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Double Rifles, Single Shots & Combinations >> Single Shots & Combination Guns

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grandveneur
.400 member

Reged: 21/09/08
Posts: 1297
Loc: France / Germany

Re: single shot rifle for African hunting trip [Re: DarylS]
#379622 - 26/09/23 03:22 AM

If you are hunting alone with only a guide and trackers, you are also not well armed with just a Double Rifle. In such cases you also have to carry a bolt action rifle, like in the old days. Unfortunately, the days when you had a gun bearer are over.

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xausa
.400 member

Reged: 07/03/07
Posts: 2037
Loc: Tennessee, USA

Re: single shot rifle for African hunting trip [Re: grandveneur]
#379626 - 26/09/23 04:18 AM

We were driving down a road in the Selous and came upon an open field with a small herd of kudu in the middle. We stopped and the cows moved quickly into the tree linie at the far side of the field. By the time I had dismounted, retrieved my Model 70 Winchester .300 H&H and the vehicle had pulled away, leaving me by myself, the bull had moved to the edge of the trees and was looking back over his shoulder. I quickly lined up my shot, standing, unsupported, and fired. The bull took a mighty lunge and disappeared.

When we reached the edge of the treeline where the bull had been standing, there he was, piled up at the far end of his final jump. If I had had a BAR, I couldn't have killed him any deader. That said, it may be that the full magazine made the rifle balance better. It was the only shot I ever had at a greater kudu, and I'm glad I didn't flub it.

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grandveneur
.400 member

Reged: 21/09/08
Posts: 1297
Loc: France / Germany

Re: single shot rifle for African hunting trip [Re: xausa]
#379627 - 26/09/23 04:27 AM

Nobody claims that you cannot shot game with one shot, or rather a single shot rifle, but in Africa it is often not just about the game you hunt, but also about the fact that yourself are sometimes hunted. You have to be able to defend yourself, and with a single shot rifle you are very limited.

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Waidmannsheil
.400 member

Reged: 19/04/13
Posts: 2387
Loc: Melbourne Australia

Re: single shot rifle for African hunting trip [Re: DarylS]
#379634 - 26/09/23 07:32 AM

One of the chaps at our BGRC is a collector and shooter of Ruger No.1 rifles and he has one for basically every event that will allow it, and with the right practice and set-up he is just as quick as most guys with a bolt action. In our Special Snap event which is 8 rounds in 35 seconds he is just as fast as all the others, using either bolt actions or doubles. It just takes a lot of practice.

Matt.

--------------------
There is nothing wrong with vegetarian food, so long as there is meat with it.

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grandveneur
.400 member

Reged: 21/09/08
Posts: 1297
Loc: France / Germany

Re: single shot rifle for African hunting trip [Re: Waidmannsheil]
#379644 - 26/09/23 05:27 PM

I don't know in which Africa they all hunt, but in mine there are lions, elephants, crocodiles and hippos in the rivers, and recently even dangerous terrorists. To stay with hunting, apart from gangs of poachers or terrorists, I would feel myself very under-gunned with only a single shot rifle. Also noticed, I don't know a PH who does backup only armed with a single shot rifle.

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Shootingsticks
.224 member

Reged: 27/07/23
Posts: 10
Loc: Victoria, British Columbia

Re: single shot rifle for African hunting trip [Re: grandveneur]
#379899 - 08/10/23 04:09 PM

I'm taking a Ruger No 1 in 416 Rigby to Africa next year as my DG gun, my buddy is taking one in 450-400. Speed is important, but that first shot is more important, regardless of the action type. Having said that, we're also training by shooting at 75 on the sticks and then two follow up shots off the sticks at 50 and 25.

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"One cannot resist the lure of Africa" - Rudyard Kipling

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grandveneur
.400 member

Reged: 21/09/08
Posts: 1297
Loc: France / Germany

Re: single shot rifle for African hunting trip [Re: Shootingsticks]
#379901 - 08/10/23 05:26 PM

Quote:

I'm taking a Ruger No 1 in 416 Rigby to Africa next year as my DG gun, my buddy is taking one in 450-400. Speed is important, but that first shot is more important, regardless of the action type. Having said that, we're also training by shooting at 75 on the sticks and then two follow up shots off the sticks at 50 and 25.

No problem, and once again, one can easily shot game in Africa with a single shot rifle, no one needs to demonstrate that, but not do the backup and generally use such a weapon for self-protection. The absolute majority of the clients are accompanied by a PH and therefore suppresses everything that can happen around a hunt for a particular game, meant the danger that arise by the game that one hunted, but also by other game species of the African bush. Think as African hunter. Heia Safari.

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DoubleD
.400 member

Reged: 23/11/03
Posts: 2399
Loc: Retired in Oklahoma

Re: single shot rifle for African hunting trip [Re: grandveneur]
#379909 - 08/10/23 10:41 PM

If fear of terrorist attack is part of the hunt, them most countries won't let you bring the correct rifle anyway.

--------------------
DD, Ret.

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grandveneur
.400 member

Reged: 21/09/08
Posts: 1297
Loc: France / Germany

Re: single shot rifle for African hunting trip [Re: DoubleD]
#379910 - 09/10/23 01:54 AM

Quote:

If fear of terrorist attack is part of the hunt, them most countries won't let you bring the correct rifle anyway.

That's true, but that's not the point.

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Shootingsticks
.224 member

Reged: 27/07/23
Posts: 10
Loc: Victoria, British Columbia

Re: single shot rifle for African hunting trip [Re: grandveneur]
#379932 - 10/10/23 04:54 AM

CZ, sorry, got off track with ref to DG. My same buddy has a Ruger No 1 in 300 H&H; classic combination. I would take that rifle for plains game.
Falling block actions are just cool. They can be more than accurate for hunting and almost as fast with a follow up shot if you practice. I think we all have different experiences and desires for what we want to hunt different game with; Left hand vs right hand, affordability, caliber availability, classic vs high tech, etc. Choice is a wonderful thing.

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"One cannot resist the lure of Africa" - Rudyard Kipling

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NitroX
.700 member

Reged: 25/12/02
Posts: 39255
Loc: Barossa Valley, South Australi...

Re: single shot rifle for African hunting trip [Re: Shootingsticks]
#379949 - 10/10/23 10:34 PM

I again saw shooters using single shot rifles shooting well even in timed event at the BGRC Nationals on the weekend.

And one should not forget in black powder days the usual firearm for elephant hunting was once single shots. Often a pair of them.

--------------------
John aka NitroX

...
Govt get out of our lives NOW!
"I love the smell of cordite in the morning."
"A Sharp spear needs no polish"

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grandveneur
.400 member

Reged: 21/09/08
Posts: 1297
Loc: France / Germany

Re: single shot rifle for African hunting trip [Re: NitroX]
#379962 - 11/10/23 05:27 AM

Quote:

...

And one should not forget in black powder days the usual firearm for elephant hunting was once single shots. Often a pair of them.

That was a very short time in Africa.

F.C.Selous used first a muzzle loader caliber 4 for shooting elephants, but that was in 1871. Thereafter Double Rifles caliber 8 or 4 were used. Black Powder weapons were used in India for a longer period of time, supposedly until the twenties, but those were also mainly DR, most caliber 500 Black Powder Express.

Edited by grandveneur (11/10/23 05:36 AM)

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DarylS
.700 member

Reged: 10/08/05
Posts: 26516
Loc: Beautiful British Columbia, Ca...

Re: single shot rifle for African hunting trip [Re: grandveneur]
#379966 - 11/10/23 07:36 AM

The guns first used by Selous, like the one in the photo, were Dutch 4 BORE fowlers, shortened for portability.

--------------------
Daryl

"a gun without hammers is like a Spaniel without ears" King George V

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