Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Gracy Travel comes through...

....on mileage plan tickets to JNB!

Have been pulling out what little hair I have, trying to score mileage plan tickets for The Woman and I, to Jonannesburg. Sitting on over a quarter million miles, and real frustrating not being able to use them on such a big trip. Called Doug at Gracy, and viola', r/t tickets from ANC to JNB via Alaska/KLM/Air France. I'll gladly pay the fee. The savings is still substantial.

Had great service with them on our first trip, and expect nothing less this time. I hope Bruce is still their man at OR Tambo. The guy was amazing. Going to give their gun permit service a try as well. They'll also handle the transfer permit in Amsterdam.

Anyone have any peculiar problems traveling through either Amsterdam or Paris with firearms? Won't have long enough layovers in either place to see or do anything.

I'm just stoked at the savings. Some serious extra trophy fee $$$ now!

Jeff

Jeff, I'm sure Gracy informed you of the form required to be faxed in to amsterdam when in transit with weapons. And, I trust they have informed Air France of the lXwXd of your gun case and the weight of it as well.

Both places are easy to get through with hunting arms if you follow their rules. The apperwork for amsterdam is one page and must be faxed in to their office in gronnigen. Again, Gracy, is well-versed with these rules. I only mention them to you so you know the questions to ask Doug. It never hurts to double check.

Good deal Jeff. I was also able to work out a skymiles deal with a campfire member and purchase my June 2011 ticket Florida to JNB for under a grand.

I tried to buy air tickets this past week from Gracy. Traveling round trip from ATL to JNB. I did not get quoted a good price, $200 over Delta's web site price. Gracy tech I talked with was not very accomodating.

Same here. Gracy wanted a few xtra hundred compared to buying from Delta direct. Glad I came across the skymiles deal thru another member here.

Wow, hasn't been my experience. The last time I purchased tickets through them, the price was pretty much what the airline was charging, and their guy Bruce at OR Tambo was super helpful. Given that I've been trying for months to get FF tickets, it was worth their fee. Saved me $3000+ over a purchased pair of tickets.

Jeff

Dan,

Yep, we've already gone over, and have the ball rolling, for transiting the weapons, thanks for the info!

Can't wait!

Jeff

Good on ya Jeff! My son used Steve Turner out of Tx. We are booked for next summers trip to Zim. Dan used airmiles to get us to JNB. When you going?


maddog

Late Apr/early May. Already staying up at night, thinking about it!

Jeff

Ya takin the 450/400 ruger no. 1?


maddog

Originally, yes on the 450/400. But, my 9.3x74R/12ga drilling has just come back from being fitted with a 4x Zeiss, and man, does it shoot! Ever since I got into drillings, I vowed to take one to Africa, so it has bumped the No.1 to the bench. Main quarry is eland, and I think the 9.3 will do fine. Also hope to do some bird shooting with it. Pretty pumped at the thought of it all! What smoke pole are you taking?

Jeff

My son and I are both taking Ruger no. 1s, in 375 H&H mag. As of right now, based on some handload testing, we'll be using the Hornady 300 gr. DGX and DGS.


maddog

With some pretty sweet english red pads on them...


Ingwe

Only on 1, so we can tell them apart....


maddog

Perfect! Look forward to hearing how the Hornady's do. That's what I've been shooting in the 450/400. Haven't shot any game or media, and seen a recovered one yet. Be curious.

Jeff

Jeff, everything I've read about the bullets has been positive[a lot of the info came from AR]. The accuracy in both our no.1s has been great. I'm shooting handloads and my son is shooting factory hornadys. So far so good. Got a couple things to do to the gun, mainly grinding down the safety, and a little grinding on the NECG fiber op sight I put on the front. Then deciding on warne QD rings, or stay with what I got. We are going after cow cape buff, tuskless ele, and hippo. The boy and I are hunting together for the 10 day hunt.


maddog

I just ran a 2-part penetration test with the 400-grain .410 DGX from the .450/.400.

The media chosen was dry newspaper, which I use for all testing of tougher bullets since it seems to replicate hitting bone pretty well.

The first comparison was the DGX against th 400-grain Woodleigh, both loaded to about 2075 fps. They penetrated exactly the same depth, 10", and retained very similar amounts of weight, 80-some percent.

The second test compared the same bullet loaded to about 2350 fps in the .450/.400 with the 400-grain Nosler Partition .416 at about the same muzzle velocity from the .416 Rigby. The DGX out-penetrated the Nosler by about 1/2", probably because its mushroom wasn't as wide. In this test the DGX only retained around 65% of its weight, versus 83% in the Partition.

So the DGX is right in there with other expanding bullets.

Thanks John! Good info. Planning on doing any solid testing?

I'm basically using your 375 load. 75 gr. H4350, Fed. 215 primer, 300 gr. DGX, the only change is Hornady brass.

BTW, how ya likin' the 450/400 ruger no. 1?


maddog

Thanks for the info, John!

Jeff

"We are going after cow cape buff, tuskless ele, and hippo. The boy and I are hunting together for the 10 day hunt."

Man, that is awesome! Sure wish my Dad and I could've hunted Africa, but definitely grateful for the many whitetail hunts, and one trip in AK we had. Hope you guys have a great hunt!

Jeff