Sunday morning at 0640 hrs I head back to RSA.

I am taking a single shot rifle my gunsmith built me this past winter. Based on the Wickliffe kits the late Tom Ondrus sold me, this is a .45-120.
525gr gas-checked hard cast bullet, RCBS mould at Bhn of 19. MV is 1977fps, a little over 4000ft/lbs of ME. Should do the job on Eland and Zebra.

Rich

That sounds like a blast Rich!

Have fun and be safe so you can fill us in on all the details when you wander back!

Take plenty of pictures.

If it is based on a Wickliffe, it should be good for anything. I built a 45-120 on a No. 3 when the 45 Basic cases first came out (Remember those in the big green box?) and it was awesome as to the performance which could be generated. Check the case volume. A good stiff load with a solid 500 will put anything down, if you decide to go jacketed.

Need to try that on a bison. Good luck on your trip.

You won't have a problem with anything over there, and I mean anything. You are carrying a stone cold HAMMER. Have a good trip.

Rich, where's the hunt report??

Failure...

I sat in between a family of six with the flu all sixteen hours from Atlanta and Joberg. I didn't get any sleep with their constant trips to the room. I got to camp and spent the first six days alternating between plain jet lag and puking my guts out after every meal. Then I passed the flu on to my PH and his family.

The second day I had a good shot at a Zebra stud at (I thought) about 125yds. It was farther. I hit him low on the shoulder, missed the heart and lungs. Then I threw up again. Then we tracked him about a mile thru the wait a minute thorn bushes. Then I threw up again. Note the common theme here? Never got another look at him. My PH did a fantastic job working the 8000 acres he was in, but we never saw him standing still.

I killed a nice one two days before I had to head back to JoBerg. Full penetration heart and lungs.

I passed on a very nice Eland, looking for that monster we saw on day one. Never got a good shot at another one. We hunted until eleven am on the day I flew home.

I did kill a nice Kudu cow for the landowner, he wanted the meat, I got a flatskin. Shot her thru the neck, doi.

I got a very nice Blesbok and a Jackal with the 300 WM, one shot per.

My PH worked his ass off, despite my giving him the flu. I lost eleven pounds in eight days.

Despite this, I had a marvelous time. Reon has a few days before his next clients land, he is going to spend the time running my oops down for me.

The Eland is the excuse I need to go back, and there is a huge Leopard on his Father's place.

The 120 and a lot of Varget gave me groups with the RCBS 525gr GC roundnose cast bullet over 1970fps and 2" 5-shot groups at a hundred.

The rifle worked as hoped for, I just could not hold it steady enough to do the job.

Wait 'til 2014!

Rich

Damn! That's not the way these things are supposed to go. I'm sorry to hear this, but at least you kept a good attitude about it.

And, really, there's nothing else you could do, and nowhere else you could go, that would allow you to vomit nonstop for a week and then still describe it as "a marvelous time"!

2014!

John

p.s. Using the new-age public school terminology, this is not a "failure"...it is a "deferred success".

Rich, I, too, am sorry to hear that gastroenteritis ruined your hunt. To have it handed to you on the plane over is just about more than a guy should have to bear. Glad you left that eland to go back for.

it's why they call it "hunting" instead of "shooting".