DG with a single shot

A-zone, I agree 100% with everything you say and you worded it so much better than I could. Thanks!
I just wanted to let cam know if he prefers to hunt with a #1, he's comfortable with it and proficient in its use then he need not discount it due to the opinions expressed on an Internet forum....
 
medvedqc said:
A-zone ''Doctari'' Roberston is a must to read you are 100% right.

but he loves the 9.3x62 above everything .... it cant be a bad man lol ...
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Hahaha!!! Good point!

Nothing wrong with the 9.3x62. In all fairness, I recall Robertson placing it on the "light" end of the scale. In other words, "adequate", provided that you are using proper bullets and deliver accurate bullet placement (which I understood to mean something along the lines of: "in the cool hands of an African").

Your point is well taken, though. (and it explains why I have a 9.3x62 - in a Sako, not a CZ - as one of my preferred elk country rifles...). It is so much easier to learn to shoot well and definitely a "fear no evil" choice for our black timber elk.

Having taken 23 animals (20 with my 404 Jeffrey) during my 2013 safari, I would say that the 400 grain .423" A-Frames hammered them very hard. (Very few follow-up shots).
 
Easiest way to decide is to book the hunt. When the money starts pouring out, passing fancies and whims, novelty calibers and novelty weapons start to seem make less sense. By the time it's time go practicality, and the sense of the best tool for the job will likely win out. If you still want to take the single shot you probably should. Practicality isn't everything. Hunting on the other side of the world isn't super practical in the first place.

There's a million posts on the Internet where folks claim that they would use a blank for any blank in the blank. It doesn't matter that they haven't hunted the blank, or are ever going to hunt the blank. By God they'd doer, presumably right after someone else paid for it. Those that do, tend to hedge their bets in favor of success. That might be the character trait that got them into position to "doer" in the first place.
 
I am firmly on the multiple shot firearm side for Cape buffalo..........HOWEVER, were I there for a plains game hunt with my 300 Wby and the PH said "Hey, I got a problem buff you can shoot for free, but all I have is a Ruger #1 in 450 NE/458 Lott/458 WM/404 Jeff/whatever..........I would have only two words for him...........LET'S GO and then maybe where's the ammo, I wanna check the sighting equipment.
But on a planned hunt, and considering the choices I already own, it's a no brainer for me............double or bolt gun.
 
I shot my buffalo at underhand pebble toss range, and my Lion I used both barrels and a reload for one more on at 30 and change. While I love No.1s and own several including a recently acquired .375, I would not choose it for reasons already very well articulated.

Now the silver lining; if you like No.1s / classy singles, you'll like doubles even more. Welcome to a whole new world of financial distress and pleasure.
 
I killed a water buffalo in Australia with a 70lb bow. Ultimately it comes down to your guide. I told my guide I was only coming if I could bow hunt the Buffalo. He was ok with it. But he did carry a hand cannon in case. I'm a gun nut but I almost never hunt with guns. I have no idea why I own so many hunting rifles.
 
Chago said:
I killed a water buffalo in Australia with a 70lb bow. Ultimately it comes down to your guide. I told my guide I was only coming if I could bow hunt the Buffalo. He was ok with it. But he did carry a hand cannon in case. I'm a gun nut but I almost never hunt with guns. I have no idea why I own so many hunting rifles.
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Those things are really just big cows. It's the other buffalo that tend toward the homicidal when injured.
 
BigUglyMan said:
Those things are really just big cows. It's the other buffalo that tend toward the homicidal when injured.
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Really? Lol you might want to read up on them. I'm not talking about american fenced hunts. We stalked on a couple groups who nearly charged us prior to getting mine. My guide almost called a end to the hunt after that. Any 2200lb animal with horns will use them when they see fit. Yes the African cousin is even worse. But don't kid yourself. The Australian is extremely weary. And frightening even a dog can end up with serious injury nevermind a animal the size of a car with huge horns on the fender.
 
Chago said:
Really? Lol you might want to read up on them. I'm not talking about american fenced hunts. We stalked on a couple groups who nearly charged us prior to getting mine. My guide almost called a end to the hunt after that. Any 2200lb animal with horns will use them when they see fit. Yes the African cousin is even worse. But don't kid yourself. The Australian is extremely weary. And frightening even a dog can end up with serious injury nevermind a animal the size of a car with huge horns on the fender.
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That and an Australian bull makes a cape look like something you'd carry on a key chain.
 
For a while I carried a #1 in .416 Rigby for a bear gun, and the issues I had with it did not relate to fire power, mostly because problem polar bears aren't encountered in herds. The first issue I had was the stock cracking at the tang. This was ultimately resolved with a proper bedding job so that both sides of the tang had equal bearing. The next issue was mounting the glass, a 1.5-5X in my case, in such a way that the scope's ocular did not extend behind the falling block and interfere with loading and unloading when in a hurry. A custom quarter rib inletted for Talley QD rings was the solution. This resulted in a long eye relief, and the long eye relief required that I not use more than 3X which I never found to be a serious disadvantage even for 300 yard shots. But one issue I never resolved was the rifle's unsettling habit of shifting from safe to fire while being carried slung. Carrying the rifle unloaded was obviously not an option. Carrying the rifle loaded but out of battery resulted in decorating the tundra with expensive .416 Rigby ammo. I would never carry the rifle slung muzzle up and risk 92 grs of H-4350 booming right behind my ear, so I acquired the habit of carrying it slung muzzle down and never allowed anyone to walk on the muzzle side. That rifle, and many others, was lost in a house fire, but when went shopping to replace my bear guns, they were all bolt action rifles or pump shotguns from then on.

In Tanzania, we tracked a herd of buffalo into the tall grass, and sure enough found ourselves in the midst of the herd of about 300 animals. We could hear them. We could smell them. Once in a while we could see a patch of black hide or the sun glint off a horn. We never saw a complete animal or had a reasonable shot at any of them. That was one of the most exciting wildlife situations I've ever been in. Had anything gone wrong, and the herd started to run, we'd have been squashed like bugs. When they did finally run off, the ground shook, but we never did get a shot at them! At that moment, the .500 felt pretty small, and a 2 shooter felt lacking. A single shot in those circumstances? No thanks!

African dangerous game has 4 facets to consider. The beast might be difficult to anchor. If he moves, he will move quickly. There might be more than one. And, they might be difficult to see. The Ghost and the Darkness movie got one idea across very well, lions in the grass are tough to see.


africacrater34.jpg
 
Dogleg said:
That and an Australian bull makes a cape look like something you'd carry on a key chain.
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They weighed mine with a tractor that had a scale on the bucket. It was 2200lbs and from what they told me its basically the equivalent to a 200lb white tail. So a nice sized buffalo, but by no means a monster. I have seen pics in their camp of some that made even me want to put my bow away and get a rifle LOL
 
I'll offer a theory here that has little to no academic basis, but certainly seems true from my limited experiences. I've walked with Cape Buffalo in three countries, expressly hunting them in just one (Zimbabwe). They are not all the same animal, and how they've lived appears to make a huge difference in their attitude. The same applies for Bison here in Canada, a Wood Bison that's been wild for millenia pressured by wolves who's never seen a human acts shockingly different than a southern plains Bison. My scariest moment with wildlife is a tie between a bear and a Wood Bison not Cape Buffalo or Lions, but those are different stories.

My wife and I photographed essentially tame Cape Buffalo in South Africa in a hunting area, some replete with ear tags, and while we were cautious I'd have no qualms approaching to fifty yards and even a bit inside with only a camera on them if the picture of a lifetime presented itself. Never would I do that on the Zimbabwe bulls in the jesse. They are an entirely different animal, and act it, even the body language of PHs tells the difference between the two. My friend in Zim mouthed to me a wide eyed and stern "Don't miss." on my bull there as we bumped him in thick bush at loogie range. The South African bulls would chew and stare at you in the truck from that range.

In short, in South Africa, on most operations where the entire predator chain is not there and intact and the demeanours of the bulls rather soft, I'd use my No.1 with no qualms. In thick jesse (thorn bush) in Zimbabwe? Hell no- unless you're paying for it, for free I'd use a pointy stick on a hooped stick and string, and people happily pay to do that. But personally, from my experiences in Zim, if chasing the nasty bulls in thick stuff you'd really prefer you'd brought your bolt or double once in there. I shot my bull several times despite it being in our faces closer than I'll likely ever be to another dangerous game animal alive, at the direction of the PH, you "Keep shooting!".

If you ask me, they are almost different species, wild, and semi-domesticated. They even look different, with the Zim bulls carrying dark, coarse, extremely long hair and a more muscular body, with less horn of course generally than top South African stock.
 
How the South African bulls looked at us, this was taken by my wife.



How the Zimbabwe bulls look at you, posted earlier.



And a Zim bull down after nearly two weeks of walking up to a herd you could hear but not see, realizing you were in the middle of it in thick thorns in the lush wet season, and not knowing what dark shape is what. That is the experience you want to go for, and in that experience, a single is somewhat lacking in my estimation.

 
Ardent good post. Capes have a reputation because of TV. But like you said you have seen capes that are practically domesticated cows. Same goes for any animal. I love the short wide snout on the capes. The water buffs have a much longer slender snout. And my original post was not to tell the OP ya sure take a #1 your fine, look at me I did it with a bow. No I was just saying to ask your guide as ultimately its up to them. Like I said I had my bow, but I had backup in case. And knowing that makes you a lot more comfortable.

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