Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Ross Seyfried on the 22 Hornet

I believe that rifle was a Blaser BL 820/821/822 in 7x65R. Their mechanism was something out of a watchmakers shop and thus were too expensive to manufacture and make a decent margins on. They surface from time to time and usually nudge five figures when they do.

The first firearms article I have memories of reading was Ross’s Shooters Insight column in G&A. It had to be around ‘88-‘89 and I was 13 or 14 at the time. Ross wrote about when he first got his .577 Rigby Rising Bite and how the first time he shot it it was off of the hood of his pickup truck! Impressionable as I was, that sealed the deal to be a fan of his writing ever since!

Irfubar, getting older is not for wimps!

Missed this one the first time around--but around 15 years ago was sitting around an African campfire with the PH I've hunted with most, the now-retired Kevin Thomas. He's a year older than I am, and was born and raised in what was then Rhodesia. His first job out of high school, at age 17, was a ranger for the Rhodesian game department--and he killed his first charging Cape buffalo bull shortly afterward while leading several tourists on a "game viewing" tour in a park.

During our campfire discussion I asked Kevin what he considered the smallest reliable Cape buffalo round. Without hesitation he said, "The .30-06 with 180-grain Nosler Partitions." I was somewhat startled, but asked for more details.

It turned out one of Kevin's jobs in his 20s (meaning the 1970s) was working for one of the huge Rhodesian cattle ranches as a culler. Back then domestic beef cattle were more valuable than wild game--in fact there was virtually no safari industry. Kevin's job involved culling Cape buffalo, which wasn't done at night with head-shots, but during the day during drives. The ranch workers would push buffalo herds toward him, as slowly as possible, and Kevin's rifle of choice was a .30-06 with handloaded 180 Partitions--which at that time were the original lathe-turned models with a "relief groove" around the area of the partition.

I then asked if he'd ever had any difficulties. The culling involved every size of buffalo, from calves on up to mature bulls, and Kevin said, "Never."

I then asked, "Even with frontal shots on big bulls?" He shook his head.

Have also known several other PHs who've regularly used the .30-06, 7mm Remington Magnum and .300 Winchester Magnum to kill mature buffalo bulls. In fact the 17-year-old son of my PH on a 2003 safari in Botswana's Okavango Delta was along on the hunt, partly as an apprentice. He'd recently killed his first bull with a .300 Winchester Magnum and a 180-grain Barnes TSX. It went around 75-100 yards before keeling over, after a typical heart-lung shot....

Funny thing about this thread is that Ross killed a cull cape bullalo bull using a .22 Hornet with a single shot over the heart.

Might be the ultimate Stunt Shot.

Ross had the ability and balls to pull such à shoot off

Acccording to the story there was a .470 Nitro hanging around.

The .22 Mag was pretty much a failed experiment.

Don't go buff hunting with a .22 MAG.

Missed this one the first time around--but around 15 years ago was sitting around an African campfire with the PH I've hunted with most, the now-retired Kevin Thomas. He's a year older than I am, and was born and raised in what was then Rhodesia. His first job out of high school, at age 17, was a ranger for the Rhodesian game department--and he killed his first charging Cape buffalo bull shortly afterward while leading several tourists on a "game viewing" tour in a park.

During our campfire discussion I asked Kevin what he considered the smallest reliable Cape buffalo round. Without hesitation he said, "The .30-06 with 180-grain Nosler Partitions." I was somewhat startled, but asked for more details.

It turned out one of Kevin's jobs in his 20s (meaning the 1970s) was working for one of the huge Rhodesian cattle ranches as a culler. Back then domestic beef cattle were more valuable than wild game--in fact there was virtually no safari industry. Kevin's job involved culling Cape buffalo, which wasn't done at night with head-shots, but during the day during drives. The ranch workers would push buffalo herds toward him, as slowly as possible, and Kevin's rifle of choice was a .30-06 with handloaded 180 Partitions--which at that time were the original lathe-turned models with a "relief groove" around the area of the partition.

I then asked if he'd ever had any difficulties. The culling involved every size of buffalo, from calves on up to mature bulls, and Kevin said, "Never."

I then asked, "Even with frontal shots on big bulls?" He shook his head.

Have also known several other PHs who've regularly used the .30-06, 7mm Remington Magnum and .300 Winchester Magnum to kill mature buffalo bulls. In fact the 17-year-old son of my PH on a 2003 safari in Botswana's Okavango Delta was along on the hunt, partly as an apprentice. He'd recently killed his first bull with a .300 Winchester Magnum and a 180-grain Barnes TSX. It went around 75-100 yards before keeling over, after a typical heart-lung shot....

Interesting that a 22 Hornet thread is mostly posts about buffalo, elephant, and 1000 yard cartridges, but I'm enjoying it anyway.

There was a canoe on the bank that Ross went to move and a garter snake shot out from underneath.

Ross let out a squeal and went into a dance trying to get away from the snake as the snake was trying to get away from him.

After a moment he started laughing and said the only critter he really didn't like were snakes.