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When I had my first "African battery" built in the early 1960's, as a result of reading Taylor's "African Rifles and Cartridges" my choice of calibers was 7mm Remington Magnum, .375-.338 Chatfield-Taylor and .458 Winchester Magnum. The choice of these short magnum calibers was partly dictated by the fact that all three rifles were based on double heat treated 1903 Springfield actions, with their magazines designed for the .30-'06. Although those particular rifles never made it to Africa, I still think they were a good choice and I would not hesitate to recommend them.

When I actually did go to Africa in 1971, I took a much battered pre-64 Winchester Model 70 in .300 H&H Magnum, a Krieghoff Teck over and under double rifle three barrel set, consisting of rifle barrel pairs in .458 Winchester Magnum and .375 H&H Magnum, and shotgun barrels in 20 gauge 3" magnum. My third rifle was based on a P-14 Enfield action, and chambered for a wildcat cartridge of my own design, the .505 SRE, which is a .30-'06 length rimless cartridge based on shortened .460 Weatherby Magnum brass, and propelling a 570 grain bullet at 2150 fps from a 22" barrel.

Over the course of three trips, totalling eleven weeks, I used the .505 for three elephants, one rhino and five buffalo. I used the .458 WM for one elephant and one buffalo. I used the .375 H&H with 300 grain Silvertip bullets for one lion, one leopard, two elands, one greater kudu and one lesser kudu. All the rest of the plains game, including sable, wildebeest, hartebeest, oryx (both Beisa and fringe eared), waterbuck (both Defassa and common), zebra (both Burchell's and Grevy's), impala, Grant's gazelle, Peter's gazelle, Thompson's gazelle, gerenuk and dik-dik, were taken with the .300 H&H, using 180 grain Silvertip bullets, which passed right through the smaller animals without expanding.

On my last trip, I took along a .222 Remington, which I used for plains game up to and including impala and down to klipspringer, and a 7X57 which I used on wildebeest, bushbuck and Peter's gazelle.

All of these calibers performed to my complete satisfaction, but keep in mind that I am an experienced competetive shooter with high powered rifles at ranges from 200 to 1000 yards, and that I am relatively impervious to recoil, especially so when shooting at game.

I would not maintain that these calibers are the minimum for the game taken. In fact, much of the game taken with the .300 H&H could just as easily have been taken with a .30-'06 or a 7X57, provided they were hit in the proper spot.

Were I to leave on a hunt again tomorrow, I would feel no compunction about taking exactly the same rifles again.

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