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Reading Kevin Thomas's "Shadows of an African Twilight. In the chapter on Springbok culling, he mentioned that there was a certain popular cartridge that Chub Eastman did not like.

What cartridge?


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I would guess the .270 Winchester but don't know for sure, even though I hunted and "discussed" rifles and cartridges a lot with Chub. He tended to like faster velocities in cartridges of .30 or under, and plenty of bullet weight in "medium bores."

Can specifically remember what he used on a few hunts we did together. Two were in Wyoming, first whitetails in the Black Hills where he brought a .300 WSM, and on a pronghorn hunt a few years later he used a .280 Remington Ackley Improved. Everybody did on that hunt, because it was an "invitational" deal when Nosler introduced the round as a factory cartridge--but he liked the .280 AI long before then, as well as one of its derivative wildcats, the 6.5/.280 AI---which he called the 6.5 Blow-Hole Express. On his last safari in 2011 (where I shared a tent with him) he took one rifle, a custom .375 Ruger.

Interestingly, he preferred the .223 Remington for prairie-dog shooting--which we did a lot of together. He had a custom .223 that he shot (often when very hot) until it wouldn't "group" minute-of-dog anymore. He roughly calculated that barrel had fired close to 20,000 rounds before he had another installed--and the rifling was just about gone for 7 inches in front of the chamber.

But I can ask Kevin, and see if he remembers.


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Was wondering if it was a 270 or 30-06. cool


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Wasn’t he a 243 nut too? I seem to remember he designed the 70gr BT to open up but with enough jacket to kill deer as well. Same with the 120gr 7mm.

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Originally Posted by 375Taylor
Wasn’t he a 243 nut too? I seem to remember he designed the 70gr BT to open up but with enough jacket to kill deer as well. Same with the 120gr 7mm.

I know he was the driving force behind the 95 grain BT's design. I have used that bullet on whitetail and it is deadly.

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Vic I don't disagree with what you say most of the time but Gale Root was the designer and force on the 95 nbt as well as the 120 7mm nbt...mb


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Sir, I stand corrected on that, you are absolutely right.

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I know from using both that they are 2 nosler bullets that never fail to work..mb


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CRS,

I just received an e-mail from Kevin Thomas, who was the PH on the springbok cull Chub and I and several other guys went on in 2002. In fact Chub helped organize the hunt, which was offered by a booking-agent friend of his in Oregon. He mentioned it to me at the SHOT Show that winter, and was such a good deal that I said yes.

The hunt took place on a huge ranch in the Karoo region of RSA, and we could take trophies as well as cull animals--though had to pay the regular fee for the trophies. (I eventually took my biggest springbok for a surprisingly modest trophy fee.)

The first day was successful, and everybody was celebrating somewhat--though Chub didn't shoot, because his rifle hadn't shown up at the airport in Johannesburg. Somebody else had brought a spare .270, and offered it to Chub until his rifle was delivered to the ranch. He said not just no, but hell no. One of his early jobs in the business was working for a sporting goods store in Lewiston, Idaho, where O'Connor was a customer--and he did not like Jack. (Don't know if Chub ever tried a .270, but do know he loved both the .280 and .280 AI--and in fact gave me some good advice on handloading the .280 when I got my first, a custom rifle made by the late Dave Gentry, who Chub knew too.)

Now for the rest of the story: Chub's rifle never did show up during the week-long Karoo hunt, because it had taken the wrong flight out of Washington, D.C., though it made it to Joberg some days later, it was held there by SAPS until the mess was straightened out, arriving home three weeks after Chub did. In the meantime I'd done all the field-testing I needed to with one of the two rifles I'd brought, a Ruger No. 1 .375 H&H--which was the main reason Chub asked me if I wanted to go on the hunt, to field-test some new Nosler .375 bullets. I did--but also brought a .30-06 which afterward needed to be tested for various reasons. So Chub took over my .375 in preference to using the "damned .270" for the rest of the week.

The other thing that happened was Kevin Thomas and I really hit it off. Plus, he was just starting a brand-new safari business in RSA, where he had some relatives, after Kevin and his wife Brenda decided to get the hell out of Zimbabwe--where they'd been living and running a safari business for years. Kevin didn't have another safari booked after the Karoo cull, so invited me to spend another week with him and Brenda in their home in Bathurst, near Port Elizabeth--and we could do some hunting on local ranches for the typical array of Eastern Cape animals, including Cape kudu. I didn't have anything pressing at home, so contacted Eileen and said it was another great deal, and she said sure. (This sort of thing has happened a few other times during our 40 years, and she's always understood.)

So Kevin and I hunted some more, and I got a good Cape kudu and bushbuck. We also did some touristing, and when a rifle company wanted to do a similar (but longer) cull-type hunt a few years later, I asked Kevin if he could arrange it. He did, a 3-week deal on the big family ranch of an old friend near Grahamstown, which was a success. (Eileen got to go on that one.)

But a few years ago Kevin and Brenda decided to semi-retire, as the future in RSA didn't look all that great either. (He's 71, a year older than I am.) They moved to England, for a couple of reasons. First, one of their sons grew up to be a top-notch custom gunmaker, working for one of the major, old-time British companies for a while before establishing his own shop. Second, Brenda was born and raised in Malawi, the daughter of a British missionary, and had dual citizenship. They bought one of the "canal boats" quite a few people live on over there, and Kevin continues to write some, as well as paint wildlife-type stuff. (He was painting--and selling his paintings--when I met him, which is why we have a couple on our walls.)

Hopefully in our semi-retirements we'll all get together again sometime, either over there or here. He's actually been to my part of Montana before, while attending the big winter hunting shows over here, and is also acquainted with a local rancher.


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John, what a great adventure that must have been! When it comes to BTDT, it doesn't get any better than this. cool

Thank you and be well. smile -Al


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Thanks for the background info. Have been enjoying his book.

Was just curious about about Chub's disdain for a popular cartridge. His disdain is my huckleberry.


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Yeah, I like the .270 a lot too. Bought my first one in 1974, and Eileen and I have used it considerably on big game from pronghorns to bull moose. In fact, the Shiras bull she killed with one of her .270s in 1989 is the quickest-deadest lung-shot moose I've witnessed over the years. Of course, I have to "experiment" with different cartridges, and in the last few years have used several 6.5s ranging up to the 26 Nosler. Lately I've hunted most with the 6.5 PRC, which basically duplicates .270 velocities, and it's worked fine.

But late last summer came across a pre-'64 Featherweight .270 in a local gun store, in hunted but all-original condition--including the front sight hood. The "O'Connor premium" (as some call the usually somewhat elevated prices many people pay for Featherweight .270s) wasn't too bad, so I bought it. My fall agenda was pretty well set by then, but plan to hunt with it this coming fall--or maybe even use it on a spring bear. Have owned several '64 Featherweights before, but never a .270....


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Originally Posted by Al_Nyhus
John, what a great adventure that must have been! When it comes to BTDT, it doesn't get any better than this. cool

Thank you and be well. smile -Al

Thanks!

One thing I've written about more than once recently is how lucky I've been in my career. Not only started out back when magazines paid a lot more than they do today, but had many opportunities to travel inexpensively to hunt many places--often with Eileen--one of the reasons I decided to become an "outdoor" writer in the first place. Have hunted in quite a few countries around the world, some multiple times--such as 15 trips to Canada and eight to Africa.

Many people plan to travel after they retire. But by the time I turned 60 a decade ago, we'd both done enough traveling to grow a little weary of airports, and had done the trips we'd hoped to. So I decided to stay in Montana, hunting with family and friends, unless some unusually interesting opportunity came along. There have been a few, such as an all-bird safari in South Africa in 2015. I love bird hunting as much as big game, but in Africa only got to do a little on the side before that. Also went to Finland that fall, to tour the Sako/Tikka factory and hunt deer and moose. But basically we stay in Montana anymore--which is a pretty good place to fish and hunt!

John


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I don’t have anything to add to the thread topic of what caliber Chub didn’t care for, but I did end up with his 6.5-280AI a few years back. As Mule deer said it is engraved blowhole express. It’s based on a Winchester model 70 action. I can’t remember off the top of my head what barrel is on it or stock manufacturer. I believe it might have been an MPI stock.
Every once in awhile I pull it out of the safe it lives in and imagine the things that rifle has seen. I listened to stories from my step dad of his adventures with chub and decided to purchase the rifle for sentimental reasons. I personally haven’t hunted with it but do plan on it one day. I have done some google searching on it and have found quite a bit of info on the rifle. Anyone interested can google it up and a few articles will pop up. His nephew came into my gun shop a few times and I told him I was the owner of that rifle. We had some fun conversations about Chub.


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