Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters AccuBonds vs. A-Frames in Africa............

I just returned from a very productive and unforgetable 14-day plainsgame safari with Roger Whittal Safaris, hunting the Humani safari area on the Turwi and Save rivers, about 40 miles from the Mozambique border, taking 18 big game animals, including an incredible 30" nyala, which certainly ranks as one of my all-time greatest Africa trophy animals. I could write a lengthy post about the many positive aspects of this safari, including the fact that it was my distinct honor to have, as my Professional hunter, 72 year-old William Finaughty, grandson of THE William Finaughty who wrote the classic African hunting book, "Recollections of William Finaughty, Elephant Hunter, 1864-1875".

But for the sake of brevity, I'd like to talk about the bullets I used on this safari, which included the 225 gr. Nosler AccuBond, as well as the 225 gr. Swift A-Frame. The only rifle I used was my favorite, ultra-reliable, time-proven Echols-built custom Model 70 in 338 Win. Mag., topped with a Leupold Vari-X III 2.5-8x scope.

When we arrived in Harare, everything showed up except for my duffle bag, which contained most of my clothes, all of my ammunition, and all of my gear except for camera and binoculars. I had one change of clothes to go on from my carry-on, and since my hunting partner also brought a 338 Win. Mag., I borrowed a box of Remington 225 gr. Swift A-Frame factory loads from him to hunt with, at least until my duffle showed up, which it did some four days later, when it was then flown out to camp with some newly-arriving clients.

On paper, the Remington Swift ammo didn't hit exactly to the same point-of-impact as my AccuBond load, but they were printing close enough to hunt with, and for the 100-150 yd. opportunities I was presented with, they went where they needed to go and absolutely hammered everything stone-dead, including the previously mentioned nyala as well as a 150 yd. running shot on a huge bushpig, both of which were taken the first morning of the safari.

But when my duffle finally arrived, I dug into it like a kid would his presents on Christmas morning, and I immediately switched to my AccuBond loads. And I immediately began to have problems with bullet blow-ups and extremely poor penetration. I shot a pair of big zebra stallions with the Accubonds, and in both cases those bullets barely got inside on solid chest shots, where they simply disintegrated, and follow-up shots were required to finish things.

On another occasion, I had a chance at a huge and ancient Limpopo bushbuck, which we spotted across the Turwi river. After a careful stalk, we came within 200 yds. of the bushbuck, and I shot him off the sticks, at the point of the right shoulder. At the shot, the bushbuck nearly went down, then recovered enough to run into the brush on his side of the river. This greatly surprised me, as I saw the bullet hit him when the rifle went off, and the shot felt good anyway. After some four hours of wading through riverine brush, we finally recovered the bushbuck, which was running around on three legs. As it turns out, the first shot hit him exactly where I was aiming, but it blew up without getting inside. In contrast to this frustrating episode, my hunting partner had a 230 yd. shot at another stupendous old bushbuck along the same river, and his Swift load simply blew him to the ground and exited.

Big warthog were a bit tough to find in our hunting area, but finally I had the chance at a big old boar, which was a running away shot at about sixty yards. I hit him in the back with a 225 AccuBond and he kept on going. I finished him with a shot right behind the shoulder, but discovered (once again) that the first shot blew up without getting inside, creating one heck of an ugly mess.

At this point, I was extremely sour on those AccuBonds, as was my PH, who advised me to dump the rest of my ammo in the river and go back to my borrowed box of Swift A-Frames.

Which is exactly what I did for the rest of the tough stuff I had left to hunt, including Greater kudu, Livingston's eland, and a pair of Blue wildebeest, one of which was an absolute monster that scored 91 SCI points, 70 points being required to make the book. In ever case, those Swift A-Frame loads did stellar, deadly work, hammering everything in a most decisive manner that left absolutely no doubt about the efficiency and sufficiency of the 338 Win. Mag. for any and all African plainsgame IF.............you feed it good bullets that stay together!

All told I recovered six Swift A-Frames from various animals, and two AccuBonds. The AccuBonds I recovered looked pretty good, but the real story lies with the unrecovered ABs that blew up and didn't get inside. The recovered Swifts were beautifully mushroomed and uniform in their performance. They couldn't be faulted in any way..........

I don't have time to elaborate more at this time, but I'll say this: I've used some fabulous bullets in Africa over the last eleven years on over 200 big game animals on the Dark Continent, including the Nosler Partition, Winchester Fail-Safe, Trophy Bonded solids and softs, North Fork solids and softs, and Swift A-Frames.

After this safari, I came to two conclusions: The Swift A-Frame is just as good and effective as any bullet I've ever used for anything in Africa or anywhere else, and I'm a confirmed fan. My second conclusion is that the Nosler AccuBond is the absolute worst bullet I've ever used on safari. As far as I'm concerned, Nosler has produced a bullet that is in no way as good as their own fine Partition, and I will personally never use the AccuBond again for any hunting, anywhere. We called them "baboon bullets" mid-way through the hunt.

If anyone thinks that bullet construction doesn't matter, they had better guess again.................

AD

Great Post Allen,
thanks!

Welcome home Allen, and great report. I'd like to say I'm suprised by the result, but can't.

Chuck

Allen,

Thanks for the report, and I see Africa is still Africa.

Also "almost as good" works in marketing, but not necessarily elsewhere.

Finaughty! Wow, that is a great connection to the Old Days.

jim

Never really cared for them from the start.... TSX's and Interlocks cover a wiiiide window... 721

Allen,
Good report! Glad to see you back, though I would imagine that you would't mind a few more weeks in the bush! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />
Sounds like you had a good experience, and came away with some useful info.
Later.

Allen, welcome home and a happy belated birthday!

Not suprised about the AB's... have heard many similar reports. My 300 WSM shoots them superbly but I'll stick with the Partition thank you.

Allen,

Welcome back and glad to hear you had a good trip.

Would love to see some pictures, including that mega-wildebeest!

John

Greart report. Your mention of traveling with a gun in the same caliber as a hunting partner was equally important. You could have lost 4 days of hunting. I lost a couple of days due to this once. Never again though.

Allen, good report. It confirms some of my own results using
338 AB's on Mule deer. Hope you don't mind me adding this attachment. It shows mule deer hit with a 338/180 AB and no
exit hole and no bullet to recover. It shattered inside the deer. web page

I keep hearing that the AB's are supposed to behave like Partitions. Not so in my small experience.

Hope you will add to your post here and we can hear more about your hunt. Sounds like you had a great time in spite of
the bullets.

AD-good to hear from you again, glad you had a good hunt.

Sounds like D'Arcy's rifle worked as planned as did the SAF's, nice to use rigs that give you now suprises eh.

I've shot the Accu's a bit in a few rigs but never used them on game as something inside always told me to not trust them. Thanks for the report as it confirms my suspicions.

Thanks again for sharing, if you can get some pics up for us. I'd love to see that Limpopo Bushbuck as that is one cool lil critter.

Mark D

AD- great post and read - could go to a magazine IMO.

Interesting results on the AB - the only african hunting I am familiar with is the DVD "Boddington on Buffalo" and they too (Craig and the PH's at Chifuti Safaris) are very high on the Swift A-frame.

Welcome home and I hope you do get more time to share your African trip with us.

Teal, agreed on Allen's writing ability - he's one of the finest writers I've come accross on these forums in the years I've participated on them. IMO, he's quite ahead of many so-called gunwriters (not speaking of any who post here tho!).

AD,
A great story and well done. While I was reading I kept wondering if there was a possibility Nosler had a packaging problem? Could they have put white tips into Ballistic Tip bullets rather than Accubonds because it sounds like the performance of Ballistic Tips.

AD good story and a eye opener
I have a 154 grain 7mm IB load for my STW.Last night I got a nice bear right at dark.First shot at roughly 400 yds stopped the bear but took another much closer shot to finish the bear.I firmly believe if I was using my Partition load there wouldn't of needed a second stopper shot and it would of fell on the spot.

Another campfire member Peppersmoke who was there couldn't believe the bear would of took off after hit so squarely.Both shots were front shoulder.I'm believeing this bonded bullet business isn't what it cracked up to be.I'm going back to the Partition.The more i use parts the more I like thier design.

I don't understand why people are always fooling around with these new and experimental bullets. I have killed 11 animals bigger than deer with 180 grain Nosler Partitions. They just work--with boring monotony. Out of 11 animals, only one bullet failed to exit. The Partition seems to have none of the problems which plague Accubonds or which cause TSXs to be redesigned there times.

I don't think there is any non-dangerous game that cannot be killed with a .300 Magnum and a 180 grain partition, or that any other cartridge or bullet is any more effective on such game.

AD,

Good to have you back and congratulations on a great safari. I guess I'll go ahead and stick my neck out here and be the first to say that I'm very surprised to hear about your Accubond experience. I've used the 225gr AB out of a 338 Win. Mag. on a few elk and a caribou over the last few years and have been mightily impressed with its performance. I also used a 140gr. Accubond on a Dall Sheep from a 270 Win. that performed flawlessly, although I think its a given that Dall sheep are thin skinned animals that are fairly easy to kill with most bullets. Nonetheless, I appreciate your report and experience since I have been planning on using my 338 as my light rifle in Africa next year and had been comptemplating using the 225gr AB's. However, I have already ordered some Northforks for it since I had some lingering doubts in the back of my mind on the AB's performance on African game and your report just tipped the scales for me.
Best regards,
Test

You sure had a great hunt. Glad you took the time to share the bullet experiences.

I am curious now. If you have any Accubonds left it might be worth sending some back to Nosler with a full report. Perhaps the other poster is correct and they weren't accubonds or didn't get bonded properly. I would certainly be curious enough to talk to Nosler. If you do please share your findings.

Welcome back my friend. You were missed! Your experiences with Accubonds don't surprise me as our mutual friend John S also had horrible experiences with the AB. In fact, the "other" bonded bullet, the Hornady Interbond also received bad reviews in another forum, that bullet was a 400gr 416 Rigby.

It failed miserably on buffalo on none other than Steve Hornady himself. As you know, I've used A Frames and Partitions exclusively on my last two safaris and with equally superb performance, particularly the A Frame out of my 416 Rigby. Also, my friend used A Frames in his 375 to take everything from buffalo at 25 yards to a kudu at over 350. I'm willing to stick my neck ut and try the TSXs next time, but after this, NEVER an Accubond or an Interbond. Well, I hope to hear more about your trip, maybe we can coordinate a phone call when you have time. jorge

jorgeI
I don't have too much good to say about the Horny IB.jmo. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

They were hard to make shoot and thier performance on game was just as dismall.