You're a riot too!
I'm always amused when somebody bases his opinion on a bullet he's never used on what some other people say, and not any actual experience. I'm also always amused when somebody says ALL professional hunters in Africa have exactly the same opinions on a certain subject.
I know quite a few PHs, including several that were guiding during a month-long cull hunt around a dozen American hunters participated in during 2007. I especially remember one beery evening toward the end of the month, when the PHs started arguing about bullets and ballistics. Their opinions were just as diverse as those posted here.
One of the most experienced PHs I've hunted with, and more than once, is the now-retired Kevin Thomas. He grew up in what was then Rhodesia, and one of his early jobs was shooting buffalo off a big ranch, to make way for domestic cattle. That was back when Rhodesia basically didn't have a safari industry, and there weren't many "premium" bullets. His primary choice was a .30-06, handloaded with 180-grain Nosler Partitions, and he was NOT head-shooting buffalo at night, but herds driven past him by the ranch workers. The object was to shoot as many buffalo as possible, to save grass for the "paying" cattle, and he shot everything from calves to big bulls. Eventually he killed over 500--and told me he never had a problem, as long as he could get a clear shot at the chest, whether frontal shots or rear-angling.
Kevin started writing magazine stories and books toward the end of his PH career, and after retiring wrote even more, including a fine book titled THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT BUFFALO, a collection of stories not only by him but several of his long-time PH partners and friends. It's available from several sources on the Internet, and you might learn something from it, though I tend to doubt it.
Cheers!
