I read an interesting article the other day in Sports Afield written by Joe Coogan regarding planning for an african safari. for plains game, he said any cartridge from the 243 on up was fine except for some of the larger antelope. Joe is a very experienced african PH and I have read in the past about his use of a particular 243 so I am confident he knows of what he speaks. I do not own a 243 (I am a 250-3000 man all the way) so I will not enter the "243 debate" but I did find Joe's 243 comment interesting.

257Bob,

I used to shoot a .243 Win, and still have my trusty Ruger #1 6 mm Rem. I don't take it to Africa.

I wonder if Mr. Coogan would shoot bull elk with a .243? There are a lot of antelope in Africa over 300 pounds, not counting the eland.

A lot of animals are shot every year in Africa with the .243, but most of it is culls at night from a truck with spot lights and using head shots.

If you read the South AFrican magazine Man/Magnum you will also see references to the 6X45 that is used often in boys' rifles, and many times for the youth to shoot his first critter. Here the emphasis is on stalking close and on good shot placement. The .243 class cartridges work well for this application on the small animals.

The Magnum writers pointedly do not recommend it for larger animals.

I recommend hunters use a .308/.30-'06/.300 Mag for plains game with a 180 gr bullet. This combination kills well on antelope.

Eland are a special case; the only one I shot was estimated at 2,200 pounds at the butchery. I like a .375 for them as do many folks who have tracked wounded eland.

If you are paying hundreds of dollars a day to hunt, and will owe the trophy fee for game wounded and lost, I just would rather shoot them with something that won't waste time and money.

jim

I re-read the piece during lunch today and he did say for non-dangerous plains game, cartridges start with the 243. but then he was quick to mention that other cartridges would be advised for the larger animals.

HunterJim, I too have a couple of 6mm cartridges (not 243 winchesters), a 6mm ack imp and a 240 weatherby. I am getting away from wildcats but I really like the 240 weatherby simply for the cool factor. and it kills deer very well.

We don't run in the same circles, but I've hunted a couple of times with Joe Coogan. My take on him is that he is a very knowledgeable, nice guy. He's the calm kind of fella; the type that you'd want to have with you when you have a bad elk (on the side or in the bottom <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/help.gif" alt="" /> of a steep canyon). I feel, instinctively, that he would hold up his end and would do a Hell of a lot more than just wring his hands and hold legs. In case anyone is wondering, this is very high praise from an old elk hunter who has chased the damned things for almost 50 years (that would be me) <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />.

On one hunt, Jim Carmichel and I were cleaning our rifle barrels after a particularly great morning of hunting prairie dogs in Colorado. Our .223 rifle barrels had 400 or rounds through them and we were cleaning them, whether they needed it or not. Joe wandered up to us and freely admitted that he had a lot to learn about cleaning barrels and wanted us to teach him how to do it properly. I was impressed that a noted hunting writer was so open to learning. That says volumes about the man.

I highly suspect that when Joe writes about something, he knows the subject very well. By "knows the subject," I mean that he has learned from his vast experience in the bush......not by simply reading the words of dead men.

From what little I've seen of Joe, I can honestly say that I very much like the man.

Having said that, and having killed fifty-plus Afrikan critters, I'd have to say that I would not take a .243 Winchester on safari. Yeah, the .243 is probably just fine for game up to, say, impala. But what if a really great kudu or eland shows up? You're screwed.

All of my Afrikan hunting has been on eland and smaller animals and I've never found the .30-'06 lacking. The eland I shot on my last safari was hauled out....guts, feathers and all. The eland weighed 1069 Kg (2,352 pounds) at the butchery. A single 180-grain Hornady SPBT flipped him on his back and killed him with nary a wiggle. For Seyfriend fans; the expanded boat-tail bullet crushed three vertabrae and came to rest after penetrating well over three-feet of eland.....bullet core in the jacket.

I've attached a photo of the eland. I am six-feet tall and notice that the eland is taller than I am, while his rear quarters are still on the ground. His heart was delicious and I ate part of his liver raw.

In the future, I plan to hunt for cape buffalo and, probably elephant. At that time, I will carefully look at getting a .375 H&H.....and no bigger. I've shot .416s and, truth be known, I'm simply not man enough.

Steve

Steve,
Good words.. Thanks for the insight about Joe. I know I like reading what he writes.
Don

Steve,

Thanks for the profile on Mr. Coogan. He sounds like someone to know.

I have been on a couple of those elk retrievals, the kind that convince you not to shoot on some "opportunities". I liked it in Africa when someone would go for the truck, and we could winch those big guys aboard. I also liked it mostly being flat. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

If you have two rifles in Africa, you are guaranteed to have the wrong one at any given moment.

jim

Hey Jim,

During all my guiding years, it seemed that the "bad elk" always happened below the horse trail and when I was guiding a guy that wouldn't even hold legs. It helps to have a big hank of bale twine with you and tie the suckers to a tree (if there's a tree). Crap, I had the twine break once and the damned elk rolled over me. The fun never ends <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

You are SO right about Afrika. Flat, lots of grunts to do the work and very accessable to four-wheel drive. After suffering a bunch with bad elk, it is really nice to hunt in country that is reasonable.

I shot one waterbuck that was on the top of a really nasty ridge, one about as bad as the Hell's Canyon (of the Snake) that I used to guide in. I said to my guide, Kjeld Kruger (yup, the great-great grandson of Oom Paul Kruger), "I'll bet this is one that you won't get out by Toyota Power." He said, "Yes, we will." And darned if they didn't.

It took a lot of chopping of trees and winching, but they got the smelly bugger out by Toyota. Jeez, waterbuck stink.

I've killed a bunch of elk and I swear that half of them fell off the steep hillside and broke their necks, as they were falling halfway down the canyon.

Anyway, Joe Coogan is a very impressive guy. No bragging, no swagger; just quiet and nice. If he was a neighbor, he'd be welcome to come for a visit every day and if he was a first-time hunting partner, he would be welcome to share future campfires. Just that kind of fella.

Steve

I've "read" that the 243 is quite popular "over there".

TM

The .243 is quite popular in Africa, but mostly with biltong (meat) hunters who primarily take non-trophy animals. They use it even on female and younger bull kudu.

I believe Joe has had something of a change of heart on plains game rifles, however, since he went over a few years ago to hunt, not to guide, and encountered a big kudu bull immediately upon landing in camp. His 7x57 (brought for smaller plains game) was the only handy rifle, and one 150-grain Partition later the kudu was ready for the skinner. Joe was impressed, and I believe has revised his opinions some, which is all to his credit.

Joe is indeed a great guy to be out with. We hunted birds and fished together in Argentina a few years ago. A very good wingshot and angler, and great to be in camp with as well.

He got mad at the piranhas because they half-ate a silver teal he intended to have mounted before the duck could be picked up. We went out piranha fishing the next day, using duck intestines as bait. He caught a bunch! We called it "Coogan's Revenge."

MD

Thanks for the interesting comments guys!

I'm beginning to think a 30-06 or 308 would be an ideal one gun solution to a first African hunt. Excluding lions, buff, elephant etc. But maybe hippo and possibly crocs- dam things seem so nasty, they make you want to hunt them.

As for the piranhas - I once expressed casual interest in them at a local pet store chain - the goofy kid in the fish section said, watch this and proceeded to dump about 100 goldfish into the piranha tank... I was flabergasted - first that the nut did that - second at the rate the goldfish disappeared (and these were baby piranhas). Scales and bits of goldfish flotsam everwhere... I'm surprised Coogan had any duck left!

BTW - is "bitong" dried meat or meat generally?

TM

Great post gentlemen!

Huntr

TM-- Biltong is dried meat. The word comes from Dutch with BIL meaning buttock and TONG meaning strip.
Some people compare it to jerky but it's much better--it's not a thin strip but a whole muscle.

Thanks - That's what I thought. I hope it is better than some recent elk jerky I had. I swear it was so hard you had to cut chunks off with a knife and then suck on it for a while to get it soft enough to chew!

TM45--

The piranha that inhabited the knee-high water where we hunted ducks were rarely mor ethan about 5" long. When a duck fell dead where you could see it (there were lots of reeds) pretty soon it would start twitching. This was because of the little piranhas nibbling at it. If you waded over very carefully, you could pick the duck up with several little piranhas attached.

We fished for them, however, in a deep channel where many went over a pound, sometimes two. Also caught quite a few golden catfish up to 15" long, which have whiskers almost as long as their bodies, and are just as tasty as piranha.

MD

I'd always heard piranha were good eating. Dunno if I'd care to fish for them, though. There's another fish over there called a tigerfish or something like that. Guys were flyfishing for them. Had the nastiest teeth on a fresh water fish I'd ever seen!

Everything in Africa seems able to bite, sting, poison, claw, stomp or gore a guy. Or... eat you! Ha, ha!

TM

Let me get this right -- you guys walked knee deep through water to retrieve a duck being fed upon by piranah? Too much accumulated recoil, dude!

Not me, Mule Deer and Company! Ha, ha! Heck, I steer clear of bees and wasps!

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

There are a number of small antelope you could take with a .243, but otherwise it's too limited a cartridge to take to Africa, where the operative rule is, you never know what's going to come boiling out of the brush. The smallest rifle I've ever used over there is a .270, and I would not go smaller.