Along with the 9mm story, Phil has also told me (and written, I believe) that he prefers the .458 Winchester for following up wounded brown bears because it's a good compromise between portability, power, and how much it stuns bears. If I recall correctly, he's used cartridges up to the .505 Gibbs as backup on bears, but also stopped several charging, wounded browns with the .30-06.
I've found African PH's just about as varied in their opinions as Campfire members. Harry Selby, who has about as much experience as any, wrote fairly recently that he prefers the.416 Rigby over all other rounds--and the story that he "settled" for one because that was all they had a local gun store is a myth.
In 2011 I hunted with Luke Samaras safari company in Tanzania's Selous. Luke has as much experience as Selby; I believe he's 70 now, and started PH'ing in Kenya when it was still open to big game hunting, then went to Tanzania when Kenya closed--with a short stint of working for Rigby in England when Tanzania also closed briefly. Luke has a number of big rifles, including doubles, and has used quite a few others, but told me he also prefers a .416 Rigby bolt-action. His reasons are interesting: It provides plenty of penetration, even on elephant (Luke's favorite big game), but shoots flatter than many other larger-bore rounds, which can come in handy when shooting at a wounded lion running away at 200 yards. He doesn't think the extra power of larger .416's buys anything in killing power, but the extra recoil slows repeat shots--and for general BIG game back-up he prefers the extra magazine capacity of a bolt to the two quick shots of a double. Obviously, the .416 Rigby does not begin with a 5, yet two PH's with at least half a century of experience going back to Kenya each prefer it over anything else.
Many people assume that one PH's opinion is universal among PH's, and it isn't. I know at least a couple more very experienced PH's who firmly believe their clients should bring a .375 H&H for buffalo or elephant, and can back up their opinion with plenty of good evidence.
If anybody wants to read about the widely varying opinions of African PH's, they might take a look at both of Craig Boddington's SAFARI RIFLES books.
No disagreement here. I'm also a 416 fan and I've shot 505's and own a 458 Watts and I prefer the 416. In my experience the larger bore hit harder and do tend to slow the animals quicker, but the difference isn't nightband day.
I got banned on another web site for a debate that happened on this site. That's a first
