I'm going out on a limb here, but I will suggest that John Kingsley-Heath recommended the.243 because most of his clients could better put a .243 bullet in the right place than could be done with a hard-kicking magnum.
Likely, but also a lesson on what is enough for the task. Don't forget that the tradition built around a 7x57 is based on being enough for the task and its shootability. Same with a .243 or .270 as recommended by Aagaard, whether its trendy on here to like one or not.
"Enough for the task" is never an interesting topic compared to the ever mythical "best for the task" after all, what else would we talk about around the campfire?
I gotta confine my remarks to what I've done or seen, and my "large game" at it's largest was a black bear that weighed about 350. I killed it with a 30-06 200NP. My brother, same trip killed an almost identical bear with a .243 100 Hornady. My brothers bear died almost where he shot it. Mine traveled maybe 75 yards Both our shots were placed very similarly, with mine maybe an inch or so back from where I'd intended. I was shaky from a bad dismount and getting my 16EE stuck in a stirrup. Hard to shoot when you're laughing...
But... the fact remains, at least firmly in my mind, that the .243 with a good bullet (or fast .25) is a faster light switch than just about any standard .30 rifle, for game under about maybe 500 lbs. Granted that there may be .308 bullets made to offset that, but I doubt that any of those are 180s or heavier.
Do I think that a .30 (or .32, .33. .35) is suitable? Yeah, no problem. I'd do it with what I had, and a .308 Winchester is one of the easy buttons in life. Go with any good load. I loaded 50 of those .30/200 noslers for that bear hunt and used 1 on that hunt. Shot the rest at coyotes, a couple of deer and one antelope over the next couple of seasons. They worked perfectly.
And I get that some want a rifle just for African game and the "African" experience. I get it that the .243 Winchester doesn't work to that end. And there is some merit in carrying more rifle and bullet when in some locales. I didn't load the .30/200s in my 30-06 because I felt they were necessary for a black bear. We were hunting in an area known to harbor a grizzly population, and I didn't want to be unprepared. I actually felt a bit cheated that no grizzlies were seen on the trip.
Don't know or communicate with any African PHs. If one of them recommends a rifle/cartridge combo I'd guess it's because, in his experience, it works.
I'm going out on a limb here, but I will suggest that John Kingsley-Heath recommended the.243 because most of his clients could better put a .243 bullet in the right place than could be done with a hard-kicking magnum.
That's definitely part of his recommendation--but JKH also preferred the .243 for his own leopard hunting. Since he didn't handload (it was illegal in several African countries back then) he was using Winchester's 100-grain Power Point load--which was the most commonly available factory ammo in Africa in those days.
If I recall correctly, he also used his .243 and that factory load when he hunted Ethiopia extensively when looking for a black "panther," the melanistic version of leopards, which was apparently more common in Ethiopia. (The spots are still barely there, but the angle of the light has to be just right to see them.) So while the light recoil was part of his recommendation, he also believed in the .243 for the other reason stated in my post: less damage to the hide than bigger cartridges. His pre-'64 Model 70 was one of his favorite rifles, and many of his clients used it as well.
Again, it's always interesting to read so many firm opinions on appropriate rounds for animals the poster has never even seen, much less hunted. Have hunted with a bunch of African PHs over the decades, and they'll frequently disagree--but often the most experienced have different opinions even on rounds for much larger game.
One example is the PH I've hunted with most, the now-retired Kevin Thomas, who was born and raised in what was then Rhodesia. He killed his first charging Cape buffalo at 17, on his first job out of high school, when working as a "game scout" for the Rhodesian game department. This mostly involved guiding sight-seeing clients in various parks, while carrying a .375 H&H just in case some animal objected to being looked at.
One of his jobs a few years later was as the wildlife "manager" on a huge Rhodesian cattle ranch--which basically meant culling wild game to leave more forage for cattle, since there was basically no safari industry in Rhodesia then, as beef cattle were more valuable. He used various cartridges and bullets--but one night while we were sitting around the campfire I asked him what he considered the absolute minimum cartridge for hunting buffalo.
He thought about it silently for a couple of minutes before answering, when he said, "The .30-06." I raised my eyebrows and asked why. It turned out he'd used a .30-06 with handloads featuring the original lathe-turned 180-grained Nosler Partition, to cull over 500 buffalo. This was not at night with head shots, but during daylight with the native ranch workers pushed herds past him. He shot every buffalo that offered a decent shot--calves, cows, bulls of all sizes--and said he never had a problem, even with frontal shots on mature bulls. He also preferred the .375 H&H as his back-up rifle on buffalo when he became a PH a few years later, mentioning that he often had to follow-up and finish bulls that his clients wounded with much larger cartridges.
“Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans.” John Steinbeck
Yea or nay to a Kahles fixed power 8 x 56 with thick duplex crosshairs for leopard?
I wouldn’t go with a fixed 8 power scope. That’s too much magnification for most situations and distances you’ll shoot a leopard. The Tom in the video above was 47 yards. They’re often shot closer than that.
i would get a scope that will illuminate in darker situations , maybe even a Nightforce scope that illuminates ,i sure like these Nightforce scopes . good luck,Pete53
Here's what I think so far after reading everyone's posts and also what I could find Craig Boddington wrote (he tends to favor slightly larger bores for leopard than the .243 suggested) and also why some choose .243. The .243 is apparently good if using dogs with leopard as with frontal shots there's less chance of the bullet exiting and wounding the dog. I don't hunt with dogs. It's also better in that there is less hide destruction. This isn't of prime importance to me, but killing a leopard on the spot (pun not intended!) is. A lot of people can shoot a .243 more accurately. I can shoot a slightly larger bore just as accurately if the rest is good. With the .308, I 'm now thinking the 150 E-tips might be a bit hard and possibly the 180 Accubonds on some shots such as behind the shoulder. So I'm starting to favor the Nosler Partition. My rifle likes 180's and usually does well with them and drives them at roughly the same speed as the 165's. I could get the flat nose version of the 180 Partitions and avoid the deformation under recoil problem in the magazine or experiment with plastic inserts in the magazine which block the shoulder and use the spitzers. With the scope, I know the 8 x 56 fixed power will give me slightly better night vision and be excellent from a good rest. But as I have found when using it on varmints, on off-hand shots and if they start to run, I'm at a disadvantage with the high magnification. So I'm leaning towards the 3-9 x 42 for its versatility. I'm not buying a new scope for a hunt that I'll only do once, although I really would be over the moon getting a black panther on a subsequent hunt in the north of the continent (but that is highly unlikely to happen and the $$$). Anyway, I will chew all these things over a bit more and do some more testing of the scopes at night and even buy and load up some 180 Partitions and try them out to see how expansion is on light game. Thanks everyone for the input, especially those who have hunted leopard or those who have seen others hunting leopard.
If you were ever to hunt leopard. I know you said you have no desire, please humor me.
1. What would you use?
Probably whatever "light" rifle I'd brought--if I took more than one, which I generally do. (Though will also mention that I've used the .375 H&H as both my "light" and "heavy" rifle on safaris.)
The smallest chambering I've personally taken to Africa is the 7x57, which I used with a variety of bullets in the 160-grain range--mostly because the 7x57 I hunted with for years would put handloads using the same powder charge and bullets from 156 to 160 grains in the same group at 100 yards, which it wouldn't do with any other bullet weight, and I was always "field-testing" different bullets. It worked fine on plains game up to around 700 pounds, and would certainly kill a leopard cleanly.
But I would also happily use the .243 Winchester, and will tell a short story about its use in Africa. One of my fellow writers, Richard Mann, has also spent considerable time in Africa. Several years ago his wife Drema decided she wanted to start hunting, so Richard got her a .243, which would work well on the whitetails in their native West Virginia. She practiced a lot, but before deer season that year Richard ended up going to South Africa for plains-game hunt. He asked Drema if she'd like to go to Africa, and she said sure! The load he'd worked up used the 85-grain Nosler Partition, and she used it to take several animals, all with one shot. One was an impala, but the others included trophy gemsbok and blue wildebeest bulls.
“Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans.” John Steinbeck
Hope so, I do satisfy the criteria of being curious. Probably best to sight in zero at 100 yards rather than the usual 3 inches high at 100 yards, unless anyone thinks this is not a good idea.
My northern transvaal guides all preferred a 100 yard sight in. They said the biggest problem they had with American hunters was high shots usually at around 150 yards or so. One even suggested I resist in but I assured him I knew my hold unders as well as overs.
If I went for a cat with a 308 I'd probably use a 150 partition at around 2900 fps. I usually shoot the 155 scenar but have had reports that it can be a bit hard. I've always liked the way the partition comes unglued a bit in the front quickly but still pushes deep.
![[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]](https://i.imgur.com/twXo0V6.jpeg)
![[Linked Image from i.ibb.co]](https://i.ibb.co/6J3D4DG/IMG-7060.jpg)
