Buffalo Shot Placement

Hunting Buffalo Shot Placement

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Hunting Buffalo


Hunting Buffalo

Hunting Buffalo Front View Shot Placement

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Hunting Buffalo


Hunting Buffalo

Hunting Buffalo Rear View Shot Placement

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Hunting Buffalo


Hunting Buffalo

Hunting Buffalo Top View Shot Placement

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Hunting Buffalo

I really like the shot where the neck and shoulder come together, as you can be off a tad and you still get a knock down shot and he probably won't be able to get up..I have used this shot many times, especially at short range with a double rifle. It really puts them down for the count.

The classic 1/3 up the shoulder or 2/3 down the shoulder is another favorite shot of mine, and probably the one I have used most..

Ray, seeing that you aso use a double, you must have experienced a buffalo frontal into the "V" at close range, making the bull lift his entire front bulk onto his two hind legs? It is one of my favorites and also really puts them down heavily. The effect seems to happen mostly when they are looking at you. From my experience, when you get them unaware, they just drop in their tracks. When they are aware of you, they take the brunt of it and you get a chance to empty the second barrel to bowl them over.

Ryan,
Your spot on...and basically it is the same shot that I prefer on a broadside shot where I put the shot where the spine and neck meet..Either from the front or the side you can hit the spine as it drops so low on bovine animals..

When they sit right down on their butt, you know you got'em good. I had one running at me (I don't think he ever saw me) and I shot him in the V with a .470 and a Northfork cup point, at about 25 or so yards and he sat on his haunches and flipped over on his back driving his horns deep into the soft damp turf with all fours sticking staight up and never a wiggle. I got one of those rare adrenaline rushes from that one.

Afrique chasse points vitaux du gibier africain - Buffle
Placement de balle pour un tir efficace

Vital Shots Buffalo
by Captain Chauncey Hugh Stigand (1877 - 1919)



This animal has always been painted blacker than it is as regards its usual behaviour, but when once wounded there is hardly a more dangerous beast, especially if it has to be followed up in thick cover.
Care should be taken, therefore, to put a deadly shot in at first, and there is no better place to shoot than the point of the shoulder if the beast is broadside on.
If facing, and its head is up, shoot at the base of the neck for a raking body shot.
If quarter facing, aim at the side of the neck so that the bullet will get to the opposite shoulder.
The best type of bullet for buffalo would be the dum-dum, that is a bullet with the lead just exposed at the point.
For close quarters, in following a wounded animal, a big bore might be useful, for there is no doubt that once a wounded buffalo has made up its mind to charge, it means business, so it is better to have something in one's hand that will knock it down or knock all the charge out of it, though on ordinary occasions they can be killed easily enough with "303 and "256 rifles.
Solids are also good for buffalo, but we think a bullet with lead just showing the best.
If using a single-loading rifle, load up quickly after each shot, and if a magazine is used be sure there are cartridges in the magazine as a reserve.
If charged it would be easy to escape if a tree was handy, or an ant-hill. In the open, of course, it would not be necessary to go closer than 100 yards, at which distance there would be no difficulty in killing the animal. Wounded animals, however, will seldom be found in the open if there is cover about, unless they are so badly wounded that they are unable to reach it.



The question of vital shots is a most important one, for, after the game is sighted, it is necessary that the sportsman should know exactly where to hit it, so as to kill it quickly, saving the animal perhaps many days of suffering, and the hunter the time and trouble of following it up.
Nothing is more distressing to the man with humane sporting instincts than to feel that he has sent an animal off with a painful wound to die slowly, tormented by flies, maggots, and the nightly terror it will suffer from lions, hyaenas, jackals, or hunting dogs.
It would be well, then, to shoot coolly, and not to aim at an animal's whole body, but at the exact spot you wish to hit.
Never jerk the rifle off, but press the trigger gently, and, when possible, sit down. When this is impossible, if a tree is handy, rest the rifle against it, taking care to have the arm or hand between the barrel and tree to prevent jump.
It would, perhaps, be better to take the animals in order of size and the difficulty in killing them.