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The lions (his and hers) will be full body mounted in our living room. We are going to do Debbie's in a "pre-charge" and mine in more of the "regal standing pose" with the same look of "why is this silly fat man standing in my desert?” he had when I took him.

As for the set of rifles; yes I have been very blessed with a wife that likes guns so I can indulge in some really top-notch stuff without fear of reprisal visits to the David Yurman boutique. Debbie has a custom cased set (case by Americase) of a Blaser R93 Attaché with a barrel in 30-06 (with a Zeiss 3-9X42) and a barrel in 375H&H (with a Zeiss 1.8-5.5X42) for her hunting travels. While she also owns numerous other fine guns (e.g. her "other" hunting rifle is a Steyr Scout JC package) however she prefers the Blaser for hard-core hunting.

Besides the perfect (IMO) Heym double for the job, my beloved Dakota 76 African Traveler rounds out my "world wide hunting case". It starts with a barrel in 300H&H with a Swarovski 1.5-6X42 (illuminated circle dot in the 1st focal plane) which was ideal for taking long pokes at things like my Reedbuck, which was shot standing off the sticks at 400 yards (yes, it is on video). The second barrel is in 375H&H and wears a 1.1-4X30 Kahles CSX (post dot illuminated in the 2nd focal plane). The Dakota is astoundingly accurate, fast, balanced, attractive, and well made. It also holds 5 in the mag and 1 in the snout; which gives you a good feeling when on the stalk with prides of lions in the area.

Ammo wise, we use Barnes bullets in all the bolt guns. Our choices are triple shock 180gr in the 30 calibers (30-06 and 300H&H) and 300gr triple shocks & banded solids in the 375H&H barrels. I cannot give a higher recommendation on bullet choice! We reload our ammo and I can tell you the Barnes have the most consistent weight (bullet to bullet) thus the accuracy is phenomenal. The bullet choice accompanied with precise shot placement allow us to spend more time hunting for the next trophy and less time tracking the game we just shot. All of our animals taken with the triple shocks (including the lions) either dropped to the shot or expired within 25 yards. Thus “recovery” consisted of loading the animal in the land cruiser. In fact all of the Barnes bullets we recovered had 100% weight retention and photo perfect expansion. That said we also recovered the 500gr Woodleigh soft from the buff and it was a picture perfect expansion. Great ammo makes good shot placement even better!

The best advice I received was: No matter what you type of rifle and caliber you choose, shoot it a lot (preferably off the sticks) and learn to shoot quickly. The game will not hang about waiting for the hunter to get everything perfect. Also, pick up a copy of “The Perfect Shot” video and really study it. Your PH will tell you which one to shoot as well as how, where, and when but the more prepared you are as a hunter the better.

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