North American Bison?

[Deja vu]

Several years ago I took a Bison with a 45-70. I was shooting a 405 grain pill at about 1300 FPS. The shot was about 60 (give or take) yards.

Any way the meat was awesome and it was pretty fun and I got a cool blanket and a skull mount.

For the past few years I have been shooting my Marlin 1895 SBL with a Suppressor on it.

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I have been working up a suppressed 550 grain load. I was a little worried about stability but it has been fine and pretty accurate.

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It is the load on the far right. As you can see I shortened the brass.

As many of you may know to make a round quiet with a suppressor it needs to be sub sonic. I have these 550 grain bullets going about 1075 FP. Do you think this is enough for a Buffalo. Energy wise its about the same as the old 45-70-500 load. That load killed a fair amount of buffalo.

I called the guy in charge of the hunt and he think its fine but admits he is not a gun guy. So I thought I would ask some "Gun guys and gals" You think this would work on Bison?


p.s. no lever action could be happy with out a matching revolver in the same caliber.

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of course it would be loaded with the same load. It does about 875 FPS from the revolver.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

Based on my calculator, your max energy of a 550 gr bullet at 1075 fps at the muzzle with just 1411 ft. lbs of energy. This round has a veritable mortar trajectory even compared to the Hornady Leverevolution you have on the left.

Whereas the Hornady Leverevolution 325 gr. round will give you about 1850 fps at the muzzle and 2470 ft lbs of energy. (I shoot these)

These people suggest 2800 ft. lbs. of energy at the muzzle.
http://www.env.gov.yk.ca/publications-maps/documents/HuntWiselyBison_2014-15_web.pdf

Suggested round here is 2690...
http://www.thbison.com/faq.shtml

These folks require 2200...
http://gfp.sd.gov/state-parks/directory/custer/hunting/trophy-bison.aspx

Chuck Hawks says 1200...
http://www.chuckhawks.com/gun_game.htm

A lot of buffalo were killed with the old loads, no doubt, but a low energy shot is not one I would want to screw up on a bison.

 

[Art Eatman]

That's a neat-looking rifle!

I think that from the standpoint of a clean-kill hunt, I'd be more concerned about a max-performance load than a minimum amount of noise.

Shooting one and only one buffalo is a whole different deal from trying for multiple kills in a sounder of feral hogs.

 

[Blindstitch]

I'm not sure about your load but I like your setup. Just curious are you worried about throat erosion due to the shorter length?

 

[buck460XVR]

Originally posted by Art Eatman:


I think that from the standpoint of a clean-kill hunt, I'd be more concerned about a max-performance load than a minimum amount of noise.

Shooting one and only one buffalo is a whole different deal from trying for multiple kills in a sounder of feral hogs.

I gotta agree with Art. The last thing I would worry about on a Bison shoot is the noise from the one shot I take.

 

[Deja vu]

I can see the point. Bring enough gun as they say. I am just looking for some thing to mix it up. I know to some of you this may be blasphemy but I get board hunting the same way every time. I do a lot of rifle hunting (usually with a 357 magnum) and a fair amount of archery and black powder.

This just sounded like a way to do some thing different. The trajectory is very similar to a black powder round. I am pretty good at learning trajectory.

I'm not sure about your load but I like your setup. Just curious are you worried about throat erosion due to the shorter length?

as far as that goes I have actually started loading them in to full length brass and using a lee factory crimp dye to crimp it forward of the band. It seems to work better and even is slightly more accurate. I believe its because gun was designed for the longer brass.

Shooting one and only one buffalo is a whole different deal from trying for multiple kills in a sounder of feral hogs.

Id like to do that someday. I have hunted hogs once in Oregon but in my opinion they where not feral at all and where just farm raised porkies.