I am booking a Bison hunt here in Texas for next month on a ranch near Kerrville. It is going to be a middle aged bull (for meat) that will probably weigh around 1,200 lbs. I am planning on using my .300 WSM with 180 gr. Barnes MRX. What do y'all think about that combination? I shot an Eland 3 years ago with the WSM using 180 gr. FailSafe and it worked great, but I have stopped using FailSafe due to their being discontinued and also because I don't think they will perform very well on smaller animals during our safari to Namibia this coming June. Any feedback would be appreciated.

Your .300 WSM / 180 Barnes MRX should work just fine. Put it just behind the shoulder, 1/3 up.

I shot mine a few years ago, here in Montana, with my .54 Hawken with a 435 gr T/C Maxi-Hunter. It was an old bull. It went down at the shot, got up, walked 20 yds, laid down, and died.

I have a friend that works on a buffalo ranch, he uses his .22-250 to cull buffalo. Shot placement is important.

Can't really say about your bullet choice, sounds good to me, tho maybe something over 200 grs might be better, Nosler Partion or maybe Speer grand slam. But what I do know about bison, and Ive shot one before, is they can be tough critters due to their size, but as like any other animal Im sure placement is as important as the best whiz bang bullet. BTW, I shot mine with a .444 Marlin lev er gun at about 60 yards using handlands with a 265 gr Hornady flatpoint bullet, took 1 shot thru the heart/lungs, bull walked about 20 steps and flopped over and died. Have help getting it field dressed and loaded tho. Good Luck.
Willi

the two I've shot have actually been with pistol bullets (300 gr .454, one a hornady one an a-frame). If you get a double lung hit (shoot very low - 1/3 up is good) it won't go far at all, 30-50 yds at the most. I would go heavier to hedge your bets if the shot is not perfect. I was pretty picky about shot presentation with my 1885 as I knew I was undergunned for some angles.

Sorry about the double post-I need to find the edit feature on this forum. I wanted to add that on one of my hunts a friend also shot one.He used an M-1 with 165 gr conventional bullets (don't remember the brand) and his only went 50 yds too.

Just don't use varmit boolits.... I use Nosler Partitions and Hornady BTSP's with good results in all sorts of calibers. I'm not fond of shooting buffs in the shoulder with a scoped rifle. I go for the head under the horn.

I'm with Bison Hunter!

But I am sure your barnes ammo should work great...they have been killed with less!

There is nothing better than Barnes.

I'm going after my first one in late Fall, and will be using my 30-06 with 180gr Partition handloads.

I have knocked down or assisted shooters in taking several dozen bison bulls for a local ranch. Most of those head shots to protect the meat.

I wouldn't recommed a head shot to most since the buffalo brain is fairly long. shoot to low and he's dead but doesn't know it so stays on his feet and moving for a while, to high and he is paralized but won't die for hours.

With their head up or down thru thick hair you can enter the skull several inches different. When their head hair gets real long or wet it hangs low, changes their appearance and further distorts the points of reference.

It also messes up the skull which makes a nice trophy!

For a side heart shot about anything with a decent expansion 30 cal and up will do fine. thy have big flat ribs that break easy! They also have a lot of lung so heart shots are highly recommended. I saw a bull take 3 slightly high or back of the heart 416 loads that passed completely thru walk on.

Quartering is even ok if you visualize the heart location properly. A 50 cal muzzleloader with a barnes bullet knocked a big running bull down Hollywood style as it quartered past us in N.W.Nebraska last winter.

Bullet passed just inside the front leg bone thru the heart and lodged just back of the last rib on the far side!

Lost maybe 1 1/2 lbs of rib and sho meat!

Probably the best advice I can give is watch your back after the shot, buffalo herds especially cows many times don't take kindly to the smell of fresh buff blood.

Know a guy that got butted about 10 feet once while bent over field dressing a buff.



Good luck and have plenty of freezer space

Mike

don't waste any meat as some of these wannabe's tell you--shoot it through the EAR or over the eye as i did. not one ounce of meat lost.

As posted elsewhere in these forums, I worked at a ranch that raised buffs for meat and I have shot over fifty of them thru the years. I used "deer" rifles of 270,30-06,308,45/70, and the largest a 300 weatherby. I used the 270 the most with 130 grain factory loads. using the horizontal crosshair line up the eye & ear with the buffs head held neutral and go back from the ear about 2" and it will break the neck. I have never shot one more than once and I have never had one get back up, save one I had no choice but to shoot in the head from the front with the 45/70, not a fault of cartridge or bullet but more on shot placement.