Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Rifle Selection for Big 4 DG Safari Question

I have booked a safari with Lion and Leopard as the primary objectives, though Elephant and Buffalo are also likely. The only plains game I care to shoot would be for bait or if I encountered an exceptional animal.

I have three good rifles:

1. My 300 Weatherby with 180 grain Partitions has 14 consecutive 1-shot kills, including Wildebeeste, Kudu, Gemsbok, and bull elk. It is very accurate.

2. I took Elephant and Buffalo with my .458 Model 70 in 2008. It shoots solids and softs to the same POI.

3. My new .375 H&H Model 70 shoots 1 MOA or better. I have worked up two loads: A 270 grain TSX and a 300 grain North Fork solid. They shoot very close to one another at factory velocities.

In planning my trip, here are my choices:

1. Take the .300 for plains game plus Leopard and the .375 for Lion, Elephant, and Buffalo.

2. Take the .375 for plains game, Leopard, and Lion and the .458 for Buffalo and Elephant. This makes sense because I might see a buff while out hunting plains game. Also, these two rifles could back each other up. Each sports the identical Leupold scope in Talley QD rings.

3. Take only the .375. It's accurate enough for anything. Point blank range is about 250 yards. Recoil is a lot less than the .458 and I'm not sure it recoils any more than the .300. I could even take the scope off of the .458 as a backup.

More and more I'm inclined to take only the .375. One problem: Bull elephants look mighty big, I noticed. And Buffalo run out of sight when you shoot them. When you're up close and personal, I feel a bit more comfortable with a larger hole in the barrel.

Maybe I should go read Kevin Robertson some more. He shoots buff with a 9.3x62, but Elephants are bigger.

That would be my choice. It never hurts to have two rifles along in case something happens to one of them. Heck, the .458 would take plains game just fine in case something happened to the .375, IMHO.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I've never hunted any dangerous game. I've only hunted plains game on three trips to South Africa. These are just my armchair musings. Take them for what you think they're worth.

Cheers!
-Bob F.

Agree, especially the back-up idea if you run into trouble with either rifle. The 270 TSX might be a bit tough for leopard but should get the job done. I found the Swift AF (400 gn. in .423") penetrated very well on buff and also expanded well in plains game, so should work well on leopard - tough bullet with good weight retention and expansion.



Couldn't agree more. I carried a 404 Ruger - great on buff - for the 2nd half of my hunt last summer - elephant in Zim - and kept wondering every time we were up close with the bull elephants why I hadn't brought my 458 Lott along. Won't leave it behind next year.

My vote would be for .375 only...

Ingwe

How about a 416 Rigby? May be a good excuse to get another rifle. I hope to do a hunt like this one day myself. Do you mind me asking where are you going?

I agree with Ingwe. Much simpler to just take the 375, and the 2 choices of ammo. Going on safari gets complicated enough, anymore. Sides, if you take 2, you will wind up with the wrong one at the wrong time, or just wind up using the 375, all the time, after you get there. JMHO.

maddog

And I liked the "carry a spare scope" idea....

Ingwe

Musings and speculation on my part.....

But the focus is DG for this hunt.I'd take both because the 375H&H will handle any plains game,and as someone has said there is overlap with the 458 for DG.Should a problem arise with one rifle the other will serve backup duty on the heavy stuff,and for those I'd want a familiar,trusted rifle.

Like Ingwe says,I'd bring a spare scope....and would add a spare extractor for each rifle to the list of goodies.

Do you enjoying shooting the .458 and do you shoot it well?

And that is a question we need to ask ourselves every time that we select a rifle to hunt. If the answer is ""Yes", then the decision making process goes on. I think the assumption by all posters here is that the answer is "yes" from the OP.

A few years ago I had developed a terrible flinch, and had to back down to my 257 roberts to relearn shooting technique, and to get rid of the flinch.I worked my way back up to my heavy hitters, but every year I start small and work up so that no bad habits develop.

Randy

Very true. It's a whole lot easier to develop a flinch, than to get rid of it. However, in this case, I'm assuming he can handle all the rifles. However the 375 will cover all the bases, without needing a second rifle.

maddog

Of the choices you listed, I'd go with the 375 alone.

But I've seen the 416 in action. It hits buff noticeably harder than a 375, and I'd feel a LOT more confident with a 416 facing elephant.
It's the best of both worlds, energy of a 458 with the trajectory of a 375.

Pete

If I had to make the choice I'd go with the .375 H&H AND the .458. Redundancy is a good thing IMHO.

I'm going to take my .416 & my wife will have her .270 (for the smaller stuff I'm taking like mountian reedbuck).

My son is only taking his .375 H&H though.

I'd get a good .416, use it for everything. Take along a spare scope, and some softpoints for the leopard.

I'm going to the Zambezi Valley in Zimbabwe near the border of Mozambique. I booked this trip through Atcheson's.

I don't want to get another rifle. I had intended to at least consider the .458 with lighter bullets. I can get 2700 fps with 350 grain TSXs but it doesn't shoot anywhere near the heavy bullets and I don't want to be cahnging zeros all the time. So it's the .375 and/or the .458 for DG with me.

Indy, I'd just take the 375 and have a ball!

maddog

Interesting question. I shoot it reasonably well from offhand or sticks. It's certainly no fun sighting in off the bench. Once I get a load sightes in, I don't practice off the bench. I think shooting the .375 is more fun.

Interesting question;

With some serious coin being dropped I would be taking two just because its a long hunt and you never know.

But YMMV.

I'm hunting lion in Zim next year as well. Buffalo and giraffe will be the primary bait animals. On my past safaris I've either used a .300 Win Mag and .375 H&H combo (leopard and plains game) or .300 Win Mag and .416 Rem combo (elephant, buff and sable).

I'm getting a little better than MOA accuracy with 270 grain TSX's in my .375 and an average velocity of roughly 2810 fps with 77 grains of VV N540. That combo should work for everything. I'll also throw in a few solids in case we decide to go after a tuskless and for shooting some of the little guys.

So this trip, I'm going to do something I've always wanted to and bring a shotgun for my second weapon. I've always wanted to just spend a few days on safari hunting birds. Walking up francolin and doing a driven guinea fowl shoot should be a blast.

Pete

Indy, Just be sure and post some pics when you get back. I think the safari you are going on is the best hunt to do in all of the world. I plan to do the same hunt some day. Hopefully the African Lion will still be able to be hunted by the time I can go on the hunt.