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I have been trying out some round ball loads to work out a load for my 12 bore rifle ,
the only mould I could get hold of was RB 555gr in soft lead , I shot one of these @ 1765 Fps into a large block of hard wood & it was blowen half into splinters and the ball after digging it out of the soil still weighted 545gr and half round but a inch across !
I know this does not seem possible , is this normal for RB ? imagine hardened ball @ 1850 or so !

Do you guys who know think this is good enough for Water Buffalo ?

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Performance is pretty typical. Large bore RBs are very effective within their range. The "modern" ideas concerning the round ball are mostly erroneous.
From the historical perspective with hard balls it should do fine for Water Buffalo. Heat treated WW may tend to fragment at 2000-2200 fps perhaps even less if hard bone is struck. I would do some penetration testing with straight W-W and see how they work.
Note that some WW alloy is now zinc. So be careful if making your own alloy.

Dan

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