Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa 30-06 in Africa

I doubt it is widespread, but I would not want my child eating lead fragments. If a premium bullet also reduces the chance an African child or mother will ingest lead, so much the better.

That there is a good first time list.

If the PH says "that's a good warthog" then I suggest shoot it!

your mauser is to me to nice to take to Africa for fear of losing such a fine old rifle they don`t make replacements. that`s why i am taking a new Tikka this rifle means very little to me yes i will take care of the rifle ,but nice older rifles are just hard for me to ruin or lose . so if you hear i died there will be a great auction or garage sell someday probably.

That is a real consideration especially after reading the other guys story about how they jammed him up

Always a winning equation!

Renting/borrowing a camp rifle may not be the worst idea either. Certainly cuts down on logistics and expense.

i just checked rifle rent $80.00 a day with ammo . i bet the ammo sucks ?

Have you guys seen what they actually eat in Africa? My god, pieces of lead are the least of their concerns. Considering it’s not uncommon for the trackers/villagers to cut up a bait impala that’s been hanging in a tree for 12 days and filled with maggots, then boil it, dry it, and eat it like it’s prime rib, Im pretty sure a little lead isn’t going to hurt them. There’s a reason covid didn’t ravage Africa like it did other places.

On another note, a 30-06 in Africa goes together like PB&J, like Bonnie and Clyde, like Adam and Eve, like hanky and panky, like fish and chips, like………. Well, you get the point. Take the f%&ken 30-06.

And gee, on his first safari Ernest Hemingway managed to kill not only plenty of plains game with a .30-06, but "dangerous game" using iron sights and factory ammo--more than a decade before some guy in Oregon developed one of the first "premium" bullets....

Same load and outcome here.

A lot of the standard cartridges don't even need premium bullets. A heavy cup and core works beautifully. I've taken all three of my Moose with C&C's

Yeah, which is why the 180-grain .30-06 factory load has worked very well for a long time. But some very good big game bullets are made in RSA.

Regardless, an experienced PH isn't going to have you use ammo that doesn't work....

PHs aren’t going to give you [bleep] ammo in a rental rifle. It just makes their follow up job tougher. I’ve used camp rifles on the last 10 safaris. No problems. I’ve taken croc, sable, kudu, gemsbok, wildebeest and lots of small stuff with a .30-06, all with no problems. Also no drama with multiple elephants, buffalo and hippo with larger calibers in camp rifles…. Use what you shoot best. A 30-06 is enough gun.

I’m not sure the locals over there get nearly as wrapped around the axle about their ammo as we Americans do. I’ve seen more than one box of 308 ammo that had a few types of ammo mixed in. Even saw one guy (a PH) who had military style FMJ ammo mixed in. I asked him what it was for and he just said he shot whatever ammo he ended up with 😳. I asked if he hunted with it…. Still kind of in disbelief, and he just nodded yes!

Also talked to a different PH who strongly disliked partitions but spoke highly of plain Jane sierras. I know these guys see far more animals shot every season than I will see in many years, but it did leave me a bit boggled by it all.

Was also in a camp where a Russian gentleman showed up to kill a buffalo, naturally curios I asked one of the PH’s what rifle/ ammo combo the guy brought along. The PH said he didn’t know! Again I was a bit perplexed. I did see a box of that clients ammo and wish I could remember what the load was but I do remember thinking it wasn’t what i personally would have picked. That guy ended up loosing his buffalo. My PH asked me if I’d like to go kill it if we could find it but we never got the chance.

About the only thing that is a constant that I can tell is that if a client shows up with a 308 or 30-06 and a Barnes bullet or A frame the guides are all happy!

The PH I talked to that didn’t like partitions said they ruined too much meat…but I bet they only knew that from all the recovered game!

Well, yeah--but one of the things about more than one Africa country is most of the meat's sold commercially. This is true both in both South Africa and Namibia.

Yeah, with birds, it's not just thru the gut and out, Lead gets in their gizzard, is ground up as part of their digestive process. I guess thru that process, some metallic lead gets turned into organic lead compounds and thus toxic.

With the trends we see on going about the environment, etc., don't be surprised if lead is eventually outlawed for all game hunting. We're not there yet, but who knows. Hysteria and the agenda win out over reason and logic, more times than not.

DF

Would it be possible to take the choice portions of meat for personal consumption instead of leaving it?

30-06 with 180gr TSX and you'll be fine on everything except maybe giraffe. That would require a head-shot.

My new favorite bullets are the new Speer Grand Slams in the black factory box. In the last couple of years, I've taken somewhere around 40-45 head from zebra (mountain and plains), blue w/b, gemsbok, impala, springbok etc. Only recovered a couple.

Regarding, "Would it be possible to take the choice portions of meat for personal consumption instead of leaving it? ". If you asking about consuming it there, yes. Most places/camps, you'll be eating nothing but game meat, most likely from what you've taken. If you talking about bringing it out of the country and into the US, that's illegal. Same goes for trying to bring back biltong, even if it is commercially packaged and store bought or purchased at the airport. Seen a number of guys get popped for it coming thru baggage claim/Customs over the years.

Its kinda a pain to bring rifles over, but I'd rather use my own and one I'm familiar with.

I've used a few over there and the triggers were awful and just so so scopes. Did shoot a monster warthog with an old converted mauser in .243 that I would have loved to call my own.

You can do the paper work yourself, or its about a hundred bucks plus your travel case, if you don't have one.

Generally the safari operators use some of the choicer cuts to feed their clients, and some of the rest goes to the camp staff. Whether the rest actually gets sold depends on how far the hunt takes place from a butcher shop and/or restaurants.
If it's a long way, much of the meat gets dried into biltong in camp, and then either sold or used by the PH, camp workers, etc.

Once rode back from a tent-safari camp in Botswana's Okavango Delta on the high-seat of a Land Cruiser next to a bag of biltong as large as a 55-gallon drum.

It's not legal to bring meat from Africa into the U.S. unless its dried then sealed in plastic, or canned.