Now that my ammo has finally made it to the BVC (and we were fortunate enough to stumble into a Hyena) we can truly turn our full attention to Buffalo for the first time.
Before we go Buffalo hunting, it might we worthwhile for a gun nut to talk a little about bullets and loads.
As you recall, I started my hunt planning intent on using my 450-400 Nitro. I wanted to shoot the 400gr North Fork, but John convinced me that the A-Frame was less likely to create an exit wound, important in thick cover/herd animal situations.
Next I was onto the .470 Nitro…but I never got to the point where I had decided on a bullet (but I did have 500gr A-Frames and likely would have used them).
Then a brief interlude with the .458 Lott…and finally settling on the .450 Dakota.
For those not familiar with the Dakota, it is essentially a .416 Rigby necked up to .458. It actually predates the .450 Rigby by a few years. The two cartridges are not identical, but are very nearly so. And of course, they are both essentially a beltless .460 Weatherby with a normal shoulder (vs the trademark double-radius) with lower SAAMI/CIP pressure ratings.
Being a bit of an oddball who likes to live on the fringes, I decided to use a bit of an oddball bullet – the 550gr Woodleigh Weldcore Softnose. I had heard more than a few stories of Woodleigh bullets being “on the soft side”, but I reasoned that often those reports were the result of folks not adhering to Woodleigh’s impact velocity recommendations. One thing I was NOT going to do, was risk an impact velocity at or above Woodleigh’s 2,200fps maximum!
I also felt that with an SD of .375, I was not going to see anything other than a nice big ball of lead and copper bulging the skin on the far shoulder! Likely a ball that would weigh at least 475gr.
On John’s recommendation, I also loaded up some Woodleigh Hydro Solids, just in case.
My final load for the 550gr was 99gr of IMR 4350 for an instrumental velocity of 2,170fps at 15 feet. I was not always able to extract all the usable accuracy from this load, but when I could, it would keep all the holes touching at 50 yards. The Hydros were doing 2,180fps with 98.2gr of IMR 4350. The loads I took to Zimbabwe used once-fired Dakota cases and Federal 215 primers.
Buff or Bust!
Cody and Dave are having great fortune in the north of Nengo, seemingly always into the Buffalo…but the pickings seemed to be a little slimmer down south. Consensus was that the drought had animals heading into the northern reaches of the BVC, where the grass and browse was just a bit less stressed.
Our first serious look for Buffalo tracks resulted in finding where a few bulls crossed the road. After a 5 minute recon, the guys came back with a thumbs-up that we should follow.
It felt great to finally have the AHR in my hands. The weather was pleasant, the wind was a little shifty, but we were following Buffalo!
I had a bit of a mantra that I continually repeated to myself during the hunt. It consisted of my job description – Keep Up, Keep Quiet, Keep Alert, Shoot Straight! Pretty sure I failed on each of the first three points, at least a few times, on every stalk. But on this particular stalk, it was the wind that got us. Twice we bumped the bulls without getting a good look at them, and a decision was made to back out and stop spooking them with our scent so as not to chase them out of our area.
We spent a good bit of time checking numerous water holes for Buffalo tracks, choosing not to bother whenever we found a large, breeding herd.
That evening in camp, Cody and Dave gave us the good news of the large group of bulls they bumped, and John and I were jazzed to go chase them in the morning. Dave gave very good (perfect, in fact) instructions on where to go and what to expect.
One of my key learnings from the first stalk? The minimum distance I needed to stay behind John, so as not to eat the butt of his Rigby whenever hit hit the brakes!
Well, that...and the shifting winds of the Zimbabwe lowveld will really give the Buffalo an advantage!
, I have always envisioned a half mount on a small pedestal. Sort of coming out of the long grass, mouth open nose into the wind
. All I need is the hyena!
