Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa 30-06 in Africa

The 30 06 is what was recommended on my first trip for plains game in RSA. I asked the PH what about the backup rifle caliber, he said 30 06. He really meant take two rifles in the same caliber. His other recommendation, if I had to take another caliber, was .375. I ended up taking a custom Winchester Model 70s, one in 30 06 and the other rebarreled to 340 Weatherby Mag by Match Grade Arms. At the time, late 90's, I bought the best scopes money could buy. One the third day of a two week trip, one of the crew dropped the rifle out of the truck and it rendered the scope useless and not fixable. Both rifles had no backup sights and different mounting types and rings which was poor risk management on my part, as most of the animals shot could have been easily taken with open sights.

The 30 06 with 180 grain Nosler Partitions and 56.5 grains of 4350 absolutely did it's job 100%, even on 330 yard shot on a big Zebra Stallion, of which it was the only animal I was able to recover the bullet on the far side and retained by the hide. Perfect mushroom, still have the bullet. I am 100% sold on the 30 06 since then and use the .375 Ruger as the second rifle for the two rifle global hunting rifle battery. Both cartridges can be loaded with almost the same poi with handloading. Having two calibers that are almost identical in ballistics but very different calibers is very nice. Scopes can be swapped fast if needed, and both have backup sights that I always check when shooting the rifles.