I would for either of two reasons:
1. my PH has a rifle in the same caliber
2. he asked me to.

Otherwise, it comes home with me, empties included.

Not many PH's have a 450 Dakota or 550 Gibbs these days.

Rich

I have left my 470NE and 416 Rigby handloads- they are conservative loads. They were appreciated.. When I used the 375 Ultra Mag, I didn't see the point in leaving them.

Ammo is never in my bag when I go home from Africa. It always get used up somehow.

BigB

I have always (nudge, nudge, wink,wink) shot all my ammo in camp, so I bring none back. I shoot pretty standard calibres (30.06, 300H&H,375H&H, 404) and they are of considerable use either for shooting or trading in a country where ammo purchase is limited even for ph's. I've had to borrow ammo whan a bag got delayed and was very grateful for it. So, I feel I've returned the favour to someone even if I've not met him. The one exception was when I really hated the ph and wouldn't have pi**ed on his ar*e if it had been on fire, but that was a personal thing and a long while ago.

I stopped taking my own rifles and ammo to Africa five or six trips back. I now take only one or two antelope per trip, and traveling without a rifle has been blessedly hassle-free.

Early on, though, I took a .458 and a .30-06 and left the ammo.

Later, I took a .416 Weatherby and a 7 mm Rem Mag. I also made a couple of trips with just the 7 mag. I brought all unfired ammo home.

Bill Quimby

Its likely someone over there needs it more than me.

Ammo is very difficult to get in this part of the world, so i bring back all "empties", in the hope i will reload them at same stage as well as new for practice.

quote:

Originally posted by DLS:

quote:

Two of his bigger fantasies, the 338 WM was not enough cartridge for Eland (one shot double lunger) and that the speed of the cartridge was too high and would blow the hair off the bullet exit side of a Sable (it didn't).

Odie, your PH sounds like he's rather clueless, to be honest. The .338 WM is one of the all-time great African hunting cartridges. It is ideal for any and all plains game, as well as anything that law doesn't require .375 or larger to hunt. It is an oustanding cartridge for lion and leopard, Eland too.

Honestly, it would do fine for probably 95% of the buffalo shot by sport hunters. Of course, that other 5% is why we can't use it.

I agree about the 338 WM wholeheartedly although if I had to do it all over again I would have bought a 375 H&H instead. My original plan was to hunt North America only.

The PH referenced was the head or lead PH and not the one I used. My buddy got to have his company on those safaris. Regardless other than his problem with the 338 he was mostly a good man.

quote:

I would for either of two reasons:
1. my PH has a rifle in the same caliber
2. he asked me to.

ditto...

quote:

left my 470NE and 416 Rigby handloads- they are conservative loads. They were appreciated..

and ditto...

My 416 Rigby loads were loaded to "standard specs" as far as OAL, velocity (and corresponding pressure), and in full length resizied new brass...

My PH said they could use them and understood that they were handloads...

I'd have no issue shooting them in another rifle and neither did he...

Now if I had tried to seat the bullets out, partial resized, and was pushing the velocity envelope I wouldn't have left them...

quote:

When a client arrives in camp and he has a 338 win mag with 225 gr tsx I get a very big smile on my face cause I know we will not have a problem finding the animals dead. The 338 win mag must rank as my idea of the perfect plainsgame rifle big enough to hit anything at an angle and shooting flat enough not too worry too much about long shots.

The only reason I gave up on the Fail Safes is that they did not expand on ANY animal I shot. They acted like a solid. If you looked at my Elands exit wound you would swear and another PH swore it was the entrance wound.

shot placement and shock saved the day.