Vapodog

Anyone that wishes to shoot Cape Buffalo with a cartridge that produces less than the .375 H&H should do several things.

1. Get permission from his PH before going to Africa as the .375 H&H is the minimum legal power in all the countries. It's about 4,000 ft-lb energy.

2. know your load and penetration well and know the anatomy of a cape buffalo so that you can take the best shot placement possible.

3. practice with your rig a lot and know your range very well. CB can be shot at 10 yards at times and then you must know whether you should pass on a 200 yard shot. No matter how you count the costs the Cape Buffalo is about a $6,000 trigger pull and the money is spent when blood is drawn. If the animal runs and is never found the $6,000 is spent.

If one wants to hunt CB with a .22 LR it's fine with me....I really don't care how we chlorinate the gene pool.

bigcountry

I have to agree with Vapor. I want all I can shoot with a cape. But never been to africa.

James B

I agree that there are rifles more suited for African game than the 45-70. However if one had trouble with the 45-70 on Game that size, Penetration will not be part of it. The 45-70 will penetrate more than the 458 Win Mag with hard cast bullets. Velocities higher than the 45-70 will start to expand and loose penetration. There are some good studies and articals. on the Garret site and details of Lupos taking of the big six with the Marlin. He was the first to officially do so. The artical about shooting through two Cape buffalo by Bryan Pierce is in a recent past artical in hand loader Magazine. I have had simular results with the 45-70 and have shot one since I was old enough to hold it up..

eldeguello

As Big Country says, you can't compare smokeless and black powder in any way! At one time, there was a "bulk smokeless powder" that could be loaded volume-for-volume with black powder and get the same MV, but at somewhat higher pressures than black gave.

Now, all smokeless powder is "dense", which means it contains much more energy per grain (weight) than any black, and therefore cannot be compared on a volume basis with black.

Even the way the two powders work is entirely different.Black powder is a mechanical mixture of saltpeter, sulphur, and charcoal. It burns when ignited, and at the same rate whether confined or in the open. When it burns it produces expanding gas which is what propels the bullet, BUT only about 40% of BP is converted to propellant gas. The rest remains as a solid mass, most of which sticks to your barrel walls as fouling! On the other hand, smokeless powders are made from nitratedcellulose ("guncotton") or nitrated cellulose andnitroglycerine, and when it is ignited by a primer in confinement(inside your gun), its' molecules rearrange themselves into more stable compounds in the presence of heat and pressure. These product compounds are mostly gases and H2O vapor which occupy much greater volume than the solids from which they evolved(the powder charge). The greater the heat, pressure and degree of confinement, the faster smokeless powder "deflagrates" into more gas. So basically, when used as a propellant in a cartridge, smokeless powder doesn't even "burn" in the same sense that black powder burns!

This difference in powder types also explains how a very small change in the amount of smokeless powder in a load can make a relatively large difference in the peak pressure and even the accuracy of a load. This effect is totally different from what BP charge changes do.

eldeguello

"You don't need a lot of velocity to get super penetration as the 45-70 with modest velocity recently killed two Cape buffalo with one shot. With Non expanding bullets or even hard cast bullets, the best penetration takes place at velocities of 1600- 2000 fps. In tests by Corbon, the 45-70 out penetrated the 458 Win, the 458 Lott and the 460 Weatherby with the same bullet."

This is absolutely true, and while I have no real intention of shooting a Cape Buff with ANY cartridge, I do have a 400-grain load, which from my Ruger No. 1 .45/70gives 2270 FPS and over 4500 Ft/Lb of energy, about 300 Ft/Lb GREATER than a .375 H&H factory 300-grain load. And with the Barnes Original 400-grain semispitzer, this load shoots flatter than a .30/30.

(I recall a test run a couple of years ago in which several British "Nitro-express rounds were compared to the .45/70 for penetration. .45 cal. 480-grain jacketed factory-loaded "solids" were used in the British rifles, at a MV in the2150-2250 FPS range. A 500-grain hard cast flatnose bullet was launched from the .45/70 at a MV of 1550 FPS. The .45/70 outpenetrated all the British express riflesby several inches or more each! Now, if one were to use a hard-cast 500 grainer from the express rifles at a MV of 1550 FPS, they would no doubt do as well as the .45/70..... BUT they'd need more powder to do it, since their case voolumes are cavernous compared to the little ol' .45/70.

James B

I still have a couple boxes of the Barnes 400 Grain spitzers. I really like them.

bigoleindian

JUST HADDA THROW THIS IN...
Read about a guy who handloaded his home defense .45 long colt with black powder...he said it shoots a flame about 20 feet long...even if he misses an intruder, he is pretty sure he will scorch all his hair off and make him really easy to identify..
Bigoleindian