Gents:

Wheels up 2 Sept for my 5th trip. Three different rifles ready to go. Loads worked up, sights zero'd, all systems checked.
What's the problem? I'm only taking one rifle.

For me, it often comes down to a subjective, sometimes emotional choice. My African battery is similarly designed, scoped, and balanced. Each rifle is functional, efficient and effective. Although they are in three different calibers, each rifle is appropriate to whatever game I choose to hunt, except perhaps for elephant. I shoot them all equally well.

Do any of you ever come down with this fever just before departure? Aside from the preformanve specifications factored into your choice, how do you make your decisions?

It's kinda like looking over the room at closing time, after last call. They'll all get the job done. But which one do I pick?

So as not to create any technical debate, I have purposefully left out make, model, caliber. When it comes to Africa, for me and for many of my friends, there are elements of style, emotion, function, and the untangible mystic of Africa to this decision. How about with you?

Here's hoping we all have a great safari season.

quote:

Originally posted by TWL:
It's kinda like looking over the room at closing time, after last call. They'll all get the job done. But which one do I pick?

Now that is pretty good right there. Pick the one that looks (and feels) like it will give you the least amount of grief in the morning (after you have made your "shot" of course).

Brian

Where are you headed?? I leave Sept 2 for Tanzania.

Pick the rifle that will make the best heirloom.

quote:

Originally posted by Allout:

quote:

Originally posted by TWL:
It's kinda like looking over the room at closing time, after last call. They'll all get the job done. But which one do I pick?

Now that is pretty good right there. Pick the one that looks (and feels) like it will give you the least amount of grief in the morning (after you have made your "shot" of course).

Brian

Allout --that freakin' good!!!

1115
Namibia, via Denver & Frankfurt.

For the type of hunting I do, the choice is obvious; a double .470 as I don't hunt plains game.

However if I did and knowing full-well that something bigger might be waiting behind the next bush / patch of Jess, I'd take a .375 H&H.

Simply put, it has all of the characteristics that make it the perfect caliber for Africa; range, power, in-country cartridge availability.

That's how I make my decisions.

.375!

JW

Based on recent threads, pick the one you don't mind losing/being stolen! Sorry to be facetious but that has been on my mind lately.
Peter.

TWL I thought it was just me. I go through this mental agony before each trip. When I book the hunt, I ask all the proper questions and decide what will be the perfect rifle. I assemble the perfect gun , debug it and get it shooting great. Then about two weeks before departure I decide to take the 375 that has gone with me 7 times.

I have been through the same Merry-go-Round as you as I prepare for my plainsgame hunt in Namibia in a few weeks time. I started with a post 64, CRF, M70 Supergrade in 338 WM. This gun was a heartbreaker. It was as unreliable as it was beautiful. It would shoot a sub MOA group, and then it would shoot a 4 inch group. I spent a thousand dollars on it, trying to tune it, all to no avail. Then I got a Kimber 8400 in 300 WSM to back it up. This gun is a tackdriver, and is more than adequate for anything I plan to hunt, but I had to ask myself - why would I take a backup gun just because I don't trust my primary rifle? So then I thought I would take the 300 WSM alone. But somehow the 300 WSM, as fine as it is, just doesn't say "Africa". So, I traded the .338 WM for a RSM in .375 H&H. I love it! It is the only gun I'm taking. The 300 WSM will stay at home and see service in pursuit of big prairie Mulies, and the M70/.338WM is history.

But this is just me, right? Surely no one else goes through such convoluted contortions, right?

If I were going to take one rifle of my carefully prepared 3, I would consider:

1) the game to be hunted,
2) the ranges likely to be involved, and
3) the likelihoods of needing to stop something.

Then I'd pick the one that best fit the agenda and maybe just a bit more powerful than most folks would like.

Given what folks have been seeing lately with lost firearms during their travels I would make certain that the one going was insured and replaceable.