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Thoughts about DG hunting, calibres and bullets for Africa.(part 1)

To kill an animal quickly shot placements is the most important, secondly the bullet have to reach the vital organ you want hit. Logic!

To do this you must know your rifle, be able to shoot it without having to think or realign, in the knowledge that you will hit wherever you aim. It should be part of you, it must fit you like the perfect shot gun. It must be a pleasure to shoot. The gun have to become your confidence.

Guns, you on which you have to think about holding point, if the stock is proper on the shoulder, how much it is going to hurt, if you got solids or soft loaded etc. leave at home.

Avoid guns with too much recoil, have the gun as light as possible you going to carry your gun 99.999999% of the time and only going to shoot it 0.000001%

Praxis with shooting sticks(long range) and of hand at 10, 20 and 30 meters.

Let somebody with experience watch the animal (with some binoculars) you want to shoot, let him be your “spotter”, he can tell you where the bullet hit and can shout shoot “again” if your shot went wrong. If your first shot is good leave it, do not shot again there are no big animals which fall over on the spot and as long as you a quiet he doesn’t know what is wrong and only will move a short distance. Be quiet and wait depending on type of animal, terrain, time of day smoke a cigarette, have lunch or a short nap, relax. Then you go and follow quietly and slowly you will find your animal dead or at last stiff and have sufficient time to aim a well placed shot to finish it. Do not shot at it if you have to guess which part you aiming at, wait till you sure you got a clean shot!
You should hunt always as if you only got one shot , after all a you hunting or you collecting? If you follow up directly and the animal knows it will charge or carry on running for a long time.

Never give up on a wounded animal. Always watch the wind when hunting. Go slow and soft, stop look, go on stop and look with a wounded animal there is no rush! A buffalo can hide behind a lump of vegetation you would be shy having a sh….. concentrate on your surrounding do not look at the ground for tracks and blood your tracker is doing this he is in anyhow better at it.
Think in which direction the animal will move if it get up again, (cover)
Give your self room, if the animal is hidden and alive, some distance can save your life. Make sure that you know where everyone of your group is, make sure their not changing position in to your line of fire, select some suitable trees to take cover as a last resort. To be a dead hero is not a appealing though to me. Do not talk, keep your mind concentrated, its you or him, you got the confidence in yourself and your rifle to hit your target, don’t ever start thinking at this moment you should have taken the bigger rifle or a double it would not help you a bit, if you don’t hit him properly a 50cal BMG will not stop him either. If a charge comes judge the distance if you not 100% sure of your shoot wait!!! All you need is the one shot in brain. Better at 10meters in the brain than with your only shot, then shooting 5 times starting 50meters and hoping your lucky, your shooting will only act as direction finder for the animal .( anyone shoots at me would have my full attention) After you fired your last shoot dive out of way reload get ready and see what happens. Be careful to shoot behind you, you might end up shooting your companion.

Ps: I want to die young, but late in live!

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Time is your treasure use it wisely you can never replace it