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I was asked to post images of the bullets from my Safari( african images)
All are Factory 260 GR accubond in .375 cal H&H

As reported none exited, 4 of 5 were recovered.

From Left to Right,

From the Kudu, entered far back , completely destroyed the liver, length wise through 1 lung, top of the heart and lodged in the front of the kudu on the opposite (front of) shoulder, Range approx 85-95 yards

Second bullet, Elands neck at 15-20 yards ( it was laying down having been shot twice), went through the spine and found 3/4 way through the neck. This is the finishing shot

Bullet 3, from the eland ( my first shot), found in the shoulder joint and failed to penetrate to the vitals. 3 rounds hit the eland, first in the shoulder, second in the ass, that bullet broke the pelvis but was not recovered, third in the neck. Range 45-60 yards

Forth bullet is from the gymsbok, 70-80 yards, side shot behind the shoulder , both lungs, top of heart and broke opposite shoulder, the round was found under the skin.

I watched all the animals cleaned. My observations
1) the bullets all worked as the animals are dead
2) the bullets seemed to do tremendous damage to soft tissue, the liver from the kudu was vertually gone.Damage was at the front of the wound path.
3) the bullets did not do well with heavy bone, if it had not been for the follow up shots on the Eland we may have lost it.
4) published velocity from federal is 2700 feet per second, if hunting eland again I would use a slower , better contructed bullet, I like A frames ,my outfitter said, they have had good success with x bullets.
5)When using this rifle for elk,moose or grizzly , I would like an exit wound. The trackers seemed to follow my animal without any trouble, to me their were allot of tracks (kudu and gymsbok were with other) and I would have prefered a more defined blood trail.By myself, I would have had alot of trouble following the eland (from the blood trail, tracks were obvious in the red soil of africa) as there was not alot of blood.
6) the kudu and gymbok both went 40-50 yards after the shot, which I am sure you all realize only takes a few minutes to cover but it seemed like hours given the ammont of sign.
7)once again the bullets worked,the animals are dead, I just feel others would have worked better.
Sorry for any spelling mistakes.

Don't beat yourself up, you done good.
Suggest next trip try 235 TSXs. You can push them to almost 3000 but you may recover none.
The Barnes are far nastier than a lead core as they dont roll over into a smooth coin like circle (as your's illustrate)

35 225 TSXs 35 Whelen 225-275 yds. Mulie, Elk and Moose all at severe quartering away angles. Full length penetration and 1 shot kills.

I would suggest as well that the Barnes bullets would have given MUCH better results as in exit wounds even when bone is encountered. Glad you were able to collect the animals you shot, hitting, and wounding and losing then paying for an animal really, really sucks.

Good idea to upgrade to these before you are out hunting truly large game again.

Oldman,

Show us the photos of the game that you took with those bullets.

Or, just admit that like all the photos of 'your' rifles that you post, this photo is in the same category.

ZZZZZZzzzziiiinnnggggggggggg!!!


Ingwe

Sadly, it is pretty easy...

I know...its almost not sporting...but theres nuthin else going on tonite.....

Ingwe

TI3006, Thanks for the photos and descriptions. I had been told that the 260 accubond was well matched to the 375 H&H and gave great performance. After seeing your pictures and especially the lack of penetration on that eland, I will be using the 270TSX in my 375. The accubond didnt fail to take your animals but failed to perform as you and I would like. IE. exit holes. Thanks, Dean

lets see the animals

Whew...I was getting worried you wouldnt post that pic again today..

Well, fella's, I may get screwed, but I'm going to shoot 260 Accubond's at eland and zebra this summer. I am a TSX fan, but these things do shoot in my 375. I suppose the only thing I have going for me is that I can only drive these to 2600 fps muzzle velocity from my 20" Sako Mannilcher.

I do know these have worked on at least one Alaskan coastal black. No bullet was recovered.

Just so you know, and this may be something new to consider, bears are very soft and fragile compared to big African ungulates.

You can feel it with your hands when you touch or press the body of a bear it's soft as a human being. They have far less bone strength and sinews and just plain softer body mass.

Compare bears to a Zebra, gemsbok, wildebeest, waterbuck etc. These are as solid as a Fully inflated truck tire. The reaction to bullet impact with herd animals is by a large margin different then individual animals.

I'm not trying to influence your choice, just a little information regarding your comparison. I used to have a 375JDJ handgun. With the 260grain NP it whistled through almost every black bear I have shot with it. That might be in the neighborhood of 20-25 of them. It also exited on several Brown bears. Yet it never exited a single wildebeest, zebra, gemsbok or waterbuck. This comes with first hand experience, not calculated text book ballistics experience.

There is however a significant difference in this analogy, you're shooting the 260's 400fps faster. That will be a huge advantage for you.

I have shot a lot of game, about 40 animals from eland to impala in size, in Africa with Federal's factory 300gr Trophy Bonded load and it has performed perfectly. Shots ranged from maybe 25yds to about 250yds.

Each of the few recovered bullets, that would be three iirc, looked like they belonged in a magazine ad.

Recovered one from an eland which was recovered in the gut after breaking the spine on a frontal shot, one from a wildebeast recovered under the hide on the off side after breaking the off side shoulders, destroying the lungs and heart and one from a waterbuck, can't recall where.

As well as the bullet did on the bigger stuff, it also expanded well and left excellent wound tracks on impala and bushbuck.

And it is accurate as can be, at least in my rifle.

JPK

The 300gr TTBondeds would be a step up from what was used during hunt no 1 but I still stand by my recomedation of TTSX's in any reasonable weight. 260or270 and go slay some stuff!

Have you tried seating the TTSX's really deep and pushing them hard? Just a thought as this will usually solve TSX accuracy issues. If these do not work, try some Swift A-frames as a second good choice before venturing out with the Accubombs. Either way, good luck and good hunting.

I shoot TSX's regularly through other guns. I've not really had problems with them shooting. In fact, I'm taking a .300 Wby with 168gr. TSX's as my primary plains game rifle.

For animals the size of zebra or eland, I'm not too concerned with 1.5 to 2" groups either. On the other hand, the Accubonds shoot into under an inch and I'm not too worried about their performance. My rifle is actually a 20" mannlicher style Sako. I can just get a touch over 2600 fps, so that's as fast as I'm likely to be able to go. I have until July and I may change my mind, but right now that's the path I'm on.

Anyway, I appreciate the input. This is my first trip. Its nice to have someone that's been there with insight.

I have seen both the 250 9.3 and 260 .375 AccuBonds used on quite a few animals, both in North America and Africa. They work very well on game up to 750 pounds or so, but when after something the size of eland or big moose I tend to prefer something a little harder and deeper penetrating, whether a heavy Nosler Partition or a TSX or whatever. I would have no qualms about shooting an eland in the shoulder-bone with a .375 using a 300 Partition or 270 TSX, but have seen eland shoulders stop some smaller and softer bullets.

I've never been but I couldn't sleep at night knowing the magazine was stoked with Accubonds or some such for hunting Eland or the ilk.

Guessing the vital zone is about the size of a Volkswagen so under MOA don't seem overly important, YMMV

Bingo.

JB,
Honest question. If I look at the OP's pics, they look a lot like recovered Partitions normally look. Is the performance really that different? Do they expand so much more rapidly that they don't penetrate as effectively as a Partition?

If Accubonds are really a bad idea, I don't mind spending another $40 on a box of 270 TSX's, cause, in the greater scheme of things this is in the noise of the trip and I won't miss it. My biggest concern with the TSX has been and remains its behavior at a relatively lower terminal velocity from a short barreled rifle.