This is my first post and I'm excited to be a novice participant in the NitroExpress community! I'm preparing for my first hunting safari to Africa and have selected Mark DeWet for a seven-day buffalo hunt in Zimbabwe in early September. I met Mark at SCI this year and came away very impressed. I'm totally jazzed and really enjoying the preparation and anticipation.

Though I've been visiting Africa for many years professionally, this will be my first hunt for dangerous game and have been looking forward to this opportunity for 30 years - probably the culmination of too much time spent reading Hemingway and Ruark.

My approach to this is very traditionalistic; for example, I am determined to go with a double rifle in a classic caliber. No optics. I'm presently looking for a solid, used double in .470 NE, with Merkel and Krieghoff leading the list. As I told Mark, I'd really like to do this right, and am willing to sacrifice a superior trophy for the opportunity to stalk within iron sight range. I want to work hard for what may be my only hunt of this kind, and even if that means going home empty handed and without taking a shot, I'm willing to live with that. My rifle budget is in the $8-12K range, and the aforementioned rifles seem to be the best value in that bracket from what my limited research shows.

I'll be sharing the experience with my wife; and while she's not a hunter, she does gravitate towards adventure (having excelled at running with the bulls at San Fermin in Pamplona, open water shark dives in the Bahamas, and Formula Ford open wheel racing, to name a few). With her cool nerves, I figure I can count on her providing a steady shot with a camera, if not a rifle. And regarding living in the field, we're happy with less-than-grand accommodations in return for an 'authentic' safari experience.

So with that as background, any insights any of you might have, including participation in safaris with Mark (who seems supremely expert and experienced), would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance for taking the time to respond!

Kim Petersen