August!!!! You do understand that August is the dead of winter down here.

When I came down and hunted in July 2002 we had snow. Rare and unusal. My PH who was 35 years old and lived in area all his life had seen snow up on the mountain tops before, but had never seen snow on the valley floor, we had 8 inches. We were also hunting at pretty high altitude. I would bring a set of longjohns and warm gloves. You won't need them if you have them. If you leave them home you will need them.

In talking to various PH's down here in SA they all have the same complaint. Americans tend to show up over gunned. We all have read for years in the Rags that the minumum African caliber is the .375 H&H. That is the Mantra. Most hunters who show up with the big guns have little experience with them and can't shoot them. They would be better served by showing up with their standard deer and elk rifle.

A basic South African Plains game hunt is going involve Springbok, blesbuck, impala and Kudu and maybe wildebeest or Gemsbok. They are the most common.

The impala is about the size of a Whitetail deer, not as big as a Mule deer. The kudu is the size of a cow elk. Wildebeest are about the same size as impala, body shape a bit bulkier. Gemsbok in the same size class as Kudu. The rest are smaller than the Impala.

If you shoot the 9.3 x 74R on a regular basis and can shoot it well, and if you have used it for hunting and taking deer and elk then by all means take it.

If not take your 30 cal deer rifle or .338 cal elk rifle. They will be plenty of gun. Most of the locals that I have run into down here hunting are using .308 or .303's.

I took Steenbok and Springbok with the 218 Bee in a Martini. Won't use it again on Springbok size animals.

Took wildebeest, impala and Mt Reedbuck with my .338/308

Took kudu with the .338/308 and the 577/450 Martini with lead bullets. With the Martini shoot completely through a Kudu port to starboard, aft to bow.