Bullet Selection Guide For Aspiring Sportsmen On African Dangerous Game

[Hunter-Habib]

We often have several threads in which novice sportsmen ask for advice regarding bullet selection on African dangerous game. Much insight is offered, consequently. Some of it is sound, some… not so much.

Well, since I have been hunting African dangerous game as a client hunter for the last 51 years (beginning in Kenya in 1974) and have been fortunate enough to bag more than a few heads of each species of African dangerous game over the years (barring the rhinoceros, dwarf forest buffalo and forest elephant at this time of writing)… I thought that some might find it quite useful if I composed a very to-the-point guide for selecting the appropriate bullets to employ on African dangerous game. No commentaries or historical anecdotes or any of my mindless old man babbling. Just what’s needed.

I sincere hope that some might find my modest field experiences to be useful.

A quick word before we begin: I personally consider the ideal bullet for any particular species to be one which will be able to penetrate into the vitals from ANY angle. Not just a FAVORABLE angle.

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1. CAPE BUFFALO

What you need: A bullet which expands well enough to make large wound cavities when taking body shots to the heart-lung region, while still holding together well enough in order to ensure adequate penetration in the vital organs.

Currently available bullets which meet this criteria:
Swift A Frame (American) (Hard To Find)
Trophy Bonded Bear Claw (American)
Barnes TSX (American)
Cutting Edge Raptor (American)
Northern Precision Bonded Core (American)
North Fork Fork Semi Spitzer (Swedish)
North Fork Cup Point Solid (Swedish)
Wim Degol Stark Mantel (Belgian)
Woodleigh Weldcore (Australian)
Rhino Solid Shank (South African)
Spoor Bullet Company Bonded Soft Point (South African)

Notes: In modern times, it is not advisable to use solid bullets on these creatures. Not only do premium grade expanding bullets kill relatively quicker with body shots, but solid bullets also run a risk of passing completely through the target animal and accidentally hitting another Cape buffalo behind it (Cape buffalo are largely herd animals).

2. HIPPOPOTAMUS

What you need: Same criteria as a Cape buffalo, except that bullet expansion must be EVEN SLOWER in order to maximize penetration on body shots (on account of their thick hides and tough frames). Only monometal expanding bullets or expanding bullets with a solid rear shank should be employed.

Currently available bullets which meet this criteria:
Barnes TSX (American)
Trophy Bonded Bear Claw (American)
Rhino Solid Shank (South African)

Notes: In calibers larger than .458 bore, employing solid bullets does warrant some merit. But when using solid bullets in calibers smaller than .425 bore for body shots, the creature will (five times out of ten) manage to make it into the water before expiring. For brain shots, most modern soft points will do satisfactorily well because the skull bone on a hippopotamus is rather thin. These will of course, culminate in disastrous results when being employed for body shots.

3. LEOPARD

What you need: Any fast expanding lead cored soft point bullet (with plenty of lead showing at the nose) traveling at a high velocity (essential to deliver a good amount of shock to this creature’s highly developed central nervous system). Bullet does not need to be bonded, but should still be well constructed in order to hold together long enough until the vital organs are reached during body shots.

Currently available bullets which meet this criteria:
Remington Core Lokt (American)
Winchester Power Point (American)
Federal Power Shok (American)
Nosler Partition (American)
Sierra Game King (American)
Speer Grand Slam (American)
Hornady Dangerous Game eXpanding Bonded (American)
Hornady ELD-X (American)
Swift A Frame (American) (Hard To Find)
Trophy Bonded Bear Claw (American)
Northern Precision Bonded Core (American)
North Fork Fork Semi Spitzer (Swedish)
North Fork Percussion Point (Swedish)
Norma Oryx (Swedish)
Sellier & Bellot Soft Point (Czech)
Sellier & Bellot SPCE (Czech)
RWS Uni Classic (German)
Brenekke TUG (German)
Wim Degol Stark Mantel (Belgian)
Woodleigh Weldcore (Australian)
Rhino Solid Shank (South African)
Spoor Bullet Company Bonded Soft Point (South African)

Notes: Avoid using monometal expanding bullets (such as Barnes TSX) on leopards, esp. for heart-lung shots taken on animals shot over bait. And with low velocity Nitro Express calibers (such as .450/400 Nitro Express 3”). Expansion will often be too slow. If employing such a bullet on leopards, then the shoulder bone itself should be selected as a target (which will anchor the leopard and provide a little resistance to the bullet and accelerate expansion).

4. LION

What you need: Any fast expanding lead cored soft point bullet (with plenty of lead showing at the nose) traveling at a high velocity (essential to deliver a good amount of shock to this creature’s highly developed central nervous system). Bullet does not need to be bonded, but should still be well constructed in order to hold together long enough until the vital organs are reached during body shots. Bullet must be constructed stronger than bullets being employed on leopards, since the chest muscles on an adrenaline fueled lion harden & provide immense resistance to many bullet types that could safely be employed for body shots on leopards (SEE NOTES)

Currently available bullets which meet this criteria:
Remington Core Lokt (American) (unavailable in conventional lion hunting calibers)
Winchester Power Point (American) (unavailable in conventional lion hunting calibers)
Nosler Partition (American) (hard to find in conventional lion hunting calibers post COVID-19)
Nosler AccuBond (hard to find in conventional lion hunting calibers post COVID-19)
Hornady Dangerous Game eXpanding Bonded (American)
Swift A Frame (American) (Hard To Find)
Trophy Bonded Bear Claw (American)
Northern Precision Bonded Core (American)
North Fork Fork Semi Spitzer (Swedish)
North Fork Percussion Point (Swedish)
Norma Oryx (Swedish)
Brenekke TUG (German)
Wim Degol Stark Mantel (Belgian)
Woodleigh Weldcore (Australian)
Rhino Solid Shank (South African)
Spoor Bullet Company Bonded Soft Point (South African)

Notes: Avoid using monometal expanding bullets (such as Barnes TSX) on lions, esp. for heart-lung shots taken on animals shot over bait. And with low velocity Nitro Express calibers (such as .450/400 Nitro Express 3”). Expansion will often be too slow. If employing such a bullet on lions, then the shoulder bone itself should be selected as a target (which will anchor the leopard and provide a little resistance to the bullet and accelerate expansion). There are certain bullets which are totally safe to employ on leopards which I strongly discourage for use against lions (Hornady ELD-X, Federal Power Shok, Speer Grand Slam, Sierra Game King, Sellier & Bellot soft point, Sellier & Bellot SPCE, RWS Uni Classic). In my field experience, these bullets are not strongly constructed enough to reliably penetrate the frontal chest muscles on an adrenaline fueled lion.

5. BUSH ELEPHANT

What you need: The strongest constructed solid non expanding bullets, be it lead cored or monometal. Amongst lead cored bullets, steel jackets are generally more preferable to copper jackets (but not always). Among monometal bullets, brass is generally stronger than pure copper. Flat nosed bullets with a wide meplat offer the best penetration, but round nosed bullets will also offer no significant handicap (barring a slightly more noticeable amount of deviation from a straight course when taking frontal brain shots on large bulls).

Currently available bullets which meet this criteria:
Cutting Edge Bullets Safari Solid (American)
Barnes Banded Solid (American)
Trophy Bonded Sledgehammer (American) (some batches of bullets in the late 2000s were quite prone to distortion)
North Fork Flat Point Solid (Swedish)
Wim Degol Vor Mantel (Belgian)
Rhino Flat Nosed Solid (South African)
DZOMBO Mark 6 (South African)

Notes: In recent years, a few hunters have achieved some success employing monometal expanding bullets (such as the Barnes TSX or North Fork Cup Point Solid) on elephants at opportune angles (e.g: side brain shots on cow elephants by managing to avoid the zygomatic arch or double lung shots by avoiding heavy bone). I cannot recommend this practice at all. Expansion is your enemy when hunting elephants. Any form of expansion whatsoever.

6. CROCODILE

What you need: A good quality expanding bullet which (while not necessarily needing to be bonded) will still hold together well enough to reach the vital organs.

Currently available bullets which meet this criteria:
Remington Core Lokt (American)
Winchester Power Point (American)
Nosler Partition (American)
Swift A Frame (American) (Hard To Find)
Trophy Bonded Bear Claw (American)
Barnes TSX (American)
Cutting Edge Raptor (American)
Northern Precision Bonded Core (American)
North Fork Fork Semi Spitzer (Swedish)
North Fork Cup Point Solid (Swedish)
Norma Oryx (Swedish)
Sellier & Bellot Soft Point (Czech)
Sellier & Bellot SPCE (Czech)
RWS Uni Classic (German)
Brenekke TUG (German)
Wim Degol Stark Mantel (Belgian)
Woodleigh Weldcore (Australian)
Rhino Solid Shank (South African)
Spoor Bullet Company Bonded Soft Point (South African)

Notes: Early in my hunting life, I exclusively preferred solid bullets for hunting crocodiles due to a misconception that their hides are far too strong to be penetrated by soft points. By the early 1980s, it caught onto me that most modern soft nosed bullets will reliably penetrate into a crocodile’s vital organs. However, I have seen Sierra Game King bullets fail on a large specimen once.

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Someday, when I hopefully bag my first rhinoceros & a dwarf forest buffalo & a forest elephant… I hope to update this guide accordingly.

 

[Russ16]

Thanks for sharing your experience.

Two questions.

1. Im interested in why you left the A-frame and north fork semi spitzer off of the hippo recommendation. I thought the NF had a solid base as you describe being desirable and that the A-frame would have enough toughness.

2. Have you tried the swift breakaway solid on elephant or similar? It seems well designed but it is not often mentioned and I’ve always wondered why.

Thanks again for sharing your experiences.

 

[towserthemouser]

Thanks for sharing your experience.

Two questions.

1. Im interested in why you left the A-frame and north fork semi spitzer off of the hippo recommendation. I thought the NF had a solid base as you describe being desirable and that the A-frame would have enough toughness.

2. Have you tried the swift breakaway solid on elephant or similar? It seems well designed but it is not often mentioned and I’ve always wondered why.

Thanks again for sharing your experiences.

@Hunter-Habib thank you for sharing your experience and initiating this conversation. Your experience is invaluable to me and many others on this forum.

I have the same two questions for you as @Russ16.

I would also like to hear your opinion about the utility of the North Fork Cup Point Solid (CPS) on hippo. I used this bullet in (.375, 350gr at 2350fps) for my hippo. Mine was a brain shot on land, not a body shot. And it worked wonderfully. But I was prepared to take a body shot with it if necessary.

 

[Safari Dave]

HH - thanks for sharing your experience and insight.

 

[deewayne2003]

Well done @Hunter-Habib

I think you forgot the Woodleigh Hydro on Elephant ;-)

 

[mark-hunter]

Someday, when I hopefully bag my first rhinoceros & a dwarf forest buffalo & a forest elephant… I hope to update this guide accordingly.

Great article! Thank you for your time and knowledge!
I wish you success in these endeavors!

 

[404Pruitt]

Awesome write up!

 

[Altitude sickness]

I like how you qualify the statement. “(barring the rhinoceros, dwarf forest buffalo and forest elephant AT THIS TIME OF WRITING “
Not giving up the thought that it’s not over yet

 

[Hunter-Habib]

Thanks for sharing your experience.

Two questions.

1. Im interested in why you left the A-frame and north fork semi spitzer off of the hippo recommendation. I thought the NF had a solid base as you describe being desirable and that the A-frame would have enough toughness.

2. Have you tried the swift breakaway solid on elephant or similar? It seems well designed but it is not often mentioned and I’ve always wondered why.

Thanks again for sharing your experiences.

Hi, @Russ16

To answer your questions:
1. I have only begun to use expanding bullets on hippopotamus since 2022 (Barnes TSX). At this time of writing, I’m not 100% sure if Swift Frames will penetrate sufficiently into a hippopotamus’s vital organs. You see, a hippopotamus is far more tough framed than a Cape buffalo. I recently purchased two boxes of Federal Premium 300Gr Swift A Frames for my .375 Holland & Holland Magnum. Next year, I have plans for another hippopotamus hunt in Tanzania. I hope to trial the Swift A Frame against this creature (but will load the rest of my Remington Model 700’s magazine with 300Gr Barnes TSX factory loads as a form of insurance) and will update this article accordingly (depending upon my results). Regarding the North Fork Semi Spitzer, this is a magnificent Cape buffalo bullet. However, last season… my friend white hunter Mark Sullivan showed me a photograph of a client’s 400Gr .416 caliber North Fork semi spitzer bullet which was recovered from a hippopotamus. While the creature was successfully downed with this bullet (and two more), the bullet itself was missing a chunk of it’s frontal portion. I had uploaded that picture last year on these forums. It’s still in my IPAD.

2. The only problem with the Swift Break Away Solid is…
It’s NEVER IN STOCK ! Look !

Break-Away® Solids | Dangerous Game Heavy Rifle Ammunition

Break-Away® Solids will be available in 9 different calibers, from 9.3mm through 500 cal. For the past three years it has been in development and has hunted dangerous African game, including numerous elephant and buffalo, with outstanding results. It has been extensively field tested, with many...

www.swiftbullets.com

I can’t recommend something in good conscience to my fellow hunters if it isn’t even available for them to purchase on the market.

 

[PeetMeech]

@Hunter-Habib thank you very much for this.

I would also love to have your recommendation when it comes to bullet weight and if you consider equivalent bullet constructions, for example:

Buffalo:
barnes TSX (full copper), is it only 300gr you would recommend? can the 270gr do the job as well? do you consider other copper bullets equivalent (CX, sako powerblade, norma ecostrike, sauvestre FIP EXR etc?)

While I know your reference will be cape buffalo, I will be encountering forest buffaloes, which are much smaller, albeit it seems more aggressive and resilient? or is that really just unproven...

 

[Hunter-Habib]

@Hunter-Habib thank you for sharing your experience and initiating this conversation. Your experience is invaluable to me and many others on this forum.

I have the same two questions for you as @Russ16.

I would also like to hear your opinion about the utility of the North Fork Cup Point Solid (CPS) on hippo. I used this bullet in (.375, 350gr at 2350fps) for my hippo. Mine was a brain shot on land, not a body shot. And it worked wonderfully. But I was prepared to take a body shot with it if necessary.

Hi, @towserthemouser

In any caliber above .423 bore… I would not hesitate to employ a North Fork Cup Point Solid for a body shot on a hippopotamus. For Calibers under .423 bore, I would personally prefer a bullet which expands and increases it’s radius just a hair bit more. The North Fork Cup Point Solid is actually neither a true solid or a true expanding bullet. It just slightly rivets.

 

[Hunter-Habib]

Well done @Hunter-Habib

I think you forgot the Woodleigh Hydro on Elephant ;-)

@deewayne2003

It’s actually quite embarrassing, really. Every time I resolve to author the perfect article, I always end up forgetting something !

 

[Hunter-Habib]

@Hunter-Habib thank you very much for this.

I would also love to have your recommendation when it comes to bullet weight and if you consider equivalent bullet constructions, for example:

Buffalo:
barnes TSX (full copper), is it only 300gr you would recommend? can the 270gr do the job as well? do you consider other copper bullets equivalent (CX, sako powerblade, norma ecostrike, sauvestre FIP EXR etc?)

While I know your reference will be cape buffalo, I will be encountering forest buffaloes, which are much smaller, albeit it seems more aggressive and resilient? or is that really just unproven...

Hi @PeetMeech

I generally prefer heavy-for-weight bullets in all the rifles that I use. I personally have always opted for the traditional 300Gr bullet weight in the .375 Holland & Holland Magnum. In my field experience, it offers the perfect combination of penetration & punch (due to it’s impressive sectional density) while retaining a trajectory flat enough for relatively long range shooting (at reasonable big game hunting ranges, that is). I just zero in my Remington Model 700 to it’s maximum point blank range with 300Gr bullets. However, putting aside my lifelong bias against light-for-weight bullets, a 270Gr .375 cal Barnes TSX will be sufficient for Cape buffalo hunting (although I would not touch it for hippopotamus).

Kriek bullets in South Africa used to manufacture an all-copper monolithic bullet (which was basically a clone of the Barnes TSX). I don’t know if Kreik is still in business. But their bullets were extremely top notch.

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

Hi, @Russ16

To answer your questions:
Regarding the North Fork Semi Spitzer, this is a magnificent Cape buffalo bullet. However, last season… my friend white hunter Mark Sullivan showed me a photograph of a client’s 400Gr .416 caliber North Fork semi spitzer bullet which was recovered from a hippopotamus. While the creature was successfully downed with this bullet (and two more), the bullet itself was missing a chunk of it’s frontal portion.

Please post the picture again of the North Fork with a missing chunk of the front.

 

[Hunter-Habib]

Please post the picture again of the North Fork with a missing chunk of the front.

Hi, @PHOENIX PHIL

Please give me one reminder on Friday. I will be back home then. I am currently using my smartphone to write here.

 

[Shootist43]

Hunter-Habib, thank you for writing this post. I'm sure that over time this will become one of the classic articles that AH is known for.

 

[PerH]

Exellent post , will study it more later .

 

[PerH]

I like how you qualify the statement. “(barring the rhinoceros, dwarf forest buffalo and forest elephant AT THIS TIME OF WRITING “
Not giving up the thought that it’s not over yet

74 years old and he spends 4 days a week chasing Radical Islamic terrorist groups into the hills. Some people are too stubborn to grow old.