I just finished reading CB's article about this planning point and my thoughts are I would rather have too little low power ammo and excess heavy ammo. On can always use too much gun, but it is hard hunting say elephant with say 30-06. Well it is illegal to begin with, but one can shot a Kudu with a 500NE. JMO

Die ou jagter:

Alrught! You have just insulted the cartridge of my early life! (Starting with an '06 in a Rem.721, progressing to an M1) I will forgive anything in an AR poster -but don't you dare say that an '06 wouldn't drop an elephant - if I have to read about elephants dropping from a 7x57 -a real favorite cartridge of mine also! (Did I forget to add that from the mzou I saw in Africa - I would like to have had a bazooka?)

Gary, my first rifle was also a 30-06 and I now have I think about 4 of them I just used the 30-06 as an example of a caliber too light for Rino, Hippo, Elephant. Man I can get into trouble on here without even trying.

It was a good article. I actually had that happen to me on my first safari with a friend to South Africa, only it was his reloads that were causing him problems. Fortunately, I had brought extra ammo and we used a butt load of it to get his gun shooting to where it needed to be and he finished the safari with the extra ammo.

Take a 375 and you'll never have a situation where you have a rifle and ammo but it is the wrong rifle and ammo. Being completely practical there really is not a need for a "light rifle". The 375 will handle a duiker just as well as a buffalo so why not take it as your seond rifle or for that matter perhaps your only rifle.

As for ammo about 100 375 rounds equals 5kg. That should be more than enough for any safari. If pairing the 375 with a heavy take a box for the heavy and make up the rest of the weight with 375 softs and solids. You'll be ready for anything on the planet.

Mark

Great advice, Mark. I've done just that before, and you're absolutely right. It works.

I thought the .375 H&H was a light rifle!

quote:

Originally posted by Rhys:
I thought the .375 H&H was a light rifle!

Nope, a 375 H&H is the perfect rifle.

OK so you are going to Africa after buff (or ele) and a few plains game. No leopard for argument's sake. You take your trusty heavy double (say 450 or 470), your 375 H&H (bolt action), and arrange to have your Holland and Holland Range Rover shipped over(!). How much double ammo do you take?
Peter.

A whole Range Rover full!

However, you better have a Toyota LC handy to tow the Rover full of ammo.

3 rounds per animal plus 10 for verification of zero or scope problems; same for DG and PG. DG rifle ratio of solids to softs will be 3:1, and I always have 5-10 rounds solids loaded for my PG rifle.

Although my first "African rifle" is a .375H&H, it no longer goes to Africa as part of my battery, which will be a .300WM and either a .416Rem or .458Lott, depending upon game to be hunted. The .416 will do anything a .375 will, only better.

quote:

Originally posted by safari-lawyer:
However, you better have a Toyota LC handy to tow the Rover full of ammo.

But the truth

I have always been of the opinion that I didn't want to be holding "not enough gun" when something bad happened. This caused me to consider my .375 as the light rifle. So far, I have had little cause to regret it. I usually took 30-35 rounds for the "heavy", namely a .416 Rigby, and 60 rounds (usually 10 rounds of solids, the rest TSX) for the .375.

I realize that the .375 is probably a bit large for most PG, but it was comforting to know that my .375 was capable of dropping that big Elephant that we walked up to while hunting a Duiker on the Save.

I guess the fact that the .375 made a bit of a big hole in the Grysbok and Duiker I have shot may have been a negative, but so far my little guys have turned out as the better mounts I have as far as the taxidermy is concerned.

I suppose if I can take 3 guns, one might be a true light rifle (.30) but a shotgun is neat too. Then again, maybe I will bring the .470 and see if I can hit anything with irons.

Solids and softs for a .416 Rigby bolt would be the answer, IMHO.

In my own experience, I have shot everything from Livingstone's Suni to Elephant, all with the .375 H&H. With solids on the small antelope and other smaller trophies (Suni, red duiker, grysbok, grey duiker, klipspringer, genet(yes, genet), civet, etc.) there has been one small hole going in and one small hole going out, and DRT. I have shot more of the little antelope with the .375 than with any other caliber, and as long as you use solids there is no problem with damage to the cape whatsoever.

Lionhunter, thanks very much. Your reasoning makes sense.
Peter.

Peter,

Pleasure.

It's always worked for me. I have had clients who had to use one of my rifles after something went haywire with their rifle/scope/ammo in one form or another.

Milo, I have a 416 Rigby and what you say makes sense, but if I go on such a hunt I really want to use my double! My Rigby shoots 380gr. GS Custom Fn's very well!
Peter.

If my back ever allows me to walk distance again I would like to try buffalo hunting.

I have thought the perfect battery for that hunt and IMO only it would be a .416 (your choice) and a .375 with two scopes, one for DG the other for PG. I very much like higher power variable scopes for PG.

I do look forward to my back getting better as I have neither of those rifles now......nothing like any excuse to get a new rifle or two.

Too much is better than too little.

So I always take too much.

Then we have a shooting match at safari's end with what's left over.

I did almost run out of .458 Lott solids once. But I have never come close to running out since.

That's been my motto as well!

crbutler:

What to carry always comes back to "what can you handle in order to shoot accurately?" And that brings up the bugaboo of "recoil". From personal experience, I found that I could shoot the 375 accurately -without flinching. I read up on the calibre and felt confident that I was not going to Africa in DG country carrying some kine of popgun. Clint Eastwood made a fortune from movies suggesting how the 44 Mag "can blow your head off". Any handgun shooter who has fired the 44 Mag might prefer to hold something else in a bad situation. (My own preference would be a 357 Mag in a Colt Python. I can handle that weapon -and I also fired a 44 Mag once on a range - and took some seconds to recover (the pistol twisted in my hand) -so a bad guy could have popped me before I ever got off a second shot! I never heard that a 357 Mag was a popgun! What can be handled is what can be most effective -and make sure to practice, practice,practice. (In the old frontier days of turkey shoots (where there was a lot of betting), there was an expression -"Beware of the man with one gun") Bigger is just not necessarily best. My thoughts

Doing plainsgame and Buffalo in two countries for my first trip this September.

.375 H&H with 60 rounds of Barnes 300 grain TSX and two Swarovski scopes are all I'm taking.

One man's opinion:
I got back a week ago, PG hunt. I took Double Rifles, just for the experience. The light rifle was a handy little Chapuis in 9,3x74R. I had softs only, 40 rounds. I also took my early Searcy .470 NE with ten rounds of softs and five solids. I thought about shooting a big Eland with the .470, but didn't see a big enough one to pony up a couple grand for.

I am of the opinion that such a battery, for a doubles man at least, would cover everything 250 yds or under.

Rich

Buf and ele on menu? 375with TSX 2boxes and 1 box solids. Heavy rifle 30 solids and 30 TSX.

All bases covered.

Mike

Frostbit,

I would highly recommend taking two rifles. Murphy has a summer house in Africa. A firing pin breaks and you are SOL or using the PH's loaner spare. Eleven hundred bucks or so and you can get a CZ in 416 Rigby or 458 Lott and two boxes of Hornady DGX/DGS.

Just my humble opinion...

Rich
made two trips
DRSS

quote:

Originally posted by Idaho Sharpshooter:
Frostbit,

I would highly recommend taking two rifles. Murphy has a summer house in Africa. A firing pin breaks and you are SOL or using the PH's loaner spare. Eleven hundred bucks or so and you can get a CZ in 416 Rigby or 458 Lott and two boxes of Hornady DGX/DGS.

Just my humble opinion...

Rich
made two trips
DRSS

Appreciate the advice.

Allow another few hundred to have them put in "bet your life on it" order.

Die ou Jaghter:

"Man, I can get into trouble without trying".

I confess, I laughed out loud. I have finally met one more fellow member of a pretty big club!

I have to apologize for being a fanatical member of the '06 club who leaped too soon at perceived offense! (the 7mm Mauser club also.OK,OK 7x57 for the purists!)