JJHACK
New member
I get this question all the time from my hunters. It goes something like this:
How many guns can I bring to Africa?
what guns should I bring?
I want to bring my 270 for the small antelope and my 416 for the big antelope.
Well the questions are always good but the idea of two rifles has some limitations. If you have a mixed bag of game including Buffalo and eland and you decide to pack along the 270, 7mm mag, 30/06 or similiar and the Big buffalo or Eland is located that becomes a problem! Long gone are the days where you will have a gun bearer that walks around behing you like a golf caddy handing you the proper club or gun for the shot at hand.
My suggestion to all the guys coming over is to bring one rifle that can handle everything. Guns like the 30/06, 300 mag, 338, and 375HH, 416, are all really good all around plains game rifles. If bigger game like Eland and buffalo or even bigger are on the menu then starting with the 375HH and the 416 will give you nice range capability and enough brute strength to get the job done. You will likely never use the smaller gun because in Africa you never know what will step out from the next bush.
The bigger guns are always better unless you have a specific animal in mind and you have a rifle dedicated to that species. As an example lets say you are hunting Elephant and you have a 500 nito express double rifle. When you have a hunt of the magnitute and expense of the Jumbo you will likely forgo all other species anyway.
When on a multi species plains game hunt you need a rifle that will dump a 2000 pound Eland at 300 yards and a rifle to shoot a hopping steenbok at 50 yards. The bigger guns do both quite nicley where the .270 would not be a good choice on a 2000 pound bull eland! It can certainly kill an Eland but will you ever find it?
I would prefer that my guys (or gals) come with one great comfortable rifle with high quality ammunition, and a good scope. If you're worried about a failure I would not concern myself with that to much. I have taken out over 150 people now in Africa and the failures are virtually unknown.
Funny thing is when I was guiding in Alaska all the hunters would bring only one rifle. I saw countless failures, corrosion, and dirty actions causing a struggle. In Africa everyone wants to bring at least a couple rifles and the weather and conditions are so much better one never seems to need the back up.
I have seen quite a few scope failures on rifles in Africa and Alaska. So a spare scope is a good idea. Anytime you hunt near a vehicle or boat guns tend to get a bit more banged up. Much like hunting horseback in the mountians.
Just get one very comfortable gun with a good high qualtiy scope setup and you will only need one!
How many guns can I bring to Africa?
what guns should I bring?
I want to bring my 270 for the small antelope and my 416 for the big antelope.
Well the questions are always good but the idea of two rifles has some limitations. If you have a mixed bag of game including Buffalo and eland and you decide to pack along the 270, 7mm mag, 30/06 or similiar and the Big buffalo or Eland is located that becomes a problem! Long gone are the days where you will have a gun bearer that walks around behing you like a golf caddy handing you the proper club or gun for the shot at hand.
My suggestion to all the guys coming over is to bring one rifle that can handle everything. Guns like the 30/06, 300 mag, 338, and 375HH, 416, are all really good all around plains game rifles. If bigger game like Eland and buffalo or even bigger are on the menu then starting with the 375HH and the 416 will give you nice range capability and enough brute strength to get the job done. You will likely never use the smaller gun because in Africa you never know what will step out from the next bush.
The bigger guns are always better unless you have a specific animal in mind and you have a rifle dedicated to that species. As an example lets say you are hunting Elephant and you have a 500 nito express double rifle. When you have a hunt of the magnitute and expense of the Jumbo you will likely forgo all other species anyway.
When on a multi species plains game hunt you need a rifle that will dump a 2000 pound Eland at 300 yards and a rifle to shoot a hopping steenbok at 50 yards. The bigger guns do both quite nicley where the .270 would not be a good choice on a 2000 pound bull eland! It can certainly kill an Eland but will you ever find it?
I would prefer that my guys (or gals) come with one great comfortable rifle with high quality ammunition, and a good scope. If you're worried about a failure I would not concern myself with that to much. I have taken out over 150 people now in Africa and the failures are virtually unknown.
Funny thing is when I was guiding in Alaska all the hunters would bring only one rifle. I saw countless failures, corrosion, and dirty actions causing a struggle. In Africa everyone wants to bring at least a couple rifles and the weather and conditions are so much better one never seems to need the back up.
I have seen quite a few scope failures on rifles in Africa and Alaska. So a spare scope is a good idea. Anytime you hunt near a vehicle or boat guns tend to get a bit more banged up. Much like hunting horseback in the mountians.
Just get one very comfortable gun with a good high qualtiy scope setup and you will only need one!
