Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa question for the buffalo hunters

I have a 270 tsx loads ready to go. I have some 300 tsx I'm gonna start playing with. Which ever of those that I can get to shoot to same or close to same poi as my 300 north fork solids will get the nod. Gonna get plenty of range time in as well as shooting practice off sticks, kneeling, etc....

Well, I for one am pondering this bullet question.

I am booked to hunt buff & plains game (in that order) in Zim next August with John Sharpe. I posed this question to John at DSC in January, and he is adamant about me using 300 gr A-frames for buff when I hunt with him next year. He's still not persuaded the 270 gr TSX's are as good. Others whose opinions & experience I respect have said they would rather use 270 gr TSX's, and I'm mightily persuaded, but bottom line, I'm gonna have to go with John's choice.

Any thoughts on the 250 TTSX? Seems like the camp is pretty equally split between the 270 and 300 TSX, would dropping another 20 gr of weight be offset by the increased velocity?

While I have learned that the .375 is not the ideal "buff" gun, however deemed sufficient by most, the 250 TTSX at say 2900+ fps makes a compelling argument for a one gun safari. Especially if the hunter is mostly after PG, with only a once in a lifetime buffalo in mind. Thoughts, from those that have been there, maybe reports from light weight GSC shooters?

Obviously the "ask your PH?" Advice still holds the most water. Thanks.

John is a dear friend, but his views like a lot of PHs are a bit behind the times. No matter how hard myself and others tried, we could not convince him for example, that flat nose solids such as the CEBs or North Forks FAR out perform Woodleighs. The 270gr TSX is a PROVEN performer and it gives you more versatility with near identical 3006 trajectories. This is a great advantage if you are only carrying one rifle. Then again on buffalo I've only used the 400gr Aframe in the 416 Rigby and the 300gr in the 375.

It's YOUR safari and it's not like your using a 700 with Sierras!

Sir,
Check out my post on page 2. Last 3 Cape Buff bulls we've taken was with .375H&H with 200gr GSC's.

The trouble with asking the PHs is that they don't agree either.

Nope--and neither does anybody else, either.

The most experienced PH I've hunted with (he recently retired) used a .375 for back-up on buffalo by preference, even though he used a .458 Lott for elephant guiding. I asked him what bullet he favored for buffalo. He said, "I just use whatever softs the clients leave. They're all good these days!"

Well,

it's just a sample of one, and it's a bison instead. This is the 300gn TSX recovered from my bison. About 30" of penetration, shed one petal. Animal was down in less than 10 seconds. No drama at all.

The only reason I used a used a 300gn was that I couldn't find any 270's at the time. I really don't know what the difference in performance might have been.

Are you referring to PH's who do this for a living or the ones sitting behind a keyboard....

Those that do it for a living. Its hard to find two in the same camp that can agree on softs and solids never mind which softs and which solids. Then there's which combination of which softs and which solids. Then throw caliber in there just for fun. It's easier to find a PH that agrees with you than to change your mind.

another book from Safari Press, the Perfect Shot II, covers this subject extensively, same author I believe, bit pricey but we'll worth the coin, copyright 2013 so has all the updated bullets and may help make your decision if you are hunting other animals besides buff. If buff is the only thing on the menu, go to page 80 in the book and check out the pic of the 380gr rhino along side a 600 gr bullet pulled out of the same buff, that will make you think
Great read at any rate

I've got a load worked up for the 380 grain Rhino, thinking about trying a few on a Aussie water buffalo cull next August. What would take a productive lifetime of buffalo hunting in Africa can be learned in Australia in a day. Sometimes in a morning.