Allen,

I very much enjoyed reading of your recent hunt. Thanks for posting it.

Is there any company that makes solids for the .300? If not, why is that?

Wayne

Wayne,



Ken Stewart of Stewart Bullets (as recommended in the Perfect Shot by Kevin Robertson) will make any type or profile of bullet or case in any calibre you like.



Let me know if you need his contact details.

Barnes makes a 165 grain .308 solid. It is designed to minimize pelt damage. I have used their 75 grain solid in 6mm. It works fine on fox and coyotes. Too bad the fur isn't worth much.
JCN

Hey Allen,

Tell us about your latest trip to the Dark Continent. How'd it go?

-Steve

Steve, the hunt went pretty well, but I'm convinced I went too late in the season for optimum results. We had some horrendous weather early in the safari when we were down in Zululand, and in the Eastern Cape. Some huge weather system came in with plenty of cold, wet weather and extremely high winds. This cost us some opportunities, especially on suni, red duiker, and bush pig, and it compounded the difficulty of hunting already difficult animals such as black springbok, vaal rhebok, mountain reedbuck, common reedbuck, etc. The rain was so bad that some of the places we intended to hunt became inaccessable, and the water actually flooded over the top of a bridge we needed to cross in order to stay at one hunting lodge. So we stayed at a nearby farm instead!



Later in the safari, when we were hunting the northern bushveld country at Bonwa Phala, it reaches 100 F by 10:AM, and 106 F or better by mid-afternoon!



Nevertheless, we took some great animals, including a 45 3/8 Blesbok (SCI Sliver), a 40 4/8 Bontebok (Bronze), 88 7/8 Cape Eland (Silver), 63 5/8 Red Hartebeest (Bronze), 59 6/8 Southern Impala (Gold), 42 4/8 Cape Bushbuck (Gold), 22 Vaal Rhebok (Gold), 32 7/8 Black Springbok (Bronze), 24 3/8 Mountain Reedbuck (Gold), 41 1/4 Common Reedbok (Silver), 77 1/4 Black Wildebeest (Gold). I can't give you the measurements off the top of my head on the Nyala, etc.



Most of these animals, for whatever reason, were taken at right around 200 yds. I used my Echols-built .300 Win. Mag. with 180 gr. Noslers, and it absolutely hammered everything. The next time I go, however (regardless of caliber) I'm taking some solids for some of the smaller, tiny animals.



Garry Kelly Safaris is an absolutely first-rate operation, and I intend to hunt with them again in the very near future. Garry and his son, Shawn, impressed me a great deal. My professional hunter was 27 year-old Mike Curry, who was absolutely fantastic, extremely well-trained and well-educated, and with a superb work ethic. Mike has a sense for the ridiculous, and he was just a load of fun to hunt with every day. Mike's a very, very classy guy. He hunted in the manner of John Sharp, which pleased me to no end. We moved a lot, glassed a lot, hunted on foot and stalked extensively. I shot only one animals from the rig, and the rest were all stalked in the traditional manner and either shot from impromptu field positions or off the sticks. It was 'hunting done right', and Mike is a GREAT professional hunter. He's going to have a great future, and he's so dedicated to his craft that he'll be apprenticing in Cameroon in order that he might hunt there during the off-season in S. Africa. I look forward to hunting with him again.



Heartbreaks: I overshot a truly superb Cape Kudu and missed him.



I had to pass up a shot at a Cerval because I was afraid of blowing that lovely little cat up with my .300 Win. Mag.



We had to pass up a shot at an incredible, monster Limpopo bushbuck that was laying beside a tree 100 yds. away from us on the last part of the last afternoon of our safari. The problem was, he was over the fence on a property we did not have permission to hunt on. Sure, it was tempting to shoot him anyway, but we simply couldn't live with that sort of skullduggery. So we let him go.......



Funniest moment: We trailed this eland bull on foot for half of an entire hunting day with no opportunity at him. The next day, we were on foot and bumped into him by luck. I shot him from a little over 200 yds., and he stood still, staggered, and went down in short order. As soon as he hit the ground, quite, reserved Temba, Mike's tracker (who spoke not a word of English up to that point) shook his fist in the direction of the downed eland a yelled "F_ _ K YOU!!!!!!!!!!



We nearly died from laughter!



AD

Allen, it sounded like you had a wonderful time. Tell me, how are you going to load up for solids on the smaller game, which caliber/projectile/velo ?

Fantastic!

Chuck

Allen,

Sounds like you had a real hoot. Too bad about the rain. The weather extremes sound amazing.

The story about the English Major / Tracker is great. I'll have to tell you the story about trying to cross an electric game fence some day. Laughed so hard I was crying...

Hope you took some photos. I'd love to see them.

Congrats!

-Steve

Allen,

Congratulations!

Sounds like a really great hunt with some fantatic trophies! I hope you will post some pics for us.

Regards,
Dave

I'll try to post a few photos, but it'll be a few days before I can get to it. Steve, you and I will have to get togther soon for a visit! It's overdue.....

Smallfry, I'll likely try to go with some solids for either the .375 H&H or .338 Win. Mag. for the next S. African hunt to go along with the usual softpoints. We hunted suni and red duiker in Zululand in this sandforest area. One day we called in six suni (which is unreal luck), but all were females except for one short horned, non-trophy male. The red duiker were plentiful, but elusive. I didn't get a shot at any of them.

These animals are so small that anything but solids from a normal hunting caliber is too much gun. In a way, I'm glad I didn't shoot one of them because it would have been a mess. I've had blow-ups with Kirk's dik dik and Damaraland dik dik before that cause some complications for the taxidermist. No more in the future. The PHs all assured me that solids out of a .338 or .375 work perfectly, with minimal destruction.

AD

I liked the story of your hunt.

Thanks for sharing.

Good call on the little critter you passed on. I once shot a red fox at about 20 feet with my 300 win and a 200 nosler. It literally tore him in two , save about an inch of belly skin holding the halves together.