Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Who has used the 270 Win. / 375 H&H combo in Africa?

goodnews

Proper rifle in this case means for the type of hunting you are doing ie plains game only versus dangerous game only versus combination. Perhaps I wasn't clear.

The point is, in Africa where you can easily step around a bush and find you are faced with a different animal than you were before, the last thing I want is to be with the wrong caliber or switching barrels. YMMV

Doc: I've shot a few deer and without question my #1 DRT cartridge for deer is the 257 Weatherby with 100gr Hornadys. Something on the order of 44 straight one-shot DRT. With good shot placement of course and to me that means the center of the front shoulder. jorge

I am going to make the 300WSM and the 375H&H my choice of rifles and hopefully my mathews if luggage permits.

Another vote for the .270/Nosler 150gr Partitions on African plains game.

I took a Win .270 and .338 to So. Africa last year and killed 11 animals (no eland or buffs): 10 with the .270, and one with the .338. The .270/Nosler 150 PTs worked so well on even the larger antelope that I didn't bother with the .338 until the last animal on the last day.

Next time I'm taking just one rifle, a 7 STW. It should be about perfect for longer shots on all African plains game (except buffalo and eland).

tol-

Well, the idea isn't at all to be dithering around switching barrels depending what you see at the moment; it's to have another scoped barrel in another chambering at camp - just like you'd have another rifle.

As in having individual rifles you'd carry the chambering appropriate for the biggest beast you expect to take.

I wanted eland, zebra, gemsbok, etc., so started out carrying my 375; if/once I bagged those, I could switch to my '06 (270,7x57, whatever)for the smaller antelope.

Anyway, sorry for the diversion.

Gdv

John, I fully agree with all that you stated in your post.

The 270 Win. and the 375 H&H are acceptable, but a 300 or 338 teamed with a 416 or 458 are ideal, provided you can shoot them.

AD

And Allen, I know you can too.

"I get weary of recoil as well, and every time JB, Dogzapper, or someone else starts talking about using the 30-06, 7x57, 308, or 270 in Africa for plainsgame, it gets increasingly easy for me to warm up to the idea." Allen Day

This is why the 7x57/9.3X62 combination is so appealing to me.

Allen, I believe you could take a .243/TSX or NP and do all your PG hunting very successfully. I do not say that in jest.

On certain safaris, you could do very good work with a 243 Win. (within reason), just so long as you had a 375 H&H or something of that order to along with it.

On our last safari going on two years ago, my hunting partner and I took 338 Win. Mag. rifles only. He hunted entirely with Remington 225 gr. Swift A-Frame factory load, and I did much of my hunting on that safari with that same ammo, which I borrowed from him. To say that it was effective and sufficient for all of the plainsgame we hunted (impala thru eland) would be a great understatement.

We're taking the same rifles this year for plainsgame, plus 416 Rem. Mags. for buffalo, hippo, and whatever else we feel like using those 416s on.

Over the last couple of days, we made the mutual decision to take just Federal factory 225 gr. Barnes TSX ammo for our 338s. For one thing, I've used it myself for the last three seasons of elk hunting, but I haven't really shot enough animals with that load to have a full feel for the performance of the bullet yet, but it's super-accurate out of our rifles, fast (2850 fps.), tested at the factory to 150 degrees F, and it'll be fun to try a new, true premium bullet out on a wide variety of animals.

John55's previous comments are totally on the money, and I like rifles with punch, especially for areas with lots of lion, as well as many buffalo.

I'm saving the 270/375 combo for the next all-plainsgame safari, and I'll be taking my wife on that one...........

AD

AD,

Let's face it: You WANT to to take the .270/.375 battery to Africa. By all means, do it. I've done the metric equivalent, the 6.5 X 55 Swede and the 9.3 X 62. It performed well. The 6.5 Swede handled everything right up to kudu without a hitch.

Part of the pleasure of being a gun nut is taking your obsessions to the field.

There is a certain romance to the classics, and that is about as classic as a combo could be. I think O'Connor was on to something good. Time to do it and tell us about it. Good hunting!

Concur with Hatari Allen, go for it. I've always wanted a 300 H&H & 375 H&H combo myself. Such is the stuff "dreams are made of" and you are blessed that you can actually execute! Cheers, jorge

Hi Allen,

Good luck on your safari. Its sure fun to pick the guns.

A while back I remember someone who took I think a 458 and a 300 WM and the 458 rifle broke for some reason. Next up was a lion and the hunter used his 300 WM on the lion with good results.

Is a 270 enough gun for a back up?

I know one could borrow a gun there of course but........

A .375 and a .270 is a good choice but I would not consider the .270 a backup gun for dangerous game...

My idea of a 2 gun safari would be a .416 Rem with irons and scope option, and a 22 L.R. that way I could keep us in birds...

I was the guy who had a 458 Win. Mag. that went haywire, then I used my 300 Win. Mag. for two Cape buffalo, as well as a lion.

I would certainly agree with Ray that a 270 Win. would serve as a very poor backup rifle for DG larger than leopard in case the big-bore went south during the course of a safari.

Tempting it is to go with the 270/375 combo, but at this stage of the game, I'm going with the 338/416 setup for this safari, and a big part of that decision is so that my hunting partner and I can both count on reserve ammo in the same calibers.

I also think that the 338/416 combo is a more sensible all-around tandem, at least for this particular safari..........

AD

Allen: What happened to the 458?

Bob, that was on my first safari, and I had a good local riflesmith rebuild and modify a Model 70 Super Express 458 Win. Mag., and he generally did a very good job with it. It shot well, it fed reliably, the floorpate latch spring was replaced with a very stiff unit so that the floorplate wouldn't pop open and dump cartridges on the ground at High Noon, plus it was given quality open sights, etc, etc.

In Tanzania, I used that 458 on one zebra, and one Cape buffalo. We also stalked, on dry ground (the only way I'll do it), a gigantic, scarred up old bull hippo, and I shot him with that 458 a couple of times, which put him down for keeps. I worked the bolt hard and fast from the shoulder for a reload - and that 458 went off!

My PH as stunned, and since the hippo was dead, we took some time to figure out what was wrong with my rifle. We got TWO MORE slam-fires out of it, and it became clear that my local riflesmith had adjusted the trigger entirely too light for the sort of hunting I had in mind for that rifle. I didn't have tools in camp to fix it myself, so my PH advised retiring it for the duration of the safari.

Triggers that are perfect for killing paper back home are not what you need in a dangerous game rifle, and ALL RIFLES that are destined for safari use simply MUST be tested in every possible way for feeding function, slam-fires, etc..........

AD

Allen: I'll bet they took too much of the overtravel out, and you're right; set too light, I'll bet....

Not giving advise, just suggestion, but for 25-30 years my gun maintenance kit on any trip includes a screwdriver kit and 2 small wrenches to fix/adjust a M70 trigger, just in case.

I have never had to use it on any of my rifles,but used it once to fix my guides rifle when someone adjusted the trigger and too TOO much of the overtravel out of it.It has worked great for him since.

Wonderful. I'd use the 300 win mag/416 rem mag combo today.

Wow - Zombie thread from back in 2008, but good info.

Re the trigger pull... YES! I've seen so many hunting rifles with triggers tuned to match rifle weights...

NO!!!! 3 pounds, crisp, is fine for a general purpose hunting rifle.

For me anyway - and frankly - I'd be quite willing to put up with more on a rifle that wasn't being used for long-range work, like might happen with a pronghorn rifle or similar.

Guy

27 months after Allen started this thread he was dead. It sort of puts all this minutia into perspective...