The film guy (PH too?) interviewed said client shot it initially with 416 Rem. Not sure what caliber the double was but barrels did not appear to be very thick. Maybe I missed that in the discussion.
I believe the Kirk Douglas line to Val Kilmer was…
I thought client fired only three shots with the bolt rifle. That means at least one round remained (maybe two if the magazine was extended). So it was not totally empty when handed to his father.
Another lesson is don't approach any downed DG animal from the front. I would have swung out to the left to get broadside to that buffalo while it was down. Premature celebration as well with the buffalo obscured by the bush.
Yes and finishing shots from front don’t make sense.
But getting in two immediate follow up shots where you are standing does. They were likely moving over to put in a proper insurance shot when it charged. I doubt anyone thought it was actually needed though. I’d think everyone in that group gave it a lot of thought what they’d do differently after it happened.
It very clearly says day 10 of 21 in the video. A frontal chest shot at 20 yards in relative open is about as good as you can hope for after a broadside shot. As usual, I have no idea where you came up with your latest theory.
Frontal chest is great. What doesn’t make sense is when they say he tried for a frontal brain shot. And the PH didn’t know it.
Client is the one aiming and pulling the trigger. I’m uncertain why someone would go for that over chest in this circumstance, but that’s what it says he decided to do. I’ve never had an animal go straight down and then have a PH immediately want to know where I shot. Usually the response is to stay on the animal and be ready to shoot again if gets up. We find out where shot was later. I’m sure when he found out client went for brain shot over chest it was a surprise, but putting two more bullets in right away was a good course of action to me. Looks like they planned a final insurance shot when it got up to charge.
I would always feel a responsibility to tell my PH where I hit the animal. I wasn’t criticizing the PH but do think the shot placement choice wasn’t wise.
I understood from the video that the permit for buffalo was ten days. Lion was 21 days. Guess I got it wrong? Or maybe you did? But that would be rare because you are never wrong.
Maybe you should watch again. They explain when they plan to start the buffalo hunt and also explain the cameraman’s angle.
Any other animal and it goes down and PH knowing where the shot was placed is probably not important. Dangerous game is different I think. I dropped a blue wildebeest in his tracks and PH immediately wanted to know where I was aiming, just because it's such a rare occurrence (according to him). Same with black wildebeest I flattened on my second safari. PH immediately wanted to know where I aimed to kill it instantly? With a 270 WSM I'd never shot before, at 370 yards, and in a very hard side wind, all I could say was he was likely not hit where I aimed. Correct. Prone off a tripod I aimed about a foot behind his shoulder and a bit high. He was standing head down with his arse in the wind and I hit him behind the ear. Same safari I flattened a warthog tusker at 200 yards offhand. "Where did you hit him?" In the neck. "What? Why?" They are good eating and not real big. Don't want to waste the meat. Anyway, it didn't really matter to me if I missed. Not on my list. Usually my PHs want to know where I aimed, even for plains game.
