It wouldn't be the first time that print ink in the rags was made from bull shit.

Today morning I was reading an old GUNS magazine, from july 1996 (near 8 years old) and find an article where the author (Sundra) tells that he went to take a look at a lion bait with his PH during the morning with his 284 win, suddenly after a little tracking they find the lion, he shoot it with the 284 win and nothing happends , he have some problem reloading his gun so his PH shot the lion (here I thaught: ok, here comes the big bore..) wrong!!

His PH shot the lion with a 275 Rigby !!! in the eye and killed the lion

I don't understand why experienced people do this kind of things...

LG

Why would someone take a .284 to Africa?

There are a lot of bad animals killed with lesser cartridges every year, most culling for elephant and Buffalo is with militrary full auto rifle in .308 caliber...

Lot of PH have killed lions and hunt lions, Buff and elephant with 30-06 and 7x57s, these same PHs use a 416 or larger to back up clients...

These animals are not tanks, they don't require bazookas to kill them..just a well placed shot seems to be the best insurance made...

I don't know if its wise or not, but were I given the opertunity to shoot a Lion or anything else and all that was handy was a 308 or whatever, then I would do so..I would be very carefull and make sure the shot was going to be right and I would kill the animal...If one can adjust his hunting style to the animal being hunted then caliber makes little difference IMO....as a matter of fact I have done just that on more than one ocassion...

When I go hunting dangerous game, for the most part I will have a 416 or larger rifle, but thats just my choice, I can and will improvise if I have to.

As Ray says, more of the big 5 have been killed with AK-47s and 308s than purdey/holland & holland 470s...
On the other hand, it is strange to check a lion bait specifically for the purpose of shooting a lion with a caliber that is illegal in most (all?) countries for dangerous game. When one is a guest in a country, you should generally respect its rules...