Frank Homes
Well-Known Member
Why don't you go to Africa and try it before generalising, or just stick to goats and stuff.
Rifles for Cape Buffalo
- Thread starter Selous
- Start date
OOF! 
Because I’ve already done it, in Australia. Bugger off Frankie boy, if you wanna pick a fight go down the pub.
An interesting view, always good to have some proper perspective. Not sure how much difference there is in skull or boss structure between the water and Cape varieties, or how much that matters.
Asking the question - and keep your panties dry anti head shooters - because the way buffalo are controlled professionally versus for recreational purposes are of course different. And head shooting them has appeared to be no more or no less difficult than head shooting scrub bulls.
No minimum calibre rules are all good, so use whatever you have to. Again, the example of Australia is just that, an example. You don’t have to like it!
For what it’s worth the pro killer came over to the yards here last week to shoot and quarter a dozen very heavy old Charolais bulls. No eyebrows were raised when he took out an old .22WMR... Just the way it is.
OK, in what way? What makes one more resistant to high velocity hunting bullets than the other? Genuinely interested, not being facetious.
I know that. Doh! I spent months surrounded by huge herds of Cape Buffalo at Katavi in western Tanzania. I know precisely what a buff looks like very close up!
But I’ve got a fiver on the differences not making that much difference in practical terms.
massive boss on African buff will stop for eg a 375 when head down and protects brain. A buff looking at you head on I’m spooked has head up smelling and the shot is virtually aim at his nostrils to get down nose and under boss to brain. V difficult with usually open sights. Much better bang it in chest if it’s that close. The late Ron Wharton had a buff skull with two 375 solids embedded in boss from missed head head shots
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Ah right, I thought that’s what the view would be @sh1kar . Good photos! So ultimately, it’s all about the risk of missing, right? Because the boss shouldn’t be a factor, because the point of aim is between the eyes. Which is exactly the same point of aim as a water buffalo. And I don’t believe either species’ skull construction would be sufficiently different to resist a high velocity, hard bullet between the eyes.
Fair enough, if you’re using a big bore double rifle with irons or similar, and enough adrenaline to keep you for a couple of days, probably best not to go there.
Fair enough, if you’re using a big bore double rifle with irons or similar, and enough adrenaline to keep you for a couple of days, probably best not to go there.
Here is a picture of the buff skull showing the structure and the huge amount of shock absorption surrounding the brain
Aspect
Your point of aim must change with the aspect of the animal
Points of aim
Here with head down the shot is almost through the boss -
Could well be a shot through the boss if the animal is charging with head lowered to hook you - see comment earlier by @sh1kar
Here the animals head is level - a shot straight between the eyes
However when the buffalo's head is up in that classic appearance of the high step that the buffalo seems to do when it is agitated and trying to see who is peeing it off, the shot might well be through the nose - once again see comment earlier by @sh1kar
Aspect
Your point of aim must change with the aspect of the animal
Points of aim
Here with head down the shot is almost through the boss -
Could well be a shot through the boss if the animal is charging with head lowered to hook you - see comment earlier by @sh1kar
Here the animals head is level - a shot straight between the eyes
However when the buffalo's head is up in that classic appearance of the high step that the buffalo seems to do when it is agitated and trying to see who is peeing it off, the shot might well be through the nose - once again see comment earlier by @sh1kar
There are plenty of stories of people attempting precisely this and the bullet just ricocheting off (with .375). One famous story from during the Rhodesian bush war of the bullet bouncing off the boss and going through the floor of a helicopter above.
The horns on Bubalus don’t create such a heavy boss, and don’t grow right over the forehead - there is a much wider expanse of horn-less head to shoot at. Syncerus often ends up with little more than a tiny groove exposed.
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John Gryphon
Well-Known Member
The Woodleigh Hydros will do the job on the Cape Buff Boss I reckon.
Hardly surprising to see the general uprising against my “shoot them in the head” post.
Of course there’s a degree of mischief making involved here, maybe the likes of Francis have forgotten that there’s more than a few years of Africa in me. And fukk me do I miss it, more and more. Like real bad.
It’s always fascinated me, what the professional hunters do when in “management” mode, compared to the extraordinary latitude they afford the high fee paying, big bore rifle waving client. Jeez the good pros have titanium balls and the patience of ten saints... the shyte they have to put up with in the heat of the moment!
Therein lies my frustration, cynicism, towards some of the views expressed here. I get it, you want to hunt a dangerous animal, feel the adrenaline, claim the trophy. And good on you, I hope that as many dollars go to the conservation effort as possible. And don’t doubt me for a moment there, I really mean that.
Remember I’ve done the time in the places you fantasise about. The best example of this Cape Buffalo wise was the Barrick contract in Katavi. Buffalo were a massive risk, and dealt with accordingly, by pros. No prizes for guessing how. As an employee it wasn’t my place to even think about doing it myself, and tbh I don’t think it really crossed my mind. There’s a story involving my wife on a midnight wee mission, an Eezi-Awn roof tent and a Cape Buffalo, that will go to heaven with her and be retold infinitely.
So I know, like I fully freakin know, that when a pro needs to shoot an animal for whatever reason, he’ll most likely shoot it in the head. Time, fellas, time spent with these guys observing the hard yards of game management. When it comes to the sport? Well, that’s all about entertainment, entertaining the client’s wet dream for a Robert Ruark big bore double rifle. KABOOM! All part of the game... Hardly surprising for the dollars...
Yeah I know, rape me for the audacity, how dare I, but some of you will know exactly what I’m talking about. Still, I’ve ruined a perfectly good thread, if only to say that nothing is ever really as it seems. Get over it.
Of course there’s a degree of mischief making involved here, maybe the likes of Francis have forgotten that there’s more than a few years of Africa in me. And fukk me do I miss it, more and more. Like real bad.
It’s always fascinated me, what the professional hunters do when in “management” mode, compared to the extraordinary latitude they afford the high fee paying, big bore rifle waving client. Jeez the good pros have titanium balls and the patience of ten saints... the shyte they have to put up with in the heat of the moment!
Therein lies my frustration, cynicism, towards some of the views expressed here. I get it, you want to hunt a dangerous animal, feel the adrenaline, claim the trophy. And good on you, I hope that as many dollars go to the conservation effort as possible. And don’t doubt me for a moment there, I really mean that.
Remember I’ve done the time in the places you fantasise about. The best example of this Cape Buffalo wise was the Barrick contract in Katavi. Buffalo were a massive risk, and dealt with accordingly, by pros. No prizes for guessing how. As an employee it wasn’t my place to even think about doing it myself, and tbh I don’t think it really crossed my mind. There’s a story involving my wife on a midnight wee mission, an Eezi-Awn roof tent and a Cape Buffalo, that will go to heaven with her and be retold infinitely.
So I know, like I fully freakin know, that when a pro needs to shoot an animal for whatever reason, he’ll most likely shoot it in the head. Time, fellas, time spent with these guys observing the hard yards of game management. When it comes to the sport? Well, that’s all about entertainment, entertaining the client’s wet dream for a Robert Ruark big bore double rifle. KABOOM! All part of the game... Hardly surprising for the dollars...
Yeah I know, rape me for the audacity, how dare I, but some of you will know exactly what I’m talking about. Still, I’ve ruined a perfectly good thread, if only to say that nothing is ever really as it seems. Get over it.
Was that a rant?
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