Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa 30-06 in Africa

thanks for those positive kind words and i will. Pete53

Every picture I posted, including the Rhinos would be deader than a doornail at that range with my .30-06.

You just can not go wrong with any .30 Cal, depending on the distance

Thanks for the laff. Good way to start the morning...

I've loosely followed along with all the posts here. Like a lot of other similar posts asking similar basic question, "Is XXX caliber good enough....."

I think too many people spend a bit too much time worrying about this and way over-thinking it all. Very understandable for someone who's making their first and possibly once in a lifetime or life long dream trip. Without any direct fist hand knowledge of the actual body sizes of the various species, unknown terrane of the hunting area, is it bushveld or open long shots etc, etc. It's normal for us to want to have the best we can do and use the best we can have.

There has been something very important mentioned a couple of times in previous posts in this thread that I'm not sure have hit home like they should. That's the importance of being able to shoot off either 2 or 3 legged standing shooting sticks. I've seen first hand, way too many guys obsess with getting their rifle dialed in to the holy grail of "sub-MOA" off a shooting bench but, NOT put the time and effort required to seriously practice off standing shooting sticks a 100yds. They pitch up proud as punch with their sub-MOA rifle but, they shoot well the first day off the bench during verification sight-in but, they themselves are 20-MOA shooters off the sticks. It can be a VERY frustrating, VERY humbling and VERT expensive trip.

After a lot of trips with a lot of guys and myself included, I am a firm believer in K.I.S.S - Keep it Stupid Simple. I've seen way too many guys pitch up with WAY over equipped for a typical bushveld hunt where 99% of ALL shots are typically under 200m. They show up with way over powered variable power scopes, scopes with "twisty turrets", scopes with bubble levels, integral range finders or hand held range finders etc, etc, etc., AND they INSIST on lazing EVERY shot and "doping" their twisty turrets for EVERY (sub 200m) shot with their variable scope set at the highest possible magnification. Then they think, shooting of standing shooting sticks is "no big deal" and you stand behind them and you actually watch the muzzle swing wildly all over Africa because the can't see/find the animal standing 100-150m away. Then when they see the first sign of "hair" they pull the trigger no mater and wound the animal and the tracking rodeo is on and the fee is due and payable - animal recovered or not.

Just about every PG legal caliber from 7mm dia and larger, if sighted in at 1 1/2" high at 100yds will still be spot on at 200yds. A good scope set at 4x and just put the crosshairs on the center of the vital triangle. VERY little need to correct for hold over/under. Most people, IF they even take the time to study the shot placement pictures, think the vital area is only that little small red dot. The reality is the vital area is a good bit bigger. Example is springbok, it's about a 4" circle. Impala, 6" circle, gemsbok 7" circle, kudu 9", zebra 10", eland 12+. The most common shot placement error US hunters make is shooting too far back like for whitetail or not confident in their shooting and opt for just getting lead in the body (very expensive choice). On a full broadside shot on African PG if you hit just a little bit behind the front leg, you're going to hit lung/liver and you're going to have a long track. The farther back you hit simply reduces your odds of recovery even further.

Guess my overall points are; a) use a rifle and caliber (recoil level) that you are comfortable shooting. b) Use a COMMON caliber in case ammo doesn't arrive. c) Use bullet weights that are considered "heavy for caliber". d) Strive to find the best factory or handload ammo that works in your rifle. DON'T obese over it. IF the best you can do is 2-MOA off the bench, but you can hit a 4" circle at 100yds EVERY TIME from standing sticks, you and your rifle will be fine. e) KISS - leave the fancy complicated stuff at home. A good 4x scope is all you really need on a rifle you trust, zeroed at 1 1/2" high at 100. Put the crosshairs in the vital triangle and SQUEESE and you'll have a very enjoyable and successful trip.

Agree with nearly all the things you say, except rather than not "obese" they shouldn't "obsess", although they shouldn't be obese anyway. Also, 1 1/2" at 100 is not high enough when you're not twisting turrets. The scope for most cartridges should be about 2 1/2" to 3" high at 100 yards.

I recall back in the early 1970's it was most always suggested to sight in 3" high at 100 yds. I still do pretty much that today but my difference is the longest range I'd shoot at a big game animal is 300yds and have only done that one time just to say I did it. I shoot a 243, 25-06, 6.5x55, 260 Rem 6.5x06 and a 30-06. Every one of them gives me close to 270 yd dead on hold. That's with bullet path being 3" high at mid range and 3" low at MPBR. Has always worked well for me. Longest shot for me ever on big game was a deer at 330yds, range from range finder. Deer was hit in the chest and turned around and walked about ten feet and laid down dead. Did it just to say I'd done it, pretty poor reason to do it! Did that with my 6.5x06 and 140r Hornady interlock.

I've owned two 338 mags and one 7mm Mag in the past and what they taught me was I hate recoil with a passion. So the biggest thing I shoot any more in my 30-06 with 180gr bullet's. Got the magnum's shooting very well but had to shoot them a lot just to learn to handle the recoil and keep it manageable. Another thing might also come from them is that standard cartridges kill just as well as any magnum on most game with a proper and properly placed bullet's. Fishing in Alaska years ago I took along my 308 loaded with 200gr bullet's for bear protection. 200gr bullet was pretty slow in it and shot at best right at 2" at 100yds but I wasn't gonna shoot at anything near that far off and at 200gr the bullet was going to maintain weight and penetrate well from a 308 at closer range's!

I know at this point I'll never hunt Africa but if I did I'd use my 30-06. Then, of course I would not tackle any really dangerous game. If I was to go hunting dangerous game in North America, Grizzly or Brown bear, I'd take my 30-06 and probably would work up a 200gr load for it. I would not shoot at a distance where that might work against me. Like confine my shots to maybe 100yds or less and choose only the really good shots.

Great advice, especially with this newer crowd that are inundated with advertising/marketing for Long Range Hunting (shooting) That's OK as far as it goes, they can shoot steel at many ranges set up for that, but Bushveld isn't the place for it. Before my first trip (96) I decided on the Mod 700 Classic 35 Whelan (reamed to Ackley Improved) and 250gr Barnes X. (The range then was only 4 miles from my home is why I could do this regularly)I had to fire form my brass anyhow, so I shot 20 FF a week at an 8", later a 6", Shoot n See at 100yds, from hunting positions. In same session I followed the Whelan and shot 50rds of 22 Magnum with Marlin 783 and 1" scope set on the same powers I used ( I had a 1.5x5 on the Classic) and the same size Shoot n See. I did this once a week for almost 6 weeks. I shot a lot from off-hand, sitting, kneeling, standing supported, off my cross-sticks (which I had always used out here). Then I worked up my load, got it set +1" at 100. I continued the 22 Magnum, but increased to 100rds once a week and 10 from the Ackley, all hunting positions.

I had the opportunity to take some fine animals, and did, most of which were taken "off hand". I shot a couple from the kneeling unsupported and a few off cross sticks. From 25 steps to 75yds, only 1 at 110 and 1 at 150. It made a Believer out of me for using Mediums/good bullets on bigger animals. I did take an Impala, Blessbuk, first shot on zebra (I thought it was his heart area but he was hard angling and I only caught the front lobe of the left lung, skin closed up on the 30cal hole. About 8 other zebra with him took off) with the friends 300WM/180 XBT. Six hrs of tracking later I hit him just to the left of his spine at rump shell and he dropped, but got right back up, when he turned sideways I popped him behind the shoulder, all with the Whelan. All off hand. Practice with a rifle you can shoot, practice with a smallbore some more, then go and perform wondrous acts of Riflery!

Now this is a great post! I too have a 783 Marlin I like pretty well but for one thing. Don't care for the tube magazine! I think if I was able to go to Africa I could also afford to shoot premium bullet's. Here at home I don't have anything to hunt that a proper weight cup and core bullet won't handle as well as a premium. To practice I like to go out and shoot field position's at targets of opportunity, lots of country around here for that. I really confine my off hand shooting though as I know it's my weak spot. Like sitting the best. Often shooting prone or trying to. has grass get n the way. Sitting fix's that!

Great post ya got there Jim!

Thanks Uncle Don! I have often told people that I'm a pretty good off hand shot. However, if he just HAS TO BE SHOT RIGHT NOW, if I can sit down he's shot! lol Love the Sit, just getting a bit stiff now, 71, takes me longer to get in position.

There are some game in Africa that you either can't or it's inappropriate to not use a magnum. It's fine to say use medium calibers (medium meaning .270's, .308 etc in this context) on bigger game, but if you don't get used to using bigger calibers such as .375 H & H on game, then it makes it that much more difficult when you do need to shoot something with a big caliber. Secondly, if you do not like to twist turrets, the magnums can help (provided you can shoot them ok) when the large game are a long way out...more so in places other than Africa.

[quote=Riflehunter]There are some game in Africa that you either can't or it's inappropriate to not use a magnum.

So true. There's several Exotic Game Ranches in Texas where they tell you what you can use on game such as Nilgai ( min 300WM/180) Cape Eland ( 338WM) Wildebeast, Oryx, etc. They don't "have" to let you hunt there and they can pretty much demand what they want. One place me and a friend was "gifted" a whitetail hunt down near Freer,Tx. They were trying to get some exotics "started" on the ranch; fallow deer, Axis, Roosevelt elk to name a few. Anyhow, when you signed in you had to swear to an Affidavit type agreement that "if you shot any" of those Exotics, you paid $10,000. This 1984 dollars! Needless to say, people left them alone, ha. You sat in a tower blind on a Sendero, big lanes cut through that nasty Spanish Dagger, cactus and Super Thorns, ha. Ooh, I would never attempt to walk in that stuff. They had Chicanos running the place ( I love Chicanos, got along great with them in the Army.) They were raised there, so "any of them" could crawl into that stuff and recover any game that fled there, ha. And they didn't get their shirt torn off either!

That S TX brush is also infested with plenty of really big rattlesnakes. Moreso than anywhere I've ever been.

See many coral snakes down there?

Up in Liberty Co, there were plenty of Coral Snakes and Milk Snakes. Similar colored bands, predominantly Black, Red and Yellow. The way you could quickly see what it was is an old saying down there..Milk snake's Red touched the black so "Red and Black, Friend of Jack."
Coral's Red touched the Yellow, so "Red and Yellow Kill a Fellow". The coral had such a small mouth it was usually young kids that got bit, but very seldom I can remember. Tons of snakes in Texas. Period.

I have killed many different animals with a bow in my home state and out west too , I see no reason why a plain Jane 30-06 with my handloads loaded with Nosler Partitions won't work just fine. I own bigger cartridge rifles but those rifles are not as fun to shoot and finding ammo if needed might harder to find. But I do enjoy everyones posts and hopefully many more yet . thank you,Pete53

Gotta love, that statement.

Thanks for the grin, Jorge.

the 30-06 is certainly sufficient

If you need/want a few Hornady 220 grain round nose solids I’m well supplied. My experience in the 308 and 06 with 200 grain partitions shows I need nothing else in Wyoming and Montana

I always loved the 200gr in any 30-06 I've had! Only one's I've used/loaded for were the Sierra 200 SBT, the Speer 200HC and my favorite, the Nosler 200 partition. Biggest Barnes I've ever used in any 30-06 is the 165/168. SE Texas deer/hogs it seemed the best was Hornady 150, Sierra 150 SBT and my favorite, the Sierra 165 SBT. I loaded a bunch of Nosler 125 BT for a friend who used it on Yakima who used it on Blacktail, coyote and Rock chucks. The 308 is just as good for about 95% of what we use a 30-06 for! I personally can't think of anything I have ever killed that I could not have used a good 30-06 on, that's how much confidence I have in the old warhorse! I don't have one now, a Kimber 300WSM takes its place. However, I never would have owned the Kimber 8400 Classic IF I could have ever got my hands on an 84L Kimber Classic with dark French Walnut! I had an 84L in .270 awhile, tricked it out, then gave it to my Grand Daughter, ha. I would still zero it for Africa at +1" @ 100. Hold on hair my friend! Have a ball!