Every while I get asked the above question.

Got the same question two days ago.

So I have decided to pick a few videos from my hunts, and post them here.

As the old saying goes, a picture tells a thousands words, a video tells a million!

I will let you all decide by yourselves if the 375 is good enough for buffalo!

Oh, and I promise, no editing has been done to remove my conversations with any of these buffalo asking them how they wish to die.

Here are a few clips.

I will post more.

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Forteen

Fifteen

Sixteen

Seventeen

Eighteen

Nineteen

Twenty

Twenty one

Twenty two

Twenty three

Twenty four

Twenty five

Twenty six

Twenty seven

Twenty eight

Twenty nine

Thirty

Thirty one

Thirty two

Tthirty three

Thirty four

I think you happened to just luck out with that marginal 375....10 times :-)

A standard .375 is marginal but I recently discovered a new load that puts the common 375 into a different class.

I had a group of clients 2 of whom showed up with a 375 and I thought to myself: "the fun begins".

Well, they had Norma ammo loaded with 350 grain bullets, in appearance and later in performance similar to Woodleighs. I had already mentioned this in an earlier post and the combination is definitely a game changer.

You know your anatomy, your gun, and your bullets. Some very fine and accurate shooting there. I think there was one that did not drop to the shot!

It appears you like to use a low neck in front of shoulder location quite alot, can you tell us more about your shot placement selection. Great video's

quote:

Originally posted by Gale Johnson:
It appears you like to use a low neck in front of shoulder location quite alot, can you tell us more about your shot placement selection. Great video's

Takes the spine out ... result: poleaxed, very much alive but not going anywhere.

It all depends on the position of the buffalo.

I shoot them in the neck or head if they are close.

Breaking the spine also works very well.

My main concern is to try to get the bullets into the middle of the chest, from any angle.

That always causes enough damage to at least slow them down.

I don’t know, Saeed. Alan mentioned approximately how many buffalo you’ve shot with him and Roy over the years and I’m not sure that’s a big enough sample size to say for sure. I think you need to shoot many buffalo more to confirm your theory!

Do you believe the extra speed of the 404-375 and the mono bullets are more productive with those shot's? Kinda goes against what most PH's believe but no doubt super effective with your shot placement

quote:

Originally posted by DLS:
I don’t know, Saeed. Alan mentioned approximately how many buffalo you’ve shot with him and Roy over the years and I’m not sure that’s a big enough sample size to say for sure. I think you need to shoot many buffalo more to confirm your theory!

You have known these two as long as I have, but I doubt you know them as well as I do.

Roy used to try to get closer to buffalo which were 30 yards away.

He used to whisper “wait until he gives you a good angle”

That changed to him putting the sticks up for a bull 300 yards away, saying “he is a bit far. Hurry up and shoot before he walks into the grass!”

Or “shoot him up the arse!”

Alan has to add his own to this.

He would put the shooting sticks up and say “he is a bit far. You have to aim high!”

Another one of his favorite sayings is “if you can see it, you can hit it!”

Two jokers I have to suffer every year on safari!

quote:

Originally posted by Gale Johnson:
Do you believe the extra speed of the 404-375 and the mono bullets are more productive with those shot's? Kinda goes against what most PH's believe but no doubt super effective with your shot placement

My rifle is under loaded actually.

I use a load of around 2700-2800 fps.

My two rifles gave different barrel lengths.

Does not seem to affect anything at all.

Frankly, I think the most important factor is shot placement, and bullet construction.

The added velocity only helps reduce the drop at longer distances.

I don’t think anyone using the standard 375 H&H, with the same bullets, and the same shot placement, would get any difference in the results.

Good shooting - would love to shoot one let alone 10 buffalo. Where were you - Tanzania or Zambia?

Would suspect if you had a 30-06 or 318 with a good tough bullet in same place the result would have been the same.

And in those big herds how often is wrong bull actually shot. I know culling female red deer it’s often difficult to pick out exactly which one should be shot especially if all milling around and the one who is selecting is seeing things differently to you. But experience I am sure helps.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:

quote:

Originally posted by DLS:
I don’t know, Saeed. Alan mentioned approximately how many buffalo you’ve shot with him and Roy over the years and I’m not sure that’s a big enough sample size to say for sure. I think you need to shoot many buffalo more to confirm your theory!

You have known these two as long as I have, but I doubt you know them as well as I do.

Roy used to try to get closer to buffalo which were 30 yards away.

He used to whisper “wait until he gives you a good angle”

That changed to him putting the sticks up for a bull 300 yards away, saying “he is a bit far. Hurry up and shoot before he walks into the grass!”

Or “shoot him up the arse!”

Alan has to add his own to this.

He would put the shooting sticks up and say “he is a bit far. You have to aim high!”

Another one of his favorite sayings is “if you can see it, you can hit it!”

Two jokers I have to suffer every year on safari!

You’re right about that. And those comments sound spot on. You could fill an entire forum just exposing Roy’s idiosyncrasies. “Royisms” could go on and on.

I have never shot the wrong bull.

I think what helps in this is that I do not use binoculars at all.

When we are looking at the animals, I look through my scope.

We talk about which one us our target - I don’t lose him while changing from binoculars to scope.

Once our target is in a good position for a shot, I take it.

For Buffalo one, I believe you waited too long to shoot, once you found him in your scope

Saeed,
Thanks for sharing. Good shooting and my compliments to your videographer. He is far better that the so called "pros" used for the often broadcasted African hunting shows.

I have done three asian buffalo culls in Australia. Two with Matt Graham when he was alive and one with Barry Seabrook. I used a 375 H&H with the old Noslers made with brass tubing that had a relief belt. I killed over 60 buff on the three hunts. All died quite well but not as well as your buff, primarily due to my less than perfect shot placement as you do.

Geoff

Every buffalo I've shot with the 375 has died. Dead is dead. I'm currently hunting with a 375 WBY that gives about the same performance as Saeed's 375/404 loading. It works on about anything you'll ever want to point it at.

Mark

I haven’t shot nearly the Buffalo that Saeed has, but when I do my part, my .375 kills them just as dead as the .416’s or .470.

It works fine. It’s not merely adequate.

Saeed,
Great videos, thanks, and as always, enjoy watching your great shooting. I don't know how you shoot that well over sticks but it's impressive. On sticks I've never been able to shoot that quickly. My three Cape Buff were all shot with my .375 H&H. All required multiple shots but they all died. I love that cartridge and believe I shoot it well. BUT, my .375 H&H is a Blaser R93 so maybe my experience doesn't count....

Very impressive shooting. Thanks for the post and the videos.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
Every while I get asked the above question.

Got the same question two days ago.

So I have decided to pick a few videos from my hunts, and post them here.

As the old saying goes, a picture tells a thousands words, a video tells a million!

I will let you all decide by yourselves if the 375 is good enough for buffalo!

Oh, and I promise, no editing has been done to remove my conversations with any of these buffalo asking them how they wish to die.

Thanks for the videos Saeed. And, the answer to the original question, with or without the videos, is and has been-Yes.

Yes, but I think it helps if the man behind the rifle can shoot , Nice videos.

It really is amazing that people talk about one caliber "killing better" than others.

Those who have hunted extensively know this to be totally untrue.

Dead is dead.

Disrupt a major function of the animals and he will expire very quickly.

Reading hunting magazines in the past we believed whatever the "experts" wrote.

Then when we started hunting, we found that these "experts" are very good at it.

Sitting at home on a typewriter.

Our experience in the field was far different.

Sadly, that carried on to the present time too.

How many times have we seen "experts" going to Africa and hunting buffalo wit larger bores, could not kill them?

My video camera men are not professional videographers.

It is either Roy or Alan with the camera.

Funny enough, one year Alan had malaria, and we borrowed a professional video man for a couple of days.

He did well, but never stopped complaining that we "hunted hard"!

We kept him moving1

I do believe that not using binoculars helps me a lot.

I have hunted with friends who did.

And invariably they lose the wanted animal in the swap between the binoculars and scope.

We had this well demonstrated once in Matetsi.

Had a friend who was using a 500.

We found 4 old bulls walking in the forest, and we decided to shoot all of them.

My friend had first go.

We got ahead of them, and as they walked, feeding slowly, very close by, he shot one.

He hit it too far back.

The bull ran a few yards and stopped, hidden from us for a second shot.

I did not want to shoot any while that one was on his feet.

He stood there for quite a while, then my friend shot him again.

Within a couple of minutes, I had the three left down.

One I actually shot in the head, as he was running around trying to see wat the hell was going on, getting close to us.

On that same safari, my friend used his 500 and shot a giraffe.

Again, he misplaced the shot, and the giraffe took off.

All we could see was his head wobbling between the top of the trees.

He fired a few shots at it, missing.

He could not run, so me and Roy ran after it.

Luckily, he got clear crossing the road dividing the concessions, and I hit him at the base of the tail.

Dropping him right on the road.

Proof positive that the size of the bullet is immaterial, but where it is placed.

I agree on binos. Mine stay in the truck, on the rack in front of the high seat. That’s where I use them. My PH does the glassing while in the field. I have made sure he knows what I want. I put my attention into getting ready for the shot.

Well, of course, Saeed.

No kidding!

If you break their necks or sever their spines, a 5.56x45mm is adequate!

Might be a good idea to use green tips, though.

quote:

Originally posted by Michael Robinson:
Well, of course, Saeed.

No kidding!

If you break their necks or sever their spines, a 5.56x45mm is adequate!

Might be a good idea to use green tips, though.

Very true my friend.

Thing is doing it.

Shooting a buffalo in the wrong place with a 500 or 600 or a 700 is totally useless.

We have seen it here many times, from those championing the "bigger is better" mantra fall flat on their faces!

It does help when your PH is also using a bigger gun than you are and still could not kill the poor buffalo!

Great shooting, Saeed!

Saeed - these a really informative set of videos. Look to be the same rifle and assume the same bullet on pretty much all the buffalo. Are they your own copper bullets.

And they do rather make the point that buffalo cannot read the text books and different animals will react differently to a bullet pretty much in the same place. I suspect in many cases the 2nd shot wasn’t necessary, but better safe than sorry.

What about elephant Saeed? Do you have thoughts on the .375 for them?

Obviously, Side brain shot no worries. Broadside heart no worries. But often times the ele shifts frontally when setting up for the side.

What about frontal brain on ele with the .375?

I have killed many elephants with both side and frontal shots.

On one occasion, the bullet did not penetrate far enough to reach the brain from the front.

We were slightly below him, and he had his head up.

The bullet had to go through a lot of trunk.

We put a cleaning rod in the bullet hole afterwards, and found it stopped just before getting into the brain cavity.

Funny thing is we had a similar thing happen with Roy too once.

A bull was walking and he turned towards us.

I normally shoot for the brain, he shoots for the heart.

We both fired.

The elephant dropped stone dead.

My bullet killed it.

Roy’s went into the trunk, turned 90 degrees, and out the side of the trunk.

Never touched the body??!!

I have seen a 577 T.Rex not penetrate far enough on a frontal shot on a cow elephant!!

She just shock her head, turned around and carried on.

I have posted a few more clips.

I think these demonstrate that the 375 is more than adequate for buffalo.

And all the wannabe "hunters" claiming otherwise are talking a load of rubbish.

The bigger the bore they use, the bigger their mouths are.

Some even TALK to half dead buffalo.

Normal hunters just shoot them

The 9.3x64 works. It’s just a big bullet in a 30-06 case, so I suspect a 375 H&H is fine.

The only trouble I have ever had was a 450 Dakota (460 Weatherby equivalent) in a frontal chest shot at 10 yards. 14 rounds later, he died. Clearly I should have been shooting a 375.

I’ll never understand what went wrong on that one.

If shot placement is the only answer, then a 7 Rem Mag is just as efficient up to 150yds, also capable of producing one shot kills.

If however the shot is poorly placed for whatever reason, there will be negative consequences which can be greatly reduced if the caliber is larger with a correct bullet construction.

So, if it boils down to precision sniping over long distances, the ideal caliber would be the .338 and of course the 375/404.

We were out hunting on foot, and I had a 270 Ackley.

We came across fresh lion tracks.

I said to Roy what do we do if we find the lion.

He said shoot it.

I said we have the wrong gun.

He said the lion wouldn’t know!

A 375 is certainly adequate. Especially with the great bullets available today. But you still need the right shot placement. I hit a buffalo on the bottom point of the shoulder with a 300 gn A-Frame. It flattened against the bone after breaking the shoulder. It was found inside the joint. I should have aimed a little back of the shoulder or used a solid.

The .375 HH only works well when being used in a Blaser....

A Blaser has an extra mojo that kills buffalo better and deader....

Simple answer there…

Who kills more buffalo, Saeed with his cobbled together Dakota or Walter with his Blaser perfection?

quote:

Originally posted by dogcat:
The .375 HH only works well when being used in a Blaser....

A Blaser has an extra mojo that kills buffalo better and deader....

I must confess that I have never used a .375 caliber rifle on Cape buffalo.

My chosen buffalo calibers begin with .41's, and better .45's, and best .51's.

A Nor'easter bloody blizzard is on its way to my neck of the woods. Supposed to hit us tomorrow, like a mad buffalo charge.

Which calls to mind an apt analogy between snow and buffalo.

Snow shovels work.

Snow blowers work better.

Snow plows work best.

Very impressive shooting, Saeed.After years of watching you shooting, I am still amazed at the spped with which you acquire the target and shoot. In one video, you barely looked through the scope and went bang. How do you acquire your target so fast and also get the sights aligned within in a couple of seconds?