With just over 100 days until I blast off for Tanzania, I’ve gotten serious about prepping for my hunt, with the main focus right now being to find a suitable load for my .416 Hoffman. I was able to get a decent assortment of quality Bullets earlier this year, but Swift A frames and Barnes TSX Bullets are simply not going to be available in time for my hunt. I spoke to both Swift and Barnes and neither company plans to run any .416 Bullets till around October or November. Every retailer is also out of stock on nearly every .416 bullet offering at this point, so it’s time to work up a load.
I’ve got an assortment of 400 grain Nosler Partitions & Trophy Bonded Bearclaws, 370 grain Cutting Edge Raptors, 350 grain Barnes TTSX, as well as 400 grain solids from Cutting Edge, Trophy Bonded, Nosler & Swift. In the past, my ‘go-to’ load, given to me by none other than Jack Carter himself, has been 81.0 grains of RL-15, Federal 215 primer, pushing a 400 grain Trophy Bonded Bearclaw or solid.. That load gives me 2,510 FPS. As Jack told me back in 1988, “that’s one hell of a good buffalo killing load”. It is, but I wanted to see what we could come up with that’s just a tad milder, as I had my rotator cuff reconstructed 2 years ago and wouldn’t mind a bit less punishment on my right shoulder.
The friend who does my loading started with a load consisting of new Quality Cartridge brass, Federal 215 primer, Reloader 15. We loaded up some Bearclaws, Cutting Edge Raptors and Cutting Edge Solids, pushed by 79.0 grains of powder. The first bullets were the Raptors, out of a very clean barrel. After a first shot that was a bit out, the next three made a group of .80”. Pretty damn good for a big bore. After that, we shot 3 Bearclaws and they were about the same group size and POI just a tad to the right. Finally we shot a solid and it printed ‘right there’. We laid 2 targets together to see how all 3 Bullets grouped and total group size is 1.25”. So, there is no need for further load development. We think the load is around 2,450 or so but we are going to confirm that tomorrow over a chronograph and adjust the scope to be 1” high at 100 yards.
My rifle was custom built for me by Champlin Firearms, back in 1988. It’s based on a Pre-64 model 70 action, 22” Shilen stainless barrel, Brown Precision stock, and a Leupold vari-x 1.5-5 scope set in removable claw mounts, along with open sights. The rifle weighs about 9-9.5 pounds. My other rifle I’m taking on this hunt is a model 70 in .338 win Mag, 24” Lilja stainless barrel set in a Brown Precision stock and topped with a zeiss 4-14 scope. I’ll probably replace the scope with a Leupold VX-5 in 3-15 with fire dot reticle, as I have that scope on my .264 and think it’s excellent. It would be an advantage in a leopard blind.
I’ll be hunting for 16 days with a friend I’ve known for 38 years, Alan Vincent; in his Mlele concession in western Tanzania. We’ll be looking for 3 buffalo, leopard, sable, eland, bushbuck, zebra, Lichtenstein hartebeest and hyena. I’ll be the last client of the season, so there may be one or two animals left on quota from previous hunters. Time will tell. Regardless of what we do or don’t shoot, Alan and I are going to have a wonderfully enjoyable time together.
Last edited by CAelknuts; 07/03/21.
