Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Empty Casings in Africa

I enjoy finding old cartridge empties while hiking or hunting. An old 30 Remington, .225 Winchester or 30-40 krag helps date the hunter, as opposed to modern .270 or .243 brass. I always look around and wonder what critter they were shooting at. In my part of the southwest, an old military brass 45-70 or 50-70 likely means a soldier or an Apache shooting at something, perhaps each other.

I saw that cartridge belt in the classifieds, for culling, made me wonder what you guys might find in the way of empties in Africa. Certain eras of brass could perhaps date the cartridge to a specific time in Africas history? A .405 Winchester, gotta wonder if maybe Teddy Roosevelt left it there. A pile of 7.62x39 here means someone was blasting at some beer bottles, but a pile of 7.62s in Africa likely could have deeper darker history.

Thoughts?

I only found a 25-35 case in NW Wisconsin along a river bank when the water was low.

i walk my road every day for the last 30 years 1 mile or more , in those 30 years i only found one loaded shell and that was 2 weeks ago about 100 yards from my home and it was a brand new 35 Whelen loaded Remington cartridge. someone from up above must have wanted me to get a 35 Whelen to shoot and hunt with ? so i am having a Ruger # 1 rebored by Jess and chambered to a 35 Whelen now. i have told friends about this cartridge i found near my home they say that is very strange but kinda neat too . Pete53

When I was a kid, our farm property included a couple hundred acres of desert cheat grass.

I picked up about a bucket full of 30-06 cases with stripper clips circa 1970. Someone was having a ball with, I suppose, some surplus 1903 Springfields. It was a nice 300 to 400 yards shot across the draw to the opposite hillside depending on if you shot just a bit downhill or uphill.

It would have been neat to also find some enbloc 8 round clips, but there were none.

Only cases I found when there were 06, and 308.

I didn`t leave any 7x57s there.

I don't believe I would shoot a ''found'' cartridge.

If anyone finds a spear in Namibia, ingwe might want it back.

I've never seen any spent brass while hunting in Africa, but I was mostly in areas where there aren't a lot of people, so that's not surprising.

The trackers are experts at finding and returning spent brass……

Don't believe anything this dollarloser has to say, about anything.........he's a stupidass with no credibility.

So you've been reduced to Ribka's twin. Following people around and harassing them for their Covid positions

Lying dumbasses are easy targets.

The first fired case I found in Africa was a .465 H&H Magnum--a belted round mostly used in double rifles. But it was lying in the dust near the sight-in bench on my very first safari. I picked it up and put it in my pocket--and that evening gave it to my PH, who thanked me profusely. It was from his father's double rifle, and even back then (30 years ago) they cost around $3 apiece.

Have found more .308 Winchester brass than any other, partly because it's what many plains-game PHs, and poachers in general, use.

Good stuff John!

It just dawned on me that perhaps if I had to worry more about prides of African lions, hyenas, cape buffalo, etc. That maybe I would spend more time looking up instead of down for empty casings!

My first trip was to Botswana, 2001, July-August.
First leg was in Tuli Block.
One day we climbed a kopje for fun.
PH found a very old-looking, dirty and beat up .303 British case up there.
He seemed quite gratified with that historical find.
I was too busy with the view from that little rock hill, but appreciated his happiness with the find,
as he said it might have been from a pioneer farmer he knew of.
The PH himself managed a citrus farm nearby.

I am a retired physician too.
I got suckered into taking the vax too.
Wife had to take it in 2020 as she was still working as an RN,
since retired too.
I took it in solidarity with her.
I will never take another one.

A good friend never had problems with blood clots
until after he had the vax.
He has since lost a leg.
Many more men under 40 y.o. are dropping dead from sudden cardiac death than was the rate before the vax.

When I studied corona virus in microbiology and med school over 45 years ago,
it was just a common cold virus.
Covid-19 has become that again.

They never could make an effective vaccine against
the common cold, let alone a safe one.
They still can't.

Count your blessings if you never got the vax.
You are golden.
I think I got "covid-18" from doing jury duty in January 2019.
Had some natural immunity, so the Pfizer vax I took made me sick with first dose. Second dose gave no reaction.
Natural immunity from catching covid is the way to go.

I have been trying to catch a case of it naturally for the past 3 years and can't do it.
Or I have had it several times with no symptoms.
The experts say the vax does not prevent infection or transmission to others,
unlike the lies they told early on.

The wife picked it up, presumeably on one of the three airplanes she rode home on from China; one Chinese and two from Qatar. She felt tired and had a little cough. Her husband had fever, chills, headache, body aches, weakness, and the same cough. The only precautions being taken on that trip were the health declaration she filled out online and that they took her temperature at the airport in Hangzhou, her point of departure from China.

I took ivermectin for three days, then the doctor gave me Paxlovid, and between the two most of my symptoms were gone by day 5, except the weakness and loss of taste. Both of those are mostly gone now too. I’ve had lots of colds that made me feel much worse, and flu that was living death by comparison.

The Paxlovid gives you a truly awful taste in your mouth while you’re taking it. That goes away too, but talk about nasty!

I found a live South African mortar in Namibia. That was sorta cool, but I couldn't take it home. Dang. I had plans for it...

In my two trips, I have never found a fired casing in Africa.

Was amazed that after I had shot, the tracker was right there with any of my empties that hit the dirt.

I found a 300win mag and a 308 in the African bush. But on a high ridge in Colorado I found a 264win mag and two 270win cases near a large rock I had climbed up to sit beside and glass the area. I sat and wondered when they were fired and at what. It was an unproductive sit but my mind was well entertained as I sat pondering the scenarios.

I’ve only ever left 3 spent cases in Africa. One I lost in a dug out used in the Boer War in S Africa after I shot a black wildebeest poorly and then ran my rifle dry trying to down him. Than two .416Rigbys in the vast and swampy grass lands of Mozambique. I hope someone finds them someday and wonder of the stories they would tell.