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Rhino Solid Shank – .458″ – 300gr – Bullet test

The .458″ Rhino bullet test this time! The Rhino Solid Shank!

Rhino bullets are designed in South Africa. They wanted to design a “no-nonsense bullet” which would be suited to the harsh African conditions. By the manufacturer, the Rhino Bullets have been designed and constructed to stand up to anything you throw at them, and yet retain the accuracy required by a benchrest shooter. More information about the Rhino bullets, you can found on their homapage: https://rhinobullets.co.za

We want to thank you the P&H EsVo Group Oy for possibility to test the Rhino bullets in our Hard-Hitting Shooting Lab. You can found Rhino bullets on their online shop at https://www.esvo.fi

But to the results!

Rhino Solid Shank .458″ 300gr bullet.

TESTING

This bullet is one of the so called “Scandinavian edition”-bullets. Testing was made by reloading the bullets to the .458 Winchester Magnum & .458 SOCOM cartridges. We measured the impact velocities ca. 5m from the muzzle. The fastest impact velocity was 724m/s (2375fps), the second fastest was 617m/s (2024fps) and the lowest impact velocity was 574m/s (1883fps).

In addition to these three impact velocities, we also tested this bullet with the velocity of 538m/s (1765fps). The bullet fully penetrated the 120cm (47,2″) of wet paper, a big water jug and a two inch thick wood. The hole at the wood was the size of the caliber, so the bullet did not expand at all. Unluckily, we did not find the bullet at the rear terrain.

We do not know the ballistic coefficient of this bullet, but it MIGHT be somewhere around 0,225 (G1). So if the velocity at the muzzle is 724m/s (2375fps), the impact velocity of 617m/s (2024fps) simulates the impact at the distance of 88 meters (96 yards). The impact velocity of 574m/s (1883fps) simulates the impact at the distance of 126 meters (137 yards).

The impact velocity of 538m/s (1765fps) simulates the impact at the distance of 160 meters (174 yards). At this distance, the bullet would not have expanded at all.

THE BULLET

Rhino Solid Shank is specifically designed for hunting. It has a copper jacket with lead core. The lead is bonded to the copper jacket and the bottom half of the bullet is solid copper. It is designed to form four mushroom petals that produce a large but controlled wound channel.

This bullet is made for the .45-70Gov caliber, so we wanted to test it with little wider velocity range, because there is also older trapdoor- and lever action rifles available for this caliber.

This bullet will start expanding somewhere between 538m/s (1765fps) and 574m/s (1883fps) like the test is showing. This is little tougher bullet than some of the competitors, and that is good to keep in mind, if someone is reloading this bullet for trapdoor- or lever action rifles. We believe that this bullet can take even more beating, than what we pushed it on this test. With the impact speed of 724m/s (2375fps), the retained weight was still almost 100%, even if the expansion was quite extreme.

The amount of expanding on the tested bullets was at the good level. Width of the all three expanded bullets are on the same level (1,8x), even though the impact velocities varies almost 150m/s (492fps).

Retained weights of the bullets was almost 100% and of course at the excellent level.

WOUND CHANNELS

Test targets were wet newspapers. The bullets penetrated as follows:

  • With impact velocity of 724m/s (2375fps), penetration 63cm (24,8″).
  • With impact velocity of 617m/s (2024fps), penetration 45cm (17,7″).
  • With impact velocity of 574m/s (1883fps), penetration 46cm (18,1″).

The wound channels can be seen below. The harder impact of faster bullet can easily be seen from the cavitation. At this case, the fastest bullet penetrated the most.

SUMMA SUMMARUM

The bullet that I could use at the moose hunting in Finland with a modern 45-70gov, .450 Marlin or .458winmag rifle. Those would definetely do the job with this bullet. You can expect nice expansion and exellent retained weights when the velocity range is ok.

Like we wrote previously, this is little tougher 300gr bullet, than some of the competitors. Our opinion is, that you should keep in mind the impact velocity range, when reloading this bullet. How much velocity you can achieve with trapdoor rifle for example? What will be the working distance area of the bullet?

Sincerely yours – The Hard-Hitting Shooting Lab

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Rhino Solid Shank – .375″ – 235gr – Bullet test

The first .375″ bullet test for our homepage! The Rhino Solid Shank!

Rhino bullets are designed in South Africa. They wanted to design a “no-nonsense bullet” which would be suited to the harsh African conditions. By the manufacturer, the Rhino Bullets have been designed and constructed to stand up to anything you throw at them, and yet retain the accuracy required by a benchrest shooter. More information about the Rhino bullets, you can found on their homapage: https://rhinobullets.co.za

We want to thank you the P&H EsVo Group Oy for possibility to test the Rhino bullets in our Hard-Hitting Shooting Lab. You can found Rhino bullets on their online shop at https://www.esvo.fi

But to the results!

Rhino Solid Shank .375" 235gr

Rhino Solid Shank .375″ 235gr bullet.

TESTING

Testing was made by reloading the bullets to the .375 H & H Magnum cartridges. We measured the impact velocities ca. 5m from the muzzle. Harder impact velocity was 845m/s (2772fps) and the lower impact velocity was 719m/s (2359fps).

If the velocity at the muzzle is 845m/s (2772fps), the lower impact velocity of 719m/s (2359fps) simulates the impact at the distance of 162 meters (177 yards).

THE BULLET

Rhino Solid Shank is specifically designed for hunting. It has a copper jacket with lead core. The lead is bonded to the copper jacket and the bottom half of the bullet is solid copper. It is designed to form four mushroom petals that produce a large but controlled wound channel.

On our tests the bullets performed exellent on both speeds. Retained weights were very good and the width of the mushroomed bullets were exellent. The bullet with the harder impact formed over 2,5x to the width of the caliber, and the bullet with lighter impact also formed almost to 2,5x width.

WOUND CHANNELS

The great expansion of the bullets can also be seen on the little shorter penetration. Test targets were wet newspapers. The bullet with impact speed of 845m/s (2772fps) penetrated 43cm (16,9″) of wet newspapers, and the bullet with impact speed of 719m/s (2359fps) penetrated 36cm (14,2″).

The wound channels can be seen below. The harder impact of faster bullet can easily be seen from the cavitation.

SUMMA SUMMARUM

The bullet that I would gladly use at the moose hunting in Finland. Little shorter penetration is desired feature when hunting moose with the dogs. When the bullet does not exit from the moose after the hit, there are always less threats to dogs to get the hits.

This Rhino Solid Shank bullet has really good capabilities to form to a really wide mushroom and with the 375H&H you can push it to really high speeds. I believe, you can definetely see the effect when this bullet hits to the moose!

Sincerely yours – The Hard-Hitting Shooting Lab