Lions are relatively thin skinned animals with a weigh of 550 lb (250 kg) at most...
In the very early 20 century an English hunter named George Gray was killed by a lion charge when his two shots out of a 280 Ross rifle with 140 gr bullets failed to penetrate the vitals...the 280 Ross was an ultra fast round at that time (over 3000 fps) but bullet technology was still in its infancy...the .280 Ross fast soft point bullets often fragmented when encountered stiff resistance...from that point in time the belief (and somewhat school of thought) about the need of a large caliber to kill Lions was born..
Couple of decades later, and with bullet construction reaching maturity, the fantastic 270 Winchester demonstrated that could go through Simba from stern to butt handily....
The more anemic 303 British was used very effectively on lions..
So why many countries still require a minimum of .375 for hunting the big cats when even the "little" 270 Winchester had an excellent track records for decades in Africa???
I talked to a couple of experienced old safari hunters and they told me that this limit doesn't make much sense.....someone think that the requirements is to make sure hunters use the properly constructed bullets (a .375 H&H uses premium bullets by default)...to avoid someone showing with cheap soft points suitable just for deer...is that makes sense???
An old South African guy told me that even the good ol' 30-30 has been used on lions with excellent results...
I think that doesn't matter if you use a 460 or a 30-06..if you miss the vitals you are going to be in serious trouble regardless...a 460 will generate a larger wound channel but probably still unable to stop a charge..
And a .270 or an 06 with proper bullets has enough energy to break large bones
As I said before, these old guys told me that a 270 will easily go through a lion from end to end...
Comments and opinions??
In the very early 20 century an English hunter named George Gray was killed by a lion charge when his two shots out of a 280 Ross rifle with 140 gr bullets failed to penetrate the vitals...the 280 Ross was an ultra fast round at that time (over 3000 fps) but bullet technology was still in its infancy...the .280 Ross fast soft point bullets often fragmented when encountered stiff resistance...from that point in time the belief (and somewhat school of thought) about the need of a large caliber to kill Lions was born..
Couple of decades later, and with bullet construction reaching maturity, the fantastic 270 Winchester demonstrated that could go through Simba from stern to butt handily....
The more anemic 303 British was used very effectively on lions..
So why many countries still require a minimum of .375 for hunting the big cats when even the "little" 270 Winchester had an excellent track records for decades in Africa???
I talked to a couple of experienced old safari hunters and they told me that this limit doesn't make much sense.....someone think that the requirements is to make sure hunters use the properly constructed bullets (a .375 H&H uses premium bullets by default)...to avoid someone showing with cheap soft points suitable just for deer...is that makes sense???
An old South African guy told me that even the good ol' 30-30 has been used on lions with excellent results...
I think that doesn't matter if you use a 460 or a 30-06..if you miss the vitals you are going to be in serious trouble regardless...a 460 will generate a larger wound channel but probably still unable to stop a charge..
And a .270 or an 06 with proper bullets has enough energy to break large bones
As I said before, these old guys told me that a 270 will easily go through a lion from end to end...
Comments and opinions??