Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Advice on .416 bullets for buf

In my opinion, the only time solids should be used are on elephant, rhino and hippo on land.

Seems the Barnes TSX and similar are sorta solids (monos), but expanding solids. They seem to be gaining ground in some areas.

That type bullet may the the best of both worlds. Cutting Edge and Hammer make some good mono's.

DF

TSXs baby, like Porsche, there are no substitutes....

This^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Don’t forget about boob size.

Big is better. Or so I’ve heard.

No substitute.

Ha!

DF

The bigger the better the tighter the sweater

DF

Indeed. Well maybe with the oldies.

Nice place you got Ed. I have 3 friends who hunted Africa.

Thanks for your comments, Model70guy! That makes sense to me. I'm a fan of both Swift A-frames and the TSX. Doubt I'll be loading solids for my next trip.

Brownells has 400 grain A-frames in stock.
I have 100 on the way for my Rigby.
I also found 300 grainers for my 375 H&H and 450 grain 458 in stock on swifts site.
All my big bores seem to shoot the A-Frames very well.

375H&H I’m using 75 grains of RL 17 cci 250 3.570 2610 FPS
416 Rigby is shooting 350 TSX with 104 grains H4831 FED 215 3.750 not sure on speed but it’s shooting three touching at 60 yards.
458 Winchester 450 shoots under MOA using AA2231 at 77.7 grains 2320 FPS 3.310 OAL.

This is a great thread.

I have used TSX almost exclusively since the early '00s and was very happy with them until 2018 on my lion hunt in Zimbabwe. We recovered 3 300 gr TSX from bait- eland, buffalo and zebra and my PH and I were both disappointed in the lack of expansion. He did not want me to use my 375 H&H on my lion as he was afraid of a pencil-through and instead insisted on using my 300 Win for my lion.

As mentioned, African PHs just do not really care for TSX and after seeing the recovered TSX all the PHs said to use A Frames. I don't remember what Phillip's response was or if we had lunch with him before we recovered the TSX but he would have been the sole dissenting PH. (Shot my ele not far from where he died.)

Also, two of the more veteran Alaskan bear outfitters pretty much said they'd rather I not use TSX. One told me to bring A Frames and not TSX for Kodiak a few years back and in October I'll be taking 300 gr A Frames (375 H&H) for my peninsula brown bear hunt. (65 gr RL 15 mirrors factory Federal A Frame loads in my rifle).

As an aside, my PH preferred also to not use solids on buffalo and wanted maximum tissue damage (but did prefer solids on giraffes as they are thick skinned).

I will continue to use TSX in my faster cartridges as they are extremely accurate at 300+ yards, but will never use them again on DG rifles.

The bullets I use on my upcoming hunt will be partially determined by what I can get my hands on for my .416. So far, I’ve gotten 400 grain Bullets in Nosler Partition, Trophy Bonded Bearclaw, cutting Edge Raptor, along with some 350 grain Barnes TTSX. In solids, I have 400 grain Trophy Bonded, Nosler, Swift and Cutting Edge.

I think any of these Bullets will work fine, it’ll mostly depend on what shoots best. I’ll be shooting a traditional expanding bullet first, as Alan Vincent wants that due to large buffalo herds in Mlele. He’s concerned about a first shot pass through. I’m keen to try some of the cutting edge Raptors too, as I’m hearing they’re an exceptional buffalo bullet. Good thing I have 3 buffalo on license!