need a new rifle with s.africa in mind

skoal

skoal

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So me and the old lady have been kicking around the idea of an african hunt in south africa it will be our first so it will be for plains game with maybe a zebra tossed into the mix since ive allways wanted one (no dangerous game this time).
So after looking over my rifles I think I need a new one as I currently have 5 or so .308's and a couple .223 and from I ive been told neither would be a great choice.
So heres the issue this rifle will be shot by me and my wife as im taking my bow as well so bear that in mind she will be shooting it as well.
Ive been narrowing it down to eigther a .375h&h, 300winmag or .338 lapua.
Generally speaking if its a .375 or .300 it will probably be a model 70 as ive allways wanted one and the last one I bbought never made it too me but if money gets tight and it might ive hearing great things about zastava's.
 
A .300 WM would be less cool over there, but more useful back here... there is much that can be accomplished with a WM... the kool kidz say it is the "ultimate" and might let you sit at their lunch table... as a bonus, your social life will be "made in the shade."
 
you would be good with one of these
elephant-gun.jpg
 
The 300 or 375 would work just fine. So would your 308 for most things. There's no real good reason to just take one rifle so Why not bring it along?

By the time you get there and back the difference in rifle costs won't even be a rounding error.Buy and take what you want. I've got weak spot for Model 70s too.
 
I'm going to presume that the local gas station will have a selection of ammo that looks like the PMP product line, obviously the 308 is popular in SA.
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peterf said:
Have you thought about 9.3x62? I have a Zastava and I'm happy with it. The price is pretty good as well.
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Havnt considered it but now I have people whispering 6.5 creed in my ear, why cant there just be one super do everything caliber.
 
Apparently John Barsness' wife Eileen Clarke has used the *gasp* 270 and 7x57 with great success. Of course, she's a woman so there is no expectation of her being manly. Manly men carry CRF rifles in classic calibers. On my first trip I took my 300WM and 416 Rigby. The 300 only saw the light of day for sight-in day. Interestingly, back40sniper was on the trip with me and he brought a 300WM and 375 H&H. Similarly his 375 was the only rifle he used and, with the exception of one particularly vigourous gemsbok, it was all he needed.

On my second trip I was all primed to take my 416 and my 470 however a lack of forethought on my part precluded that and I had to make do with a camp rifle chambered in, horror of horrors, The New King.

Now, were I gearing up for another trip to RSA I would definitely be taking my Pre 64 M70 in 300 H&H. It's just too cool not to take. Similarly I would likely take my 416 as well just because. Were I gearing up for dangerous game again, this time I would do a couple of things differently. First, I would book for Mozambique (best combination of value on elephant and buff and legality to take our own firearms). Second I would pack my 416 and 470. And third I would take my brother so I had someone to carry the 300 H&H across the water.
 
skoal said:
Havnt considered it but now I have people whispering 6.5 creed in my ear...
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Seriously? If that were the case, just bring a couple of your .308's...

skoal said:
... why cant there just be one super do everything caliber.
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The .300 WM will do all your plains game chores... and as DL suggests, wouldn't hurt to have one of your .308's along as back up.
 
Skoal.......If no dangerous game is on the menu, then a 300 Mag is the ticket bar none. I took everything from suni and red duiker to eland with my 300 Wby (my preferred 300 Mag) on a SA trip to fill up on what I hadn't yet brought home from southern Africa. If you are capable of 400 mtr shots the opportunities are there for very good trophies, however you may be called on to make a 400 mtr shot and always bear in mind that African game loves living about 10X more than NA game in my experience, and I have shot over 200 head of African game. My preference is the 300 Wby with 200 gn ABs but this fall will be using Matrix and we'll see how they work. I have great expectations for them actually from what I have seen so far using them. I have used 200 gn Parts, 200 gn A-frames and 200 gn ABs, all worked flawlessly. If eland, kudu, sable, or zebra are on the list I would not recommend anything lighter than a 300 WM. There are a lot of internet experts who will tell you this or that, but there are few, if any on this forum, who have actually shot more African game than I. The trip this fall to SA will be number 9............You can take my advice or not, that's up to you, but I do speak from experience and would never steer you wrong.............
Hope you have a great hunt........

Douglas
 
I believe you may have been misguided when you were told your .308 was not a good choice. For what you are hunting it's a fine choice. So are all the others mentioned here but I would not hesitate to go back with only a .308 in hand.
 
The 300's would be a safe bet with 180's or 200 gr bullets lots of down range energy if u need to take a longer shot or the tried and true 375 H&H it will do it all .
 
While this may get my Gunnut card revoked, I think there's a lot to be said to using what's familiar when on a major hunt. Since you own a number of .308's, I'm going to assume that you know the cartridge intimately and have faith in your ability to use it. Likewise the rifles you own. When you look through your scope at an animal that's going to cost you, say, US$1500 when you pull the trigger, it's nice to be doing so with the same rifle with which you knocked down a couple deer or a moose every year, year after year. Call me conservative, but I like the feeling of confidence I get when shooting game with a rifle that fits me like a glove -- and a glove that's proven its worth to me over several seasons.

For sure, there are better performers than the .308 if you end up having to shoot long. But after three hunts in South Africa that resulted in a total of around 60 animals taken, I'm pretty sure that there was only one shot I would have passed on with a .308. Everything else was no further than 325 yards, and all but a handful of shots allowed plenty of time to take a reading with a rangefinder. The average shooting distance was just over 200 yards.

Shooting distance is driven by a couple of factors. One is where you'll be hunting. If it's in the Eastern Cape, the country is quite wide open. Up north though, it can be quite brushy and 50 - 150 yard shots may be all you'll see. Another factor is your PH. Most of them don't like spending time chasing after wounded animals, and all of them take considerable pride on their ability to get you in close to your game. You may have a hard time convincing your man to let you shoot any further than he thinks you need to, at least in the early part of your safari before he gets acquainted with your shooting skills.

Of course, if you shoot one well, Douglas is right that a .300 Mag is probably the most flexible tool you could have in your pocket when hunting plains game. But I wouldn't say it's a necessary tool. Of the 100 or so plains game animals I've shot in total in Africa (including 3 eland), every one of them has been with a .270 or a .30-06. And I've never, not once, felt that I wasn't carrying an adequate rifle.
 
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