I just joined the site and I?m the hunter, so please allow me to tell the story. Both buffalo were shot in Mozambique in the Zambezi River swamp. My initial plan was to use a heavy for caliber LFPGC bullet. Because these buffalo are rarely alone and typically in very large herds of 600 or so, the PH only wanted me to use expanding bullets. I spoke to Hornady and they recommended their XTP-MAG bullet as did Freedom Arms. Both said they?d shot plenty of buffalo with them.

I was far from convinced that this would be the right bullet, but they shot very, very well producing tiny groups at 125 yards. When I got to Mozambique, I loaded two XTP-MAGs followed by three LFPGC bullets as the load plan in the cylinder under the assumption that if the XTP-MAGs failed, I?d have solids for back up rounds.

The first buffalo was taken at 75 yards. I shot him square in the left shoulder and he spun 180 degrees. I shot him square in the right shoulder and he went down. I walked up to him and shot him with a coup-de-grace shot in the neck at 25 yards. I retrieved all three bullets. The two XTP-MAGs were found on the off side just under the hide. The LFPGC lodged in the neck. Here are the bullets:

[img]https://www.dropbox.com/s/npgvs75mjjfbr8k/Photo%20Jul%2004%2C%2010%2052%2025%20PM.jpg?dl=0[/img]

The second buffalo was taken a little closer and facing me. I shot him once on the point of the left shoulder with an XTP-MAG. The bullet was not recovered although it did not exit. We simply didn?t have time to search for it because we wanted to get out of the swamp before dark. We didn?t make it by the way.