Africa

On my last morning hunting in Africa I found my Eland bull. At first light we found fresh tracks crossing the road, we stalked through the bush and I finished up with fairly short range shot at about 90 paces., he was standing quartering towards us partly concealed in the bush. We had crawled up the last few yds, I rested my barrels over my trackers shoulder, he immediately seized hold of the barrels with both hands and swung the muzzle towards the bull,, no time to worry about that, nothing fancy just hold center for a quartering shot through his chest.. One rd and it was all over, another success to the 9.3 x 74R.

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Jeff and I waiting for the sun to rise to give us the best light for photos. It was a glorious sun rise that morning. One of the best in my life.

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This morning we had a new tracker, Samuel was very pleased with our success. We took the Eland back to camp grabbed a coffee and headed out to see what else would happen with our final day.
 
What is the minimum caliber for hunting in Africa?


When hunting dangerous game there is a legal minimum requirement that in most African countries is the .375 H&H. For plains game the animal you are hunting and the conditions you are hunting in will determine the minimum caliber

Plains game can vary from very small Antelope like the Duiker, Klipspringer, Grysbok, Steenok and Oribi, where any center fire .22 is adequate. The Klipspringer is a delicate 20 – 30 pounds so it is best to avoid the lighter “varmint” type bullets, their explosive type performance will only spoil trophies,

At the other end of the scale are the large Eland that can grow to an impressive 2,000 pounds on the hoof, although large Eland are not noted for been particular tough and any good Whitetail deer cartridge will do the job. When hunting plains game a mixed bag will typically include some of the following Kudu, Gemsbok, Zebra, Hartebeest, Waterbuck and Wildebeest, these are all tough animals and I personally would recommend the .30-06 as the minimum, with all calibers use a premium bullet and kept to the heavier for caliber weights.

For those who want to use heavier calibers the .338 Win Mag is an excellent choice for the heavier African Plains Game. My personal favourite is the 9.3 and this old “work horse” is staging a come back in both the rimless (9.3 x 62) and rimmed (9.3 x 74R) version.

The big secret to success is to know your rifle, practice shooting in the field at odd ranges and positions and study the game you are going to hunt, there is no susbertute for good shot placement.
 
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