You won't believe how many hits this cape buffalo takes from hunters armed with heavy hitting rifles before finally going down.
These hunters were hunting cape buffalo in the African bush when they encountered a lone bull lying down in the grass. The PH identified it as an "Old Dagga Boy," and they elected to shoot it.
Since they didn't have a good shot while the bull was lying down, the PH made a sound mimicking the noise cape buffalo make when in distress. The bull then stood up in the grass and offered a good slightly quartering shot to the hunter.
The hunter made a good shot and hit the buffalo in the heart/lungs. However, as buffalo often do, this bull refused to go down. That's when things started to get really interesting really fast.
Watch the video to see how things played out and how many hits it took from big-bore rifles to finally bring him down for good.
The hunter was using a rifle chambered in .416 Remington Magnum and he made solid hits with all four of his shots. The Professional Hunter was carrying a rifle in .458 Lott and the hunter was accompanied by a friend carrying a .500 Nitro Express. The PH and friend each hit the buffalo in the body with a single shot from their rifles as the buffalo started to charge.
When that didn't stop the bull, they shot again and each hit the buffalo in the head to finally stop that cape buffalo charge at a mere nine meters.
That's a total of eight hits (six in the body and two in the brain) from three different big-bore rifles all in the space of about 30 seconds.
Sometimes a buffalo will go down immediately after taking a hit, but that's very rare. Buffalo charges are not as common as they're made out to be, but they certainly do happen from time to time.
This is a good reason why it's important to use big-bore rifles and high quality ammunition on a cape buffalo hunt. You saw what that buffalo did after taking four hits from a .416 Remington. Who knows what would have happened if that guy had been using a marginal caliber.
Buffalo are incredibly tough animals and things can go wrong in a hurry if you're not careful.
That's the sort of situation that could end badly, but luckily the PH and friend did a good job of backing up the hunter. Nice work, guys!
Like what you see? You can read more great articles by John McAdams on the Big Game Hunting Blog. Subscribe to his show: the Big Game Hunting Podcast or check out one of his African hunting safaris.
NEXT: DOUBTING THE POWER OF A CAPE BUFFALO? HERE'S ANOTHER CHARGE VIDEO
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