375 H&H bullet performance

Opposite Pole said:

I have experienced poor performance from the following 375 H&H Federal Trophy Bonded Bear Claw load https://www.federalpremium.com/ammunition/rifle/family/cape-shok/cape-shok-trophy-bonded-bear-claw/p375t3

I was stalking a large cow Water Buffalo. The beast was feeding on the edge of a forest. I got to within approximately 50m (55yds) of it. It was as easy a shot as a hunter can hope for. Undisturbed animal, broadside presentation. Having kneeled I took a rest on a tree and fired. Upon receiving the shot the animal took off into the paperbark forest. Here I made a serious mistake. Being sure of the shot I did not fire again while I could have gone for the rear spinal shot or a hind leg shot – there was enough time to fire off at least one more aimed shot. There were two of us there and we both agreed the shot was true and waited a short while before following the animal. Had the bullet performed as expected it would have taken out the lungs and most likely the heart as well. However, the animal disappeared and initially we found no blood at all. The shot was fired at 8am and we spent the rest of the day trying to find and follow spoor. Hard going as we were tracking through wet, muddy paperbark forest late in the wet season with temperatures around 40C (100F) and 99% humidity. After several hours, we found minimal traces of blood in two spots. Did not manage to track down the animal that day and stared again the following morning. At 7am we spotted an animal about 100m away. It was standing broadside to us and looked healthy on its feet. However, close observation through binoculars revealed its sides were somewhat collapsed indicating that perhaps it did not drink and feed for some time. I fired one standing shot and several running ones until the beast fell, upon reaching the animal I fired a finishing shot into the base of the skull as the animal was still alive.

Trying to understand what happened we started looking for the bullet. Upon hitting bone, it failed to break it and instead deflected of its path by about 90 degrees and went straight into the gut cavity where it got lodged. I was quite keen to find that projectile but not keen enough to go through the content of its injured gut cavity. I’ve gone back to the place where I fired that first shot the previous day. The path of the bullet was clear, there were no branches it could have hit on its way.

I do not want to bad mouth a reputable projectile as perhaps my experience was just an isolated incident. I do not think any projectile on the market is going to perform 100% correctly 100% of the time but be that as it may this particular one did fail resulting in suffering animal and a long and stressful follow up.

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Jarrod Todd said:

Bullet test comparison to determine performance. A few might find this interesting. The pills where shot out of a 375 H&H at close to max velocities at a distance of 50m shooting into 20ltr drums filled with water, the 168 Barnes is out of a 308. Although this doesn't show real life comparisons as when used on game due to meat and bone structures etc, it shows the difference between bonded, monolithic and conventional projectiles.
Cheers

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EZRider said:

.375 270 gr TSX recovered from a blue Wildebeest shot from 100 m @ a muzzle velocity of 2410 fps.
On the same trip I hunted Impala, kudu and hartebeest and all of the bullets looked almost identical.

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Opposite Pole said:

That's a very moderate velocity for the bullet weight, are you shooting factory or handloads? Is the projectile length a limiting factor?

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EZRider said:

That being said, I probably would go heavier for buf.

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sheephunterab said:

No need from that picture. We've killed several buff of a variety of species with a 250 grain GMX with no issues. Nothing really to be gained with a heavier bullet. In fact you'd lose speed which could be a detriment.

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