Good story on your buffalo. [I thought I would get us out of that other thread]
Which bullets did you use in your 458 Lott? Did you start with soft points and follow up with solids? Were you able to recover any of your or the PH's bullets?
Have you shot any other game with your Lott?

The plainsgame were all shot with my 35 Whelen 225 gr. TBBC's. They were one shot kills including the Eland.

The Buffalo, Hippo, and Giraffe were shot with my 458 Lott. The only mistake I made was not using solids on the Giraffe. I used 500 gr. TBBC's moving at 2300 fps. The Giraffe was shot in the neck at 75 yards and it did not penetrate all the way through. The Giraffe's skin is almost as thick as a Hippo's and the bones are very heavy.

We started hunting the Buffalo first thing. At about 8am we spotted a herd of about 25. There were a couple of nice bulls in this herd. To make a long story short, we stalked them for about 3 miles. The wind stayed in our favor the whole time. Unfortunately, a cow spotted us and we could not get any closer than 100 yards. The herd started moving away and stopped at about 150 yards. Charl, my PH, said that this was our best chance.

Crap! My Lott has a 2.5x fixed Leupold with the heavy duplex reticle. I don't like shooting it at a paper target over 100 yards. Not to mention that everyone of the Buffaloes were facing us stacked together like sardines. The one bull that we wanted did finally separate and turned very slightly. Here goes....off the shooting sticks I hit him through the left lung and the top/back of the right lung (500 gr. TBBC). Off they all go.

They stopped about 50 yards further away with him in the middle. As we worked our way towards them, Charl climbed up into a tree to spot him. They rest of the herd took off and he was moving weakly. Charl jumped down and we both came around the left of the brush to an opening that he was heading into. When he came clear, Charl said to take him. He took my rifle over his shoulder and I put a GS 500 gr. Solid through both lungs and over the heart at approximately 75 yards. Either shot would have been fatal if we would have waited, but we didn't know for sure.

Charl had already told me that if the bull takes off we have to run/shoot and try to stop him before he gets to the thick stuff. It's about 110 degrees and we take off on a 400 yard sprint, chasing and shooting at something that wants to kill us. Hmmm.... Charl shot 4 times. He hit him in the butt and through the earlobe (he thinks). I shot 7 times and hit him 4 of those. I never noticed any recoil or the weight of the rifle.

The Buffalo finally stopped in the water. He turned to get up and charge. Charl said "Shoot him again!" I said "I'm out of ammo!" Charl had two bullets left (he shoots a Lott also) and gave me one. He said that if the Buffalo comes out of the water, we had to brain him. There were no trees within 50 yards of us and I was gassed. Thank goodness the Buffalo gave up the ghost in the water. Charl thought that we filled him up with enough lead that we drowned him.

Tinny, an old PH that was too fat to run, said that we looked like John Wayne and the cowboys shooting at the Indians. He was afraid to run after us because we left so much brass on the ground he might have slipped.

The Hippo was almost as exciting. There were two problem Hippos that had killed 3 people on this sugar cane farm recently. The Parks Board offered me one of these Hippos a couple of days prior. After we got the Buffalo to the skinning shed, we headed straight to the farm.

It was already night time when we got there. After a few formalities with Johan, the Parks Board fellow, we drove to the area where the Hippos were last seen. We instantly spotted him in the field with the spot light. By the time we worked our way over for a better shot, he was gone.

We finally spotted him again in the thick brush. Charl said to try to brain him by shooting between the eye and the ear. It worked. He dropped like a stone to the 500 gr. GS Solid.

Boy, was everybody glad to see that happen. No charge, no sprint to the water. He was still twitching around so I put another solid through both lungs and through the bottom of the head. I didn't want him getting back up for any reason. It didn't get too hairy until we went in to check on his status.

At first, I thought it was kind of cool having the Parks Board operate the spotlight. Like having our Game Warden do it. Not everyday do you have something like that happen. The coolness quickly wore off when we went into the brush. Johan had trouble operating the switch on the spot light. It kept going off after every few steps. Should I mention that my anxiety level was peaking? Luckily, the big bull Hippo was long gone. I thought it was odd to see that they will bleed through the pores in their skin.

While we were taking pictures, I noticed a couple of local law enforcement cars had pulled up. I could see that they had their pistols drawn. Evidently, someone had reported the shots and they came to investigate. Before I disappeared into the shadows, I verified that Johan was really with the Parks Board. He cleared everything up.

One final note. I got to "Coon Finger" the Parks Board Pre-64 375 H&H. I memorized the first 3 digits of the serial number. It was made in 1953. Just think of all of the Lions, Buffaloes, Elephants, Hippos, and other animals that the rifle has seen.

450,

The prior reply was from an earlier thread. I used 500 gr. Trophy Bonded Bear Claws as my softs and GS Custom FNs as my solids. I recovered one of the TBBC's. Not recovering more of the bullets was about the only disappointing thing of my entire hunt. I kidded the skinners that I was bringing them a metal detector the next time I came back.

I loaded my Lott with the soft in the chamber and all solids in the magazine. My rifle holds 3 in the magazine. I have one of those expandable cartridge holders on my stock as you can see in the photos. Some don't like them, but it worked out perfectly for me. All of my rounds were quickly available under total kaos.

After firing the first four rounds, it was just a complete mixture of softs and solids. There was no way of knowing what I was loading at any given time. I felt as long as there was lead in the air, there was hope.

What's the name of that big sumbitch in the second picture? The one with four legs?

Tombo,

That is an Eland. It is huge! I caught it just right while it was quartering away with a 225 gr. TBBC from my 35 Whelen. It piled up in about 40 yards. I'm going to shoulder mount it in our formal living room. In fact, that is where all of the animals (except for the Warthog and Giraffe) are going. Is my wife understanding or what!

Longbob
Great story and good pictures, all excellent trophies. I use a butstock carrier on my rifles too, especially my doubles and single shots. They work real well as you know. I agree with you and your PH, as long as the animal is still moving it is a good idea to keep shooting.
Sounds like you had a good trip.
I can't remember what book I read this in but durring a large controlled buffalo cull the average was 3.4 rounds per buff.
You can never have too much ammo.

Thank you, 450. I took 9 rounds and thought that would be plenty. It was, just barely. I'm looking into one of those bandaleros that will hold big cartridges for the next time.

Good pile of trophies LongBob, you mentioned your PH was Charl, that wouldn't be Charl Beukes would it? I hunted with Charl's Safari company back in the early 90s when he had Molombo Safaris, and again later when he had Ngwenya Safaris, both in the Luangwa Valley. My Phs were Simon Eldredge, and Norman Baily, while Charl, and Willie Collete (spl) had another camp about 10 Kelometers away. Good guys all!

Thank you all for the kind words.

Mac,

It is Charl Watts of Caracal Safaris. I just received the huge crate of capes, skins, and skulls. I'll try to post pictures of them later.

Longbob
Check out www.murrayleather.com
His stuff is first rate. I have been using his 4 and 6 round carriers for several years. I bought two of the 15 round cartridge belts, one for the 450 and one for the 9,3 for my Africa trip to make it easy and quick to switch between calibers. I also use his buttstock carriers. The leather does not abrade my face like the elastic ones do on my hard kickers. I like the ones with the elastic shell loops, the rounds will not fall out.
I always carry a lot of bullets, kinda like them Mexican Bandits on TV.

When reading some of the older books on African hunting I was suprised how many of the hunters ran out of bullets, some with disastrous results.