Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa What's your standard plains game rig ???

Pretty much what I intend to take next year.

Three safaris, M70 built by Gene Simillion, 30-06, shooting barnes Vor-tx factory ammo `168 TTSX. JJHack recommends this exact load and in my personal experience it works well at short (100 yds)and long range (300 yds)on any size of PG. Could do a 300Wm with the same bullet going a bit faster, but not needed.

I'll estimate 1000 animals have fallen to that combination from my rifle alone. As it is a loaned rifle to visiting hunters and an average hunter shoots 6-8 animals per hunt. You can see the resolution is high. Not a few good situations or perfect conditions, but rather whatever is available. The results are proven.

165 grain tsx at 2800 plus MV is a very good proven choice.

Mrs Blacktailer uses a Kimber Super America in 308. She has used it up to zebra. She lets me borrow it for plains game. Of course when an opportunity presents itself, whatever is in your hands is what to use so I've also taken warthog with the 375. It's handy that they share the M70 type action and safety so there is no need to think about which rifle is being carried at the time.

Pre 64 338-06 w/210 TTSX

.300 WM with 200 gr. Part..

I've only used two, the same two that have been with me on five safari's. The first is a M70 .375 H&H out of the Win custom shop and the second is an M70 in 7x57.

Mike

LOL!! I just saw that I already replied to this. Getting old sucks!

Confirmed. Two weeks out to Zim with the 416 Rem Mag for buffalo, sable, bushbuck and ???

SWEET! and yes on the ???????????????, any exceptional trophy that shows will be quickly added to the TF pay list.

I think a .30-06 or .300 that you shoot well with tough 180-grain bullets are what I would recommend. The PH we hunted with this year recommended .300 Win Mag with the same Barnes Vortex 180 TTSX that NTO recommended in this thread. These days I mainly hunt with custom FN Mausers in Brown or High Tech stocks or a Blaser R8, which are a great set up for the money if you can find the models witout a detachable trigger for around $2k. A M70, M77, Tikka and a lot of other rifles work also.

A few things I have learned about rifles and ammo on my African trips:

-Bring a rifle that you shoot well and shoot it enough to work out feeding issues (intentionally cycle and practice shooting quickly from the shoulder to see if you can create a feeding issue).
-Know where said rifle shoots with both a cold and warm barrel. I had a rifle I took that would clover leaf, but I hadn't shot it enough to realize that on a cold barrel it was 3-4" high and as much left every time. This plus having the gun sighted in 2.5" high at 100 made for a long day of chasing a badly hit Oryx on a 200 yard shot.
-I have hunted Limpopo and Namibia. The PH's there have recommended a 100 yard zero or maybe 1" high, which seems to work well in that country.
- I used to like light rifles but am realizing I shoot better with more barrel weight, especially off of sticks. I am trending to heavier rifles. Most of my trips we have probably walked five miles per day or so in sandy, rocky country. I am good with carrying a 9-pound rifle on five-mile hikes, especially if I have a sling.
-Order some shooting sticks from the place out of Ohio that makes African-style sticks and take them out and shoot on 5-10 occasions before the hunt at ranges from 100-300 yards. Study shot placement and get targets of African animals and use those for practice.
-PHs will often emphasize heavy, tough bullets such as Barnes. Listen to them. I think the hides of many African animals are tougher than NA equivalents and that muscle and bone structure may be as well. My father, myself and daughters, and friends that have hunted with us have caught a much higher percentage of tough bullets like TSXs than we have had go through. As an example this year, I had a 180 TTSX not penetrate to the lungs on a slight quartering shot on an Oryx and had the same bullet on a Blesbock (about the size of a Whitetail) not go through on a broadside shot.

Have fun in Africa.

You sure you have enough gun for that Bushbuck?

LOL, I've heard the Bushbuck will charge ya if you don't hit him hard enough!

Part 1 A Merkl DR in 9.3X74R 250 swift bullets with a leupold 1.5-5 scope with German #1 reticule.
Part 2 Range is on the way home from work. Stopped 3-4 times a week. Fired four shots off hand at 50 yards, let barell cool repeated for 4 more shots. Other days practiced off sticks at 100 yards. Never more than 8 shots per visit. Did that for 2 months. Practice pays off more than fire stick choice.

In 25 plus years as a PH one of the worst injuries I've ever seen was from a bushbuck that was shot poorly and tracked into thick bush. It decided to come for the PH and tracker. He hit the PH with one horn right into the thigh on the PH. That PH bled so bad the client and I had considered he might actually die. We were hunting in a rather civilized area near the town of Elisrass which had a good hospital at the time for the power plant.

I've seen more then one bush buck and several Nyala charge hunters and PH's over the years. They don't have the same "romantic" DG reputation of the typical DG species. However, they are not to be fooled with when wounded and cornered! Another horrible injury was from a zebra that bit the PH's fingers when he reached to pull the head out of the brush to see the quality of the mane. The Zebra crushed the fingers of his hand so badly they looked like he may lose them. He was fixed up and is still a PH today.

Never underestimate animals that have to fight for survival every single day!

Good to know Jim. I knew not to phobic with a zebra or a bushbuck, but I didn't know that about Nyala.

Gemsbok and Sable aren't something to mess with either if they have an ounce of life left in them...never heard of one chagrinning , but they'll swing those horns if you are close enough.....