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The Kalahari is great. The lack of light combined with dry air makes for some intense viewing conditions. Possibly the most moving view I’ve had of the sky happened when we were stuck for an hour or two at the top of a ridge in the Khomas Hochlands in Namibia. The cruiser overheated and it...

The bullet takes up a good part of the total case volume. The area that is left is used for the calculation. A standard COAL is used to make this calculation.

Great report. Cool adventure to the actual end of the earth.

The weight of the rifle and the design of the stock are probably more important. I have a youth model 7mm-08 with a decent recoil pad that kicks hard enough to break stuff. When are they necessary? Never. When are they nice? Always.

I've been to Africa 8 times and South America 3 times. No issues. But, on my wife's first trip, she got pretty bad GI symptoms in Namibia. The pharmacy there honored my US medical license and we were able to get the antibiotics my friend recommended. We were at the tail end of our trip and...

Just read all this. What a great hunt. As you said, everything after the cat was a bonus. What a great pair of buffalo. Please post photos of the finished taxidermy. :)

During a muzzleloader hunt in Colorado, we were on a ridge across from at least 20 mature 6-point bull elk. They were scattered around across the canyon less than 400 yards away. There was hardly a 5 second break without a bugle. This went on for hours and I probably heard 1000 bugles in that...

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If I can quickly get a vehicle to an animal, I will gut it. If it's going out on my back, the gutless method is easier. Yes, it's very possible to remove the tenderloins without going inside. Technically, it's called a retroperitoneal approach, which is a place surgeons can operate "behind...

Great post. As has been said commonly, making the first shot count is crucially important, but I think making a good second shot is incredibly hard. The situation is often rushed, fluid, and maybe even a bit “panicked“ as you said. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Great buffalo!

Kudu……. Yes! Indeed the primary focus of many of my hunts. I got this nice beast in no-fence central Namibia this year. It’s 57” (or possibly 56" - I can't remember) and my best, to date. Next best is 54” from roughly the same area.

If you don’t like them that’s fine. I don’t understand it, but different strokes for different folks. It does change the balance some, but the weight on the end of the barrel reduces muzzle rise. For me that means the second shot is on target more quickly. If you put a 9” can on a 26” rifle...

Well, a “quick look” can quickly turn into an all-day stalk & retrieval, so best to keep Everything you need available. For me it’s a rifle with a full magazine, one in my pocket, and 5-6 more in a belt of some sort. If it’s hot, I always have a small water bottle in my pocket. I usually...

Bullet composition & construction are important. It’s probably more important to know the strengths & weaknesses of your choice. You can shoot steenbok with a .22LR with soft lead bullets or with a .470 nitro with solids. Both work perfectly fine, assuming you can shoot both of them...

That’s a right proper buffalo! Congrats!

I've been a collector of mid to high end collectible coins along with physical gold & silver bullion for quite a few years. I am less active in that scene than before, but here's my take: If you want to own some, take physical possession of it and figure out a way to store it securely...

Hmmmmm. It's probably always a bad idea to give negative unsolicited feedback. If people are genuinely asking, I tell them. Most of the time, they already know, and all any of us have to offer is an opinion. Comparison is the thief of joy. Unless you're one of 29 guys on the planet, someone...

Elephant ivory has always been incredibly practical. This is great!

One advantage of hunting with the same guys at the same place is that you can leave some with them. Fortunately, ammo not showing up hasn't happened to me yet. I desperately missed my case full of warm clothes on one trip. If/when it happens, I suppose I'll use a camp gun, which I often do...

As an Idaho native, most of my elk hunting has happened in jeans and a hoodie. These days, I'm more likely to use the warm Kuiu stuff I already own, but that's only because it's there and available. Be ready for hiking up mountains in 80 degree weather and waking up to a foot of new snow the...

Well, you just have to schedule non-negotiable time away. Then, work on filling it up. If I don’t have a hunt or other vacation “on the shelf” I go a bit crazy. Right now, I have nothing booked apart from an Alaska fishing trip a year away…… I have similar “slowing down” concerns, but I’m in...

Doing that into your 70s can be done by most folks who keep active and execute a plan. Into your 80s, you need all of that plus a little luck with the genetic lottery.

I didn't think there were too many, but then I remembered the homemade pipe bombs, 147 mph on a county road in an '87 Camaro, building a shotgun of sorts..... That sort of stuff. Going after a problem lion with one bullet. A memorable night that ended with a high-speed chase with fish & game...

Well, it's pretty natural for a hunter's career to evolve something like this: I want to shoot something I want to shoot something else I want to actually find the thing I shot I want to learn to spot/track/shoot better I want to shoot something big I want to shoot something bigger I want to...

I wish more people would do this. I moved my own trophies in on my flight from Canada to the US last year. Raw partially de-fleshed skull and a frozen wet cape. The US paperwork was exactly what I’d seen my very expensive agent fill out on my behalf with African trophies. It took me about 5...

Wow. What a difference locations makes. Out west there’s plenty of wide open BLM and forest service land. Within 20 minutes of my house there’s at least 6 spots I can shoot out to 1000 yards. No other human in sight. I don’t even know of a gun range except for one little 50 yard setup for...

I’m a skeptic when it comes to this. Most game animals have a sense of smell that is orders of magnitude ahead of ours. I suspect that they can smell people with or without detergent perfumes, so called sent-blockers, shower or no shower. Maybe all of these efforts make a small difference...

I have both and I've killed a ton of deer and pronghorn with both. If you expect long range, the .257 Wby has a slight edge, but the .25-06 is a wonderful round. As has been said, it might be easier to chamber for .25-06 given the bolt, magazine, and action.

Chukar & Hungarian Partridge.

You planning on eating that? It’s a pretty good anti-armor round, I doubt it would expand well. If you’re just going for density, tungsten or bismuth would be great……. But they have other problems like barrel life, machinability, or brittleness. One possibility is that the materials we...

Scammers for specialized products like big bore rifles can’t stand up to 30 seconds of scrutiny on the phone. It’s a reasonable ask.

Markets don’t like uncertainty. Airlines don’t buy fuel on the daily, but from futures contracts. If there’s any uncertainty, they crank up the fees to provide margin if things go bad. Besides, a small drop in supply can equate to a huge rise in price. The supply-demand curve for oil can be...

Great caliber. Accubond is fine. I prefer the TSX or TTSX. Something around 180 grains is perfect. All of that said, I've probably killed the majority of my African critters with Sierra Game Kings. It's what the PH has, and I've borrowed a rifle for most of my hunts. They're not my...

A sharp blow to the central nervous system (either brain or spinal cord) immediately incapacitates an animal. This doesn't need to be a direct hit to the cord or brain either. If you want to call the impact "hydrostatic shock" that's probably reasonable. While it's "knocked out" it often...

Last time I went to Africa, I booked with a European airline. It was about $1000 cheaper. Oil is up, and fuel prices drive airfare (or are used as an excuse to raise rates).

For a first hunt, it would be hard to beat a spot-and-stalk, low-fence (or no-fence) plains game hunt in Namibia. There are plenty of places to do this, and you can still take an incredible quantity of game. Mountain zebra, kudu, springbok, red hartebeest, warthog, and gemsbok could be the...

Swaros. Cry once, then get decades of use out of them.

All the money is tied up right now with the Boomers. When they age out, housing inventories will surge, their money will be dispersed, and you'll see some younger folks enjoying things like hunting camps again.

I’ve been to Africa 8 times. 7 times with the PH we started with, and he also accompanied me on the other trip to the Caprivi. They’re such great guys and we had so much fun, I’ve never felt a reason to try anything else. With the PH, I’ve hunted 8 different places in Namibia. Each trip has...

My first was an ancient blesbok. He was just over 200 yards away, and I made a perfect quartering shot on him from a bipod. It’s one of the few times I had a perfect setup for a bipod in Africa.

I dunno. If you want to ask who could singlehandedly change the entire momentum of a team or even an entire sport, MJ gets my not. That's probably a product of my age and what I saw with my own eyes. He had it all. Talent. Drive. Work. Honestly though, worldwide over the past 100 years...

After a lifetime of contemplation, the magic formula is first, finding and staying true to your moral center, second, some mix of education & hard work to generate income, third living on less than that with no debt, and fourth, managing jealousy & envy. The man who can accomplish that is...

I own a bunch of Leupolds all the way from ancient 2x7 models up to the latest VX5 and VX6 with all the bells & whistles. It’s probably 20 scopes or so. In the last 10 years I’ve had two of their newer scopes fail to hold zero. As has been said, possibly it’s a mounting problem and flimsy...

I have no doubt the military sees a drop in marksmanship with more than 11 ft-lbs. When you’ve been around firearms your entire life, a bit of noise and recoil are trivial things. If not, guns are scary. People today may or may not be smarter, they may or may not be wussified, but they...

Team up with a good PH who can conduct guided hunts there. You'll have no issues with littering or destroying fences, and you won't have people wounding and not paying for animals. If the game is there, people will come....... for meat hunting or trophy hunting. If possible, pair up with...

My first African animal was a blesbok too, on my birthday, many years ago. It was an old, old thing with horns worn down and teeth worn down even more. It's the sort of trophy I would appreciate more now than then. Congrats on what sounds like a great hunt!

For Buffalo, consistently hitting a small paper plate was my goal. 20/20 from the sticks at 100 yards is not only achievable but sufficient.m, but this was with a scope. For most situations 50 yards would be sufficient. Doing it at 100 improves confidence though. Offhand, I’d shoot for the...

I shot a grey duiker and steenbok inside of 50 yards with a .300 Wby with 180 gr TTSX. Both were fine, and I aimed behind the shoulder. The klippie was with a .375 solid at 230 yards. There was no significant fur damage. Next trip will include dik-dik, hopefully. I'm told there's a .22...

Well, most PHs, even the old ones, are in considerably better shape than most of their clients. When it comes to surgeons, youthful ones have the best eyesight, stamina, and manual dexterity. They also have little experience and their judgement isn’t always perfect. In their 40s, eyesight and...

I’m OK with a few elephants dying of old age. It’s better than in areas of gross mismanagement where they destroy the habitat and they all starve to death.