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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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North Fork – .458″ – 300gr FP – Bullet test

The North Fork .458″ 300gr FP (flat point) will be the first bullet for our .458″ bullet test section!

Manufacturing of North Fork bullets were formerly located in Oregon USA, but in the year 2020, the production were sold and moved to Sweden. For us, the Finnish hunters, this is of course the great thing.

As they say on their homepage: “Over a decade ago, North Fork Bullets began with the goal of creating the best hunting bullets in the world while providing exceptional service to its customers.“. What they want to offer are the bullets that are extremely accurate, bore friendly and devasting.

We want to give our thanks to the new Swedish manufacturer of North Fork bullets for the possibility to test the North Fork bullets in our Hard-Hitting Shooting Lab. You can found North Fork bullets on their homepages : https://www.northforkbullets.com & https://www.jbhunting.se

But to the results!

North Fork .458″ 300gr FP bullet results!

TESTING

Testing was made by reloading the bullets to the .458 Winchester Magnum cartridges. We measured the impact velocities ca. 5m from the muzzle. Harder impact velocity was 759m/s (2490fps) and the lower impact velocity was 618m/s (2028fps).

We do not know the ballistic coefficient of this bullet, but it MIGHT be somewhere around 0,225 (G1). If the velocity at the muzzle is 759m/s (2490fps), the lower impact velocity of 618m/s (2028fps) would simulate the impact at the distance of 113 meters (123 yards). Note: There might be error of guessing the ballistic coefficient!

THE BULLET

They say that the bullets are : “Engineered to give you the utmost in expansion and unfailing reliability over the widest Range of velocities possible whether shooting a high velocity magnum or a standard Cartridge. North Fork bullets produce the “perfect mushroom” every time. The benefits, Whether the game is up close or at a longer range, are predictable expansion and high Retained weight providing deep penetration. With the lead core in front of the bullet and the Solid copper shank in the rear, impact results in a “perfect mushroom” over a large range of Velocities. At impact, the front lead core expands until it reaches the solid copper shank Stopping the mushroom at its maximum diameter.“

The jacket of the bullets are made of pure copper, and gilded metals or copper alloys are not used. Lead core is bonded to the jacket to produce a bullet, which will have a high retained weight and which will not break and separate under the impact.

We believe this bullet is made for a .45-70 government cartridges, so the higher impact velocity of 759m/s (2490fps) was little bit out of the specifications! But we wanted to try it! The bullet held up the abusing really well, and did not break! Width of the mushroom narrowed little bit because of the high impact velocity, but the retained weight is still at the acceptable level (83%).

At the slower velocity of 618m/s (2028fps) bullet expanded well. Retained weight is also at the exellent level (ca. 99%). You don’t need to reload this bullet to the 760m/s muzzle velocity, because this bullet will also work on the lower velocities! But if you want, you definetely can!

It would have been great to test this bullet with even slower velocities for the .45-70gov users, but we run out of bullets. If we have possibilities to test lower velocities on the future, we will update the results to this article! We believe, this bullet probably will expand at the impact speed of 550m/s (1804fps).

WOUND CHANNELS

Test targets were wet newspapers. The bullet with impact speed of 759m/s (2490fps) penetrated 57cm (22,4″) of wet newspapers, and the bullet with impact speed of 618m/s (2028fps) penetrated 56cm (22″). The amount of expansion of the bullet was really good for the weight of it, and it leaded also to the good penetration.

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

SUMMA SUMMARUM

Really good bullet choice, for a many different type of guns! The lowest velocities are still untested, but we would easily recommend this to the .45-70gov caliber. With the muzzle velocity of over 700m/s (2300fps) this bullet is really good choice for moose or bear hunting. Good penetration, nice velocity for moving subjects and really manageable recoil. Like Doug Marcaida would say; it will kill.

Sincerely yours – The Hard-Hitting Shooting Lab