I am going to Zambia in July for buffalo, leopard, croc, hippo, hopefully roan and various bait animals. I purchased a Winchester M70 safari express in 416 Rem that is currently at canyon creek custom gunstocks for a new stock and some tweaking. Do you think, or is it wishful thinking, that federal's 400gr tbbc's and trophy bonded solids
will shoot to a close enough point of impact? Any other suggestions? Reloading is not an option for me.
Thanks!

You will just have to shoot them in it to see. Some rilfes will shoot them close and some wont.

The TBBC is your first rounds on everything but possibly the hippo anyway and that is likely a closer shot too. If not you could always take a 300 or 338 caliber rifle to handle everything except the buff and hippo and leave the 416 for in close work on the heavies.

I really like the Federal factory loads too and it got me out of handloading for a long time. You might also see if you can order up some of the Winchester 416 Rem Mag loads. They have the 400 gr Nolser Partition and the 400 gr Nosler Solid. Then see which of them shoot the best.

Good Luck and Good Shooting.

Put in a call, or visit him at SCI Reno next week, to Larry Barnett at Superior Ammunition in South Dakota. He can load solid and soft to the same POI for you, with any bullets.

Hornady now loads the 416 Rem Mag for dangerous game with an expanding/solid combo:

416 Rem Mag, DGX® - DGS® (Dangerous Game)

You can hunt all of your listed animals without having to use solids. A good compromise would be Federal cartridges with the 400 grain TSX bullet. This is all copper with very high weight retention and good penetration. Should you hunt elephant in the future, sighting in with a solid bullet should be done at 25 yards at which distance you will probably have a point of impact very close to the TSX, though at 50-100 yards deviation could be wider. I used Remington 400gr. Swift A Frame cartridges on zebra,Cape buffalo, and sable in July with all shots passing through. The TSX bullets are probably just as tough or tougher. Until elephant is on your license using a single load will make hunting simpler. I used the same rifle as you purchased. Good luck.