What is your minimum Buffalo cartridge

[C.W. Richter]

Read Kevin Robertson's Africa's Most Dangerous. Or just consider using Norma PH ammo in 375 featuring The woodleigh 350 grain weld core softs and solids. Due to the rather high SD and resultant energy, "they perform more like a 416." Although I now use my 416 I've had two 375s and they are a pleasure to shoot at any reasonable distance.

 

[BeeMaa]

Nothing wrong with a good .375 but .416 would be better. Use Barnes bullets and forget the crap about using solids.

The more PH's I talk to, the more I hear recommending premium bonded softs & mono's.
Swift A-Frame, TBBC, Barnes TSX and Norma Oryx are commonly mentioned.
The current bullet technology is so great that solids for a client are rarely necessary.
The better plan is to get very accurate with your softs and you won't need a solid.

Do I plan on taking solids on my Buffalo safari...yes.
But they will be for use on smaller antelope, not Buffalo.
I'll keep a few in my cartridge belt, not in the magazine.
Fortunately I've found solids that shoot to the same POI as my softs.

 

[WAB]

The more PH's I talk to, the more I hear recommending premium bonded softs & mono's.
Swift A-Frame, TBBC, Barnes TSX and Norma Oryx are commonly mentioned.
The current bullet technology is so great that solids for a client are rarely necessary.
The better plan is to get very accurate with your softs and you won't need a solid.

Do I plan on taking solids on my Buffalo safari...yes.
But they will be for use on smaller antelope, not Buffalo.
I'll keep a few in my cartridge belt, not in the magazine.
Fortunately I've found solids that shoot to the same POI as my softs.

And you never know, I once had a buffalo hunt turn into an buffalo/elephant hunt. If I hadn’t had solids on hand I could not have taken advantage of the opportunity.

 

[fourfive8]

I’m trying to understand why you think an iron sighted 458 shooting 350 grain bullets at 2700 fps would be better for buffalo than a reasonably scoped 458 shooting 500 gr bullets at 2250 FPS or a reasonably scoped 375 shooting 300 gr bullets at 2500 fps?

And really the same applies to all the PG you may encounter. There would be negative benefit of trying the iron sighted 458 no matter the bullet weight if pressed too use it past 100-200 yds on a smaller PG. Red Leg pointed that real possibility out in a previous post

 

[Tanks]

I recall hearing from PH's in this forum and elsewhere that they prefer their clients to use a 375 for buff because they can shoot them better than larger calibres. Lets hear from some PH's .....

Hogwash! Accuracy and big bores are not mutually exclusive. I don't know why people keep saying that based on a few anecdotal evidence. If someone is a horrible shot with a .458, they most likely will be a horrible shot with a .375.

 

[BeeMaa]

And you never know, I once had a buffalo hunt turn into an buffalo/elephant hunt. If I hadn’t had solids on hand I could not have taken advantage of the opportunity.

I'm with you.
Better to have them and not need them, than the other way around.