A friend of mine is going bison hunting as is interested in borrowing a "heavy" rifle as he feels his 300 Win mag may not be optimum. He is relatively sensitive to recoil so I have the following options for him. Which do you think would be his best option.

1.) 50 Beowulf firing 385gr Bonded Core Lokt at 1650 fps.

2.) 338 Win mag firing 250 gr Hornady at 2650 fps.

3.) 405 Win firing 400gr SN at 2080 fps.

4.) Just shoot his 300 Win mag and forget about.

Oh use the .405 just for the nostalgia.

Have planned for it here in Arizona several times but have never been lucky in the draw (lottery system here) quit trying because now you submit fee up front (they refund if you're not drawn) and the chance is so slim it's not worth the investment. I was going to use one of my 375H&H's. Can't see what would be wrong with a 300Win with a heavy good bulet. They are usually not long shots and from what I read are usually still when shot. My 405's are not gentle on the shoulder (Ruger No1 and Win95) but to me neither is the 300Win Mag.

quote:

Originally posted by prof242:
Oh use the .405 just for the nostalgia.

My vote too!

With your friend being relatively sensitive to recoil, the .405 Winchester.

Tell him to use the Big Medicine.
See if it will live up to what T.R. said about it.
That would be my pick, hands down.

if hes recoil sensitive, load down the 300 to 30-06 levels with barnes or fail safe type bullets.

quote:

Originally posted by ScottS:
A friend of mine is going bison hunting as is interested in borrowing a "heavy" rifle as he feels his 300 Win mag may not be optimum. He is relatively sensitive to recoil so I have the following options for him. Which do you think would be his best option.

1.) 50 Beowulf firing 385gr Bonded Core Lokt at 1650 fps.

2.) 338 Win mag firing 250 gr Hornady at 2650 fps.

3.) 405 Win firing 400gr SN at 2080 fps.

4.) Just shoot his 300 Win mag and forget about.

Crap them all and get a 375H&H with 300 gr North fork CPS bullets and go buffalo hunting!

quote:

Originally posted by JPK:

quote:

Originally posted by prof242:
Oh use the .405 just for the nostalgia.

My vote too!

+1

Yep.

In the most polite way, people need not over complicate their lives. I'd suggest your friend sticks with his 300WM. If he can't kill it with his rifle, I doubt he stands a better chance with any of your rifles. Just my opinion.

I would use my 375 H&H for Buffalo

I'm with Spartan on this. Unless of course your friend just needs a good excuse to buy a new rifle!

quote:

Originally posted by Strut10:

quote:

Originally posted by JPK:

quote:

Originally posted by prof242:
Oh use the .405 just for the nostalgia.

My vote too!

+1

Yep.

yup, especially for American Bison. Just seems fitting....

quote:

Originally posted by Spartan:
In the most polite way, people need not over complicate their lives. I'd suggest your friend sticks with his 300WM. If he can't kill it with his rifle, I doubt he stands a better chance with any of your rifles. Just my opinion.

It's just not "right",,,,I mean, that's just a plinking caliber, and he's after Buffalo for goodness sakes.
--slight jest--no harm meant--, but none-the-less, I think he'll feel better in the end, having used a nostalgic gun and cartridge. I always do.

Yep gotta agree with you Walksfar, however some people are best off learning life's valuable lessons on their own. Personally, I'd settle for my 375 H&H - but it wasn't on the original list of options!?!?

Good grief, the 405 of course. Thats a no brainer.

Took a Bison in February with a .416 Rigby. The guide commented that it was nice to see someone use a caliber that really worked well.

Bison's a pretty decent sized critter. I'd prefer to use a caliber that would both penetrate and transfer as much energy as possible. Saw Rick Rose take a Wildebeast with a .405 in 2004. Worked well. Seems to fit my preferences too.

Go with the .405.

338 would work best, but 405 would be cool to use for nostalgiac reasons (as mentioned before). 300 would work fine. Shot a buff with a 257 savage years ago. Of course that was point blank range (15 feet) out of a car window. Brained him and he went down immediately. We had bison meat for at least a year. Tongue is the best part. You ought to get in on it with him.

The .338 with 300 gr. Woodliehs is a decent Bison killer..Shoot the biggest gun you can handle. My favorite is a 450-400-3" with Woodleigh 400 gr. softs, or my .416 Rem.

My grandson used the 50 Beowolf on a Bison and the results with 2 good hits were miserable, I had to track that bull about 3 or 4 miles in a snowstorm wisking the snow off the blood trail and finally lost the blood trail and tracks but kept going in the general direction and my grandson and the ranch owner stumbled over him on the snow machine about a 100 yards in front of me..Not fun in an Idaho blizzard at probably 20 to 30 below.

Bison can be the hardest animal in the world to kill at times, and at others they just seem to fall over on the spot??????? I saw one take a magazine full of 300 Wby's. and go forever before he expired..They start walking and just don't quit.

Ray I have heard stories similar to your post before but I have a couple of nieces who have shot Bison with a 25-06 and a 30-06 both of which dropped in their tracks. The rancher told these girls that they were the best shots he'd ever seen and that just a week earlier a guy with a .416 shot his Bison 3 or 4 times and it was touch and go if he was ever going to get it down.
I think with Bison if your first shot is great no problems, if you don't make a great first shot they get their survival instinct going and there is no stopping them!
I'd have him shoot the .300 with 180-200 grain bullets if he shoots it well, if he doesn't shoot it so well then it won't matter what he uses you will have an ugly shoot on your hands.

Of the choices you gave, I would pick either the .405 or the .338.

I'm envious of your friend. I'm going to hunt bison one of these years and I will be taking my .375 H&H.

Gentlemen,

Thank you so much for all the replies. My friend really did NOT like the recoil of the 405 Winnie. He didn't care too much for the 338 either.

Snellstrom, where would you recommend placing that first shot, heart, lungs, ???

ScottS-Let him know to go for a heart shot. As far as the recoil issue, what rifle is he shooting a .405 out of? There's certainly many ways to migitate the recoil to a tolerable level.
Let us know how the hunt goes

Metalsmith,

I certainly will. The rifle is a M1895 Win new production. I believe he plans on video taping the hunt, if so I will try and post it.

.405, just for fun.