(Photo courtesy of Joseph von Benedikt)
December 19, 2025
By Joseph von Benedikt
Bullet Basics Swift’s A-Frame bullet is considered the toughest of all lead-core bullets. It features an H-type jacket with a solid wall of copper that separates the front and lead core. Copper jacket walls are extremely thick, and the lead cores are bonded into place . On impact, A-Frame bullets mushroom with predictable perfection and generally retain more than 80 percent of original weight. As a result, A-Frame bullets penetrate deep and straight while creating a massive wound channel. A-Frame bullets are the preferred choice of most professional dangerous-game guides. There can be no greater endorsement.
Testing Ground Neal Lane used the bullet shown to shoot a wounded blue wildebeest bull from about 160 yards while hunting in Namibia. Blue gnu, aka wildebeest, are known for extreme toughness. Muzzle velocity out of Lane’s Model 70 Safari Express rifle was about 2,450 fps; impact velocity was estimated at 2,100 fps.
Field Performance The follow-up shot impacted the bull at an extreme quartering angle—nearly a straightaway—hitting just below the hip and ranging all the way forward into the offside neck, where it was recovered against the hide. The anchoring shot did its job, putting the bull down quickly.
Stats Estimated penetration was more than three feet. The bullet traveled through dense muscle, the abdomen, the vitals, heavy brisket bone, and more dense muscle before coming to rest. The recovered A-Frame bullet measured an average of 0.69 inch across the mushroom; not quite double the original diameter. Weight is 297.4 grains, which is an impressive 99.1 percent of original mass.
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Notes/Observations This bullet is made for killing things very dead, very quickly, inside traditional hunting distances. It’s not a high-BC bullet, which matters not at all because savvy hunters do not take far shots on game. The A-Frame’s absolute reliability is what’s earned it the reputation as one of the best dangerous-game bullets made.
Joseph von Benedikt
Raised in a tiny Rocky Mountain town 100 miles from a stoplight or supermarket, Joseph von Benedikt began shooting competitively at age 14, gunsmithing at age 21, and guiding big game hunters professionally at age 23. While studying creative writing at the university he began publishing articles about firearms and hunting in nationally distributed magazines, as well as works of short fiction about ranch life. An editorial job offer presented an open door into the industry, along with an eye-opening two years stationed in the Petersen Publishing building in Los Angeles.
A position serving as Editor in Chief of Shooting Times magazine took von Benedikt and his young family to Illinois for four years. Homesick for the great Rocky Mountains, von Benedikt swapped his editorial seat for a position as a full-time writer and moved home to the West, where he's been writing full-time ever since, along with hosting the Backcountry Hunting Podcast.
Favorite pursuits include high-country elk and mule deer hunting, safaris in Africa, deep wilderness hunts in Alaska, and wandering old-growth forest in Europe for stag, roebuck, and wild boar.
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