Buffalo hunting with a .458 Win Mag

[6.8KLR]

My custom texas magnum with a shilen magna ported barrel . Loves the Hornaday 500 grain soft point. Wow what a recoil. It actually is a ear spliten loaden boomer. Suppose it is the porting that is the cause . So what......One and done......Just my two cents worth...….MICHAEL T.

 

[Timbo]

Just what hunters have come to expect from Woodleigh! Nice picture.

I bet my Woodie 400 grain .411 Weldcore would have looked like that if it had not shot through nearly 40 inches of the buff and disappeared into the woods (The bullet, not the buff).

Thanks! I use only Woodleighs for hunting. Their 180gr protected points in my 30/06, and 286gr RNSN in my 9.3x63 are just deadly! I've taken, respectively, water buff and cape buff (2019) with each calibre without fuss. I find they're extremely dependable as long as you load them within the stated velocities.

In 2018, I met a Zimbabwean PH in Zambia who was extremely happy with Woody 480gr projies, and advises his clients to only bring Woodleighs with them.

 

[Nhoro]

Several people have recommended 450-480 grain bullets. This seams like far less of a compromise, proportionately, with such heavy bullets. The sectional density is still very good but you get a little more powder behind it.

As long as you are using bonded lead bullets you should gain a reasonable amount of powder capacity. Longer, less dense mono-metal bullets would eat up capacity.

Has anyone had good luck or failure with the 450-480 grain bullets?

A friend of mine is head guide at a conservancy which I probably shouldn't name. They issued 458 win mag with 450 gr monolithic copper Peregrine solids at 2250 or 2300 fps. They dispatched several elephant during control operations with no problems. The sectional density of the 450 gr 458 round is the same as a 375 -300 gr round and no one criticizes that round for poor penetration ! So a 450 or 480 or 500 gr bullet will be excellent. I really like the Peregrine (similar to the North fork and Rhino bullets) But that same conservancy is now issuing Hornady 500 gr factory ammo because they have had good experience with it (More elephant control)

 

[Major Khan]

A friend of mine is head guide at a conservancy which I probably shouldn't name. They issued 458 win mag with 450 gr monolithic copper Peregrine solids at 2250 or 2300 fps. They dispatched several elephant during control operations with no problems. The sectional density of the 450 gr 458 round is the same as a 375 -300 gr round and no one criticizes that round for poor penetration ! So a 450 or 480 or 500 gr bullet will be excellent. I really like the Peregrine (similar to the North fork and Rhino bullets) But that same conservancy is now issuing Hornady 500 gr factory ammo because they have had good experience with it (More elephant control)

I have a book written by an elephant culler in Zimbabwe in the 1980s . Their issued rifles were .458 Winchester magnum calibre FN Mausers which needed to be re head spaced .
The ammunition used for culling the elephants was 500 grain Hornady solid metal covered bullets loaded by A Square . Hornady bullets were also extremely popular back when l used to guide clients for shikar in Nagpur , India in the 1960s .
The " jackets " on the Hornady solid metal covered bullets were some of the strongest which l had ever seen at that time.

 

[Tanks]

If you owned a bolt action rifle chambered in .458 Win Mag and wanted to handload the perfect load for a cape buffalo hunt, what bullet would you use?

I have a .458 B&M (similar ballistics) and planning on using 420 grain CEB Safari Raptor this coming August on Cape Buffalo