Gary Reeder
I agree mostly with WB, but the point of no return
Wednesday, January 09, 2019, 15:16

is not what the gun can do but what you can handle. I had no problem getting a 500 grain bullet up to 2000 fps. The problem was keeping it in my hand at that speed. The recoil was pretty rough. But I had the 2000 fps in mind for this hunt and I knew more than likely if we spotted the big Cape Buffalo that John Abraham, my friend and PH had seen several times I could handle the 2 or 3 shots needed to put him down.

I also wanted to try out the new DGE Dangerous Game Expanding bullets and the DGS Dangerous Game Solid bullets, both new from Hornady that Steve Hornady had sent me. I loaded up some of each and ended up using 2 of the DGE bullet. At about 45 yards the big Buffalo was facing me at a slight angle and was hit just above the point of the shoulder. it put him down but he managed to get back up. John told me to hit him again, which I did, on the opposite side. That put him down for the count. In the pic below the entrance of the first bullet is seen above the point of shoulder. The second shot was on the other side.

In theory I could possibly have duplicated the 470 Nitro Express, which is a 500 grain bullet at 2150 but whether I could handle it was the problem. I think the gun and scope would handle it but not so sure about me. So I settled for 2000 fps with the 500 grain bullet.

Either way I was extremely happy with the buffalo. John said he would rank #1 or #2 with SCI. He ended up being the #1 free range Cape Buffalo in the Safari Club rankings and #3 overall, which is the rankings of rifle, handgun or bow all together. I couldn't ask for more. And with my luck Colleen will shoot one bigger when she goes to Africa in 3 months. But that's OK too. She is taking her 458 rifle with her, so who knows.
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