In addition to choosing your firearm, make sure to bring some type of diary to record the memorable events of your first Safari. After five trips to Namibia I still use the same diary and can reflect back on the game spotted, the locations and the conversations with my PH. I’ll be using the same diary on Safari #6 this coming July.
This.
Started doing it in the mid-1990s, not just for African safaris but all my hunting trips outside of Montana.
As an aside, one of my Montana friends decided to go to South Africa for the typical plains-game safari around a dozen years ago. He was worried enough about all the BS about how African game is so much harder to kill than North American game that he offered to buy me and Eileen lunch in a restaurant about halfway between our homes. Turned out his favorite rifle for Montana big game from pronghorns to elk was his .270 Winchester with 140-grain Barnes TSXs. He was thinking about buying a "bigger" rifle, but told him his .270 would work fine--partly because I'd seen the .270 140 TSX kill a bunch of plains game, including the supposedly very tough gemsbok, blue wildebeest and zebra. He took his .270, and after returning called to thank me.
But whatever. If somebody is convinced a .300-375 magnum is necessary for plains game, then they should take one. But have also seen more than one first-time safari hunter start flinching after shooting their magnum more often than they would on a North American hunt.
