Craig Boddington has shot a pile of buffalo, and after a while wrote that he found the standard behind-the-shoulder, double-lung shot used on deer as effective as any. In fact he's killed several with a 300-grain .375 Sierra GameKing, placed just behind the shoulder, just like most hunters would shoot a whitetail. And no, he did not write that to promote Sierras as the perfect buffalo bullet.
Craig has a reputation for promoting all kinds of equipment, bullets, rifles, etc, which I alluded to in my earlier post, but that isn't a knock on him. The man hunts with the products he promotes, it is clear. He does promote Swift A-frame bullets in his buffalo videos, but he also gives credit to Sierra, Barnes, and Woodleigh bullets in various places.
But many PH's still suggest a low "shoulder" shot, to break the big bones, which usually means a heart shot--but I suspect that's a holdover from the days when solids were commonly advised: Breaking bones meant a more inside damage, due to "bone shrapnel."
But today's deep-penetrating expanding bullets make a big hole through both lungs, and kill pretty quickly. However, that's only if, (as an old elk hunter once advised) you "give them time to die." Buffalo are big animals, and like elk and, especiallu, moose it takes a while for the lungs to fill and collapse.
I have no doubt that the double-lung shot will work very well on buffalo. Even Jack O'Connor believed in the double-lung shot on anything, including elephant.
I find it interesting that Boddington has come around to lung shots, after all the effort he put into delineating the heart shot in his book and videos on buffalo. FWIW, I devoured his book & video, as well as Kevin Robertson's book, in preparing for my safari.
