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Although I have alwayas been a staunch supporter of Swift A-Frame bullets, 3 recent incedents of these bullets failing got my attention. I have gone through the expensive route (for us on the Southern tip of Africa) and send the first 2 failed bullets back to Swift, with a bunch of unfired bullets from the same batch. (I am not sure if all "failures" came from the same box, but all definately came from my last 2 boxes.) After some promises from Swifts president, I am no closer to an answer.
I have attached the emails send to them to explain what happened to the first 2 bullets:

"I have been a rabid Swift A-Frame supporter since I tried these bullets in my 8x68 S (in 220gr weight) around 1999. Since then, I have used it to kill hundreds of big game in Southern Africa, mostly kudu, gemsbok and
mountain zebra, but also eland and springbok on the other sides of the spectrum.
I have written articles for our local press on premium bullets, and have always recommended Swift A-Frames above all else (for a soft bullet that is.) When clients contacted me with regards to bullet selection on upcoming hunts, I have advocated Swift A-Frames above all else. Because of my occupation, I have the opportunity to see more bullets in action than most. This has lead to a lot of local hunters also asking me what bullets they should buy. (I am also the chairman of the local hunting association's branch.) All this as a form of introduction. Then last year, an American client, shot a buffalo bull with my recommendation of 400gr. Swift A-Frame out of his .416 Remington. (Factory loaded by Remington) This bullet was shot into the neck of a nice bull (42 inches) from about 30 yards. The bull collapsed, and the first shot was followed up with a solid into the chest of the downed bull. On skinning, the recovered bullet was shown to have flattened totally, not what I was used to from Swift A-Frames. I took pictures of that bullet, but the client kept it, so I cannot give you accurate weight retention, but it was definitely lower than 50%! At the time, I thought that the client might have mistaken another soft for the A-Frame, and that was why it did not have the characteristically A-Frame look and weight retention. Then this past week I hunted with another client, who borrowed my 8x68 S with the mentioned 220gr bullets loaded to 2850 ft/sec., to hunt gemsbok (his own rifle developed a problem towards the end of the hunt). His shot took the gemsbok from about 120 yards, hit the humerus of the right shoulder, and stopped under the skin of the left shoulder, just in front of the left shoulder's ball joint. (In other words, the shot was placed slightly too far forward, and encountered a heavy shoulder bone on the way in.) Two
pieces of bullet were found- one of them the rear core of the bullet which was squashed out, weighing 55.6gr. (~25%) The other part was shrapnel of jacket, weighing 94.2 gr. (~42%) Together; they weighed 149.8gr, or 68%. This is very disappointing, especially from what I believed to be the best soft-nose bullet available. Have you changed the thickness of the jackets, or are you using new materials to make these bullets? The batch that I had problems with are bar-coded 7 13351 3220 1, and was brought to me by another American client, as we do not have a local agent for your bullets in Southern Africa.
Please comment. If you are interested, I can supply you with photo's or
the recently recovered bullet."

AND

"Just to let you know that I had another failure with a 220gr A-Frame, this time on a backing shot on a kudu bull just as it went over the crest. Although the bull died shortly after receiving the shot (which could not be attributed to the clients 2 shots), the bullet tumbled after impacting. I attach a photo of this bullet, the previous failure, as well as a bullet that worked perfectly, this time from a gemsbok again. These bullets were all from the same box, and I am seriously thinking of scrapping these bullets, as in my game, I cannot afford bullet failures."

These two bullets can be seen in the following picture:

The 3rd incedent of bullet failure, happened recently on a gemsbok cull. I shot a young bull looking straight at me just too low for the brain. The bull was looking at me, and as I judged the distance to be under the 250 yards that the rifle was zerod for, I aimed lower, and shot lower. Usually would not have ben a proplem, as this combination is capable of super penetration, and it should have broken its neck. The proplem was that the bullet flattened (simmelar to the second bullet in the picture above, only more pronounced), and veered off course, mising the neck vertebrate, and coming to stop lower in the neck, just under the skin. The bull reared up on his hind legs, and luckily ran straight at me, so I followed up with a shot to the chest, which brought him down.

I know that no bullet is infallible, but 3 from one batch? Am I missing something, or is my expectations just too high? What do you think?

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Karl Stumpfe
Ndumo Hunting Safaris (Pty) Ltd.
karl@huntingsafaris.net
www.huntingsafaris.net
+264 811 285 416

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