being sourced from different suppliers and/or the varying quality that does not meet the specification. Also, who the suppliers are and what the specs are.

Warrior

The following is published on behalf of Rhino Bullets - a family business of Kobus and Shirley van der Westhuizen:

To whom it may concern

Rhino Bullets has been using the same supplier for the last 6 years, namely Non Ferrous Metals. Our material is specially made for us. To date we have only had to return two lots of material and the last time was 2 years ago, which consisted of 2 batches @ 500 kg each. These batches were sent back and no bullets were sold from them. It is quite easy to detect if the material is faulty. The material shows marks on it when the bullet jacket gets produced. These marks indicate that the bonding of the material structure is not homogenously bonded and can lead to total break up of the bullet on impact. When faulty material is encountered the whole batch of material gets returned to the manufacture for replacement.

With regard to bullets not opening up, I had 2 complaints with the 180 grain bullet not opening up as the bullet was shot at low velocity in 308 Winchesters at long range. Since Jan 2010 I have decided that the .308 bullets also get punched with a square punch to cut 4 grooves on the inside of the drilled hole to aid the bullet in opening up more easily. All bullets get annealed for 1 hour to soften the bullet material. All bullets from .308 caliber and up now get the 4 groove punch treatment.

Last year (2010) we produced about 400,000 bullets and I have a lot of regular customers ordering direct from me, so I can safely say I have repeat business from my clientele.

Should anyone require further information about my bullets they can contact me directly - contact details are on my website. For interest sake, I will aslo share the specs on the copper material I am using. I have requested the specs from Non Ferrous Metals and should have it soon.

Best regards
Kobus van der Westhuizen

Rhino Bullets
P. O. Box 5420
Greenfields
East London
5208

Tel. No. 043 736 1822
Cell: 082 374 6440
Fax: 0866724061

This thread must be an OLD one resurrected. I took 425s loaded in a .458 AR to 2400 fps to Africa in 2009.

Rifle shot a clover leaf during sight-in at camp.

Killed Warthog, Wildebeast, Kudu, and a HUGE Eland with the bullets. None were recovered. The Wildebeast at 65 yards and Eland at 184 yards were DRTs. The bullet literally knocked the Wildebeast over.

I will use Rhinos again!

I used the 250 gr in my 338 Win Mag on Eland and they were worked peerfectly.

quote:

I used the 250 gr in my 338 Win Mag on Eland and they were worked perfectly.

Terry Blauwkamp shooting a non-Barnes bullet????

Retrieved bullet from a buffalo.
The bullet was cut out on the opposite side, underneath the skin.
A 286 gr Rhino bullet - retained weight was 285.2%

Carl Arnold
March 18, 2009