The reason Garret bullets are so low velocity, is because this is the company which used to, and may still do, say "the slower the velocity, the more effective their bullets are" ... ha ha ha.

I have always assumed this was because if you drive their projectiles too fast, I think probably they break up.

These .45/70 and cape buffalo stories and threads were common argument fodder on the hunting and shooting troll infested forums ten years ago. A good way to start arguments and get activity back in those forums.

Now one just has to add "ideal" to the "the .45/70 is the ideal cape buffalo hunting cartridge" and away you used to go!

***

Now from a different angle.

When I hunted cape buffalo in the Gwayi Valley in 2001 or 2002, the PH and Outfitter Pen de Vries, said he was thinking of getting a Marlin Guide "Gun" as a saddle scabbard rifle. He used to do horseback safaris, both hunting and game viewing. And thought a .45/70 Marlin was a useful backup rifle. I assume he was also including cape buffalo.

Then later in the Matetsi Safari Area, after the Warvets threw us off the Gwayi Valley Conservancy property of Pen's, there was an American client in the camp as well. He did not shoot an elephant dead with a .45/70 but did use his to shoot a 'dead elephant'. He hunted with a different rifle. Then used the .450/70 with 540 gr hard cast projectiles to test penetration on the elephant's skull. They thought the penetration was adequate.

As I said earlier, this topic was all the rage 15 plus years ago.

I am sure .45/70's have killed a lot of water buffalo. But .44/40's and .303's almost certainly far far more. In the old buff hunting days. Orginally from horseback, and later from the back of a Landrover or Landcruiser.

The killing power needed for a buffalo is over-rated. For say 19 out of 20 buffalo. Then you get the 20th, which may well be the First. One never knows. Then one needs and wishes for something with far more grunt.