Apart from the numerous followers of this sport, I get numerous inquiries from new shooters wanting to take uo the sport.

Seems a long time ago now but I bought my first Martini Henry in about 1980 or 40 years ago. Wasn't a lot of data available on loads and my first year of load development was disasterous. I read more and researched a lot and finally got the darn thing to shoot with an oversized bullet from CBE.



Next was a J.C. Lord sporting carbine in 577 Snider which was a bloody hoot to shoot but it didn't really shoot well until the 480gn CCBB bullet made an appearance (courtesy of the late Colin Clark R.I.P.) which lead to building the "Super Snider" a 577 built on the Martini Henry action with a new Walther 30" barrel.

From the number of emails and PM's that I answer each week, there is a growing interest in the old buffalo guns of a bygone era. Given that 100+ years ago, if you could not shoot to put game on the table, your family went hungry.

[img width=450 height=600]https://i.imgur.com/iGps2oTl.jpg[/img]

While some companies provided store bought ammunition, reloads were virtually universally made by the cabin fire (or out in the open) sight settings memorised and guns maintained in the 'ready' for the next days hunt.



Of course, the buffalo era is well documented, the methods of hunting were mostly at 300-500yards and it took a lot of bullet energy to down a 2000+lbs bull at that range. Bullets ranged from 400-700 grains in order to deliver that energy.



The rifles take many forms from Martini, Rolling Block, Sharps and Hiwalls in various calibres mostly from a small of 40 cal, up to 50cal and even 58cal. Indulging in this pastime leads to the better understanding of ballistics and reading the wind.



While the cost of the rifles are getting around the 2K, feeding it is quite cheap, if you cast your own non-gas checked lead bullets approx $0.45c a round.

You know there are a few bison in Australia.

I saw some near Albury about 10 years ago. We were on our way back from hunting sambar down there and stopped and got a cheeseburger from some place and looked across the road and there were bison grazing with cattle.