bison rifle

[.50cal packer]

I'm taking my father on a bison hunt this winter, and he wants to use something similar to the sharps rifle. Problem is the 45-70 has to much ass for him. So my question is what is the smallest rifle you would recommend for hunting these huge animals? I saw the winchester 1885 had some large calibers, like the 325wsm but will that be enough gun for the job?

Thanks for all the help

[Anthony Terry]

Hmm, a 45-70 has too much but you want to get a 325wsm? :D
You need to look at some recoil charts before you decide on that one, the 325 will kick harder than a 300 mag. Almost as hard as a 338 mag!

[tINY]

You want the 45-70 with the 500 grain bullets and a real buffalo rifle - one with a 32" octagonal barrel. It'll be a pussycat.

Big, slow calibers out of reasonably heavy guns are more of a shove. Just don't shoot them from a bench much. You need to let your torso move a bit.



-tINY

[Maser]

Wow I have never heard of anyone worrying about a .45-70 shot from a huge Sharps rifle. Them rifles are a huge chunk of steel. It's the lightweight guns that have the annoying quick, sharp kicks. If you ask me I say don't go with anything smaller than a .45-70 for them huge animals. They need the heavy .45 caliber bullet to be anchored.

[Jack O'Conner]

Bison are rather docile and slow grazing animals. Their eyesight is poor compared to many other North American animals. It is not difficult to approach these herd animals even on the open prairie. A shot of 175 yards or less is easily accomplished.

I'm no expert buffalo hunter as I've taken only one bull. But my shot was placed into the butt of the ear and the bull folded up right there and barely twitched. I used my older Remington .308 carbine and 150 grain Fail Safe ammo.

A chest shot likely requires a bullet of considerable more mass than my .308 bullet. The old timers took thousands (millions) with 45 caliber and larger black powder cartridges. Craig Boddigton took a large bull with a lever action .348 a few years ago. I'm fairly certain that a 444 with appropriate bullet would perform quite well. Of course, many other heavy cartridges will perform lethally.

Once the animal is down, the work begins. Plan to have a couple good skinning knives, a large bone saw, and an axe. I used a 5 ton chain hoist and a dozen 2" PVC pipes to slide the animal onto my tilt bed trailer.
Jack

[Magnum Wheel Man]

well hunting buffalo... WOW...

I have been involved with shooting 3 of them for the table from a local buffalo farm ( not the same as hunting, hence the "WOW" in my previous sentance )

since we were shooting them for meat, we were trying to head shoot them all, & I watched my wifes uncle put 3 - 30-06 rounds between the eyes on one bull, but they have very small brains for the size of the animals head, & none of the shots struck grey matter, & I finally put it to rest, after it dropped, & we chased the rest of the herd away from the downed animal, with a close range 357 mag to the grey matter...

their lungs are huge, as is thier heart... IMO, shot placement is really as much or more important than caliber... thier hide is thick & fur heavy... if your going to take any kind of shot, even with the 45-70, avoid a hollow point...

405 grain flat point 45-70's are pretty tame to shoot out of my TC Contender, even more so out of my Marlin... out of a Sharps style rifle, they should actually be pretty pleasent to shoot... otherwise in the wild, I'd recommend at least a 35 caliber like the 35 Remington, 375 Winchester... although when it was my turn to shoot one... the 338 Win Mag did a fine job, but the previously listed calibers should allow one to bleed out acceptably, while not being to tough to shoot... again IMO, the 30 caliber cartridges don't seem to bleed out as well, perhaps due to either the huge amount of blood they hold, or the thick fur scabbing over the bullet hole ???

you'll notice from the shot of the herd, that they often don't just run away like deer do, they often stick around, as thier herd mate dies, & you may even have a hard time getting them away from the animal you shot... at this point in the wild, after they start licking up the blood, they are at thier most dangerous, as we often had to use trucks, or the tractor to chase the leaders of the herd away, or as a barrier between them & us, as we began processing

[BobR]

Hopefully my number will come up this year for the Montana buffalo hunt. If it does I plan on using a .45-70 Sharps.

bob

[Gewehr98]

I plan on stuffing one of those big guys into my freezer in the not-too-distant future. Lean cuisine! I already have the .45-70 blackpowder load made up, a 500gr semi-spitzer scooting along at a screaming 1150-1200 fps.

I agree, the big 32" octagon Sharps gives more of a gentle push than the sharp jab of the various .300" and bigger magnum smokeless rounds. ;)

http://mauser98.com/completeround.jpg

The delivery system:

http://mauser98.com/sharps1874bench.jpg

[FirstFreedom]

Where you guys going to bison-hunt?

[Shoney]

I would like to confirm what Magnum Wheel Man said about blood around bison. I spent youthful summers in Yellowstone Park being around bison, and have hunted other big game on a couple of ranches that had free roaming bison. The ranch owner warned that if you down an animal, keep a watchful eye for bison. If one is sighted down wind moving on the scent, to abandon the carcass and move away quickly. While dressing out a mule deer, that exact thing happened. When we returned with the tractor, there were several more bison around the deer, and they were cantankerous. It took about an hour to get the buffs out of the way in order to get a chain on the deer to go elsewhere to complete the field dressing.

One word of advice to those planning a bison hunt, review the bone structure of this amazing animals. The location of the backbone and in particular how the neck bones are situated will shock most people, even experienced hunters.

[BUSTER51]

put a brake on a big bore and it will reduce the recoil by half,if that ain't enough put a Limbsaver pad on ,need more use a mercury recoil reducer in the stock .with these you can make a .458 win mag kick like a 3006.:D