How Much Energy For A Lion Cartridge?

[Lawdog]

Without naming any certain cartridge, what would you consider to be the best caliber, bullet and energy for a rifle to be used for African Lions?  Something like a .375, 300 gr. soft point or solid with 4,503 fpe., .416, 400 gr. round nose soft point or solid with 4,905 fpe., or .458, 400 gr. round nose soft point or solid with 5,132 fpe..  What would consider to be the minimum AND what would you consider to be ideal for lions?  Lawdog
 

[JJHACK]

A lion is about as big as a small Grizzly bear and much softer. However they pose problems with their lightening speed when wounded and follow us is needed. I do not enjoy one second of follow up on either one.

For that matter a large diameter is always nice which will allow easy tracking without having to keep all you attention on the ground.  .375 diameter is the minimum I would like to see used. However a 300 mag or 338 would easliy kill a lion with a good shot. Rmember Lions are very big at 400 pounds and just about unknown at 500 pounds. Black Bears get much bigger then African lions and have much more fat content under the skin. You don't need a big rifle to kill a black bear.......right?  However you may wish you used a bigger bore diameter when having to track one!

The caliber or cartridge used to kill something is never the issue in my opinion. The caliber or cartridge that allows you to actually track and find that animal is the issue.  Killing animals is easy, finding them is the tough and stressfull part.  Regarding Muzzle energy, it's no measure of killing power in any way so I would not base my cartridge or bore diameter in anyway on Muzzle energy. The typical ME figures are basically a meaningless measure of advertising fluff.