Can A .308 Winchester Kill An Attacking Cape Buffalo?
April 1, 2010 by
Filed under leupold spotting scopes
Hypothetical Situation:
I have a DPMS Panther AR-10 .308 rifle at home and I was wondering if I took it to Africa with me. If I went on an African hunting safari in the savannas with it and spotted a herd of African Cape Buffalo and I was to approach it to a distance of 300 yards away from it. Then the dominant Cape Buffalo bull decided to attack me and charged towards me…….I then began to shoot at it……
Will my .308 rifle have the power to stop the charging threat?
Where would I have to shoot the attacking Cape Buffalo?
How many .308 rounds will it take to stop an attacking Cape Buffalo?
Additional Details:
I will be using .308 caliber 150 grain Hornady Custom SST hunting ammo and I have 10 (20 round) magazines with me. Plus a Leupold Mark IV scope mounted on top of the DPMS Panther rifle.
No, you need to be using a minimum of .375″ to achieve proper hydro-static shock in an animal that big (no matter what load and bullet you are shooting in the .308) to drop him.
It’s hydro-static shock that drops an animal, not the number of rounds you pump into him. Granted, a well placed .308 in-between the eyes…
I don’t know much about big game hunting but from what I can pull from the back of my mind, I would say it’s iffy. I can’t give you a long, educated answer, but with lots of thought, I would probably recommend not.
a head shot…no problem.
attacking cape buffalo………LMAO!
No ! you do that weird thing with your hand and make a weird noise like Crockadile Dundee did in the movie…..and it just falls over……………….LOLOLOL!!!!!!!!!!
Let me explain my thoery on ‘possible’ vs. ‘likely’ by an example. Its possible that little green men are wandering around the New Mexico countryside, but its not very likely.
So, your .308 might stop a charging cape buffalo, but is sure isnt very likely. Perhaps if you were very lucky and placed a shot in the eye, the bullet would be able to enter the cranial cavity and destroy the brain, but with the thickness of the skull and those giant horns, i doubt you would get good penetration, if any.
It would probably take 12 .308 rounds fired simultaneously at close range with the exact same point of impact. Bullet of choice would be armor piercing in the heaviest weight available.
Fortunately, legal cartridges to hunt Cape buffalo are .375 H&H and bigger.
No the .308 is a good hunting rifle but not for this breed. Try anything from .400 to .50 BMG rounds. Only problem with these weapons is on a long hunt the weapon weighs 25lbs to carry any distance is not feasible.try a
like most people said, if it were me i would like atleast a 375 mag or bigger, pref alot bigger for an attacking cape buffalo. maybe a hundred yards away if you had time a 300mag/308 wouldnt be too bad but even then i would rather have a 338 mag or something of that nature.
I will be using .308 caliber 150 grain Hornady Custom SST hunting ammo and I have 10 (20 round) magazines with me. Plus a Leupold Mark IV scope mounted on top of the DPMS Panther rifle.
Now now Zack…. You can stop…..
We all know you don’t own a DPMS rifle, Nope — You don’t even own a scope…… Maybe an Airsoft make believe gun but that’s about it…..
Reality check — Reality check!!!!…… Your just a bored high school kid with no girlfriend…..
That’s cute.
Cape buff at 300 will often run up towards you out of curiosity. That’s not the charge. They’ll stop at perhaps 75. When he does charge, it won’t matter where you shoot, so long as it isn’t towards the PH, because you aren’t going to affect the outcome, but it would be nice to let the PH stop him before he turns you into a muddy spot in the ground.
It might be ok to shoot at a cape buffalo charging someone else with a .308, but if one was charigng me, I would want something at least .375″ in diameter.
Hey I love the avatar of the mentally challenged monkey. I actually read a Curious George book for kids and my wife scolded me for calling it a retarded monkey. I know better now.
Say that idea with the Cape buffalo well it’s a no go. It would take those 150 grain bullets in stride. They would not go deep enough to slow him down a tiny bit. Now if you loaded it with armor piercing and shot him whilst in a big tree then you could wait for him to bleed to death.
People have been killed by them after shooting them with large bore cape guns.
Ditch the scope. They are no good on fast moving targets. Cape buffalo charge with their heads down. Aim for the hump just above the head. A well placed shot will enter the spine at that point and will kill the beast. Oh, did I neglect to mention you must have at least a .375 to hunt in Africa? Reason:Bearers do not like to use up their ammo to save your ass. With a .308, 150 grain bullet, a well placed shot might(I emphasize might, because dangerous animals have been killed with lesser calibers)kill a cape buffalo, but I would not bet my life on it.