Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa .416 loads for upcoming TZ buffalo hunt

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.

We shot over the chronograph today. We were surprised that the velocity was ‘only’ 2,360 FPS; but that’s plenty good enough, especially considering that it groups all three bullet types in the same place. IIRC, 2,350 FPS is the original 416 Rigby loading, so we are in good company velocity-wise.

Sights adjusted to 1.25” high at 100 yards. Alan Vincent wants me to use soft points for the first shot to avoid pass-through; so I’ll have a Bear Claw chambered with Raptors following. We are both interested in seeing if the Raptors perform as well as the reports we’ve both heard about them. Solids in reserve in case we have to follow up a wounded bull.

I was favorably impressed with the reduction in recoil by dropping the powder charge from 81 down to 79 grains. It was actually moderate, which my rebuilt rotator cuff appreciated. Noticeably less than the punch with 81 grains.

Sounds like you are dialed in! Looking forward to hearing how the hunt goes and seeing pics. Should be one heck of a great trip. Best of luck!

Have a great time, you are ready to go.



Good news, when I emailed Barnes, they did not think they were even going to do a .416 bullet run this year. Just focus on the higher moving product numbers.

Here's a .416 thread with a lot of info.

Those bullets are hard to find now. I got help from buds here on the Fire, info from Bill Huber at Swift.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/16206221/1

Good luck.

DF

Too bad you can’t readily get North Fork bullets. I’ve heard excellent reports about the Raptors also.
Have you hunted TZ before?

I called Barnes about the 400gr .416s last week. They said they'll be making them again in November.

SafariLife, I took my son to Maswa North in December of 2019. That’s the area mostly hunted by Mike Fell, operated by Bushman Safaris. It’s a beautiful area with abundant game and my son was fortunate to take an excellent buffalo among the animals he shot.

This hunt with Alan Vincent has been many years in coming. I did my first African hunt in 1983, guided by Alan’s father, Roy Vincent. We hunted the Deka Safari Area in Zimbabwe. It was a family affair as his mom supervised the camp, and both Alan and his younger sister, Diana, were in camp the entire time. We had a grand time on a wonderfully successful 24 day hunt. Alan and I have been talking about hunting together for a long time. It should have happened before now. I hope it’ll be the first of a handful more hunts with Alan.