300 gr swift A-Frame 375 h&h penetrate humerus?

channelkat

channelkat

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Is a 300 grain swift a frame fired from 375 h&h, adequate to break a Cape buffalo humerus and provide reliable penetration at say <50 yards?

The 375 and buffalo are both new to me, and I’m trying to better understand the rifle/ bullets limitations.
 
I’ve had good success with a 300 grain a frame from a 375 H&H on buffalo. I understand many here have as well. I’ve never hit one in the humerus, but suspect it would go right through and continue to penetrate deeper, but likely not exit the hide on the far side. Absent hitting a large bone, a pass through is common.
 
It and trophy bonded bear claw are the most reliable bullets for mushroom and weight retention you will find. Others will penetrate further though. Short answer to your question is yes.
I think you will enjoy this podcast. Lot of information presented to answer your questions. I think it’s important to remember opinions do vary when listening though.
thebiggamehuntingblog.com

Ep 97: Africa Hunting Bullets 101 With Kevin Robertson

Apple | Google | iHeart | Spotify | Stitcher
thebiggamehuntingblog.com thebiggamehuntingblog.com
 
318AE said:
I’ve had good success with a 300 grain a frame from a 375 H&H on buffalo. I understand many here have as well. I’ve never hit one in the humerus, but suspect it would go right through and continue to penetrate deeper, but likely not exit the hide on the far side. Absent hitting a large bone, a pass through is common.
Click to expand...
I’ve shot 1 buffalo and two eland with swift a frames and I’ve shot 1 buffalo and 1 eland with trophy bonded bear claw which performs almost the same. I haven’t had a pass through. The buffalo they don’t reach the skin on other side. With eland, they were all on skin opposite side. The mushroom is so large I wouldn’t expect it to pass through. Not passing through can be a very good thing when buffalo are in herd.
 
Just came back from 16 days in Zimbabwe and Hugh Eland was a double shoulder and was just under skin on opposite side and that’s a lot of tough bone! And the bone was shattered on both sides including the opposite which broke the ball,socket & shoulder blade into pieces. The bullet wt was 259.5 GR and 0.884 mushroom.
that was the most lead loss I’ve seen from an A-frame, most only loose 4-5% but mushroom better than anything else I’ve used! this was at 88yds!

The buffalo I shot was in the river at 61 yds with 450-400 double only one bullet recovered with perfect mushroom and busted a lot of bone.

The Dogga Boy was able to make it up the opposite bank and dropped.
I put 3 more 375 300 A-frames in him at 108yds as he was down but we had to cross the river and it was going to take 2+ hours to recover and so to make 100% sure
”dead was dead” put 3 more 375 in him (“bullets are cheep”). All three were recovered with lots of spine and pelvic bone busted!
average wt was 288 gr.
The only other bullet I would ever consider if A-frames were unavailable are North Forks

As a surgeon with lots of gunshot experience, it’s tissue damage and blood loss that counts and I personally make every effort to recover and evaluate each wound!
Smaller lighter animals are usually DITT without recovery of bullets.
Using 300WM with 200 A-frames were flawless on Leopard and 2 Zebras and 3 Impala for bait.
 
375Fox said:
It and trophy bonded bear claw are the most reliable bullets for mushroom and weight retention you will find. Others will penetrate further though. Short answer to your question is yes.
I think you will enjoy this podcast. Lot of information presented to answer your questions. I think it’s important to remember opinions do vary when listening though.
thebiggamehuntingblog.com

Ep 97: Africa Hunting Bullets 101 With Kevin Robertson

Apple | Google | iHeart | Spotify | Stitcher
thebiggamehuntingblog.com thebiggamehuntingblog.com
Click to expand...
Great podcast!
 
I have not used the SAF in the .375 yet. But I did shoot two buff and a large eland with 400 grain SAFs in my 404J, MV was 2250 fps. Both of the buffalo were shot through the shoulder. The first was shot twice through the center shoulder and the first bullet pentrated the shoulders, ribs, thorax and shattered both shoulders. It was recovered in the marrow of the shattered leg/shoulder bone. Incredible destruction.

The second buff was shot from about 80 yards in the center shoulder and fell as I was shooting my follow-up. Dead right there. Bullet found under the skin on the off-side.

The eland was shot at just over 200 yards and the first shot struck him in the low shoulder behind the brisket, breaking the massive shoulder. It took two additional shots to anchor the eland. The SAF performed well, the reason it took more shots was because I I did not hit him with a killing shot on the first shot.

I also shot plains game with my 7mm RM using 160 grain SAFs and had instant, one shot kills on zebra, impala, roan and reedbuck.

I think that the Swift A Frame is the finest large game bullet available anywhere.

Buff2.jpg

One shot with a Swift A Frame.
 
Some years ago, I shot a big Zimbabwe buffalo bull squarely on the shoulder with a 300-grain A-Frame from my .375. Shooting distance was about 50 yards. The bullet broke the shoulder going in, went through both lungs and the top of the heart, and smashed the opposite shoulder as well. We found it under the skin on the opposite side, perfectly mushroomed. The expanded bullet is on my bookshelf behind me as I type this. It weighs 294 grains out of the original 300.
 
I’ve been successfully hunting most of my Cape buffalo with a .375 Holland & Holland Magnum, over the years.
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The most impressive bullet in a .375 Holland & Holland Magnum which I’ve ever used on Cape buffalo, is Federal’s 300Gr Trophy Bonded Bear Claw controlled expansion factory load. It’s more than capable of breaking a fully grown bull’s scapula and reaching the vitals from absolutely any angle. And I have (so far) enjoyed my greatest success against these gigantic African bovines with these excellent bullets.

However, Federal never seems to have ammunition loaded with Trophy Bonded Bear Claw or Sledgehammer bullets in stock these days (for the last few years, at least).

Another favorite bullet of mine in .375 caliber, is the 300Gr Rhino Solid Shank. For all points and purposes, this is a clone of Jack Carter’s Trophy Bonded Bear Claw design. Unfortunately, it’s only available as a hand loading component.

I’m yet to use Barnes TSX bullets on Cape buffalo. But I did successfully hunt my most recent hippopotamus bull on land on my latest African safari, with a 300Gr Barnes TSX factory load (a one shot affair). To say that I was immensely satisfied, would be the gross understatement of the year. I would definitely feel 100% confident in using this bullet on Cape buffalo in my future African safaris.
 
Last edited:
SRPI89 said:
I found 15 boxes of 300 grain a frames. I bought them all. I plan to shoot a lot of big animals in my lifetime.
Click to expand...

I love to practice, 300 rounds sounds like a lot til you go to the range. Then the next thing you know, you want a bigger rifle...at least that is what happened to me.
 
channelkat said:
Is a 300 grain swift a frame fired from 375 h&h, adequate to break a Cape buffalo humerus and provide reliable penetration at say <50 yards?

The 375 and buffalo are both new to me, and I’m trying to better understand the rifle/ bullets limitations.
Click to expand...


I pumped a lot of them into a cape buffalo and then woodleigh hydros. The beast took probably 7 rounds total. Three reasons that could reasonably be the cause:

1.) I strongly suspect my two cases of federal ammunition were not loaded to correct velocity. In another example, that lot of ammo didn't pass through a kudu or zebra.

2.) To quote Pandoro et. al. for more than a century of experiences, a 40 cal bullet going 2150fps and weighing at least 400gr is when the magic happens. 375HH is less than that on two of three factors.

3.) One could suggest my shots weren't exceptional.

If I was going to head out buffalo hunting again, I'd have a 404 Jeff or bigger, and I would use A-Frames for the first shot in any regard. Just how I learn my lessons, but a 375HH is a wonderful do-all nonetheless.
 
rookhawk said:
I pumped a lot of them into a cape buffalo and then woodleigh hydros. The beast took probably 7 rounds total. Three reasons that could reasonably be the cause:

1.) I strongly suspect my two cases of federal ammunition were not loaded to correct velocity. In another example, that lot of ammo didn't pass through a kudu or zebra.

2.) To quote Pandoro et. al. for more than a century of experiences, a 40 cal bullet going 2150fps and weighing at least 400gr is when the magic happens. 375HH is less than that on two of three factors.

3.) One could suggest my shots weren't exceptional.

If I was going to head out buffalo hunting again, I'd have a 404 Jeff or bigger, and I would use A-Frames for the first shot in any regard. Just how I learn my lessons, but a 375HH is a wonderful do-all nonetheless.
Click to expand...
You might be going somewhere with Federal cartridges being loaded to less-than-advertised velocities.
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Federal 7x57mm Mauser 175Gr round nosed soft points are advertised as achieving 2390 fps. But when run over a chronograph, they always consistently achieve around 2317 fps (around 73 fps slower).
 
Hunter-Habib said:
You might be going somewhere with Federal cartridges being loaded to less-than-advertised velocities.View attachment 541231View attachment 541232
Federal 7x57mm Mauser 175Gr round nosed soft points are advertised as achieving 2390 fps. But when run over a chronograph, they always consistently achieve around 2317 fps (around 73 fps slower).
Click to expand...

Some barrels are faster than others, what was their test barrel length? What is your barrel length? Then we get into how accurate is the conograph? Just so many variables that can cause what we see. Most of the time I run a LabRadar if it reads something I'm not expecting I'll throw on the V3 to check against it. On a side not I have changed powder lots and have seen swings bigger than this, for the record.
 
I wish the supply chain would get fixed so we could get our preferred components and ammo. I felt like I just scooped up scraps from what was available. Ended up with an excess of stuff I would rather not hunt with (like 4 boxes of 350gr tsx), and barely enough of what I plan to hunt with. Wish I could have just worked up my own loads for this trip, and avoided those sorts of issues.
 
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