13th trip to africa next month...

[Junglechicklet]

I consider myself very fortunate to have hunted with some of the greatest PH's in some of the best places on the planet with my dad as my adventure partner. Other than Australia, NZ, & North America, the rest of my big game pursuits have all been in Africa. In the dozen safaris over the years, I have taken some fantastic game, including The Big 5, Dangerous 7, 26 of the African 29; I darted a rhino that made SCI Record Book as #1, my lion came in at #3, I stopped a charge from a tuskless elephant at 5 YARDS, & took home as a souvenir a near-fatal case of malaria!
Next month marks the 4 year anniversary of my dad's passing. I can't think of a better way to honor his memory than to go back to the land we love, this time for my husband to take a nice trophy dugga' boy. But I have a few questions that hopefully y'all can help me with:

1. I love my Brown Precision Rem. Mag. .416 - safari before last I took 12 animals in 13 shots - all offhand - so that one's in for sure. Should the 2nd rifle be a 375 H & H or an almost identical 416?
2. Recommendations for ammo? 100 or 400 gr.? Does Zim have a ban on any kind of ammo I should know about?
3. I have not flown through the Middle East prior to this trip. We fly business class on Qatar from SFO to Harare with a 14-hour layover in Doha.If not mistaken, luggage gets checked through to Harare, but does anyone know if we must collect the bags as our 1st landing/transfer to clear customs then go through the check-in process again? Is that before leaving the airport for the 14 hours?
4. I've already alerted the airlines to let them know we will have firearms & she didn't mention any other paperwork other than our proof of ownership from the usa. Is there something we need from the Qatar govt.?
5. Has anyone been there & know of anything to do for that length of time? In Frankfurt & Paris, we've gotten day rooms attached to the international terminal as opposed to hanging out in the airport for all that time...

Thanks for your time!

 

[VertigoBE]

Wow that’s quite an introduction !
Congratulations on all the fine hunting (that cat and buffalo ) you have done over the years! And very nice of you to continue the family tradition of creating memories in Africa

Cheers,

V.

 

[Altitude sickness]

Use one of the travel agents mentioned here, that sponsor this page.
They will book you a hotel room at the Doha airport. So you do not have to leave the airport

 

[Doug3006]

Welcome to the forum. You won’t need to touch your rifles in Doha. They’ll be checked through to Harare. Enjoy your safari.

 

[shootist~]

Rifles need to be coded into Qatar's reservation system in advance. My travel agent did this in 2021 and I even had her send me a screenshot to verify.

Since I flew the first leg on AA (ABQ to DFW), I had to claim and re-check my rifle with an actual Qatar agent in DFW. My travel agent gave me the heads up on this as well.

IIRC, Qatar has a toll free number for special issues/problems.
It might be worth giving them a call if not using a travel agent. No guarantee they will be knowledgeable about flying with rifles, however.

 

[dchum]

I flew Qatar with the help of @TRAVEL EXPRESS. The Qatar employees were very impressed with the organization of paper work. All thanks to my travel agent

There are Qatar declarations and necessary paperwork that is needed

I would reach out to a travel agent and have them notify Qatar of firearm - This is a must.

 

[AZDAVE]

Welcome to AH. Sounds like the adventure gene runs deep in your family. I have always used Gracy travel to book our hunts and they have taken care of the necessary gun paperwork and alerting the airlines for us. Used them twice in 2021 for flights with Qatar and was no problems encountered.

Have a great safari look forward to reading your trip/hunt report.