I hae my own ideas as to what this is but I am curious as to what other feel is an appropriate bison or buffalo gun.

Is a larger cartridge required for cape buffalo and why?

Thanks,
Kent

Kent,
I shot my bison in brain with a T/C Contender handgun chambered in .30-30 Win.

Two shots was all it took.

If you're going for the lungs, a .30-06 with 180 grain bullets will do the job. If you just want an excuse to buy a new gun ,
then you've GOT to get a single shot .45-70, .50-70, or .50 Sharps.

George

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Shoot straight, shoot often, but by all means, use enough gun!

If I were going to shoot one it would just have to be with some big bore single shot. Why just because.

Kent,
In the Yukon, it is not legal to use anything smaller than a 30-06 for Wood Bison. A 308 Win. or a 7mm Mag. are out.
Try to figure that one out

Daryl

Gentlemen -- My brother-in-law raises Bison. Before he had his own herd he was the wildlife biologist who handled the LBL herd in Kentucky. He has killed over 300 head over the years, all in a controled environment. He used my .300 win for years. I loaded him a 200 gr. Nosler Partition at 2800 fps. Now he uses a 30-06 with a 250 gr. old style Barnes at about 2100 fps. The Nosler sometimes would exit and that was not desired, because of damage to other animals. He shoots them at 10 to 30 yards behind the ear. All except 4 or 5 down through the years have gone down at the shot. When he misses his spot an inch or so they act as if they have not been shot and a second shot is required, that gets kind of hairy sometimes. He boils all the skulls and sells them so he can tell exactly where the bullet went. This week he shot one head on between the eyes, missed the brain 1/2 inch, the Bull scratched his ear with his hind leg and walked off. The next shot put him down for good. He only shoots them between the eyes when that is the only shot presented, it spoils the skull for marketing. Good shooting.

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I once shot a bison in the head with a 300 Wn Mag. I was shooting 180 Nosler partitions. I gave him a bloody nose that was it! It walked off as if nothing had ever happened.

Kent

[This message has been edited by Kent in IA (edited 02-04-2002).]

I know of a 12-year old girl that shot her ranch bison with a .243 Win. Her grandfather took her on the hunt.

Definitely not what I would use on any Cape buff...jim

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"if you are to busy to
hunt, you are too busy."

My minimum would be a 30-30...Bison are not normally hard to kill and the shooting is close..

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Ray Atkinson

ray@atkinsonhunting.com
atkinsonhunting.com

Ray you seem to be one of the most experienced here. Is a cape buffalo so much tougher than a bison that a 30-30 will kill the bison but you need a 458 Win Mag or 416 Rem or something for the cape buffalo?

I know one guy that has hunted both animals and swears that the bison is tougher. I find this hard to believe though with all the stories you hear about the toughness of the cape buffalo. Add to that I don't like the guy and you understand why I am asking you this question.

Thanks,
Kent

First, I have not hunted either. From what I have read, the bison do not have the tendency to find what stung it and make it pay for its actions. The cape buff on the other hand I have heard will seek out what had delt out the pain and make it pay. I think the old time bison hunters would attempt to shoot in the lungs, and then the animal would not run, but very slowly die. This would let the hunter shoot several animals from the same sight and not disturb the heard. I have never heard of such shooting with the cape buff. Speaking form what I have read and heard not personal hunting. For what it is worth, if you hunt bison, the deciding factor would be what you wanted to do as far as the hunt. Shoot a stopping type gun, a handgun, or what you have now with heavy bullets. Just my thoughts.

Kent,
I've shot both, and the bison is more phlegmatic (they don't show much reaction to being shot).
The adrenal glands on a Cape buff are big and produce a LOT of adrenalin almost immediately. Add to that the generally high state of alert that Cape buff seem to be on, and you have an animal that is tough to put down once it gets to running (in any direction).
Bison will pretty much stand there and soak up lead until they die; Cape buff will usually take off upon being shot at.

George

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Shoot straight, shoot often, but by all means, use enough gun!

Kent,
In Jan.'01 I hunted Bison in South Dakota. We were instructed by our guide to shoot the animals right below the ear. Since I was going on my first safari in July, I thought it would be the perfect chance to field test my .375 H&H. After about a half day of hunting, I had my chance at about 75 yards. When I fired, I heard the "tell tale" whack of the bullet, but the Bison just shook his head! I couldn't believe it! The bull circled the herd several times before it started to run off. I placed a second shot into the chest, exiting though the neck and he went down, plowing snow like the sliding Buff. in the movie Dances With Wolves! My first bullet had hit the Buff. directly below his horn, about 6 inches to far forward. Just poor shot placement! I had not yet experimented with alot of premium bullets/loads for my safari, so I used plain old red box Federal with 270 gr. bullets, that gun seemed to shoot them well. I had the taxidermist look for the bullet, and he found it approx. 1" below the entrance wound. The bullet had circled the skull, but never entered the "brain pan". To this day, I can't believe that any animal can take 270 gr. of lead to the side of the head at 75 yards and not hit the ground.
BOWHUNR
P.S. It is very dificult to see the ear on a winter haired Bison.

I took a 1600 lb Bull Bison in 2000 using a marlin 1895 in 45-70. I used D & J hard cast 405 grain lead. These loads chronographed at 1350 feet per sec. The first shot was an angle going away shot 75 yards, as expected no response. 2nd shot same distance dead center broadside at the long hair line in back of the front shoulder. The bull rocked on impact, staggered about 5 yards and went down for keeps. Both bullets did not exit. A friend that I was with used a 30-06 with 180 grain factory fail safes, each of 5 shots did complete penetration no matter what angle which ranged from broadside to approx 30. degrees.

I have only shot one bull, an aggitated onrey old cuss that was chaseing anything that came near him and the old cow in heat he was protecting, so I suppose you could say his adreniline level was elevated. The rancher wanted to save the skull, so I was to shoot him in the neck, just behind the head to save the skull and not ruin any meat. I used my 35 Whelen improved with a 250gr Speer hot core (2700fps) after chasing the rancher and his wife (she had the video cammera) back into their pickup and starting to come after me, the bull decided he better run back over and check out his cow first, when he stopped running I shot just below the ear, behind the head, instantly the hind legs went out from under the bull, he went over on his side and then came back up on his front legs, and started to pull himself My way, the second shot went into the forehead, and he went down, after laying ther for what seemed like forever(5min maybe) he finally stopped moving, so I circled around behind, my wife then walked out about 20 yards in fron of us to get a picture, and the bull tried again to get on his feet! I then shot him the 3rd and final round in the back of the head. The first shot was about an 1.5" below the spine, the exit hole was about 2" in diameter, and it did cause him to lose motor function to his hind legs. That bull had every intention of charging his source of pain, but as I said he was already in an arroused state. I know I have a different perspective about bison than I had in the past, and am looking forward to getting to shoot a couple more in the coming weeks. #2 is a cow that has escaped the buffalo fence, and has ran off a couple of miles and doesn't want to come back home- should be more fun! I am going to skin out the skull and see where the two bullets ended up.

No experience with Cape Buffalo here, but I have seen quite a few bison shot in the last few months, with everything from 25-06 up to 416's. I must say the 25-06 worked impressively, although I sure wouldn't recommend it. That was a kid who was going to use archery, but thought better of it. His dad had a 300 mag along, and I thought that was what the kid was using. Later found out it was his rifle, the 25-06. He shot a big cow behind the shoulder; got her in the heart as it turned out. It made her bad sick immediately, she got the staggers and went down in probably 30 seconds or so. Still, that's way too light of bullet to expect consistent performance. I've been telling people a 308 with 180 gr bullets is a reasonable minimum.

Whoever said bison often don't react to the shot is certainly right. I saw one cow soak up five rounds from a 30-06 with 180 grain Failsafes over a span of probably three minutes before finally keeling over. The first shot would have killed her, it just seems to take a while sometimes. The neck shots can put them right down, or not. Last one I saw was a father & son using a 30 Gibbs. The Dad shot a yearling bull in the neck, and it all but bounced when it hit the ground. Then the son used the same gun, but wasn't quite as accurate. The first shot just caused agitation for the bison, and the second put it down. The hunter was sitting on it for a photo op when my son pointed out that he just saw it blink. About two seconds later it got up, launching the hunter like off a trampoline. It was bad sick, though, and shortly fell over again, and the guide slit its throat.
Sharps and other 45-70's & similar cartridges have been popular, and have worked well. The guides are less taken with muzzleloaders. I am not a muzzleloader authority, and haven't witnessed anybody using one myself, but apparently the bison are prone to soaking up multiple rounds with very little or at least quite delayed effect. It's my understanding most of the muzzleloaders have been smaller calibers. I'd think a 50 should do the job.

These bison hunts and harvests have certainly given folks good excuse to drag out the big bores, and I think a legitimate reason to drag out the 375 is half the reason some people have signed up. There's been no complaints from anyone using 338's and up, although for that matter, complaints have been pretty much limited to the guides who've found it can take a lot longer if somebody's undergunned.

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