Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Buffalo cartridge?

dwaba-- Shooting a buffalo through both shoulders with a 500 grain bullet out of a Sharps DOES NOT result in a shameful waste of meat. You have obviously never seen one of these rifles work on a large animal. There is minimal meat damage, far less than a modern rifle and a jacketed bullet. The old timers said that you "could eat right up to the hole." They were right.

Jerry NOW I gotta be real careful when shooting around a herd of deer or speed goats you know lack of penetration an all!

Woody--You've gotta be careful around a herd of buffalo with one of these rifles, too. Of the five buffalo I have killed and the other seven or eight I have seen shot, the ONLY bullets I have seen recovered were a 450 grain cast bullet out of a 45-90 and a 405 factory Remington load out of a Marlin 45-70 lever gun. I have never failed to shoot through and through a buffalo with either a 45-70 or a 45-110 using a 500 to 515 grain bullet. Be careful around a herd, or you will wind up killing two with one shot. Seriously.

10-4 buying a duce would be bad juju!

I would probably use my 1895 marlin cowboy in 45/70. Now I would love to use either a shiloh 1874 sharps or a 475 turnbull in one of his 1886's.

45/110 540 g Paper patched slug.106 g GOEX Express FFG

I know a fellow that works for the Crow Tribe as a game warden of sorts. He goes along on a bunch of the bison hunts the tribe sells in the foothills of the Bighorns. Sounds like it turns into a rodeo quite often due to poor shooting - one thing he mentioned that really stood out in my mind is how many old fogies who couldn't see would show up with their open sighted "Buffaler Rifles", and subsequently wound a bull. IIRC, he packs a Mini-14, and has had to finish off quite a few.

Not knocking their use, just relating a story; if I went after another I would be packing my Pa's Shiloh Sharps 45-70.

Up here, F&G requires that your rifle shoot a 200gr bullet minimum with 2000 ft/lbs. retained at 100 yards. So, for my hunt, I'm thinking the 358 Norma and 225gr A-Frames or my 300 RUM with 200gr A-Frames. At least I until October or so to decide.

BOOOMMM, one shot, two trophy fees LOL, Yes, I've heard those Sharps rifles "WAY UNDER-PENETRATE" on deer.

Gunner

I've shot three buffalo, one with a 35 Whelen with a 250 grain Speer cup and core,and the last two with a 260 Remington with 140 grain Speer Grandslams. All three were shot behind the ear and didn't even take one step. All you have to do is make sure of your backstop so you don't hit two because the 260 will go clear through a buffalo's neck.

Yep! A lot of grief could be averted with accurate shooting no matter what caliber.

Hope to someday draw a tag for the Henry's here in Utah.

This bull taken by a freind @ over 10,000FT..not your typical ranch bison hunt.300 win 180NP

This takes the drama out of shooting Bison. Shot placement in the location as described by MD puts them down pronto

No doubt BB, many ways to get it done, and get it done right and quick, but, I would dearly love to line the barrel sights of my Sharps rifle on a bison.

Gunner

I have been around plenty of buffalo kills with everything from a 30-06 to 300 WBY mag for modern calibers, plenty Sharps rifles and cartridges, but the drop 'em dead in their tracks will only happen with a well placed brain shot. As sharpsguy has posted here, you have to be careful how many buffalo you can get lined up, as a 45-70 will penetrate even 2.

The second picture is a bull that was shot with a 45-70 in a Montana Centennial rifle with 405 grain cast bullets. There were buffalo lined up behind and the bullet passed clear through the first bull a second cow and hit the leg of a third buffalo. Others I have seen shot with Sharps rifles, through the heart and they still can travel a bit before going down. Anyone that has been around buffalo and shooting them will acknowledge the fact that you have to be prepared to follow the hunted animal and not lose him in a crowd, as they can go quite awhile with a lethal shot in them.

Penetration was the factor in the old buffalo cartridges. I can tell you from experience, a 45-70 with a hard cast bullet will easily penetrate even the largest buffalo. All a 45-110, or a 45-120 will do, is hit the ground a little harder on the other side...

gunner500 I have been shooting my 1st Shiloh since 1992. It took a few years to learn how to load for it. Most of the advice I got from them "in the know" was to have it rebarreled and chambered for a 45-70 or other little cartridge. The 3 1/4" cases take some work but they do shoot well once you are on track and understand what they need. since then I've shot a couple of mule deer and antelope with my 3 1/4 50. I shot a 1 1/2 year old bull down in the Nebraska Sandhills 1 month ago with my 45 2 7/8 and paper patched bullets,2 wks later a friend used my rifle and ammo to shoot his. Doing it like this, the way they did it with the use of the same equipment gives a guy a better perspective on how tough it was back then. You don't get that shooting behind the ear with a modern ctr fire and scope.Both of us had to stalk our animals and wait for an opportunity to shoot( cleared animal with no other in the way). . Some will say no big deal but these buffalo get shot at from Labor day to presidents day and they know 2 legged varmints are up to no good.In a sense it's tougher now ,back then they didn't care whether the buffalo die in 1 min or 2 hrs as long as they got the tongue or the hide. Now we all strive for a humane one shot kill. Winter haired buffalo have lots of hair 2-4" hanging below the body line, other than their face a buffalos head is covered with long curly hair . Picking his ear or earhole out of that hair over ironsights at over 100 yds might not be as simple as some here suggest.If you can do that,by all means do as you like but as MD suggested behind the frt leg tight 12" up from the hair line is a better shot for an ironsight user.One of them Henry Mts tags and a bull like the one pictured with my 45- 2 7/8 or 50 3 1/4 would be a mighty fine event in my life. Wished now I wouldn't have waited as long as I did to shoot the 1 st one. It will allways be a Sharps-bp-paper patched bullet for me on buffalo. Magnum Man

Nice post and thanks for the info MM, I will christen my 45-120 on a bison this fall, the 500 gr Jerry Dean flat nosed greaser at 1409 fps is a real hammer, and very accurate.

Sharpsguy and ET been walking me through this Sharps rifle process, so far so good.

Gunner

I don't care if I can take a bison with a 300 Savage, I'm still trying to justify that 458 Win Mag and you guys aren't helping at all.

I'd be keen to have a crack with my 9.3x62, or alternatively load an arrow on to the rest and try and sneak up real close.