By Shane Jahn
Freedom Arms revolvers are top-shelf in-production single-action revolvers if you can call them "production" guns. They are built to exact tolerances. Much of the gun is machined from solid aircraft-grade stainless steel bar stock. Each cylinder chamber is line-bored, and each gun is hand-fit. Fit, finish, barrel-cylinder gap, action smoothness, and lockup; perfect. The result is a precision revolver that is extremely reliable and exceptionally accurate.
These things drove me to carry my 83 Field Grade in the powerful 454 Casull on two safaris where my main goal was to hunt a cape buffalo bull with my revolver. There are hunters far more experienced with dangerous game than me who will tell us we want to avoid making a mistake when hunting these bulls. We especially don't want to make a mistake when shooting one. To keep mishaps to a minimum, we want our firearms to be as bomb-proof as possible. Freedom Arms fits the bill.
Equally important is quality ammunition. The correct bullet must be selected to deliver fatal damage to the vitals of the animal. Penetration is imperative. The ammunition and bullet must be reliable. Before the hunt, each round must be loaded into the gun. In the case of a revolver, each round taken needs to be loaded into the cylinder to ensure every one of them seats correctly into each chamber. Each cartridge case must have a sufficient crimp on the bullet to ensure projectiles are not pulled from the case mouth during the inertia of the recoil, locking up the cylinder.
I chose Buffalo Bore Ammunition's 360 grain Hard Cast LBT-LWN load (7C/20). Buffalo Bore's owner, Tim Sundles, had a hand in designing this bullet with the folks at Rim Rock Bullets. It is listed at 1425 fps on the box. This ammo is dependable, and I have staked my safety and, more importantly, the safety of others on it and my revolver. Personal accountability is very real and sobering when hunting dangerous game. It's one thing if my error or misfortune causes me agony. It's another if I screw up and get a professional hunter (PH) or tracker injured or worse. Our teenage daughter was standing right behind me when I shot my first cape buffalo at 22 steps; that's an additional level of responsibility in and of itself!
We found us hunting on the vast Manketti Game Reserve with The Quagga Safari Company in late September this year. PHs and trackers found a large, lone buffalo track on my first day hunting, and we stayed with it until we finally got a quick look at its maker. He was a mature, wide-horned bull with big bosses and a huge body as black as ink. We wanted him badly, and the games began! Over the next five days, I lost count of the times that we almost got him. "Almost" in that we were near enough to hear him just ahead of us in the bush. A few times we could even see a piece of him. Often, the swirling wind would give us away. Sometimes, we heard the bull run, breaking brush as he went. Other times, we followed his walking tracks that abruptly showed signs of running or found where he had been lying in the shade of heavy vegetation and abruptly disappeared. His habit of entering the thick, thorny bush and looping downwind of his path served him well on several occasions. The bull was intelligent, no doubt.
He later partnered with another bull, complicating matters a bit. We tracked them all day and experienced one setback or another, usually involving the fickle wind. We got a good look at them both through light-gathering binoculars after sunset as they approached a waterhole. Much too dark to shoot with iron sights, we watched the wide bull drink while his old compadre rolled in the mud.
Dawn found us on their tracks and executed a silent stalk on the duo's fresh tracks, encouraged by their fresh dung. We could hear the bulls grazing ahead when a grey loerie, also called the go-away-bird, broke the silence with his warning of "PLOY-PLOY-PLOY," telling the bulls we were near. The buffs moved out and later separated. The temperature rose near the century mark that afternoon, but the stifling heat did nothing to lessen our determination. We stayed on the bull, and with a half hour of daylight remaining, PH Eon Kok and I got ahead of him and spotted the top of his horns and back coming through the brush. We jogged in the red sand to intercept him. He stepped out at 19 yards, swinging his hugehorns to look at us briefly, then broke to run for the thicket in his path. The 454 was up, and I shot him behind the left shoulder as he began his retreat.
Each time the big revolver roared, it was cocked while recovering from recoil, and another round was put into the bull. It's wise to keep shooting while they are on their feet and even wiser to shoot again once you believe they are dead. All five shots found their mark, and a satisfying, brush-breaking thud was heard after the bull entered the thorns. He was dead when we walked up to him, but a final insurance shot was added for good measure. Bullet performance was exceptional, with four heavy, hard-cast slugs being found under the hide of the off-side. The fifth shot on the running bull was just under his tail; I expect that was the unrecovered round. The magnificent bull was everything we thought he was and more. It takes a good team to accomplish such a mission. Our hunt was a good one and we all earned this fine bull. Many times, he had proven to be a worthy adversary. He died a dignified death. Having taken him with my Freedom Arms revolver is even more special.
Barrantileather.com
Buffalobore.com
Freedomarms.com
Rimrockbullets.com
Quagga.co.za