Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Rifles of the Professional Hunters............

Of the 3 PHs I was able to quiz 2 had Brnos in .458 Lott and the third had a custom pre '64 M70. He made it a point to mention that he had gotten it at a giveaway price from a relative. My PH had many rifles given as gifts over the years, when it was easy to do such things. All thought highly of the .375 for clients.What they didn't like was Remingtons,Weatherbys, .458 Win and flimsy mounts on anything.

Allen,

My working rifles have, amongst others, included a 375 H&H, .416 Rigby, .416 Taylor, and 458 Lott.

I have settled on these two; a custom Mauser in 375 H&H by Sabi Rifles and a custom BRNO Z602 in 458 Lott. The Lott is my "stopper" and the 375 is used for all my own hunting.

Based on accumulated experience and personal preference, I have the barrel cut back, a barrel band swivel added, the action lapped, and an ugly but robust synthetic stock added.

It has been back to the smith after the 1st three seasons; once to have feeding ramp smoothed, once to replace front sight which sheared off and lastly to replace the "bullet proof" stock which cracked despite fancy bedding treatment.

This rifle is very practical and the calibre does it all for me, Gregor Woods of Magnum Magazine owns this rifle's twin from the same smith (Kevan Healy of Bloem Custom rifles)

The 458 Lott (excuse pic quality - cropped to fit here)

Perhaps two reasons that Remingtons may not frequenty be seen in the hands of African PH's has to due with availibilty and cost. RSA has been the marketplace that has serviced southern Africa for a long time. After Uhuru closed hunting in East Africa in the '70's and '80's. the safari world moved south. Antiapartite sanctions limited American guns to RSA, and thus the hunting community in that region.

Cost is a factor. A Remington imported will be (classically) more expensive than a Musgrave, or other nice custom Mauser. There is also the factor that the controlled round feeding and claw extractor of the Mauser is preferrable to many (me included!). Just a thought.

Only been to Africa once. My PH used a Remington 700 stainless in 7mm mag. It was strictly a plains game hunt though. He said it did everything he ever needed it to.

Hatari,

Remington rifles have been in South Africa for some time - the intial agency dates back to late 80's / early 90's, was taken over by Kalahari arms and marketed agressively and at fair prices as I can recall...they pushed the full range 700 ADLs,BDL's and Sendero's - by example a 3006 Bdl was retailing at about R4000.00 while a equivalent BRNO would sell at same price, Ruger 77's would be R500 rand dearer, and a Winchester Mod 70 deluxe about a grand more. Musgraves by comparason would have been R500 cheaper depending on grade.

Remington's seem not to have found favour in the professional market which is biased towards Mauser / BRNO actions. Local sport hunters did indeed show and interest, particularly for open plains hunting given the Rem's fair rep for accuracy.

1. Botswana native/30 yrs experience.
Late '50s vintage FN 98 in .458 which had no finish left on the frequent handling points. He used Win factory loads and claimed only one "unusual experience" in his 30 yrs with it.

2. SA native hunting in Zim/20 yrs exp.
Started out with a 404, moved up to a 416, and when I met him, had adopted 2 rifles - a Chapius 470 and Rem 1917 in 450 Ackley (this was before the Lott was factory-ized). Something of an Elephant specialist, as well as a handloader and student of ballistics.

3. Zim native/7 yrs exp.
2 bolts in 450 Ackley for which No2 above loaded ammo. One was a Brno, not sure of the other. Though he gladly accepted the loan of a double 450/400 when the possibility of tracking wounded lion arose.

4. and 5. Two native Zims who had unidentified bolts in 450 Ackley.

I think the terrain/vegetation and type of animals hunted play the largest part in both caliber choice and between double/bolt.

SOS

My PH uses:

1. A Sabi custom 500 Jefferey, weighting 9.5 lb., as a stopper.

2. A 375 H&H with 20" barrel to dispatch clients' wounded plains game. He keeps it under the seat of his Toyota.

3. He hunts plainsgame himself with a 30-06 with 180 grain bullets loaded to 2550 fps for the bushveld.

4. He hunts varmints with a .223 with a big silencer on it. He says that alghouth the game can hear the crack of the supersonic bulletr going by, it doesn't know where the shot came from.

Peter, that Lott is a VERY cool rifle! It appears to be all-business -- no fluff, and no-nonsense. I love it, and I trust the brand of judgement that went into its design.

When I first hunted with Mark Sullivan, he carried and Army & Navy double 450/400 NE, and he also had a custom pre-64 Model 70 by Robar in 375 H&H. On another safari, he carried a Charles Osborne & Co. 577 NE double. I've also been on hunts with Mark where he carried a Marcel Thys & Sons 600 NE double, and also had a custom Mauser 98 in 7mm Mauser from Sterling Davenport.

No PH I've ever hunted with was into fine rifles the way MS was, and still is! And believe me, he can use them..........

I also hunted with his son, Shawn, who carried and Joseph Lang 450 No. 2 double that was simply a lovely, light little rifle that begged to be hunted with.

Other PHs:

Marshall Smalling -- custom Mauser in 416 Rem. Mag. that was put together for him by Champlin Arms

John Sharp -- see Jorge's comments. I agree that John's sight setup on his 458 Win. Mag. Model 70 is about as bullet-proof as any I've ever seen.

Steve Tors -- he had some sort of 375 H&H as his main rifle, but he never had it with us, and he didn't talk much about it, either!

Mike Curry -- CZ bolt-gun in 416 Rigby, open-sights, no scope.

Shawn Kelly -- Dakota Model 76 458 Win. Mag., open-sights, no scope.

William Finaughty -- Whitworth Express 375 H&H, open-sights, no scope

Peter Wood -- custom Model 70 Classic 458 Lott, open-sights, no scope

Guy Whittall -- an ancient and well-used FN Mauser in 375 H&H that belonged to his dad, Roger.

AD

Craig Boddington, in his book, 'Safari Rifles", published the results of a survey of many African professional hunters' choices, along with recommendations for clients.

A very interesting read...

Peterv,

Time flies. I'm enough of an old timer to remember the sanctions and the derth of American products available in RSA. I'm also at the point where it seems very recent that RSA has enjoyed an end to sanctions, yet it's been 15 years or so. Glad to hunters warming up to Remingtons. I suppose the old OFS Mausers are getting long in the tooth these days!

I can't recall the PH's name, but about fifteen years ago an associate of mine went over and his PH used a very interesting, and somewhat unexpected, rifle as his leopard back-up: Winchester Big Bore 94 in .375 Win.

scott

The three PHs I've hunted with used
a) Kreighoff (sp) .470NE
b) Win M70 .458 Lott
c) 505 Gibbs magazine rifle (not sure of make).

One of them had a .375 H&H of european make with set triggers for loaning to clients.

Allenday,

Did MS tell you who he swaps doubles with every year? He told me he tried to hunt with a different double and caliber each year for the experience. Never though to ask him how he swapped the out. Saw him at the Sea Cliffs Hotel in Dar last September, but the question never crossed my mind while talking to him. (Pretty typical for me.)

Mark has kept a surprising number of his doubles over the years, and he has a well-selected collection of them. For example, he's had that same 577 for at least 13-14 years, and I don't think he'll ever sell it.

But he has often sold a few of his doubles off from time to time, and as soon as one goes out the door, there's another one that Mark's got lined up to purchase. He has a nose for these guns, and he knows where to look, what to buy, what to stay away from, and how much a given gun is worth.

For Sullivan, it's a hobby and a business all at the same time, and he has a lot of fun with it.

By the way, Mark's 577 was perviously owned and used by PHs Deaf Banks and Owen Rutherford, and I have the privilage to say that I've fired it myself. That rifle has a rich and incredible history, and it's the best-balanced, best-fitting, and best-pointing double that I've ever handled.

AD

AD,

We hunted with Steve in '95, and he is the PH I mentioned with the 7X64. I thought he told me his .375 was a Winchester, but maybe I was just not remembering correctly. I did talk guns a lot with him though.

His story of how he shot himself with the .44 Mag revolver was a classic.

jim

PH's I've hunted with in Zimbabwe used
1. Sabi 500Jeffry
2. Brno ZKK 602 458Win
3. 03 Springfield 458Win
4. CZ 550 416Rigby
5. Mannlicher Schoenaur 458Win

I carry a Ruger .375H&H with me when backing up on PG hunts and for DG I use a .416Rem made by Winchester.

Years ago I used to carry my .30-06 when backing up on PG but I changed to the .375 as most back-up shots (fortunately that doesn't happen often) on plains game are fired when the animal is running away and the bigger and more powerful .375 round gives one a better chance of anchoring the animal.

Much like Chris, I use the 375 and a 458Lott for the exact same reasons.

My 458 Lott is much like Peter's but with a Laminated stock.



Lookig carefully at the rear peep sight shows it's a single piece of machined steel which was carefully calibrated during the construction to be dead on at 125 meters. It's just an inch high at the high point and only an inch low at almost 200 meters.

We used shims to develope the load and the then make the sight to match once it was zeroed with the shims. There is noting possible to get out of adjustment with this. It's built on a Winchester CRF action

JJ, that's a great rifle, and extremely well-designed.

AD

JJ-

It looks like you stocked that rifle with enough drop JUST to use the irons.