No you don't need a 50 cal, but you do need penetration. a 375H&H will do it all from tiny dik-dik to eland on the plains game side and from leopard through lion to buff, rhino and elephant on the DG side. The 9.3x62, an even milder cartridge, will also do it all and is legal in Zim.

You really need to learn more about sectional density, velocity and bullet shape for solids and how it effects real life penetration in flesh and bone. Wet newsprint isn't buffalo or elephant flesh and certainly not bone.

This 45/70 stuff gets really old, especially since the same phony "hunts" keep being tossed around as a phony testimonial to the all powerful death ray "hot loads". Ditto with the Linebaugh test, which were designed to show not the real penetration capabilities of different rounds, but distortions that favor relatively weak penetrators.

Even so, if you will read this, I will try one last time for the sake of it.

The Linebaugh test were in wet newsprint. Faster, more powerful cartridges tend to tear a large wad of newsprint and then push this ever increasing wad in front of them. This wad effectively increases their diameter , weight and length and yet reduces the effective sectional density of those bullets. Slower bullets don't tear the wad to begin with. This results in test penetrations that are inverse to real life penetration in game.

Or try the real common sense approach. A 458wm shooting a 500 grain FMJ bullet vs a 45/70 shooting the same bullet. Velocity of the 458 is say 600fps faster than the 45/70 at muzzle and impact. The 458wm bullet will penetrate some distance as it looses the 600fps difference, then it will penetrate tha same distance as the 45/70 bullet since each has the same velocity, energy, etc, in fact their potential is identical. So in the end the 458 penetrates the same distance as the 45/70 PLUS the distance the bullet penetrated while it was loosing 600fps.

I'll point out that since 600fps is about 40% of the 45/70's velocity the difference in penetration is going to be substantial.

Or another common sense example. a 300 grain 375H&H solid vs a 450 grain solid from a 45/70. The sectional density of the two bullets is aproximately equal, .305 vs .306 IIRC, with the 450gr bullet having a slight edge. One has a muzzle velocity roughly 1000fps faster than the other and more energy per square inch of bullet frontal area. Which one do you think is going to penetrate better?

JPK