Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa What to take

I have used .22-250, .243, 30-06, and .375 H&H. The 30-06 works well on Zebra and most plains game. With the .375 H&H I have used 270 and 300 gr. I liked the 270 gr.

In addition to a diary, I always take a money belt. I can fit 28 $100 bills in the one I bought for $18 off of Amazon.

Well, yeah. It's also a good place to keep your passport...or a photocopy.

I’d probably bring one of the standard cartridges you mentioned. I only made one trip and had a Blaser R92 with two low powered-scoped barrels, one in 30/06 and another in 375. I started out with the 375 intending to switch up half way through but the PH suggested I keep using it. It worked well and was fun, but the 06 would have accomplished the same.

Practice over the sticks. The more the better.

With the time and expense to get there, plan a tour, or other side trips either before your main adventure or after. Take lots of pictures.

I faced a similar question before my trip to Namibia a few years ago. I had a Ruger 77 RSM in 375HH that had been in my safe for five years waiting for this trip and I really wanted to take it. I justified in my mind because I was planning to hunt Eland along with Kudu and Oryx. I did follow advice I read on this forum and practiced a lot and on shooting sticks, including with snap caps. I shot 300 grain A-Frames and had great results because I was very comfortable with the rifle.

My buddy who also went bought a Dakota 76 African Traveller in 300HH and 375HH for this trip. He lives in a different state and when we met in Atlanta I found out he decided only to take the 375HH barrel because that was what I was shooting.

You can guess what happened. He had not shot much and had an issue with the 375 recoil. After two days of misses he shifted to the PHs Winchester Model 70 Classic Stainless 300WM with VX6 CDS and had no further problems.

Bottom line advice is great but you need to filter through your own judgement.

In the end I offered my buddy $50 for that crappy gun, but for some reason he decided to keep it.

with a little luck i plan on going next year 2023 i plan on taking a 30-06 because of this ammo is so easy to find in the world. but i will take 2 scopes with picatinny mounts rings on both scopes have rings set already too both will be have illuminated ability for night hunting critters too.

375 H&H for a few reasons. 375 ammo is readily available there. I had SA police steal my ammo from my bag once. They put a note in there that they took it. I think it’s bc they liked the Pelican case it was in … but I digress.

There are some plainsgame animals that are insanely tough. You can kill them with a 308, but if I’m paying trophy fees, I’m shooting a 375 on everything.

Namely, Blue Wildebeest, Zebra and Gemsbuck can take punishment. A Sable is likely the toughest PG animal I have encountered. Saw two Sable hit properly with a 416 Rem completely shrug it off. Never found one of them. The second one ran forever.

Kudu and even Eland aren’t too tough, though, there is a lot of meat on an Eland. Any deer caliber is sufficient on most of the rest (Warthog, Impala, Hartebeest etc).

Tough to beat a 30-06 with 180 grain partitions for most plains game. A 300 win with 200g partitions or a frames is also a good way to go. The places I hunted rarely offered shots beyond 250 but it was Northern transval near potgietersrus once and near warm baths or Bela Bela the other time. Eastern cape or Namibia can offer longer shots. Last time I took a 375 ruger with 260 grain NABs and a 300 wsm with 165g interbonds.

That old 165g interbond load of mine was great on deer and elk but I ended up just using the 375 ruger to go 5 for 5. Five one shot kills no misses but I wasn't very recoil sensitive at the time. Next time I'll probably take a 30-06 with 180 or 200 grain partitions unless I go somewhere that offers longer shots.

Bb

In 2016 I went to RSA for plains game. I planned on bringing Stainless Ruger's in 375 Ruger and 35 Whelen. I had right hand surgery and ended up getting a bad case of tennis elbow on the left side from picking up a pretty heavy box. Every time I shot the heavy kickers, my left elbow would scream in pain. I ended up taking a Kimber Montana in 7-08 shooting 120 grain Barnes TTSX and a Sako A7S in 270 Winchester shooting Sako factory 156 Hammerheads.

I killed 5 head of game, the Impala, Warthog and Blesbok all were DRT one shot with the 7-08, 136, 80 and 156 yard shots. I also shot a Kudu and Gemsbok with the 270, both dropped at the shot and both needed on the spot finishing shots. The Sako Hammerheads both suffered corr/jacket separations. Shot distances were 50 and 75 yards.

A couple of guys in camp were using 30-06's and wounded a Wildebeest and zebra which were never found. Another hunter using a 7mm RM wounded a Warthog which resulted in a day and half chase onto a neighboring hunting consession and eventually being killed by the neighboring PH with a 10mm pistol.

So my advice is take the rifle you shoot the best, use a premium bullet and practice a lot.

Good luck!
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