Hi guys

I have aclient going on black powder hunt for buffalo, He has a Lyman Great Plains & Deerstalker, and is looking for advice on bullets ti use

Can anyone help with info

Thanks

Please follow the thread on African forum. Good info accumulating. What will your availability for black powder or substitutes be? Low quality black powder could be very dirty and underpowered, and might be a very real concern.

Kwan: Is his Great Plains a .50 or .54? Does it have the slow-twist round ball barrel, or the faster twist hunter barrel? If the latter, he can use a variety of heavier conicals, but I suspect he will still be undergunned for buff by a fair amount.
The Lyman handbook shows a .54 TC Maxiball weighing 530 grains getting up to 1450 fps out of a 32-inch 1:32 twist barrel with 120 grains of either Goex FFg or Pyrodex RS (by volume), for just under 2,500 fpe. Not a lot of steam, and I would want a slightly hardened bullet.

The .50 caliber is a deer rifle. Too small for dangerous game in Africa.

My advise is that your client go with a much larger caliber. The old time hunters in Africa were using 8 bore and similar sized muzzle loading guns.

Val Forgett Navy Arms while alive Hunted and killed African big game with a .58 Percussion most of them one shot kills.

Take a look at the Powerbelt Dangerous Game Bullet. They are 420 or 530gr with a hardened steel tip. Available in 50 cal, they have been used successfully on a variety of dangerous game. Just make sure the gun shooting them is in good condition.

Mark Lynch of HuntermanBullets.com is gearing up to make .50 caliber. He had so far primarily made heavy conicals for the .41 and .45 as well as a variety of bullets for sabot use.

One bullet he makes is called the Mag-Tip in which he incorporates lead of a much harder alloy in the forward section of the bullet. He specializes in producing bullets to fill a customer's specific needs, so might well be a source worth bookmarking for future reference.

If we are talking African Buff the main problem is not getting a rifle and bullet up to the task...it's getting black powder or a sub in to the country! About the only way I have heard of is sneaking it through the airlines.
BTW, Hunterman will also do hardened lead bullets apon request.

quote:

Originally posted by fairchase:
If we are talking African Buff the main problem is not getting a rifle and bullet up to the task...it's getting black powder or a sub in to the country!

I think the most effective means would be to pack a second rifle or shotgun and hand-load the ammo for this with black powder. Then simply pull the bullets or bust open the shotgun shells to salvage the powder once you arrived at your detination.


JMHO,

John

Unless you make special arrangements all the locally available black powder I have seen in Zim, Zambia, Moz or Botswana is re-ground blasting powder (65:20:15 mix)which is not particularly powerfull.

I import German made black powder from South Africa, but oh boy are the regs down there a problem until the stuff is over the border!

The last client I had come out bought all his Plack powder in shotgun shells. Loaded 200grns in easch with a was and a few bird shot. His one front loader used shotgun primer ignition so we simply deprimed each shell after tipping the powder out.

His pyrodex pellets he simply put in those fiffty platic tubes (open at either end) but had wrapped the pellets in paper to stop them rattling arround and the airline seemed quite happy.