7mm and africa

The cost associated with taking two rifles is intimidating, and one must weigh out the advantages and disadvantages. A two rifle combination of a light rifle, in your case a 7mm and a heavy, perhaps a .458 is quite common. The disadvantage is that in a two rifle scenario, I can see you meeting the buffalo when armed with the 7mm and getting a longish shot on an impala when armed with heavy.

If dangerous game is in the mix, the best rifle a client can be armed with is a .375 with a good quality 300 gr bullet. This combination is suitable for all game from dik-dik on up, and can pull your butt out of the fire if your PH isn't up to the task. Some of them are not, and even with a good PH, circumstances can have them out of position to help you, particularly on 2X1 safaris.

On a dangerous game hunt, you could do very well with flat nosed solids for everything, or a combination of soft points and solids. You probably should have the solids anyway, so the soft points are a bit redundant. Ranges are typically moderate, and a 200 yard shot tends to be a long one. A 7mm would be fine if you were on strictly a plains game hunt, but agin, get the best bullets you can as an eland is a big animal, and wildebeest and zebra are renowned for their toughness.
 
pharaoh2 said:
Yes, it would be more than suitable for plains game and then some. (Though not legal)

Remember, back when the .256 Mannlicher was considered an damned fine elephant rifle.
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Why would a 7mm not be legal?

In Namibia it is the minimum legal calibre and I'm sure other countries vary but in my opinion it would be more than adequate for all plains game. In fact, I contemplated taking my STW but in the end decided it would be more fun to get a new rifle. Bouhuntress is taking her .30-06 shooting 165 grain bullets. A 7mm will give you everything it does!
 
Depending on the country, a second gun may involve another import permit fee. South Africa allows 2 rifles and a shotgun with no fees, Zimbabwe technically doesn't have a limit and doesn't have a fee either. I always take 2 rifles, and one is always a .375. A big limiter is that the airlines won't fly you with more than 5 Kilos of ammunition anyway. That's a lot of 7mm, and a fair bit of 7mm and .375. Where it starts getting dicey is when you have 2 big guns and need softs and solids for each.
Your 7 Rem Mag will work, but if you are thinking about eland at all bring something bigger. A 2 gun Pelican case will still make it under the 50 pound limit with 2 rifles in it, and doesn't cost any less if it's half full. Still, if one of them is an three seven five, don't be suprised if you don't use anything else.
 
For a 1 gun Africa hunt, even just plains game, I'd go for a .375 of some make or better still a .416 Rem. type cal. I prefer big lever guns and single shots, and if limited to one, it would be a 45/70 with my hot loads and 480gr. WFN GC bullets. Keith, in his writings, said " he would gladly exchange velocity for bullet weight and diameter anytime".
 
ben hunchak said:
For a 1 gun Africa hunt, even just plains game, I'd go for a .375 of some make or better still a .416 Rem. type cal. I prefer big lever guns and single shots, and if limited to one, it would be a 45/70 with my hot loads and 480gr. WFN GC bullets. Keith, in his writings, said " he would gladly exchange velocity for bullet weight and diameter anytime".
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Really depends where in Africa you are talking though......some areas require very flat shooting rifles for longer ranges while other areas are better served by short-range rifles capable of delivering large projectiles at slow velocities. Also depends on the style of hunting you will be doing, whether it's on fenced ranch or not and of course the size of the game you are after. The area we are hunting is wide open expanses and all the hunting will be spot and stalk on foot where shots are likely to average in the 200-300 yard range......not ideal for a .45/70. I think a lot of people get sucked into believing that all of Africa is thick over-grown jungle with a lion behind every tree and it's not so. While I love the writing of Keith and Capstick and Ruark and Roosevelt.....their depiction of Africa is somewhat glamourized for the pages of their books and of course it was from a different era.

You really need to look at where you are hunting, what you are hunting, the way you are hunting and choose a rifle suited to that hunt. No doubt you could book a hunt to suit a cartridge as well but Africa is a vast continent with an incredible diversity of landscapes.
 
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7 Rem would be just fine for plains game up to Kudu provided you're using good bullets (160 gr TSX or NPT or Swift). I prefer a 30 caliber because of the higher sectional density of the 200 grain bullet especially for Eland and maybe even Zebra or Gemsbok (I'm thinking bad angled shots), but a 7mm for everything under that would be fine.

I'd take 2 rifles in case one goes T/U or you have a scope go sideways. Plus I don't even go anywhere to hunt without 2 rifles. Not even down the road.

And I'm not sure that the 256 MS or the 275 Rigby (aka 7x57) were ever considered "damned fine elephant rifle(s)". They were used, and successfully, but not on any large scale and never heartily recommended by knowledgeable hunters.
 
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7 Rem would be just fine for plains game up to Kudu provided you're using good bullets (160 gr TSX or NPT or Swift). I prefer a 30 caliber because of the higher sectional density of the 200 grain bullet especially for Eland and maybe even Zebra or Gemsbok (I'm thinking bad angled shots), but a 7mm for everything under that would be fine.
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Sectional density might have been a consideration in old Elmer's day but with modern bonded bullets and monometal bullets, it is meaningless other than maybe for comparing two indentical bullets in the same calibre of different weight. Controlled expansion doesn't follow the rules of SD.
 
Well if 300yd shots are the norm. for Africa, then archers hunting there are better long range shooters then I thought. Africa, like here, you usually shoot animals from 60-125yds., and a wider, heavier bullet, flat point will still penetrate deeper, intact, and do more damage, when game is larger and tougher, then our N/A Moose.
 
ben hunchak said:
Well if 300yd shots are the norm. for Africa, then archers hunting there are better long range shooters then I thought. Africa, like here, you usually shoot animals from 60-125yds., and a wider, heavier bullet, flat point will still penetrate deeper, intact, and do more damage, when game is larger and tougher, then our N/A Moose.
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If you'd have read my post Ben, which obviously you didn't, you'll see that I said there is no norm for Africa....it's a big continent with vastly different terrain. You'll also see that I said you can choose a region that suits your choice of cartridge or bow. We are hunting a desert region of Namibia where the norm is long shots....I had a buddy who took his two sons last year and they were all archery hunters so they chose a region where long shots were not the norm. :rolleyes::rolleyes:

We picked the region we are hunting for a number of reasons and our PH let us know that if we wanted all those things that longer range shots would come with the deal. If you wanted to hunt with your 45/70 I'd suggest you pick a region and PH that could offer ranges suitable for it. It's all there and no one style is better than another but to think all shots in Africa are between 60-125 yards is ludicrous.
 
Being a bit of a hopeless romantic and armchair historian I'm partial to a 7x57 ,6.5 MS or 9.3x62................green with envy .........someday I want to go to Africa as well..................................Harold
 
i say a 7mm would work very well on lion and lepard as well as plans game i have read a lot of books on africa and in the good old days most hunting was done with much smaller calaburs than a 7 mm that being said i would take a 375 i have shot the 416 rigby and boy do thy ever kick my buddy got his eye cut realy bad from the 375 hh as well one must shot these guns to know what thy are all about thy will put your 12 turkey loads to shame DUTCH
 
sheephunter said:
Why would a 7mm not be legal?
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That's why I said "And then some"

A 7mm Rem Mag in my mind is powerful enough to kill any game animal that walks, but as you know in most African countries on public land the .375 H&H is the legal minimum for dangerous game. (The Big 5, and yes I said .375 H&H. As I understand it, it is written with a minimum cartridge, not minimum caliber)
 
We hunted in RSA at two different ranches, the first was in the desert and the second was in the thornbushes. Our average shot in the desert was somewhere near 200 yards with three well over 200. In the thorngroves it was much shorter 100 and less. When we were in the desert it was windier than a normal day on the prairie, I used a 300 winny with 168gr TSX bullets with great results up until I tried a straight on shot on an Eland. I shot four small antelope, a Gemsbuk, wildebeest and kudu and my combination worked great. A 7mm mag would have been fine as well.

If I ever go back, an Eland would be on the menu and my second rifle will be a .375 of some sort. The Eland bull I wounded was at least 50% bigger than the biggest moose I've ever seen before, my 300 would have been fine on a straight broadside shot, but not on a quartering shot.

I think you have to take Eland out of the equation when discussing plains game rifles.
 
.375???? That would kick like a momma. What would be the flattest shooter in a .375 or larger? How hard does a .375 Ruger kick? Is a .375 Ruger as flat shooting as a .375 H and H? Would this be the baby? Is shooting it in the same league as getting caught with a biker's momma?
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Not bad at all. 3" Slug from a 12ga. is much worse IMO.
 
Mackillon,
You don't need a .375, but you may be surprised by how little they do kick. The term "plainsgame" covers a lot of ground, a duiker is plainsgame, so is a eland or giraffe. A duiker might be 20 pounds, a giraffe 3500 to 4000 and eland is halfway in between. Once you take the biggest animals ( and the very smallest) out of the equation a .300 Win mag, 30-06, .338 or host of elk style cartridges start to look very good. On the otherhand, the normal pattern is for first time African hunters to book a plainsgame hunt, then immediately buy a .375 and start planning a buffalo hunt. You can't fight it.;)
 
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