AZDAVE
AH legend
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2013
- Messages
- 4,078
- Reaction score
- 8,682
- Media
- 205
- Hunted
- South Africa,Namibia, Mozambique, Alaska,lower 48
I am going to start this report off a little different. A bit of history and a rifle's review of performance and shooting.
When I first became a member of AH @Bos en Dal SAFARIS Geritt was the first outfitter that reached out to me. We started off talking about rifles and possible safari with his company. At DSC a year later we met him and his wife. my wife and I decided at some point we would hunt with Bos en Dal. Fast forward 10 years and we were finally able to put together a hunt. We tried to dovetail this in after our Mozambique safari in September, but just couldn't get the stars to align. So I scheduled it for October. My wife wasn't able to make this trip due to competing commitments. So we got everything booked, contacted gracy travel and all the travel/gun arrangement taken care of and just had to wait for October to roll around.
All my flights were on time, I actually got a bit of sleep on the long haul (Which is unusual for me) and made it into Joberg, the meet and greet service handed me off the Bruce from gracy travel and he got me through SAPS picked up you rifles and over to City Lodge for the night. The next morning @Gert Odendaal met me for breakfast at the hotel and we had a nice couple hours discussing rifles and hunting in Africa. At 7AM Geritt and his head PH Rikus met me in the lobby, we loaded my stuff and got on the road.
I will cover the actual hunting later in my report. I wanted to start with a review on the rifles I brought.
Chapuis RGEX 9.3x74 double (The favorite rifle I own, hand down) and a Christensen Arms Mesa in 6.5 Creedmoor.
Now before everyone breaks out their man bun comments, first to me the creed is a modern 6.5x55 ballistically. I use rifle based on the quarry I intend to hunt and 6.5's in my book are for deer/antelope here in the states and blesbok and smaller in Africa. What has got this round a bad name with hunters is that gun writers hyped it up to be the wonder round ets. Well I trust what gun writer say about as much as I do politicians or the press have to say. That and way to many people shooting target and match bullets. Then wondering why they have bullet failure. The manufactures really need to make some tougher hunting bullets in 6.5 so I will get off my soap box and go into the rifle review.
Off the bench with Barnes 127gr bullets it shoots sub MOA out to 500 (Longest target at pour local range) The short fall is that the fit isn't perfect for me. The LOP is way to short but in a low recoil round it isn't a big deal or so I thought. On the hunt I was looking for African Wildcat as my primary target for this rifle. I was able to use it on several jackal's, baboon's and other critters I will detail in the hunting part of the report. When I was able to get squared up behind the rifle and ensure the stock was in the shoulder properly and cheek weld was correct I shot spot on. When I was having to adapt to quick night shots the stock placement was off a bit and cheek weld was forward or back a bit I missed right over the top of the animal. Took me some serious internal AAR review on hits and misses to figure out the reason for my misses. Now I am trying to decide if I am going to restock the MESA to the proper length of pull or just trade it on something that fits better? I broke one of my rules about proper gun fit and educated a couple predators on getting out of dodge before the hunter gets in range.
On my Chapuis double I was hunting with 286gr Aframes. With this rifle I shot 4 animals. 3 with two shots. Every one was hit rifle through the boiler room and they just didn't know they were dead yet so since they were still on their feet I hit them with a second shot them put them down. The last animal was DRT on the first shot, legs out and nose in the dirt. There is a reason this is my favorite rifle. It fits me perfectly, Chapuis regulated it superbly and the balance is perfect. I shoot it well. On this trip It shot from 55-130 meters with hits exactly where I wanted them.
Need to get some pictures downloaded out of my phone and weill continue the report laster today or tomorrow.
When I first became a member of AH @Bos en Dal SAFARIS Geritt was the first outfitter that reached out to me. We started off talking about rifles and possible safari with his company. At DSC a year later we met him and his wife. my wife and I decided at some point we would hunt with Bos en Dal. Fast forward 10 years and we were finally able to put together a hunt. We tried to dovetail this in after our Mozambique safari in September, but just couldn't get the stars to align. So I scheduled it for October. My wife wasn't able to make this trip due to competing commitments. So we got everything booked, contacted gracy travel and all the travel/gun arrangement taken care of and just had to wait for October to roll around.
All my flights were on time, I actually got a bit of sleep on the long haul (Which is unusual for me) and made it into Joberg, the meet and greet service handed me off the Bruce from gracy travel and he got me through SAPS picked up you rifles and over to City Lodge for the night. The next morning @Gert Odendaal met me for breakfast at the hotel and we had a nice couple hours discussing rifles and hunting in Africa. At 7AM Geritt and his head PH Rikus met me in the lobby, we loaded my stuff and got on the road.
I will cover the actual hunting later in my report. I wanted to start with a review on the rifles I brought.
Chapuis RGEX 9.3x74 double (The favorite rifle I own, hand down) and a Christensen Arms Mesa in 6.5 Creedmoor.
Now before everyone breaks out their man bun comments, first to me the creed is a modern 6.5x55 ballistically. I use rifle based on the quarry I intend to hunt and 6.5's in my book are for deer/antelope here in the states and blesbok and smaller in Africa. What has got this round a bad name with hunters is that gun writers hyped it up to be the wonder round ets. Well I trust what gun writer say about as much as I do politicians or the press have to say. That and way to many people shooting target and match bullets. Then wondering why they have bullet failure. The manufactures really need to make some tougher hunting bullets in 6.5 so I will get off my soap box and go into the rifle review.
Off the bench with Barnes 127gr bullets it shoots sub MOA out to 500 (Longest target at pour local range) The short fall is that the fit isn't perfect for me. The LOP is way to short but in a low recoil round it isn't a big deal or so I thought. On the hunt I was looking for African Wildcat as my primary target for this rifle. I was able to use it on several jackal's, baboon's and other critters I will detail in the hunting part of the report. When I was able to get squared up behind the rifle and ensure the stock was in the shoulder properly and cheek weld was correct I shot spot on. When I was having to adapt to quick night shots the stock placement was off a bit and cheek weld was forward or back a bit I missed right over the top of the animal. Took me some serious internal AAR review on hits and misses to figure out the reason for my misses. Now I am trying to decide if I am going to restock the MESA to the proper length of pull or just trade it on something that fits better? I broke one of my rules about proper gun fit and educated a couple predators on getting out of dodge before the hunter gets in range.
On my Chapuis double I was hunting with 286gr Aframes. With this rifle I shot 4 animals. 3 with two shots. Every one was hit rifle through the boiler room and they just didn't know they were dead yet so since they were still on their feet I hit them with a second shot them put them down. The last animal was DRT on the first shot, legs out and nose in the dirt. There is a reason this is my favorite rifle. It fits me perfectly, Chapuis regulated it superbly and the balance is perfect. I shoot it well. On this trip It shot from 55-130 meters with hits exactly where I wanted them.
Need to get some pictures downloaded out of my phone and weill continue the report laster today or tomorrow.
