A minor disadvantage of the CRF is that how ever many cartridges you load in the magazine, that's how many you are hunting with. You cannot top up the mag' with an extra round. But this is a relatively minor issue.
The fact that you can top up the magazine on a PF and cost of production is really the only true advantages of a PF bolt vs a CRF.
I own 3 CRF bolt guns (all Brno's) and 5 PF Remington M700's. I used to wonder about CRF bolts but once I owned the first I believe they are definitely better, although not really necessary for N.A. game.
As far as whether or not one is required in Africa, I still do not believe they are for sport hunters that have a PH behind them. The only rifleman that truly needs a CRF is the man doing elephant/DG control work in Africa. For everybody else it's nice to have.
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Now this is interesting. I have owned a couple of Brno's, a handful of Mauser's, a couple of '17 Enfield's, and a couple of early Winchesters. In none of the examples I've owned was adding rounds to a magazine ever more complicated than pulling the bolt rearward, and pushing the round on the bolt into the magazine, then topping it off as required. I would think that if you cannot add rounds to the magazine, you would be unable to load the rifle in the first place.
I've now hunted Africa, and I've faced dangerous game there. Buffalo was the quarry, but there were several close encounters with both hippo and elephant. While my single trip does not make me an instant expert, I would suggest (from my perspective at least) that a buffalo in the bush is little different than a polar bear in the willows. Both require a cool head and a dependable rifle.
As to CRF being more suitable for Africa than North America - Ross Seyfried used a M-700 .416 Remington while working as a Professional Hunter. Mr. Seyfried does not appear to be financially challenged . . . so it's not like he used the M-700 because that's all he could afford, but more importantly he is as gun savey as they come. I prefer CRF, and carry a CRF rifle as my primary bear gun because the rifle is totally dependable - otherwise I would carry something else. Also I have had 2 Remington extractors fail - one on a M-700 .30-06 and another on my M-7 .243!
By the way - if you screw up in the African bush the PH's job is to recover the body! In other words you need to be able to shoot and you need to be able to think for yourself. This is not to say that teamwork with the PH is not a good thing, it is - and such co-operation works to the benefit and safety of everyone - PH, client, and trackers. Anyone, PH or not, can make a mistake, and at the end of the day, if you are unprepared to be responsible for your own welfare, stay home.
