Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Tough enough for Africa...........

Everybody always wants to know is the bullet tough enough for Africa game, how about the rifle?????

How tough does the rifle need to be for African hunting? Do you need a plastic stock, or lamo or a heavy walnut stock? Why do I ask....a few weeks ago I bought a Remington 700 Mountain rifle in 30-06, pretty rifle, very accurate and is nice to carry, weighs 7 lbs with a 3-9x Leupold. But can it stand up to a 10 day hunt in Africa?? With the thin stock and light weigth barrel would it be a risk to take on safari or would a heavier built rifle be better?????????? Curious to see what everyone thinks.

Thanks
41Gunner

craig boddington has hunted africa numerous times with a "stock" ruger m77 30-06. he did OK, so i am sure you will. no need for plastic or ss. i have been there numerous time thanks to uncle sam, and have yet to see a stainless/synthetic rifle, although i am sure some folks use them. enjoy your hunt as your rifle will do just fine.

Except for the fact it's a Remington, you should have no trouble.
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I took a stock Remington 700 to africa back in 1971, a gift for doing well in school and not getting the British Sports car. I didn't have any problems other than the 30 days went to quickly. Most things that give guys on hunts trouble, are scopes and mounts. Leupolds are pretty trouble free, Make sure your mounts have been installed properly. You would be surprise on how many rifles you come across that are not. Other than that, shoot good bullets out of that 06 and go collect yourself ten head of game. Of late, my go to rifle has been an off the rack Sako 75 in 338 Winnie. Been so since I bought it in 1997, nothing goes wrong with it, just shoot to check zero and then shoot game, took an elk last week out in Montana, took a deer in CT with it before I left, shot Moose in Alaska with it for 9 seasons, I will be back in CT before Thanksgiving and on Thanksgiving Morining I will be hunting deer with it. The only thing I would have changed is that I would not mine it at all if it was a 9.3 x 62 but Sako don't bring them into the US. My Sako 75 is Stainless, more so for wet alaska then anything else. A wood and blued rifle would have worked out as well. I did go with the strong sako mounts, and a 3x -9x Ziess.

For plainsgame use, your Model 700 30-06 should be OK in terms of performance.

Personally, I almost always take a McMillan-stocked rifle to Africa. I strongly prefer synthetic stocks over wood, and one of the reasons is that there's less chance for suffering a broken stock due to the hazzards of travel.

I can think of several guys, including Craig Boddington, who've arrived in Africa only to open the rifle case and discover a broken stock. This hazzard is real, and it's a heck of a problem to resolve when you're 10,000 miles from home.

Last year my rifle case was absolutely brutalized somewhere between Seattle and Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, and I had a heck of a time opening it up when I arrived, and an even worse time getting it to close when I was ready to go home. The case was so badly dented and beaten up that the only way to fix it was to dispose of it and buy a new one.

But my two McMillan-stocked rifles were not harmed at all, but had they been stocked in wood, I think the odds are very high that they would have been broken..........

AD

Allenday brings up a good point. I use an aluminum case with extra-thick aluminum. Mule Deer (John Barsness) takes his rifle out of the stock and transports it in a shorter case. Less leverage and looks less like a rifle.

As for the rifle itself, after you get it there, "tough" is not an issue. During my hunt in June in RSA, the temperature ranged from 40 degrees to 70 degrees and the sky was blue all day every day.

A rifle has to be a lot "tougher" for hunting in Alaska or the Rockies, or for deer hunting in Pennsylvania, for that matter.

I used a stainless barrel and synthetic stock only because I had bought that particular rifle for an Alaska hunt. It rained about 3 hours every day in Alaska.

Take your 30-06 with some 180 grain Nosler Partitions and you'll do just fine.

allen,

What kind of case do you use?

Indy, I have quite a few aluminum gun cases of various makes, and most of them have been pretty good. The case that got so badly beaten up was an ICC.

www.icc-case.com

The case I've used the most and the one that's flown the most miles, been to the widest number of states and foreign countries, and has been the most use & abuse-proof of them all is a single-rifle case from Americase. Other that to replace the cordura cover a couple of times, that little case is as good as new. It's my favorite case by far.

www.americase.com

I just can't get into the Tuff-Pak concept. I own one, and I've tried to make it work, but every time I pack it up for a hunt, I always have second-thoughts, then unpack, put the rifle into a hard aluminum case, and put everything else into a Filson duffle.

AD

Allen,

Thanks for the information about cases. I also use a cordura cover, with two little wheels, for my dual-rifle Cabela's case. I got the one with the extra thick aluminum. I need a single rifle case and will check out the Americase. I'm thinking about doing what John Barsness (Mule Deer) does and take down the rifle to use a shorter case.

I would not take a new rifle to Africa. Make sure you have shot it heavily and in field conditions. This gives you opportunity to discover loose screws, ejection problems etc... A dangerous game rifle needs an entirely different level of check up. I personally would not use a Remington for dangerous game but I know others that have without problems. Make sure that your rifle is at its best because you will not be able to visit your smith and will not be able to get parts. I also recommend that you take a good basic screwdriver set that fit all of your screws on the mounts,gun, and scope. Mine came in handy when British Airways broke the stock on my 416 Rigby and I had to cobble its scope onto a borrowed 375 H&H.

I normally do "take-down" my rifles these days to travel anywhere. It just makes everything easier, except of course for the few minutes needed to put them back together again. Like Allen, I have a whole pile of gun cases, but lately have been using super-tough plastic cases. My main take-down case is from Browning, a single-gun case with wheels on one end. It has been on maybe 10 hunts so far and held up extremely well, better than many of the highly touted steel cases.

The worst steel case I have ever owned was a Bear Track, before Freedom Arms bought the company. This was a custom-made double take-down case, and on its second trip (to Africa) one of the loick hasps broke. I had it welded on there, and then two ,more trips later the other one broke. I have not used it since. I hope Freedom Arms has fixed the problem. It is not worth buying a $300 case if the locking mechanism itself is a piece of $5 junk.

It is indeed a good idea to shoot a rifle a lot before taking it on a long trip. You might also take along a spare scope, and the tools to install it. Even Leupolds can break if they get bashed against something.

I took a Remington 700 ADL in .30-06 to South Africa in 2002, partly just to show readers that you don't need a fancy rifle to hunt Africa. I did put it in a laminated stock, from the company that is now Serengeti, and used a 3-9x Swarovski in Talley mounts. My handloads used 180 Partitions at around 2750 fps, and they killed around 10 head of game, from springbok to kudu, all with one shot--except for a miss on e HUGE springbok. I am very used to hunting pronghorn and thought he was further away than he was, since springbok are a size smaller than prairie goats. A second shot did the trick, however. The kudu was the longest shot I've ever attempted in Africa, close to 400 yards.

Generally it takes one "settling shot" for a rifle that's put back together to go back to zero. I've found that true even with pillar-bedded stocks. I have also taken the buttsock off Ruger No. 1's to fit them into take-down cases. It works very well.

John Barsness