Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa 30-06 in Africa

Steve,

When Eileen went on her first safari in 1999, along with me and Ingwe, she'd also heard tales about how tough African game could be. She'd been hunting with a couple different .270 Winchesters for over a decade, taking Montana game up through bull elk and moose quite handily, but decided to take my Ultra Light Arms .30-06. She killed four animals--kudu, gemsbok, blue wildebeest and red hartebeest--using the 165-grain Fail Safe bullet at around 2900 fps.

All except the kudu were one-shot kills, and the kudu would have died quickly from the first shot, because the bullet went through both lungs and exited the opposite shoulder on quartering-away shot. But the kudu started running through the brush, quartering the other way, and she put another similar shot into the opposite side.

After the safari she said, "I would have done just as well with my .270!" But on her next trip in 2008 to South Africa, she instead brought a .308 Winchester with 150-grain Nosler E-Tips handloaded to around 2850 fps--basically the same as a .270. She did equally well, including taking a big Burchell's zebra.