OK so at the moment I am trying to clean out my safe and turn it into the perfect three rifle battery for Africa and elsewhere. I have a 500 Searcy on order and already have a scoped Model 70 in 375 that I am about to have some work done on to clean it up/make it reliable. This leaves me with a decision to make on the light rifle end. At the moment I have a 338 Win Mag Tikka. The Tikka is a great gun for the money but I bought it at a time when I was a little short on cash and couldn't afford something better. Now I am thinking about selling it and a couple of others to fund a light rifle for my battery.

So I guess my question is what do you guys think would be the ideal rifle/catridge combination? Most of my hunting will be done in Africa with the odd North America hunt thrown in. The rifle would basically cover anything from a Kudu/Eland on down to a duiker. I have a couple ideas but would like to hear what others thoughts are before I say anything. The battery so far has been pretty traditional with the 500 NE and the 375 so I would like to keep it that way if possible but it isn't a necessity. As far as price range goes I would like to be at less the 5K out the door with a quality scope included.

I know very little about gunsmithing so assume I would be relying on an experienced gunsmith to do any custom work.

Thank you all in advance for any input you may have.