Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Bullet Choice .458 Win Mag African Buffalo

What is you experience and bullet choice using the 458 Win Mag on Buffalo?

Thanks

I like Swift A-Frame for the first shot. Nosler solids to follow up. 500gr for both. You will be set.

A 420gr CEB Raptor will negate the need for both a soft and solid.

450 grain TSX for the first shot. 450 grain North Fork flat point solid for follow-ons. The latter broke a shoulder with a Texas heart shot.

450 grain A-Frames, save your solids for elephant.

My current count is 135 buffalo on three continents. 123 are with the .458. Of those, its a fairly even split in numbers between A-Frames, CEBs and TSXs with some mono solids thrown in.

Brush eats CEBs, its a bitch of a handicap when your bullet breaks into 7 pieces because it hit a twig.

Solids suck. Might as well shoot a pig with a pellet gun.

Yep, I firmly believe one of the reasons Cape buffalo acquired such a reputation for being hard to kill is the widespread use of solids (especially in the .375 H&H) before so many controlled-expansion "softs" appeared on the market.

The only experience I've had with .458 caliber cartridges on Cape buffalo was watching people who accompanied me use them, including PH's and hunting partners. Only solids have sucked: Unless one hit the brain or spine, or broke both shoulders, buffalo pretty much kept doing their thing, often for quite a while.

That includes a bull one of my hunting partners shot while after elephant, and all he and his PH had along were solids. He and his PH chased it around for several hours, putting several flat-nose .416's and .458's through chest-cavity vitals without much effect.

So far every modern soft has worked well, including Barnes TSX's, Nosler Partitions, Swift A-Frames, Trophy Bonded Bear Claws, etc.

I used Trophy Bonded Bearclaw. In a 458 Lott. Worked fine on a quartering shot. I agree about solids from a 375. Used a old style Hornady solid and it just zipped thru.

Shot my only Cape buff with 0.423" 400 grain Swift A-Frames so can't comment specifically on the 458s. Both of the frontal chest shots penetrated into the guts - at least 3-4 feet. Would use them again without reservation. It's reasonable to expect the 0.458" bullets would not underperform. In fact I'll use 400 grain A-Frames in a 450-400 on a thick-skinned animal in Sept.

Don't think solids for buffalo are a good idea, given the frequency of other animals than the intended target milling about in the general area - overpenetration and wounding of unintended targets from pass throughs is a real possibility The predictable ability of modern bonded, partition bullets - A-frames, Trophy Bonded - to get into the vitals from any reasonable angle has pretty much obviated the need for solids in this scenario, IMHO..

A big Alaska moose weighs as much or more than a Cape buffalo bull and nobody uses solids for moose.

The PHs I have discussed this with recommend a soft point for the first shot and solids for the follow ons. The theory is that you don't want the first shot to pass through the animal on possibly a broadside shot but the second shot will likely be as the buff is running away (almost never directly toward you, BTW). A solid penetrates further through the large amount of undigested grass in the buff to hit the vitals, or so they say.

My last PH recommended softs for the first two shots. Some recommend against using solids even for follow on shots.

I have had excellent results from Swift A-Frame and Woodleigh for softs from my hunters, so you can't go wrong with any of those two, as been mentioned by a couple of hunters above. I have heard of mixed results from the Hornady Solids, I think they are the DGS, but past that, I think a solid is a solid.
I will still advise that you bring at least some solids. You just never know when you will have a wounded Buff, standing with his head in a bush, only presenting a rear-on shot. Only a solid will have the penetration to get to the vitals from that angle.

Good luck. We look forward to the photos!

Take Care,
Marius Goosen

Thanks to all for the replies.

Although I have never shot a cape buffalo with my 458, I have shot an elk with it. I used a Hornady DGX softpoint and that bullet broke up and changed directions inside the elk. I cannot recommend that bullet for anything bigger that duiker.

I would gladly hunt Cape Buffalo with my old Browning Safari stuffed with 500 gr Woodleigh PP Weldcores at 2150 fps, two of those up front with two 450 gr BBW #13 solids bringing up the rear.

Wow! That's kind of crazy! If a 500 gr bullet intended for dangerous game breaks up on an elk... Who would use it for truly dangerous game?

Dang... Thanks for the info. Not that I own a .458, but I do have a pair of nice .375's. Dang...

Guy

I had the misfortune of using some Hornady factory 450 NE ammo loaded with 480 grain DGXs on an Asiatic with a borrowed Verney Caron double.

Since they loaded the ammo, rated it for dangerous game, and put a picture of a buffalo on the box I refuse to take any blame for misapplication. It started out at about 40 yards when I gave both barrels. He came my way, likely out of confusion but not so fast that I couldn't get a couple more into the double and then into him. That slowed things down to where I put the last 2 shells I had in, then one through the shoulder and the last one into his neck, since it was after all my last shell. He was co-operative enough to give me both sides to shoot at. The bullets were just going in 6 inches or so, and blowing up. A bigger piece of crap is hard to imagine.

Wow! I heard the DGX was a little on the soft side! Thank God you weren't tangled up with a lion! I have never used them. Only their old round noise solid that predates their DGS.

My favorite .458 bullet used to be the 400gn X bullet before they discontinued it. That bullet was always good for 5-6 feet of penetration even at .460 Weatherby velocities, so in looking for a replacement I tended to like the 550gn Woodleigh and the 450gn TSX, both of which shoot very well in the .458 Case.

Either or both, would be my choice for Cape Buff.

I would recommend the Woodleigh 500 grain softs and solids as bullets you could use in your .458 Winchester. Many other brands are too long to develop 2150 fps in a .458 Winchester; Nosler and Barnes being an example of this. The Hornadys' will work but are plated in soft copper over a steel jacket and the copper fouling has to be seen to be believed. The Woodleigh bullets employ a steel jacket which is clad in gilding metal. Fouling is not a problem as it is with the Hornady bullets.
72 grains of Accurate 2230 or 72 grains of Ramshot Exterminator (they are the same powder now) with the 500 grain soft, and 1.2-1.5 grains less with the 500 grain solid and you are set. Do not trim brass in rounds that need to be crimped the full 10 thou. Instead only trim 5 thousandths off. I do not expand the case mouth. Instead I use a Lyman 50 caliber VLD inside chamfer tool (7 twists) and I have never crumpled a case. Necks that have become brittle after too many sizing will not grip the bullet as well as softer brass. Annealing will help here. I recommend that you crimp the case using a Lee factory crimp die. Trying to crimp with a seater die will only lead to poor neck tension due to squashing down the neck causing it to buckle and reduce neck tension. The Lee crimp die is cheap and it is the best crimping method yet devised for such applications. I use RCBS lock rings on my Lee crimp dies as I do not like the Lee friction set up.
This is my load in my .458 Winchester, and the loading information is what I use in my CZ safari. It took a Cape Buffalo with a 1 shot kill. I used a Hornady solid with mine because the PH insisted. I took the top of the Buf's heart off with this 500 grain solid. I would never do it again. We were in the middle of the herd and the solid penetrated 4-5 feet of buffalo before exiting. We were just lucky another beast was not behind the one I shot. It would have been wounded by the exiting round and a rodeo would have ensued.
Many PH's do not handload as handloading is illegal or just not practical in many African countries and localities. What I am saying is many of these PH's know less about what bullets will work than you do. That is the reason so many Cape buffalo are still shot at with solid bullets.
Just my .02$. Good luck.

Probably part of it, elephant bullets aren't a good match for buffalo. To build on the idea a bit, much of the reputation of African plains game for being harder to kill is because people are determined to use their buffalo bullets on animals the size of a well fed whitetail or mulie.

Hard bullets need hard targets just as much as hard targets need hard bullets.