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Thx ALF. I had my time lines wrong and I stand corrected.

Alf:

I always knew the .318 Westley to equate to 8 x 57J - I may be wrong.

quote:

Originally posted by ALF:



As to the German colonies, they lost theirs as consequence of WW1 and in Africa their rifle at arms was the 11mm Mauser M43,
The rifle Mauser Model 71/84

Alf
This is most likely only of interest to me, but in 2005 I took some 43 Mauser ammo to a farmer friend in Namibia.

He had owned a cape gun chambered in 16ga and 11.15x58R(I think that is correct)for about forty years. He had never fired the rifled barrel as he could not find ammo. In 2002 I had promised to find some ammo for him and bring it on my return trip. He informed me that many others had mad the same promise, but had failed to find any.

As this was before the Google days I did some old page turning research and found that the 11.15x58R was metric designation of the 43 Mauser. I was then able to find ammo.

To thank me for finding the ammo the farmer allowed me to use the Cape Gun to take a Kudu(on the house). It was quite an experience blooding that rifle after so many years of simi-retirement.

quote:

ALF: The Model B Mauser in 9mm Mauser was very popular and many still survive today allthough getting 9mm bullets is a real problem

I use 358 Winchester bullets and 8x57 brass to make 9x57 ammo for my Haenel 98 sporter.

The real african calibers are .577/450, 303 & 7&8x57. More game has been bagged with these calibers, than with anything else. Maybe the 30-06 comes in close?.
The old 450ex 3.25" express is another one that could qualify along with .500 & .577 express.

Give me a 9,3x62 and a 30-06. These calibres were born together and they are perfectly capable of together killing anything on the planet. I strongly suspect that, after the first decade of the 20th Century, MANY a frugal African hunter kept one of each of these chamberings around to fill the pot and pay the bills. .375s and .416s and 505s and doubles are great and undeniably sexy but I think their modern popularity is a largely a result of romantic literary imagery and not all that much more. Frankly, the vast majority of "african" hunters over the early part of the century probably wouldn't strike such a romantic figure to our modern mind....just tough people trying to eek out a living as economically as possible.

My vote is for the 9.3x62... Otto Bock designed it for Africa for the workin' man and resident farmers as an all around cowboy.

I would like to thank all of my fellow members for the rifle options; it has opened my eyes to several new possibilities. The gist of my question was if you were to go into a hunters home (not just a professional) what rifle would you most likely find in their rack? This covers quite a period of time I know. I plan to take another look at some of the other calibers mentioned.
The list of the ones that are of interest to me so far are:
404 Jeffery, 9.3 x 62, 450-400, & 458(Win or Lott) and the 43 Mauser is interesting.
I might get another 30-06 reconfigured, I have a 303, and perhaps I should look into one in a sport model
thank you again for the ideas

.

You all do know that around here it is said that the 9.3 x 62 was made for those who could not take the recoil of a .375 H&H.

The most common rifle I have seen in SA and Zim is the LE .303 by far. Almost every single game scout that has a weapon is armed with one . This is largely due to the fact that many many hundreds of them were sold off by the Police in the early to mid 80s. game scouts,crop guards and security guards were all armed with them. I would also venture to say that more Buff have BEEN SHOT by a 303 or 308 than any other calibre. I say been shot because a great deal of them would have disappeared into the wild blue yonder never to have been seen again.

I personally have a .375, a 416 Rem,a 458 and a 425. Out of all of them, I would choose the 416 Rem as my favourite . Rifles choice is subjective as the one that you own and shoot will always be your favourite. However if you laid them all out and said choose one,any one , I think it would still go for the 416....or 425,.....or 375....or 458 lott....or....