S&W 500 penetration and tumbling questions

[Tinkertech]

I really don't believe the animal in question really cared too much about what type of bullet that he got hit with, especially out of a large bore handgun such as a S&W 500 using any factory load.
Shot placement is always key, shoot him in the head or shoot him in the tail.
YMMV.

 

[cmj8591]

I really don't believe the animal in question really cared too much about what type of bullet that he got hit with, especially out of a large bore handgun such as a S&W 500 using any factory load.
Shot placement is always key, shoot him in the head or shoot him in the tail.
YMMV.

You are right about shot placement but you still need a bullet that will do it's job. I will relate a story about bullet failure that happened to me. Back around 1981, Nosler first came out with their polymer tipped, Ballistic Tip bullet. I loaded some 165g 30 caliber in my 30-06. They were lights out accurate. I took the loads deer hunting in Maine. A very nice whitetail that ended up weighing 240lbs., stepped out into a field about 125 yards away from me. The deer was facing me dead on and I put the crosshairs right in the middle of the white patch on his chest and shot. The deer did a little skip and turned sideways and started heading back towards where it came from. I fired again and put one into his lungs. After waiting a while, I went over to where he had been. I thought sure that he would be really close but it took a few hours to find him a couple of hundred yards away. The bullet that hit the lungs was the one that killed him. The bullet that hit the chest blew up on the breast bone, blowing away a softball size piece of skin. It did not penetrate the bone. It was as if I had shot a piece of AR500 steel! Had the deer not given me a second shot, I don't think I would have ever seen it again. As it was, I knew I had hit the chest and almost didn't take that shot. After that I went to Nosler Partitions and have never had to shoot a deer more than once or had one go more than 50 yards since. So yes, bullet placement is extremely important but the bullet still has to do the job when it gets there.

 

[DonD]

While Dick did take a Cape buffalo he was not the first - Note the gun used here is PC version and not available until 2007

Mike Nice took his 2006 and the earliest I am aware of with S&W 500 , that said Cape Buffalo have been taken with revolvers during the 1990s.

Pretty sure Metcalf's load was the factory 440 gr. Don

 

[rays44]

To the OP,
You have some very accurate and valuable info given here. Do not do a Google search to gather info. You need real world experience based data to gain insight, not water jugs. Cape buffalo have been successfully hunted with a bow, so foot pounds of energy in and of itself is meaningless.
There are quite a few folks at the Single Action Forum that have hand gun hunted cape buffalo. I recommend that you add it to your research data base.
Lastly, you have enough gun to do the job. That means almost nothing. A well placed shot is all that matters. Until you're put into whatever situation presents itself, you'll never really know. Make sure you're backed up well.