As the North Fork Staff was preparing for our hunting trip to South Africa and Namibia, I mentioned the hunt to Kelly McMillan of McMillan Rifles (www.mcmillanusa.com) and he offered to send along a McMillan Tactical Hunter rifle in 300 Win Mag with his premium ammunition line loaded with North Fork Bullets for the hunt. I immediately accepted and anxiously awaited the arrival of the rifle and ammunition to begin my shooting preparation for the hunt.

This first part of the hunt occured in mopane bushveld in the Limpopo region of South Africa which limited shots to under 150 yards. This was not a real test of the precision of the McMillan Tactical Hunter rifle. The second part of the hunt occurred in the wide open spaces of the Kalahari at Buitepos Hunting (http://buitepos.com/) located in Namibia along the Botswana border. Shots could be long on game known to be tough. The 300 win mag McMillan Tac Hunter loaded with North Fork 180 SS at 3100 fps is ideally suited for this environment.

The McMillan Tactical hunter Rifle is built on McMillan’s own extremely smooth and strong G30 action. A match grade fluted barrel, free floated in McMillan’s own rock solid and stable Tac Hunter stock ensures accuracy in a wide range of environmental conditions. The trigger on the rifle was a dream. Everyone who held the rifle and tried it remarked on the crispness of the trigger. Last and not least, the Tactical hunter rifle looks great which resulted in almost everyone who saw the rifle wanting to try it out!

At the range, sub MOA groups were the norm. Since shots in the Kalahari could be long, we shot the rifle a lot at 300 meters and routinely achieved groups under 5 cm (under 2″).  Kelly mounted a Zeiss Victory 3.5-12 scope of the rifle with Zeiss’s Z800 reticle. At 10 power, the scopes reticle matched the McMillan Ammunition precisely making long range shots exceedingly easy! This was best evidenced when we were headed back to camp one day and the manager of Buitepos asked me to take some camp meat for his crew. We saw a springbok across a plain and he asked me to take him in the head so as to not waste any meat. I asked for a range and he said it was at 250m. So a springbok is not very big, and I was not shooting off of a bench, but I spent enough time with this rifle to know this was possible and the rifle, scope ammunition combination made this an easy shot.

In the field, the McMillan Tactical Hunter loaded with the McMillan ammunition and North Fork Bullets performed flawlessly and gained admirers as the trip went along. The combination accounted for 8, 1 shot kills on animals ranging from springbok to eland with shots from 30 yards to 350 yards. Great equipment (rifle, scope, ammunition), adequate preparation(fitness and shooting) and shot placement add up to success.

Regards,

Franz Jurva

Richard Sowry, Game Ranger, sent a picture of bullets he recovered from raking shots on buffalo he had to take in the line of duty.

Bart H and Liz had a great hunt for barbary sheep with beautiful animals and a perfect mushroom to show for it.

I wanted to let you know how delighted I was with the performance of your Power Point bullets.

I just completed a 14 day leopard hunt in the Zambezi valley.  (I sent you a photo of the cat.)  I was using a .375 H&H loaded with 300 grain Power Points.  Of the 10 impala I shot for bait, all but one dropped to the shot.  Kudu cow, same story.  I have never shot so many animals, and needed so little follow-up.  The trackers were impressed! 

My cat defeated the plan of forcing him to present a broadside shot from the bait tree.  He was  facing me, quartering away slightly.  I waited for him to lift his head from the impala he was devouring, and placed the round just inside the left shoulder.  It went diagonally through his body, and the bullet was recovered from the right hip.  It  mushroomed perfectly, expanding to 70 caliber.  It weighs 284 grains.  Wow. 

The cat went so straight down from the tree, he was laying in the maggots that were dripping off the bait.

I obtained 2550 fps from my Model 70, and was able to achieve moa groups.  It was like having the finger of God at my disposal.

I’ll be in touch to get loading data for lighter calibers that I shoot, this may be the perfect light to medium game bullet.

Thanks for a great product.

Marty Vick

Wim and Anika had a great hunt in the Kalahari with a 308 winchester and 165gr NF’s. Wim took a nice gemsbok while Anika took a nice gemsbok and redhartebeest.

Wim is now North Fork’s South Africa Agent! www.africanleadwood.co.za

Had a wonderful experience hunting this cow today - bullet performance was optimal, a 500 gr Northfork soft loaded with 76 gr of S335 out of my .458 Lott - penetration was achieved on a side on top of heart (see top of heart & associated plumbing damage) and lung shot - we recovered the bullet against the hide (see bulge in pic) on opposite side of buffalo. Bullet expansion was equal on penetrating ribs and exiting ribs.

Shot was at 30m - she ran 20 paces before blood sign evident, then another 20 paces and went down.

Andreas

This old bull faced me at close range. My North Fork .375 cal. 300 grain cup point solid hit him in the centre of the chest and the bullet cut through the top of the heart and came to rest behind his stomach. The bull rocked back on his haunches before running 30 yards to where he fell over and died immediately. The PH and tracker were impressed. ( I was relieved ! )

The recovered North Fork Cup Point bullet was in perfect form with a small amount of expansion. The front of the bullet had flattened out to sharp edged meplate that cut a good wound channel.
I should mention that both the North Fork Cup Point Solids and the Soft Points would all shoot into a one moa group at the range off a bench in my Winchester M70. That is very important to me for the longer shots.

These wonderful bullets don’t gum up the barrel like most other solid shank bullets. (Also, I have had mixed results with some other popular solid shank bullets on plains game.)
It’s North Fork bullets for me on everything. I know they will give the quickest kills and save me a lot of fussing.

Brian Gallup

Dakota O. takes a nice 8point with 165gr North Forks from a 30-06. A young hunter walking in the footsteps of his Dad!

Thanks for the good customer service and good bullets. .. I used your 250 gn bullets for my Wyoming Wind River range public land elk hunt this year in a 375 H&H magnum.  The impact velocity would have been around 2600 fps and the bullet retained 85% of its weight.  The elk went straight down in less than 2 seconds. The bullet was recovered on the far side where it had shattered 3 inches of two ribs.  The wound channel through the chest appeared to be about 6 inches across.

Mark McDonald, Colorado