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Kalunga -

I have not used the 380 gr Rhino on game as yet, although I did some testing prior to my trip to Tanzania which you might find interesting. When I was at the final preparation stages prior to leaving for Tanzania I became concerned about transiting the rifle through the US, and I received a great deal of contradictory information about how I could do so. In the end, not wanting to loose the rifle I left it at home.

The purpose of the test was to see which bullet gave the best results at close range. I lined up a row of 5 gallon pails filled with wet drill mud. If you are not familiar with this stuff, just imagine a very wet, slimy clay. I narrowed my choice of expanding bullets to the 300 gr Barnes X and the Rhino 380. In the test I compared the Barnes 270 gr XLC, a 300 gr original Barnes X, and the 380 gr Rhino. The bullets where chronographed at 2800 fps for the 270 gr, 2600 fps for the 300 gr, and 2300 fps for the 380 gr. Shooting was conducted at 20 yards. Interestingly, penetration was nearly identical for all bullets at about 32", no doubt the result of the spread in velocity. The 270 and 300 gr X's both lost their petals, and the shank of the 300 gr shows signs that it was beginning to bend. The 270 gr X measured .63" and the 300 gr X measured .50". The X's retains about 72% of their original weight. Both X's produced similar wound volumes in the drill mud. The Rhino expanded to .92" and retained better than 90% of it's weight. The wound cavity was large enough that the plastic oil pails failed.

The Rhino bullet is a bonded core soft point with a solid shank. I recovered several from a snow drift which show the beginning of expansion with the jacket opening in 4 distinct petals similar to an X bullet. The expansion is limited by the length of the bonded core above the solid shank.

The bottom line for me is that due to the high impact velocity the X's failed. The 380 Rhino expanded as advertised to a very large mushroom, this extent of expansion resulted in very large wound cavity.

I have the 570 gr .50 caliber X bullet which killed my buffalo. Expansion was perfect, and the bullet measures .97". Muzzle velocity for the .500 Nitro is 2100 fps. This bullet penetrated about 4' of buffalo and made a big lump in the skin of the off side on a quartering toward shot.
Based on this performance, I dare say that the 380/.375 would of performed very well.

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