Northern
.224 member
Reged: 23/04/05
Posts: 12
Loc: Alberta Canada
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I’m looking for opinions on taking a non-standard caliber to Africa. I'm worried if your ammo doesn’t show, you would be screwed. If one stays with the old standbys, .375 H&H, 458 Win, you should be able to find ammo there if need be.
Your thoughts?
Darrin
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9.3x57
.450 member
Reged: 22/04/07
Posts: 5561
Loc: United States
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My take is, if you want to bring it, bring it.
Just make sure your PH has a spare rifle in an appropriate caliber for the game you intend to hunt so if you rock up with a tomato stake instead of a functional rifle, you can make noise and keep the stew bubbling with something...
-------------------- What are the Rosary, the Cross or the Crucifix other than tools to help maintain the fortress of our faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God?
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Kalunga
.333 member
Reged: 16/06/06
Posts: 328
Loc: Germany
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I think if Your suitcase with the ammo gets lost You have a big problem anyway. You will also miss Your binoculars, hunting clothes and so on. In some countries like Benin there is no ammo available at all except some spare rounds from the PH. So I just take the risk and use my favourite calibers.
Kalunga
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450_366
.400 member
Reged: 17/01/07
Posts: 1068
Loc: Sweden, west-coast.
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You could also loose the rifle, and then it wouldnt matter if you have some ordinary caliber on it.
Take your favorit rifle of any caliber and go for it.
-------------------- Andreas
"Yeas it kicks like a mule he said, but always remember that its much worse standing on the other end"
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tophet1
.400 member
Reged: 15/09/07
Posts: 1873
Loc: NSW, Australia
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Which non-standard calibres are you interested in ? You may be surprised at what is available over there.
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bwananelson
.400 member
Reged: 08/10/07
Posts: 1195
Loc: DELTONA FLORIDA
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if you go with another person put some in each case and some of theirs in yours.and pray to god they dont screw you up
-------------------- THERE ARE NO DO OVERS IN LIFE DONT LET A CHANCE AT A DREAM SLIP AWAY.
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Northern
.224 member
Reged: 23/04/05
Posts: 12
Loc: Alberta Canada
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I was thinking of the new Rugers, 375 or 416. You can't pack your ammo with your gun, you could end up with a gun and no ammo.
Is the Ruger .375 ammo available in South Africa?
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Yochanan
.375 member
Reged: 26/01/03
Posts: 912
Loc: Volksdiktatur Schweden
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Africa? Availability varies considerably between countries. In some places you can't find anything while in other countries has a pretty decent selection. Don't expect to find ammo at bargain prices.
Bring your own supply and keep toes, fingers, legs and arms crossed that nothing is lost in transit.
-------------------- © "I have never been able to appreciate 'shock' as applied to killing big game. It seems to me that you cannot kill an elephant weighing six tons by ´shock´unless you advocate the use of a field gun." - W.D.M. Bell: Wanderings of an Elephant Hunter.
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jwm
.224 member
Reged: 11/10/08
Posts: 12
Loc: Ontario, Canada
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I went to Africa this year and everything arrived with me except for my ammo...not too surprising, considering that I left it by the front door of my house when I left for the airport!
A quick call to my booking agent (Wendell Reich) and both the PH's with whom I would be hunting were alerted to my stupidity and had ammo waiting for me when I arrived at their respective camps. The ammo at the buffalo camp was actually the same factory load that I had sighted for and planned to bring myself (Federal Cape Shocks). Can't ask for better service than that.
Both men expressed relief that the .375's I needed were the classic H&H variety, rather than Rugers or some other oddball stuff..."newfangled nonsense" was the term used by one.
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Ripp
.577 member
Reged: 19/02/07
Posts: 16072
Loc: Montana, USA
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Quote:
I was thinking of the new Rugers, 375 or 416. You can't pack your ammo with your gun, you could end up with a gun and no ammo.
Is the Ruger .375 ammo available in South Africa?
Personally think you would very first post on this might be your best option..guesing the .375 H&H and .458 Win would be likely the easiest to come up with if necessary..
Also as 9.3 mentioned---"most" camps have an extra rifle hanging around just in case.
I have not yet experienced my ammo not showing up--I put it in its own locked case and then in my bag with my boots, clothes, etc...have had an issue on a time or two with the guns not showing up at the same time..last year in Zim they showed up 2 days after I got there-come to find out they were just sitting in the Jo'burg airport--no one thought of sending them on to their destination..
-------------------- ALL MEN DIE, BUT FEW MEN TRULY LIVE..
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JabaliHunter
.400 member
Reged: 16/05/07
Posts: 1958
Loc: England
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Agree - I know its fun to try the new stuff, but it isn't necessary. At the end of the day, are we there to hunt or shoot? When it comes to hunting in far flung places, everything is already stacked against you - particularly logistics and unfamiliar country. The only thing you can do in the case of logistics is to plan carefully and wisely. So you have to play the percentage game and if I take two rifles, one of them will almost certainly be a .30-06, .375 or .458 (possibly Lott). If I only take one (unlikely) then it will almost definitely be one of those. The ONLY exception would be a sheep/goat hunt. Call me boring, but when I borrow rifles, I invariably miss!
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JabaliHunter
.400 member
Reged: 16/05/07
Posts: 1958
Loc: England
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Others you can probably find relatively easily would be 9,3x62 and .404 , also .303 is abundant in SA and Zim (or used to be!)
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9.3x57
.450 member
Reged: 22/04/07
Posts: 5561
Loc: United States
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Quote:
Call me boring, but when I borrow rifles, I invariably miss!
This is a good point to address. If I borrowed a rifle on a hunt, I would insist the professional allowed me to play with it and run rounds thru it AND shoot it some before hunting with it. I wouldn't let the tyrrany of the urgent prevent me from getting familiar with the gun.
I get to shoot other fellows' guns here on my range when testing bullets, etc, and am pretty comfortable now picking up an unfamiliar rifle and shooting it BUT, I find I am much more confident when I know the quirks of the gun, especially trigger pull. And boy howdy do some guns have quirks...
If a fellow is forced to borrow a rifle, I would strongly suggest he take a deep breath and go thru the same motions he would if he bought a new gun back home; handle it, test it for functioning, dry fire it and definitely shoot it at a reasonable range of something like 100 meters to check zero. And know enough about general ballistic performance to understand shot placement at other ranges.
About the strangest "borrowing" experience I've had was when a friend brought his AR50 .50 BMG single shot over to the house and we shot at 200 and 400 meters. Stock design was limited to shooting off the right shoulder...being a lefty I was glad I practice from the off shoulder from time-to-time! How interesting it would be for the poor lefty to show up at a camp deep in the bundu and be forced to shoot a Winslow with a Tsunami Wave rollover comb and all the controls on the "wrong" side...
-------------------- What are the Rosary, the Cross or the Crucifix other than tools to help maintain the fortress of our faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God?
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Schauckis
.300 member
Reged: 17/07/07
Posts: 151
Loc: Finland
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Quote:
Quote:
Call me boring, but when I borrow rifles, I invariably miss!
This is a good point to address. If I borrowed a rifle on a hunt, I would insist the professional allowed me to play with it and run rounds thru it AND shoot it some before hunting with it. I wouldn't let the tyrrany of the urgent prevent me from getting familiar with the gun.
Quite so. The most spectacular miss ever I had was at a moose walking past me @ about 20 meters - I was shooting my uncle's rifle and vowed never to shoot a borrowed one again. Well, this year in Zim that was precisely what I had to do. To add injury to insult, I don't own and have virtually never shot scoped bolt-actions so this was a disaster waiting to happen. Before the trip I borrowed two similarish bolt guns for practice, and dry fired every evening and went to the range a lot. Additionally, I bought a scoped .22 for practice. Once there, I did Swedish drill (why is it called so? Because that's the only drill they get, ot having been in was for some three hundred years?) every evening to the extent the the rattle of the bolt and the click of the striker coming from my room became known as "sound of Africa". But: I did perform well, doing one-shot kills only. Also when sighting in the rifle on the range I burned a lot of ammo irrespective of the highish cost. I did miss once (well, twice: I fired twice and missed both...) due to looking through the scope wrong. More dry practice cured this ill. So: practice as much as you can before the trip; and during the trip whether your own gun or a borrowed one. Ammo spent on the range is not ammo wasted!
- Lars/Finland
-------------------- A.k.a. Bwana One-Shot
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shorthair
.224 member
Reged: 24/04/07
Posts: 3
Loc: wasington
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You could ship the rifle & ammo over in advance & have your PH let you know what didn't show up so you'd know what to take with you.
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DoubleD
.400 member
Reged: 23/11/03
Posts: 2485
Loc: Retired in Oklahoma
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Your concern is legitimate. You should prepare for every possible contingency.
Discuss your concern with your PH. Can he get ammo in your caliber? Will he have a back up gun and ammo if your rifle or ammo doesn't arrive?
Now if you are absolutely over whelmed with concern and you are adamant that you must only use your own gun then you should only carry a gun and ammo chambered in .308 Winchester, .303 British and 7.62 x 39.
It's almost a guarantee that if your ammo doesn't arrive you will be able to find ammo in these three calibers. If your ammo arrives and your rifle doesn't you are more likely to find a rifle in one of these three calibers than any others.
-------------------- DD, Ret.
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tophet1
.400 member
Reged: 15/09/07
Posts: 1873
Loc: NSW, Australia
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This is rather sad and I hate to admit it, but the first rifle I took on a Plains Game hunt was a .308W, the same as my P/H's. In fact on my second trip I used his rifle and my ammo from the first trip.
I guess I didn't want to take any chances on 'missing out' on my first Safari and was familiar with the round and it's trajectory before leaving.
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DoubleD
.400 member
Reged: 23/11/03
Posts: 2485
Loc: Retired in Oklahoma
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Just for the record...when I went on my one and only in 2002, I carried 338/308 AI, (now .338 Federal AI) 218 Mashburn Bee and 577/450.
-------------------- DD, Ret.
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rigbymauser
.400 member
Reged: 15/05/05
Posts: 2027
Loc: Denmark
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I had a .333Jeffery and a .270wea to afrika last year. Just for the heck of it, I went into some different gundealers in Bloemfontein, to see if they had any of those calibers. Nope!!. However the PH Andrew McLaren was a reloader, and if I had shot myself dry, I could have been able to reload some .270wea, if I had prepared in advanced to have a box of bullets. For my next tour down there I`LL take my 400/350 Rigbymauser + a scoped .300 H&H.
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EricD
.416 member
Reged: 27/02/04
Posts: 4636
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I personally think it is more important to check that the PH has a suitable back up gun (and ammo) you can borrow in case your gun or ammo doesn't arrive. Although I generally lean towards using a reasonably standard cartridge, where ammo at least might be available, as it it preferable to use your own rifle if possible.
Quote:
I think if Your suitcase with the ammo gets lost You have a big problem anyway. You will also miss Your binoculars, hunting clothes and so on. In some countries like Benin there is no ammo available at all except some spare rounds from the PH. So I just take the risk and use my favourite calibers.
Kalunga
That is why it is always a good idea to bring the most important stuff with you in your carry-on luggage. Wear your hunting boots/shoes, and carry a pair or hunting pants and shorts, a hunting shirt or two, extra socks and underwear etc. 
On two occasions I have had a bag go missing when flying to Africa. Once when my wife and I were on the way to Zim and Botswana, where one of our bags ended up in Iceland (God knows how that was possible???). It took a week to reach us. The other happened just a few weeks ago when I flew to Burkina Faso. The flight stops in Niamey, Niger, and somehow my Zarges case and several other peoples bags got left there when we continued to Ouagadougo. It took 4 days for me to get my case, but it didn't matter since I had all my essentials.
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Paul
.400 member
Reged: 28/08/07
Posts: 1031
Loc: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
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While discovering that ammo is not all that cheap in RSA, I did at least establish that I could buy .450/.400 cartridges there if mine didn't make it.
Erik's outlook makes sense to me. If you forget to get your carry-on bag when you leave the plane you can't blame anyone else for that.
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