Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa 7x57 Mauser for Plains Game?????

Looking to go on a plains game safari with my wife. She is recoil sensitive so I was thinking the 7x57 might be an option. Boggington seems to have faith in it for the purpose.

She would be taking springbuck size game or smaller only. No Kudu, wildebeest, or larger game.

Looking for more opinions, experiences with, and load suggestions.

See my post. My wife used a 7mm-08 on a kudu.

You will have a hard time finding a better rifle than a 7x57 for the game she will be after. My 7x57 shoots the hornady light mag load so well that I don't handload for it much now. It is a real killer on the size game you are hunting in my experience. I have also used 140 balistic tips and like them too.

Britt

I also have flattened kudu, etc. with the 7x57 with absolutely no problem.

Nothing at all wrong with the choice. In fact, it might be one of the better choices out there. Good shot placement is number 1 and then good bullet quality is number 2. With those two issues taken care of, all will go well I am sure.

My wife has used a 7 x 57 that I put together for her the winter of '70-71 until now. It likes 160 Partitions and she shoots it without flinch or apprehension. Out to about 250 or 300 yards it drops stuff just like guns with a lot more horsepower.

Go forth and fear not the capability of the 7 x 57 with good loads.

Wayne

The 7x57 was a fav of Jack O'Connor, and his wife, for African game animals of all sizes. I assume it should suffice for your needs.

I have used the 7x57 for plains game the past two years in South Africa, this year exclusively, taking game up to kudu and wildebeest handily at typical plains game ranges out to 300 yards. Have even stretched that a little on the smaller stuff. I haven't had any problems except on one animal when a scope went bad this year. Otherwise the bullet went in the right place and the game went down.

A further note: The PH I hunted with this year is an old friend I've hunted with before. He grew up in Zimbabwe when it was Rhodesia, and has been a game ranger, commercial hunter and PH since he was 20, almost 40 years. By preference he uses a 7x57 for ALL his plains game hunting, and has taken several eland with it, all with one shot. (He dismisses doubts about its use on anything smaller as pure BS.) Normally he uses the local South African 170-grain PMP factory ammo, not some modern wonder bullet. He is always quite happy to see somebody show up with a 7x57 instead of some thunder-thumper they can't shoot!

In Namibia, the PH's were of course of German ancestry and were delighted and surprised to see an American show up with a 7x57. He liked my little Ruger and couldn't believe you could buy one for under $500, was trying to figure out a legal way to get one to Namibia.

I have used the 7x57 on all plainsgame and even on Buffalo on a cull hunt..I like it as well as the .270 or 30-06 and thats not light praise..I have owned a number of 7x57s and my favorite has always been the Brno Mod 21 and 22, or a custom rifle on a G33-40 Mauser action with a long throat and a 06 box.

I know that the 7 x 57 is an excellent caliber for African Plains Game. As a PH I had a 7 x 57 as a �loaner� gun for clients. Because of the low recoil, clients often got more one shot kills with this rifle than with their own ultra-powerful-lighting-rods.

My son upgraded to the 7 X 57, from a .223, at the age of about 9 � 10. He�s a boy of slight build, so recoil was an issue with full power loads. I down loaded some rounds for him to get him started. A load with a 130 gr bullet, doing 2200 fps, gave sweet MOA accuracy. He has been using this load ever since, taking up to kudu and gemsbok with one shot kills.

A number of my clients took eland with the �little� 7 x 57. None was lost. I�m not saying that the 7 x 57 is a perfect �eland caliber�, but if you slip one of those 7 mm pills into the �boiler room�, the recovery team needs to get into action.

If your wife wants to limit her scope to animals in the warthog/blesbok class, the 7 x 57 will be able to provide more than what those animals needs to get into the salt. If she intends to take kudu, wildebeest or zebra, she would be able to do that as well.

Any gun good-shootum good! Use Swift A Frame 140's @ 2800...dont scrimp on the bullets.

Riann,

Then a 6.5 X 54 Mannlicher Schoenaur ought to do pretty well too. It shoots a 160 grain bullet at about 2200. I have been playing with one and would like to take it to South Africa some day.

Indy, that is a sweet little caliber! Somehow it just performs way better than what its paper stats suggests. It's a great penetrator. If you can place your bullets with surgical precision, it will take down our largest animals.