Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Mule Deer - Elk Cartridges Question

When I was a boy, I read a great deal from Jack O'Connor about suitable rifles and cartridges for African hunting, and to this day, I've found most of his opinions to be right on the money, based on my own experiences.

In contrast, Elmer Keith's bullet-proof African big game animal yarns from his book, "Safari" are absolutely ludicrous, and do NOT serve as any great endorsement for the big bores he loved to promote, rather as an indictment against them. Mostly, his written testimony leads he to believe that he didn't shoot his big bores all that well after all, that he had problems with some of this loads, and that he was, in general, as full of crap as a Xmas turkey.

Bad shooting and bad bullets lead to problems in Africa, just like anywhere else. One of the real differences I've found in Africa is that you must learn to shoot QUICKLY as well as accurately. Excessive cogitation leads to muffed opportunities......

My general observation is that any good, solid, elk-caliber rifle makes an absolutely perfect African plainsgame rifle, JUST AS LONG AS YOU FEED IT GOOD BULLETS! If you insist on using varmint bullets or southern whitetail bullets, or else you want to cut you budget in the bullet department, you deserve the problems you'll reap.

One more observation: I think most of the romanticized British big-bore cartridges that some guys insist on using for everything, from dik dik to eland should be left at home, and a lighter-to-carry, general-purpose rifle between 30-06 and 338 Win. Mag. should be selected instead............

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