Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa 338 win mag VS. Cape buffaloe???

Ive personally witnessed a cape buffalo killed at 20 yards with a .22 magnum ruger all weather rifle shooting cci 40 grain fmjs.

Of course it was tame in a pasture and we were there to butcher it.

Yes...

But that was before the mother had a chance to lick the afterbirth off it...

LOL no it dressed around 650 lbs if i remember right. I was a butcher and we specialized in coming to the customers house to slaughter the animals. A very rich fellow decided to raise some exotics for the freezer, bison asian and cape buffalo, elk, pronghorn and numerous antelope i cant recall. My boss shot the two buffalo and i shot the elk and others. That little .22 magnum killed alot of animals. All were with frontal brain shots except the elk as its head slopes it was shot behind the ear.

.22 mag...the poacher's friend...because it works, or so I hear (no smiley because I don't).

The .22 magnum is capable of killing anything i ever put a bead on, obviously i wouldnt advocate it for dangerous game. My intent on posting that would be to show that shot placement is key.

I'd slip the .460 into this caliber spread. It is a step up that is noticeable and practical with a trajectory near identical to the .30/06.

Personally, I would use a .338 for most anything with the heavier bullets loaded.

JW

"They don't value our experience and don't listen to our advice, if it wasn't for the almighty Dollar we wouldn't tolerate them here"

Well...not all of 'em.

In Zim it's legal to hunt lion with a .300.

My .300 is practically an extension of my mind.

I have many one-shot kills with it on things heavier than lion.

My PH said to bring a .375.

So I bought a .375.

I understand. I wasn't disagreeing.

for Aussie Gunwriter:

Yes, the 460 is also a flat-shooting, versatile, take-everything calibre. It's main drawback is the non-control-feed action in the Weatherby models. The 450 Rigby, on the otherhand, comes in the CZ550 with control-feed and should pretty much duplicate Weatherby loads when handloaded. Even better, one can load the newer, lighter 458 bullets for 'reaching out and touching' way down field. Unfortunately, the 450 Rigby is a custom-order job and about triple the price of the 416 Rigby. Which leaves average 'meat hunters' like me with the 416 and 338. With today's bullets the 416 and 338 truly do it all.

When looked at in the other direction, if one has a 416 rigby and wanted another plains rifle as a back up, where should one turn? The 375 is a bit 'same-ol'same-ol' after the 416, often in a heavy rifle model. The 338 can be gotten in very light, inexpensive models, yet packing the punch for non-dangerous game at long range PLUS being able to take a buffalo cleanly with good bullets should the situation arise.
Double plus: last year my son took a nice guinea fowl with a 338wm. The sun was setting, the guinea fowl were out in a meadow pecking at the grass after a rain, and the 338 cleanly dropped the bird without meat damage. Just aim into the upper half over the breast. It's a great confidence builder in a rifle when it's sighted in to do that. So far I haven't used the 416 on guinea fowl, mostly we just used 270 or 222/223 on spurwing geese or guinea fowl when the taste for bird arose, but don't have those rifles anymore where the guinea fowl are. Which reminds me of the Carmichael article I mentioned in a previous post. '3 rifles to hunt the world'. He chose 280, 338, 458 win. I'm not a gunwriter but have pretty close tastes in 270, 338, 416. I think that Jack O'C would smile on such a battery, too. Elmer fans might choose 30-06, 375, 505. I guess I like the 25-50 yards extra range that the 'light battery' has. It's not very significant, though, under 300 yards, which is 95+% of any African hunting. (And yes, a 270 will take a buffalo, but let's not discuss that. If walking around on an antelope hunt where buffaloes and lion roam, one doesn't happily reach down below the 338. At least the 338 or 416 needs to be along. We all have our lines to draw.)

PS: Elmer would probably just have a 338 Lapua/RUM/KeithT instead of the 30-06 and 375. then a second rifle in as large a bore as available.

i agree. we have enough problems over here in s-africa as i am sure you know. it is a constant fight to make a living and even stay alive . the last thing i want to do is to fight with fellow hunters. maybe we should contribute our strong opinions to the our dedication to hunting.

I certainly don't want to get into a debate with anyone over the perpetual CRF Vs PF but I will say that a single file (non staggered) magazine feed in my experience is as close to flawless as I have seen. The number of miss feeds and bolt jams I have witnessed from CRF is way into double figures and anything PF is very low single numbers. I have never seen, or experienced, a column feed jam or misfeed. That is not an argument, just my obserbvation over a few lustrums.

JW

Our current 338 is a Tikka with a nice column push feed and has functioned flawlessly when chambering. I hadn't thought much about the 338 feeding because it is a non-dangerous game rifle, most of the time. Taking a bullet out of the chamber and re-setting in the clip requires removing the clip, but that is done during 'down time' when no animals are present.

for Aussie

If I had a 460 Weatherby//450 Rigby, and I've considered the idea quite pleasant, then I might have thought in terms of a 375HH for plains animals. But those rifles are heavier and more expensive than the 416 + 338 combo. One's starting point of what is already owned influences the perspective.

Thank you.

those are nice pictures. Great teaching device.

And sometimes when switching languages the right word just doesn't come. It blocks. But we communicated.

jwp475; the scene from "Full Metal Jacket" comes to mind... marching around the barracks holding their "guns" in one hand and their "rifles" in the other!!! LOL!!!

What I liked was the 416 Remington, I had been told by others that the 458 Lott and 460 G&A are better. I think this is because they hunt in Africa more often. The 416 Remington will also shoot bullets such as the 350-grain Swift A-frame and that is a bit more bear insurance than a 375 H&H, which is also quite adequate for the big bears, as is the 338 and the 300 Winchester magnum. On the big stuff in Africa, the 416 will fair well and unless you are hunting over there often, I think the 416 is ideal, not that the 375 would not do well. It seems outfitters and PH are more comfortable when you know your way around a 416.

So assuming you had a 416 Rem, (and it shoots the same as the 'cool' loads of 416 rigby, which is to say wonderfully), would your second plains rifle be 338? And coming back full circle to the thread, would you consider a buffalo if the 338/second-plains-rifle were in your hands on the occasion?