Gunner 500 called me from Atlanta while waiting for the last leg of his flight home.

He hunted on the Limpopo river on the SA/ Mozambique border for Cape buffalo using a Shiloh Sharps in 45-70 with traditional black powder paper patched ammunition. He took a big, old hard bossed dagga boy on a quartering toward him shot from 45 yards. At the shot, the bull whirled and ran 60 yards and stopped. A finishing shot through the shoulders finished the bull.

Gunner also took a zebra and a 56 1/2 inch kudu with the Sharps and paper patched ammunition. He is not quite home yet, and a hunt report and pictures will follow in a couple of days.

An old dagga boy with two shots and a one shot kill on a 56 1/2 inch kudu, not to mention a one shot kill on a zebra makes for a very good trip, I'm thinking.

You can't kill a Buffalo with a 45/70! What? No one told him?


.

Here we go again!

That reminds me of a truly great scene in Buzz Charlton's Zambezi Extreme video released a few years ago.

Buzz Charlton is out with a man named Daryl Tonn
hunting a PAC elephant, Daryl is using a 50/90 Sharps, a beautiful rifle by all accounts from the video footage.

As they approach within range Daryl shoulders the big Sharps and then casually resettles his eye glasses on the bridge of his nose and executes the most prefect and precise brain shot with the Big 50.

The look of amazement and surprise on Buzz Charlton's face says it all !

If there was a prize for the greatest shot at elephant on video, I think this is it.

Well done Daryl, your a star.

Zambezi Extreme is an excellent film on PAC control, there is lots of information and great hunts in it, and Buzz Charlton has a gift for presentation that cannot be surpassed.

Congratulations, Sharpsguy!
I have been taken to the mat several times for suggesting a .500 bpe is fine for buffalo. Many of the hairy chested he men here think I'm off my rocker. I stand by my statement and you are absolute proof the black powder rifles with a good bullet and correct shot placement will drop a buffalo.
Taking the old rifles to the field is an experience the modern folks with a synthetic, stainless, fluted barrel with a muzzle brake who want to assassinate their animals at 400 yards with a 12x scope can't understand. I don't know much about Sharps but I use vintage double rifles exclusively.
Good show.
Cal

Cal--Thanks for the flowers, but I was not the hunter that took the buffalo. It is a friend of mine, gunner 500. He called me from the airport in Atlanta while he was waiting for the last leg of his flight home and filled me in. He gave me permission to let some of the details of his success out, so I posted that he had been successful.

He has the whole hunt on DVD, and I can't wait to see it. He will have pictures and a hunt report in the next few days.

These rifles work, and work well when loaded correctly if you put the bullet in the right place. gunner put the bullet in the right place, and the buffalo didn't go very far. The old timers killed a lot of game with black powder and lead bullets, and it will still work today. Two shots, down and done.

rough comparison; I have killed two Bison with BP cast bullet loads. One with my Shiloh Sharps 45-70, and one with my old '86 in 50-110 which Biebs now owns.

They kill very well, if you can make the shot...

quote:

Originally posted by Idaho Sharpshooter:
and one with my old '86 in 50-110 which Biebs now owns.

What did you fill the empty space with?

quote:

Originally posted by cal pappas:
Congratulations, Sharpsguy!
I have been taken to the mat several times for suggesting a .500 bpe is fine for buffalo. Many of the hairy chested he men here think I'm off my rocker. Cal

Cal and others, I think just about anyone here would say a black powder 500 rifle would kill a cape buffalo, or an elephant for that matter ,with good bullet placement and some luck. There was a time when that was all that was available and thousands of buffalo and elephant were harvested for their meat and ivory. In fact the early man killed mastodons with stone pointed spears, and rocks. I’m sure those early people would have loved to have had a black powder 500 rifle!

The fly in the ointment is nobody knows how many animals were wounded and lost, and how many hunters were mauled and/or killed in the process. I think this is the reason the minimum energy limits and bullet diameters were put into the game laws for such animals. However many of the laws are not followed to the letter if the bullet diameter is fairly large like the .500 and larger permits are given. It really doesn’t matter as long as there is a good back-up rifle in the PH’s hands in case the BP rifle doesn’t get the job done.

IMO, it is not far fetched for a hunter who is a good shot, and picks his shots to get the job done with such a firearm. I say if that floats your canoe paddle on down river!

.......................................................................

The minimum caliber for DG in RSA is .375. There is no energy minimum. This was a 100% legal hunt and a lot of research and testing was done before the hunt took place. Several years, in fact. This was not luck.

The first shot took out the lungs and the top of the heart and big blood vessels. The 525 grain lead bullet gave over three feet of penetration. Like it or not, a properly loaded 45-70 is more than adequate for Cape buffalo, and perfectly legal in RSA. One would think that a two shot kill would be deserving of congratulations, not excoriation.

I think my friend did very well indeed, and my hat is off to him.

Congratulations to him. It has to be special for him to bag them with the Sharps.

I have said several times that I was going o pick up the phone and call Shiloh and order a Long Range Express which is may favorite in the Shiloh line up. Then I was going to get it and get it all dialed in, maybe even with smokeless loads if I had to but don't tell anybody, and go on a plains game hunt with the Shiloh. It just seems right and fun.

While I was quite good with open sights before, now sometimes I am not sure my eyes are up to it anymore.

quote:

Originally posted by sharpsguy:
The minimum caliber for DG in RSA is .375. There is no energy minimum. This was a 100% legal hunt and a lot of research and testing was done before the hunt took place. Several years, in fact. This was not luck.


I think my friend did very well indeed, and my hat is off to him.

Sharpsguy, nobody, I’m aware of, stated your friends hunt was not legal, or a bad idea! I certainly did not!
I’m quite sure it was a fine and fun hunt that was very satisfying for the hunter. I use a lot of black powder rifles myself, and also use several 45-70 rifles as well.

My statement was in regard to what Cal posted about folks disagreeing with him on the 500BPE for buffalo. The fact being that thousands of Cape buffalo and elephant have been taken with less powerful rifles over the last century.

I too congratulate your friend on his buffalo hunt!
.........................................................................

My Gawd - you mean Selous and all those guys REALLY did that stuff?? One thing to bear in mind, though, especially in places like Zim, is that magic 5.3kj of muzzle energy to make it legal. It can be done!

quote:

Originally posted by sharpsguy:
Gunner 500 called me from Atlanta while waiting for the last leg of his flight home.

He hunted on the Limpopo river on the SA/ Mozambique border for Cape buffalo using a Shiloh Sharps in 45-70 with traditional black powder paper patched ammunition. He took a big, old hard bossed dagga boy on a quartering toward him shot from 45 yards. At the shot, the bull whirled and ran 60 yards and stopped. A finishing shot through the shoulders finished the bull.

Gunner also took a zebra and a 56 1/2 inch kudu with the Sharps and paper patched ammunition. He is not quite home yet, and a hunt report and pictures will follow in a couple of days.

An old dagga boy with two shots and a one shot kill on a 56 1/2 inch kudu, not to mention a one shot kill on a zebra makes for a very good trip, I'm thinking.