Plains game, medium rifles, whatever they are called, which were the most common in the period before WW II? 6.5 MS, (maybe Swede?) 7x57/275 Rigby, 30-06, 300 H&H, 303, 8x57, 318WR, 9.3x62 and both 375 H&H. I'm looking for the most common, not the occasional ones. Is there any way to rate them. I would guess, the 303 and 8x57, because of availability, but beyond that? Captdavid.

Just guessing, but I would think 303, 7x57 and 3006.

A difficult question to answer accurately for any number of reasons.

Truesdell's book the Rifle and its development for big game hunting ( Safari Press) is a very good attempt at answering this question.

The sources of information in this book however gives only insight into the data gleaned from the writings of famous "writer" hunters or pioneers and explorer hunters. There is little or no data on the rifles and calibers used by local hunters.

( The same applies to determining who hunted how many elephant ! on the one hand we have the data from "visitor hunters" like Bell who spent time in Africa and then returned to their home countries after some years vs those who lived there and never wrote about their exploits) historians examined ivory manifests found in archives and found indication that local hunters hunted more elephant than Bell as example. )

Another problem is local folklore ! In South Africa for instance the Mauser was seen as the uber rifle because of the Boer War . The problem of reality is that there was / is much folklore and little reality. Most of the Boer War Mausers were destroyed during and directly after the war. The British disarmed the surrendering boers and burnt the ammo and blew up the rifles.
By the end of the War many Boers were using English 303's.

The 30-06 outranks and outranked everything African for as long as it has been around.

Contra folklore the popularity of the 7x57 is a myth. Even the 6.5s were not that numerous.
Events in history such as the two world wars and especially the later swing to liberal government in England caused the demise of the source of ammo for English guns and almost as by the sweep of a giant hand they fell into obsolescence !

WW 2 ended it for Mauser ! What Africa was essentially left with was nostalgia and a influx of American gun culture !

My impression was that 303 and .22lr were most common in South Africa.

If you mean "in Africa" in your question, I'd say this was the short list pre-WW2

.318 WR
6.5x54MS
7x57

Then add in 250-3000 savage, 577 snider, 280 Ross, 333 Jeffery, 240 Apex, 350 Griffin and Howe, 275H&H and you've probably got all the medium bores of notes. (The .577 being a weak cartridge for plains game)

quote:

Originally posted by ALF:
The 30-06 outranks and outranked everything African for as long as it has been around.

Contra folklore the popularity of the 7x57 is a myth. Even the 6.5s were not that numerous.
Events in history such as the two world wars and especially the later swing to liberal government in England caused the demise of the source of ammo for English guns and almost as by the sweep of a giant hand they fell into obsolescence !

WW 2 ended it for Mauser ! What Africa was essentially left with was nostalgia and a influx of American gun culture !

Hear here!
Beer beer!

There is more than one way to skin a wildcat.
Riflecrank Incurable Permanente

Ya, +1.

Alf, you are a treasure chest of knowledge, and thought through opinions.

I have had the opportunity to do the inventory of dozens of rifles manufactured between 1900 and WWII, and sold and used in East Africa. Quite a variety of calibers, actually. Numerous .375 H&H, .404, and 10.75x68. Less frequent, but still relevant in numbers, 350 Rigby, 9.5 MS, 9.3x62, .303. Then the odd ones, 7x57, 6.5x57, 8x57, and others. A few .22.

These rifles having been taken randomly from old possessions and estates over the years, must be representative of what was prevalent in those days.

Historically, those are all "light" rifles. A medium would be a .375 or a .416 and a "heavy" .45 or above.
Frankly, a .416 will pretty much do it all. My choice of light rifle is a .30-06, but I've used other calibres and a 7mm or one of the .300 mags would be about as good.

Rockport. And PhipipA

I noticed that the 30-06 was on neither list. I find this interesting, because of what others have said. How often did it come up in your findings?

Captdavid