Tim Sundles grew up in Idaho and Oregon, and his stepfather taught him to handload ammunition when he was only 12. He’s now in his sixties, but he started Buffalo Bore Ammunition in 1997, and his first commercial loads were for the 475 and 500 Linebaugh. I became acquainted with Tim in 2002 and have been using his ammo in North America and Africa ever since. I took my first kudu with one of his 35 Whelen loads in 2013.
Buffalo Bore has become full-fledged ammunition manufacturing powerhouse. If you want accurate ammo to really knock the snot out of something, I don’t know where you’d find better ammo for the job. Buffalo Bore ammunition is not designed by a committee to meet the latest, band wagon, long range, shooting trend. Buffalo Bore ammo is designed by Tim Sundles for doing serious things. Three of my four African buffalo were taken with Buffalo Bore ammo.
I like Tim Sundles. This is partly because he is a genuinely nice guy, but maybe mostly because — like me — he’s a no bullshit kind of guy who is serous about his word. If Tim Sundles tells you he’s going to buy you dinner or whip your ass, you best work up an appetite or pick up a box of Bandaids, because it’s going to happen. He’s also a little — maybe a lot — politically incorrect, but he’s a gentleman and expects other men to be the same.
Like Willie said in his song, The Red Headed Stranger, “Don’t cross him, don’t boss him…” Recently some poachers in South Africa found this out the hard way. I once wrote that Tim Sundles could be, “…blood kin to the grizzer that bit Jim Bridger’s ass1.” and the better I get to know him, the more certain I am I might be right.
For years Tim’s passion has been hunting the wilderness backcountry, saddling up and riding into parts unknown for griz, elk and sheep, where he uses the same ammo his company sells. That’s how he knows you can trust it. But not too long ago Tim and his wife Kim went on safari and fell in love with Africa. They bought a huge and beautiful ranch in the Eastern Cape where they could continue to enjoy Africa and hunt anytime they wanted to.
But they also wanted to be able to introduce others to the place they now consider a second home. My son and daughter and I hunted there with them last year, and when we arrived Tim declared it was “lady’s day” and promptly took my daughter hunting. This year I booked a safari there with my wife and three other couples to celebrate our 30th year of marriage. Tim and his wife could not have been more accommodating hosts. It was great to see them do something that I enjoy doing: showing Africa to those who have yet to experience it.
But Tim is not in Africa to sale hunts or spend his time hobnobbing with clients. What Tim really likes to do is hunt . He gets up early, grabs his big double rifle, and just walks into the bush, alone, looking for buffalo that need shooting. I think he particularly likes the ones that give him a defiant look. Last year just before we arrived he had one sort of ambush him and put him on his ass. I think Tim has been looking for that buff ever since to even the score.
Don’t misunderstand me, I don’t think Tim’s buffalo hunting method is the best or the safest, but its damned sure exciting — we did it some last year — and its right in line with Tim’s personality. The buffalo probably belong on Tim’s ranch more than he does, but he owns the ground and will decide who and what lives and walks on it. And that brings us to the poachers I mentioned earlier.
Just a week before we arrived this year, Tim and his ranch manager discovered some poachers, poaching with dogs, on this twenty-some thousand acres. They rounded them up and you could say things got, well, western. The short version is that the poachers picked the wrong ranch to poach on, and the wrong American to piss off. With concern you might find a detailed description, troubling, I’ll spare the details, but ultimately the poachers ended up in jail.
Now I haven't mentioned the confrontations Sundles has had with the US Fish and Wildlife over the introduced wolves, the collard wolf he killed and took them to, or the several days he spent in jail. Nor have I told about the fellow who let his ego over ride his brain when he tried to take a swing at Tim in a grocery store parking lot. Tim cold-cocked the fellow but the local DA — trying to make an example out of Tim — charged him and not the aggressor in the altercation. The jury didn’t finish their popcorn before they found Tim not guilty.
The point of all this rambling about a man whom I consider a friend is so you’ll know the character and experience of the man who is behind Buffalo Bore Ammunition. Its also so you’ll know that Buffalo Bore is not a big corporation with suit wearing executives who couldn’t shove a 45-70 cartridge up their bum hole with both hands, a mirror, and instructions.
Buffalo Bore ammo is made for serious business, and it’s made by a man who knows what serious business is when it comes time for the shooting. Is it the best ammunition in the world? Probably not, and damed if I know, but I do trust it and I trust the guy who makes it.
1Bear Claw Chris Lapp, Jeremiah Johnson, Warner Brothers, 1972.
I buy Buffalo Bore .348 for my model 71
I wouldn’t be opposed to shakin’ his hand and thanking him for a fine product. His 45-70 ammo worked like a champ on the buff I killed in ‘18.