I shot 3 buffalo this trip in Zimbabwe.

Number #1. I needed a lion bait badly as the giraffe I shot the previous week was starting to rot and we wernt getting much feeding action. There had only been one good feeding on the bait that was hanging at Crock Pools, the other three pieces of giraffe were just attracting hyenas now. So we decided to change the menu a little. Buffalo make great lion baits because of their size and are easy to get. Trophy buffalo hunting can take a long time because you must sort out the heard,identify the one you want and finially put your self into shooting position. That is true buffalo hunting. We just needed a bait in a hurry because we had a lion feeding who left good size mane hairs on the remains of the giraffe bait. We jumped into the truck to follow up some buf tracks we saw just befor lunch. About 30 minuts later we saw real freah trachs and could smell the herd (bingo) we got out of the truck and stayed down wind following them for 2K's and put ourselfs on a mountain side looking down at a heard of only 200. We sat there glassing the herd for a while there was one good trophy bull maybe 42-43 but he was almost 200 yards awawy with no approach. So we sat there scooting on our butts quitly down the mountain when another group of 20 came directly towards us. We found what we needed an old huge bodied bull that was an easy recovery for the Landcruiser. I slowly stood up and put the 375 H&H on the shooting stix and waited for him to come clear, he was behind a mopane bush walking straight towards me out at 25 yards. I fired the 300 X bullet directly into his chest, a prefect heart shot. He ran 40 yards and died very quickly without incident. Next morning we had 2 new loin baits and ox tail soup that night.

#2 & #3

Sometime during the middle of the hunt we were driving along and saw a small herd of bullalo maybe 80. We were driving near the Park boundry and figured they must have come in from the park as they didnt seem to mind the Landcruiser. We saw a cow that was HUGE WIDE the last thing on our minds was shooting a buffalo especially a cow, we did that a couple days prior and didnt need the bait. Nothing was said as we both grabed our guns and got out of the truck. The herd was moving alond fast but wasnt minding us at all. We ran like the wind for 3-4-K's to get to the front of the heard so we could watch it pass and maybe get a shot at our trophy cow. The heard passes I was up on the sticks but a responsible shot never did come up so long lives the widest cow we'd ever see. But there were alot of nice bulls in that herd.

Another week went past, no lion and time for more bait. We thought that it would be nice to get a decent buffalo for bait this time since we had the time to shop a little. We had been watching the movement of the doscile herd mentioned above and thought that was a good plan, since we saw some nice bulls in there. so we jumped into the truck with maybe 1 hours light left, we knew where they were. We had Spagetti for lunch and our naps ran overtime. We drove right up on the heard they didnt notice us nor us them, just a lazy African day. So we backed down the hill 500 yards behind some cover and got out of the truck. We carefully approached the relaxed heard until we got into position to see almost all of them. Wow what an incredible gene pool infront of us hardly anything average. Wide ones, deep oned, thick bosses, you name it, it was there in such a small herd. My best shot was at a young (still a little soft) wide thick bull out at 40 yards. I had the 450 Dakota up on the sticks with a hornady soft(?) its what I had at the time. He played with a branch for a long time before coming clear, when he did a perfect side heart shot. After the shot whilst we here running up to him less than 40 yards I noticed at the same time my PH did, a better old bull watching us. As the dust was settelling on the young bull over on my right side, I carefully placed the 450 on the shooting sticks placed perfectly by my PH and looked through the scope at a fantastic buffalo faceing me squareily ot 50 yards. I pulled the trigger and hit him center chest destroying the top of the heart. The bullet in this case was the Woodleigh solid I loaded below the soft. I hadnt planned on 2 buffalo!! The penetration was amazing it ended up in his rump. We never recovered it because the lions got to it that night. We recoveredthe buffalo remains next morning. The young bull measured 40" and the old one 42". Two big bulls within 30 seconds of each other, I felt like Saeed for a minute there.

Buffalo die just as quickly from a 375 as 450 when they are well hit in the following 3 cases.

[ 06-15-2003, 05:33: Message edited by: LV Eric ]

LV Eric
Sounds like you had a good trip. How did the Hornady soft perform? Did you shoot anything else with the 450?

The Hornady 500 gr softs were the only softs I took, it was an accident. I shot the one buffalo in the heart(I saw it in the butchery) buy we neverdid recover it . I was very cerious what was left of it. There definantly wanst a exit wound.

I shoy a warthog withone just to see what would happen. well the hog ran 200 yards before dieng. I hit him diagonally and the exit wound looked like a cut with a knife rather odd. Just a slice with no blood more like a stab wound. The blood trail we picked up on was from the enterence wound.

thats all I did with the 450 this trip maybe a little more come oct