i was looking for opinions from people in regards to hunting cape buffalo with the 300wby mag. a mate and i were talking about how the 300 weatherby puts out similar down range energy with the 180 and 200gr loads as a 375 with 300gr loads. buffalo in australia fall down easy with the 300wby but are the cape that much harder to stop. what is the largest game youve taken with the 300wby and how was bullet performance.

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give me the serenity to accept things i cant change, courage to change that i can and wisdom to hide the bodies of people i hunted and killed cause they pissed me off

sav,

Welcome to the forum.

Let me start off on the right foot.

Anything smaller than a 9.3 caliber is not legal for hunting cape buffalo.

I am reading a book by an old African PH, and he states that he had a client and his wife hunting with him.

The wife was not able to shoot her husbands 458, so he lent her his 30-06 Springfield.

She killed all the animals she wanted with it, including an elephant.

The PH in question is Cameron, and I will post what he wrote later in the day.

Welcome to the forum Sav,

Apart from not being legal, the .300wby would not be the smartest choice to hunt cape buffalo. Sure it can kill a cape under most circumstances if that is your question but it would not be the caliber one would recommend.

You are at the right site if you want to answer most of your hunting and balistic questions; the wealth of information on this forum is outstanding. If you do a search on the subject of hunting cape buff, you will find numerous threads that will help you make your own decision on this question.

Happy hunting! I bet those "downunder buff" are pretty exciting huntin too?

dont get me wrong guys i didnt intend on hunting cape buff with the 300 i know the ozzie buff do fall down pretty easy and yes i would imagine with a well placed shot it would go down as well i was just curious as to peoples thoughts

You guys are never satisfied

Here I was, in the middle of testing 22 rim fire ammo, and you insist that I post all the rubbish old PH write.

Alright, here is one story. I must warn you, that he also shoots a buffalo with a 22 rim fire magnum.

Will, Nickudu, Walter is working on a new wildcat. He is necking the 22 RFM up to 500. He wants to make sure you two are happy about the caliber we will use on our future hunts.

The following is from the book, MY WANDERINGS THROUGH AFRICA, by Mike Cameron, published by Safari Press, ISPN 1-57157-181-7

Highly recommended.

"...I think it would be presumptious of me to recommend specific makes and caliber of firearms to potential hunters...We all have different perceptions of what is good, mediocre or just old-fashioned rubbish. One thing that remains true, however, is that the rifle is only as good as the man who is handling it...All calibers can kill, some just a little better than others, and I have always maintained that it is not the diameter or weight of the bullet that matters, it is where you put it..."

He goes on to explain that he prefers English made rifles on Mauser actions. He does not like any of the Weatherby rifles or cartridges, nor does he like handloaded ammo.

"...For all practical purposes, I will go for the .30 calibers, be it a .30-06, 300 H&H or a 300 Winchester magnum. The common denominator is that they all have fine cartridges, and they are all capable of clobbering anything from a steenbok ro a buffalo. Many years ago, hunting in Botswana with some clients from the Philipenes, I
witnessed just that. The father was a political heavyweight from the islands, and he had his daughter along as a treat for her 18th birthday. which we celebrated while on safari. The hunt was going very smoothly except for the young lady's being very slim and trim ( like a British rifle); she was not robust enough to handle the Weatherby or the 458. I had with me, at that time, a scarred weather-beaten 30-06, and the young lady took to it like duck to water.

The more shoe shot with that rifle, the more confident she became. Among the trophies she collected was a good buffalo, and an 80 pound elephant. She downed this bull with s single 220 grain Winchester solid through the brain.

I feel really over gunned with my 375/404 now

thanks Saeed,
now the part about taking a buff with a .22 please

Perhaps Saeed meant the new proprietary caliber that just came out. The .22/700NE is designed for larger varmints. The cartridge is formed by necking down the .700 NE to .22. The most accurate loads use the truncated 30 grain bullet. Velocity has not been measured yet, as the muzzle blast has destroyed three chronographs and the shooting benches. This new round should be wonderful medicine for Cape buffalo, or at least could be used to vaporize the Oxpeckers on their backs.

Here he relates the story of another PH, Harry Lee-Wingfield.

"...Hary had a trick he could do very well. He would take two empty beer bottles, place them on the ground, and do a handstand on them. After a while, Harry could be seen walking through the compound on the beer bottles....

Harry had another pecularity. He had quite a sweet tooth for glass. As the party wore on at night, and the devil's brew was flowing freely, old Harry would always end up eating a beet bottle or two and some wine glasses. He could pulverize anything with his teeth. Eventually, the barman lodged a formal complaint with the management. After that Harry was restricted to eating his own empties, and wine glasses were off limits..."

Harry eye sight was going, which led to the following story.

Harry was in a leopard blind with a young client. He dosed off, asking the client to wake him up when the leopard comes.

"...The young client nearly had a heart attack. One moment there was nothing, and the next he was looking into the meanist yellow eyes on God's earth, while his PH was fast asleep. He realized that he had to wake Harry immediately. The youngster slowly leaned over and tapped Harry twice with his finger on the chest: "Wake up, Harry, the cat is here!" whispered the youngster.

Harry woke up with a start, and, half dazed, it took him a few long seconds to realize where he was. The youngster was shaking with anticipation, and the adrenalin was pumping. "There Harry, there!" he whispered again, pointing with his fingers towards the bait.
Harry raised himself and peered through the hole at the branch. It was a monster. The excitement in the blind had become infectious, and old Harry leaned over the youngster, mouth dry, and whispered softly in his ear in typical dry Brit fashion: "I think you should take it old chap. It is bloody enormous"

Slowly the youngster picked up his rifle and with shaking hands pushed the barrel through the shooting hole. He moved around in his chair a bit to finally get the leopard lined up in the scope. Suddenly the youngster moved away from the scope and looked at Harry.

"Are you sure that is a leopard?"
"Good heavens, old chap, be a sport and let him have it!" was Harry's reply. The youngster got the leoprad lined up in the scope once more and stopped again.

Harry, something does not look right," he whispered.
Wingfield had another look at the bait. The toothy grin appeared, and he said, "Do take him, old boy; otherwise, Christmas will appear soon."

With that, the youngster squeezed the trigger, and aloud boom was followed by a thud, as the big cat hit the ground.
"Damn good shooting, old chap, where did you aim?"
"The neck,"replied the youngster.
"The Neck? Bloody spoprting of you, I say. Not too big a target."
They went down a little path towards the bait, and reaching the tree Harry nearly tripped over a huge dead lioness.
"By God, look at this will you!"exchlaimed the Brit. "Ho2w on earth did she get here?"

"Well, Harry, that is why I kept asking you, and you kept telling me to shoot."
"Bloody poor show, old chap, You could have warned me" was all that Harry could say.

Patrkyhntr: Intriguing idea; vaporizing Oxpeckers on the backs of Cape Buffalo. Is that 22/700NE for real? It sounds like a joke, but I've seen weirder stuff.

Not only is it a joke, gthomsen, but I think it would be impossible to manufacture or even to neck down a case from .700 to .220. Perhaps this is a challenge for Saeed to surmount? Imagine the velocity one could have, though, if velocity was what a guy wanted?

Saeed: If you succeed in making this a reality, I will come to Dubai and would love to fire the monster!

I am old enough to remember phonograph needles, Ray. I can only imagine the velocity you get with this baby. How is penetration?

Good morning again my friend.

Well, the book is no longer here where I left it in the workshop!

It must have developed legs and walked away!

No matter, he shot a buffalo, twice, in the head, and it did not seem to bother it at all. It was wounded before he shot it, and someone saved his mittens by clobbering it with some horrible caliber like a 458.

It seems some people have no sense of adventure. I would have left him to deal with his buffalo on his own

Years ago, when I was slightly more ignorant than now, I used to believe everything I read.

And as started to hunt myself, I started to discover that gunwriters do not necessarily tell us the whole truth, and most of their writings are for entertainment purposes only.

One of those "truths" I remember reading about was that you never, ever, shoot a buffalo facing you in the boss. The bullets apparently just will not penetrate that hard boss. In fact, you are very likely get hit by your own bullet, if the angle is right, and it recochete back at you.

Imagine my utter shock, when we followed a bull I just shot, and saw him jump out of the undergrowth and look at us with that famous "you own him money" sort of look. I could not think straight, as I could not have shot him anywhere else except in that bloody hard, bullet defying boss, because of the bush. Especially with a dinky little 375 caliber bullet.

I said a quick prayer, and centered his boss in the scope, and pulled the trigger at the same time I ducked down. Just in case that bullet comes back at me.

Immediately after the shot - remember that I was down in the undergrowth, avoiding teh bullet which was bound to come back - I trained my ears to hear the sound of the bull coming at us.

There was a deathly silence. My PH and myself were looking at each other.

He said: "What happened?"
I said: "I don't know!"

He said: "Where did you hit him?"
I said: "In the head"

He said: "Good! he must be dead then"

And he was indeed dead.

After that episode, I started shooting them in the head whenever I got the chance.

Nothing turns their sparks off like a head shot.

Saeed,

I'm afraid you are mixing things up a bit. Shooting through a hard, old boss is fine. It is the young animals with a soft boss that are the problem. The soft boss will have a trampoline affect on the bullet, which will as you all know send it straight back at you. It will have a 5 degree deviation in the return angle at the most, depending on how curved the boss is on the top where you hit it. What you must listen for is a "Booiiing" sound. If you hear that, it's time to hit the dirt or step 2 paces to the left if there's cloud cover and low atmospheric pressure. Step right if the sky is blue!

Erik D.

300WBy Mag may not be legal but I killed 3 of them so far with my 70# compound and an arrow!

Regarding Walters new wild cat, necking the 22 up to 500 will certainly solve the bullet weight problem, but headspacing could lead to overpressure problems. I like Ray's phonograph needle idea tho it may be somewhat overbore.

.

And what is the PH carrying as a backup to your bow? At bow distance I bet it's at least a .416?!

Saeed---That was a good story! It makes me laugh out loud and it is an excellent hunting story. Once you got past the 'don't-shoot-them-in the-head' theory, you desided to shoot the beasts in the head every chance you got! That is a good story.