Many African PHs are anything but gun nuts. Some are only fair shots, at best; almost all of them have problems coming up with ammunition of any kind, plus very few of them are handloaders. Of those PHs who do reloader, very few are experts, most don't have good or sufficient reloading equipment (chronographs are REALLY rare), and almost none of them know how to mic cases and otherwise properly evalvuate pressures.
Clients will leave handloaded ammo behind that was probably quite safe it their rifle, but may not be safe in the PH's rifle.
Many (possibly most) PHs are experts at evaluating bullet construction and the performance of various cartridges in terms of killing power, they're astute about scope and binocular performance, and many of them are great FAST shots up close, but gun nuts they typically ain't.
In addition, the odd, hot batch of factory ammo would undoubtedly cause them to blame the cartridge itself, and not that particular lot of ammunition. I suspect that if a young PH got his hands on that too-hot batch of Remington 375 H&H ammo I referred to, he may very well come to beleive that the 375 H&H itself was a problematic cartridge in terms of pressures.
Expert PHs (mostly Americans) like the late George Hoffman and Mark Sullivan, both gun nuts, rifle experts, and handloaders with professional skill, are really, really rare in Africa........
AD
