Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Tough Game!

Bob,

We, my three son's and I, on two trips 11 years apart have swatted an awful lot of plains game up through eland using the 7x57 (160 gr AB), 8x57 (180 gr BT), 358 Win (200 gr TTSX) and 9.3x62 (250 original X) with DRT results. I will head for buff/sable next year with a 416 Rem M70. I realize my M70 375 H&H might make more sense but I bought the 416 years ago to hunt a buff some day and so I will.

Interesting and informative thread.

I leave for Africa PG hunt in three weeks. As of now, I have shot probably 500 plus rounds off sticks in various rifles since January. 375 H&H, 9.3x64, 270, 7mm-08, and the 300 H&H that is going on the trip.

In developing loads for the 300 I tested:
200 gr NPT avg 2 plus inches
180 gr NPT avg 1.75 inches
180 gr GMX avg 1.2 inches
180 gr TTSX avg slightly under an inch
165 gr GMX was the same at right at an inch

These are averages for all the loads tested with a particular bullet.

My results do not surprise me at all, which is why I am not a NPT fan. I keep trying them, thinking I will find a good load. But after this last go round, I am done including them in any initial testing. So I have two boxes of 180gr NPT that will be going into the classifieds in the near future.

I finished loading up 200 rounds of the 180gr TTSX tonight and that is what I will be taking.

All I have been shooting lately is the 300 along with plenty of dry fire practice, including off the sticks using local deer as live, dry fire targets. There is only one other rifle I have ever been this comfortable with, and that is a 270 I have owned for over 20 years.


If my buffalo hunt materializes in the next few years, I will be taking my 375 and 9.3x64. The 9.3 already has a good 286gr TSX load ready to go. I tried NPT to no avail, and the 250gr TSX and GMX did not shoot well.

The limited shooting I have done with my 375 is showing promise with the 270gr TSX. Not even going to try a NPT in this rifle. I will see if I can get a matching load with the Hornady 270gr. The 250gr GMX also shoots very well and will get some attention in future load development.

Ed thats as good a reason to bring the 416 as I can think of.....it'll work and you want to!


An experienced friend who posts here tells me the 416 s a more convincing buff rifle than a 375.....what do I know?



Many of these guys I am watching were in DG country, mostly ZIM and TZ,and had full license, so they could bump into anything like Doc Rocket has said. I watched one guy do good work with the 375 on everything from Grants gazelle on up.

It was beautiful to watch. The thing is a flyswatter on those plains game. Gotta love it!

CRS: I don't know what to say about the Partitions....as you might know I have had much better luck with them.

But if I could not get MOA from them I'd look for something else too. Generally I have had no issues getting that kind of accuracy in quite a few rifles.

Insofar as practice is concerned, I am a competitive (less so as I age) NRA High Power target shooter. I find that the "muscle memory" skills necessary for offhand or rapid fire target shooting with a center fire match rifle directly transfer to more powerful bolt actions used for hunting in Africa.

Thus I can practice less with the .375 or .458. In fact I think practicing excessively with a .458 will actually hurt, because developing a flinch is more likely. The .375 has WAAAAY less recoil and that is why I prefer it.

Once I get a zero and a reasonable group, I don't shoot off the bench. Just sticks and offhand. I find that, to get a good natural point of aim, I need to face more toward the target with sticks than offhand. I don't care about little bitty groups, just reasonable ones. Also I don't care about getting the ;last fps of velocity. 2500 fps with a .375 is plenty for anything.

Indy good advice. I always found short but frequent sessions with hard kickers was how to get a grip on them.

Lots of shooting with light kickers builds muscle memory.

Bob,

A few years ago I went through my loading notes and averaged all the 3-shot groups fired with Nosler Partitions, from 60-grain .224's to 400-grain .416's. That's ALL the groups, not just from the loads that shot most accurately, and the average was 1.01 inches. That may not win any benchrest contests, but it's generally good enough for big game hunting, especially in Africa where paying the trophy fee if something is wounded and lost seems to cut down on longer-range shooting. (Well, and often not being able to see anything beyond 200 yards in a lot of thornbush country.)

Probably the 60-grain .224 Partition has given me more trouble than any other, but eventually found a faster twist than the typical 1-14 of .22-250's and many other .22 centerfires normally gets it into an inch as well.

Like you, have also generally found Partitions shoot best with maximum loads, but as the head bullet designer at Nosler suggested many years ago, a slightly faster powder also often helps. It doesn't always have to be "fast," just something like one of the 4350's instead of H4831 or RL-22.

The first big game load that consistently put 5 shots under an inch at 100 yards from one of my rifles was what would be considered too much IMR4350 behind the 100-grain Partition in the Remington 722 .257 Roberts inherited from my grandmother. The muzzle velocity was well over 3200 fps from the 24" barrel, but primer pockets in the Winchester brass remained tight, and bolt lift was easy. This was long before laser rangefinders, and I sighted the rifle three inches high at 100, which turned out to be dead-on at 300. This came in handy when backing up pronghorn hunters I was guiding, especially when I learned how to use my scope's reticle as a rangefinder.

At the other extreme, CZ 9.3x62 groups three shots well under an inch with 286 Partitions, and my Whitworth .375 H&H does under an inch as well with 260 Partitions, but "only" about an inch with 300's. My CZ .416 Rigby likewise does about an inch with 400-grain Partitions and Nosler solids--but that's with a scope, and I only use a scope about half the time. With the express sights it shoots Partitions into about 2 to 2-1/2" inches at 100 yards, which has been accurate enough for buffalo at under 100.

Of course, like you when working with Partitions (or any other expensive premium bullet, whether Barnes TSX's, Swift A-Frames or whatever) I start with a cheaper bullet of similar weight, usually either a Hornady Interlock or Sierra GameKing or ProHunter. When I've found a powder and charge that works pretty well, then I switch to the more expensive brand, and almost always find it will shoot with a similar load.

I scratch my head also with them. I have found two good loads with them. A 210gr out of a 338-06 and a 150gr out of my Dad's 270.

I really wanted to take the 200gr to Africa and see how they would compare to the 338-06 load I used on a few elk. But after shooting a couple boxes of them, I threw in the towel.

I am very happy with the monometals having used on them for many years on lots of big game animals. I hope to not recover any of them from my upcoming trip. I like entry and exit holes and will shoot to break bones. This will be a change, as I am typically a meat hunter and try to keep it in the ribs. I will also not be afraid to put as many shots in the animal to get the job done.

Like I stated above when/if a buffalo hunt ever materializes, I will take monometals and not even think twice about it.

John agreed on all counts, although admit that when it comes to 22 caliber, i use BT's and can't recall ever using a 22 caliber Partition!

The 1"/MOA standard you see is about the same for me although some custom rifles have shaded that well and I have had a few custom rifle that just bug hole the things.

The it comes to a 270 with a 130 NPT I am frankly surprised if I can't get them to cut an inch anymore from my rifles, but then it isn't often I will even bother with load work until the rifle is properly bedded and tuned. This may be one reason I have so little difficulty with them. The problems are usually rifle, not bullet, related.

I learned a long time ago to make sure the rifle was "right" before starting serious load development. The rifles that have given problems were generally raw, and untuned.

Another factor is the straight ammo business you taught me years back....I have "fixed" Partition "problems" simply by making sure run out was .005 or less and watched groups shrink...from those same tuned rifles....

Still they are game bullets and I don't expect target quality groups from them although it sometimes happens.

Thanks again, Obi-Wan!!

A couple-three guys I truly respect gave me more or less the same advice. My PH suggested a minimum of 300 full-power rounds in the month prior to travel. You suggested 500 rounds, offhand. Another guy recommended 400 light-recoil practice loads, and 200 full power loads.

I bought 200 Hornady cases and loaded them all 4 times. I left 25 rounds with my PH in Africa, and I have about 35 loaded rounds left. So that means something like 745 bullets went down my Caprivi's barrel. About 2/3 of those were "light" practice rounds, which consisted of 300 gr Sierra bullets (which cost 1/3 what A-frames cost) loaded over enough 5744 to give about 2000 fps, and which for all intents and purposes hit to the same POI/POA out to 100 yards. In each range session I'd shoot 40 or 50 reduced-recoil loads, and then 20-30 full power loads (again, using SGK's).

I've taken my 375 to the range a couple times since then, just because. I often take it out of my gun safe and just leave it leaning in the corner by my desk while I work or play on the innanet. I like the feel of it in my hands. I like bringing it up to my shoulder and sighting on one of the sets of horns on the wall, working the bolt, snapping a cap, feeling the wood. It's become my favorite rifle. Funny thing, really.

I totally get that, Ed.

Quite right.

One guy I took some advice from is Peter Flack. He is no slouch with a heavy rifle, as you might expect, but he still advocates a program of working up to your heavy rifle in each range session. Using similar sized/stocked rifles, he works up from a .22 rimfire to a light sporter in a caliber like .243 or so, then a medium like a 9.3 or 375, then finally his heavy rifle (.450+). He limits the number of rounds of heavy ammo fired in each session to avoid developing a flinch.

I followed his program for the first couple of weeks of my "conditioning" program. After that, though, I found that going straight to my 375 each session was not a problem. But I wasn't practicing with a true heavy rifle, so I can't say whether that would be an issue. I expect it would.



I agree and I agree again. Practice from field positions, not off the bench. I found shooting clay pigeons took my mind out of the dangerous idea of "shooting for groups". If I hit the claybird, which was smaller than a buffalo's heart, I figured I was good... whether at 10 yards, 50 yards, or 200 yards. And 2500 fps with a 300 gr A-frame is plenty of velocity.

Mule Deer, I fell into the same practice some years ago when I read about it in a gun magazine. Some rifle nut in Montana named John Somethingorother wrote about it. I thought he was likely bullshitting, but tried it and sonofagun if he wasn't right.

I guess some of them gunwriters might actually have it right every now and then.

Doc,

Well, we all know that gun writers either lie (about results) or steal (ideas from other people). So I suspect that guy stole the idea from somebody else!

Bob,

That's pretty much been my experience.

One of the easiest load work-ups I've ever done was for an ULA (pre-NULA Ultra Light Arms) .270 Winchester. This was a "test rifle" Melvin built in the late 1980's to send around to gun writers, but eventually I got it permanently--for a few hours before Eileen picked it up and informed me it was hers. It had a #1 Douglas barrel, 22" long, and weighed exactly 6 pounds with the 2-7x Bausch & Lomb I mounted.

Another gun writer had told Melvin that it shot best with 130's and IMR4350. Up until then Eileen had been using a somewhat heavier .270 with 130 Hornady Spire Points for most use, and 150 Partitions for elk and moose, mostly because we were kinda poor. But by the time the NULA showed up we were somewhat above water, and decided to load 130 Partitions only, for use on everything from antelope on up.

I can't remember the exact powder charge, but muzzle velocity was 3100+ and the groups were in the half-inch range at 100 yards. Eventually tested it at 300 and all the groups were well under 2". She killed a lot of animals with that rifle and load before developing recoil headaches and switching to a NULA .257 Roberts.

John I have no doubt the Partitions shot good because Mel builds a good rifle!

Yeah, his are generally really easy to load for.