In a life and death situation like this has the potential to be... Do NOT take any Hornady ammo with you. I used 250 grain GMX in my 375 H&H on a bear hunt last spring. Shot two black bears, both shots happened to be quartering to me with the bullet entering the front of the near shoulder and exiting the back of the far shoulder. Both bears dropped in their tracks. But those were about ideal conditions and relatively close range. And arguably those are relatively easy animals to kill. So I took that ammo on my recent leopard hunt and also used them on an eland. Terrible performance from the bullets. I'll post some pictures.
Any Hornady ammo you may have should be burned up on practice, it is great for that. Oh, and it works fine on baboons
The A Frames are as good a choice as any. Get them loaded up and do some practice to be sure they are hitting where you are aiming.
From the left, two broken off petals and the majority of the bullet from my leopard. One shot kill but some luck involved. The cat was in a terrible position for a shot, staring at me, ears laid back, snarling, front chest down into the branches of a big green fig tree. He moved enough for me to take a shot at his side. Our theory is the bullet hit a small branch, broke up as there were two big entry holes that looked like exits... But the parts in the picture came out the back end of the cat, and there was only one shot. Tore the lungs out. My disappointment is that I've seen TSX bullets go through branches and hold together. The next two are 250 grain GMX bullets out of my livingston eland. Then a 300 grain Trophy bonded bear claw that went from the front end of a lion and stopped in the rear end. I would expect near identical performance from an A Frame.
Then on the right are 525 grain TSX bullets, the first one traversed a buffalo and the last went through both shoulders in a high heart shot on a big bull giraffe. Difficult to see in the picture but that bullet from the giraffe looks like the petals were ground down with a disk grinder. Giraffe are supper hard tough animals.
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Hi Bob,
Excellent photos, thanks for posting same.
My following rant is not aimed at you, since that would be preaching to the choir, you definitely know as much (probably more) about ballistics than I do.
Instead, it is intended for those new hunters, still gathering information toward their first safari, in hopes they will not fall prey to whatever fantastic claims the "dangerous game bullet" manufacturers are plastering the web with lately.
Even though I used the Hornady DGX / DGS on buffalo and so called "plains game", with excellent results in every way nonetheless, those bullets are evidently too fragile for today's typical big game cartridge velocities, at least those cartridges commonly chambered in bolt action repeaters lately.
The secret to their success, seems to be in using them at slower / old time velocities (they are an old time design so, that of course fits perfectly).
That being said, unless your specific rifle simply will not accurately shoot Swift A-Frame, Trophy Bonded Bear Claw or, any other brand of "premium" super tough, expanding bullets of today, I see no wisdom in using the DGX at any velocity, (slower / old time or not).
Our excellent writer Gizmo within this forum, even writes of the DGS ("Dangerous Game Solid") flying to pieces upon striking a lion, from his .416 Ruger caliber rifle / 400 grain (2400 fps ? not exactly space age velocity).
I have only heard of that one failure from the DGS bullets so far.
I did shoot a 480 grain one (.450 No2 NE double rifle) through almost 4 feet of buffalo, (was my 2nd shot into him, quartering away), resulting in a smashed spine, near the end of it's travel, muzzle velocity - 2050 fps.
That bullet was not recovered but, by examining the wound channel, I conclude it probably did not deform much, if at all.
Be that as it may, one bullet does not prove very much, in the grand scheme of things.
At any rate, with the availability of todays various brands of monolithic solids (especially the excellent flat nose or "meplat" shape ones), I see no serious reason to choose any brand lead core "solid" on dangerous game, except if your particular rifle refuses to shoot them accurately (as in regulating certain finicky double rifles).
Anyway:
The two Barnes TSX bullets from your .505 vs buffalo & giraffe look perfect, as does the TB Bear Claw bullet from your .375 vs Lion.
Of the two Hornady GMX bullets from your .375 vs eland - the left one, with tip bent over and obviously no expansion, illustrates precisely why I do not trust any hollow point design, no matter what brand or material / combination of materials they are made of.
---->Hollow points are designed to deform / "mushroom" by means of hydraulic pressure from blood being forced into the hole, under the very high pressure of a bullet's impact on live meat.
They usually work .... but when they don't work, it's almost always because, the tip gets bent over (exactly like the one in your photo) by nicking a bone before reaching the vitals or, even nicking a stick before it reaches the animal to begin with.
Predictably, this almost always results in a very small wound channel, similar to a full metal jacket "military spitzer" or, as one PH I know puts it, "an ice pick".
---->The other all too common classic failure of hollow point bullets is that, the hole gets plugged with grass or, leaves, or hair or, mud (or, any combination of these), resulting in the bullet not expanding, again leaving a very small wound channel.
I have even heard rumor of hollow point failure from the hole being plugged with a bit of leather, from nothing more than simply striking a thick skinned animal, as otherwise planned but resulting in, once the bullet passes through the thick hide and gets to the meat, there's no place for the blood to enter the hollow point, and it whistles through the animal, again like a FMJ military spitzer (or an "ice pick" if one prefers).
But in fairness to the hollow point design, I have not seen this last scenario, I've only heard authorless rumor of it.
Thanks again for the photos and excellent post,
Paul Dog.
