Luckily there are a bunch of excellent buffalo bullets made today, and I will continue to use various brands. But one thing I won't do is judge a Partition's performance on how much lead is "left up front." Instead I'll judge them on how well they penetrate and kill, and so far those I've used and seen used have penetrated more than sufficiently and killed fine, in calibers including .375, .416 and .458. The relatively few that have been recovered retained an average of around 90% of their weight, which is far more relevant than retaining their front core.
Quite so.
When I was preparing for my first Cape buffalo hunt in 2015, I was inclined to use NP's in my .375 H&H, as I've had excellent results with them on all sizes of North American game in the past. I consulted my PH, and he was adamantly opposed to using them; he strongly recommended I use Swift A-frame 300's.
Now, my PH was/is somewhat of a gun guy, but not to the degree that anyone here would consider him a Rifle Looney, and certainly not an Inquiring Mind like yourself, JB. Other experienced African hunters I respected were very positive about the Barnes 270 TSX, and a couple of African PH's I talked to at the DSC shows agreed. But my guy continued to recommend strongly that I stay with the A-frames.
So, I bought a bunch of A-frame 300's. I also bought a bunch of Hornady 300 gr DG solids. Also some North Fork softpoint 300's. And some Sierra GK 300's. And some 300 gr NP's factory loads. Then I did a whole bunch of loading and shooting at my range with my rifle.
What I learned was that if I used the 300 gr A-frames with the load recipe I got from Ingwe, I had a very comfortable 2500 fps load that shot consistent 1.2-1.5" groups at 100 yards, 2.5" groups at 200 yards, and one-hole groups with the iron sights inside 20 yards. I won't claim to have done extensive load development with the other bullets, but I did try some recommended loads with each, and with the Nosler factory NP ammo as well. None of them grouped as well as the A-Frame Ingwe load, although none of them were bad... any of them would have served, had I chosen to use one of them and I'm sure I could have found a very accurate powder and charge for whichever bullet I settled on. But I settled on the A-frame, because it has proven itself on buff and it shoots very well out of my rifle. As an added bonus, the Ingwe-endorsed powder charge under the 300 gr Game King shot to the same point of aim as the A-frame, which made it an ideal candidate for a less-expensive practice load. (I have since used the GK load to kill Texas hogs and deer with satisfying success.)
My A-frame load has killed 2 Cape buffalo so far. Both were killed by the first bullet (through the heart), one at 50 yards and one at 125 yards. Both were then extra-killed with a couple more A-frames, to pay the insurance, as they say. My A-frames have also killed wildebeest, kudu, zebra, and sundry other African critters with satisfying efficiency. But I have no doubt that any of the bullets I have mentioned here could do the same.
