At the risk of boredom
My point exactly. Slow and heavy from 30-30 up has proven successful for hunting in the woods for generations for the exact reasons your dad demonstrated.
I grew up in Michigan and had a Marlin 30-30 which I loved. One year I missed a buck at about 30 yds when my bullet hit a small twig. I came back the next season with my Win. mod 12 shotgun and slugs confident that even a sapling wouldn't stop me. This is not the place for a 7mm mag or a .243 - you'll spend a lot of time looking for wounded deer.
But this thread is about
Africa and
Plains Game and
One Gun - so lets go back to basics. I, as a retired PH and Outfitter often had to make the "one gun" recommendation to several first time plains game hunters. Here's are the reasons.
1) Bullet placement is the most important - but it's not "Everything". My first experience with a 7mm Rem Mag was in the mid 80's. We found a kudu bull in a valley about 150 yds below us. I set up the shooting sticks and as the bull slowly walked out from behind a thorn tree I whispered "ok -shoot". I had already explained that he must aim at the shoulder and aim low as were shooting downhill. I saw the dust kick up on the shoulder. "Good" I said. The bull flinched, took a few steps and stood behind another thorn tree for about a minute but didn't go down - and then walked on. "Shoot Again" I instructed, but the result was the same. By the third shot I could clearly see blood on the shoulder through my binocs and grabbed my 300H&H. After the fourth shot he was over 200yds away and still walking. I aimed at the back of his head and dropped him with a lucky high neck shot. I was speechless - I loved the 7X57 so the 7mm mag could only be better. My jack russell terrier found the bull in thick cover at the bottom of the valley. We loaded it in my old Land Rover. Back at camp my skinner went to work while we had breakfast. When I examined the carcass I couldn't believe my eyes. Two shots had exploded on the shoulder bone and not penetrated any further but destroyed the meat from the neck back almost 3 feet. The other two shots has missed bone and passed straight through the lungs and exited without expanding leaving two tiny neat holes with some pink foam. All four shots were within an 8" circle in the "kill zone". Any one of the shots would have been fatal from a 30-06 or a 308. Either would have broken bone or expanded through the lungs. He was using 150gr factory ammo at about 3100ft/sec. This was a 7X57 bullet in a 375H&H case - how could it fail?? The client's favorite gun dealer convinced him to buy it for his African safari - and told him no lies. On paper the 7mm mag "Has superior ballistics to the 30-06". Unfortunately, there were many more wounded animals with 7mm mags and even 270's - so many that our brochure was changed to "30 cal minimum". African game can't read ballistics charts.
2) Back to bullet placement. We are "Hunters" not "Snipers" We know that a 308 can take out a man at 800yds+ but that's not a good reason to choose a rifle. The challenge of the sport is to stalk or ambush our quarry within a a distance where we are confident of our bullet placement. I try to get a client within 100yds and try to never allow them to attempt a shot at over 200yds. That's hunting - so we'll select our one gun on those numbers. No rifle is going to make you a good shot at 300yds or more. We don't hunt here from a bench rest. I have seen 7mm mags perform well with 175gr hand loads - but why put up with the recoil when you are getting back to non-magnum ballistics by making it heavier and slower? Nothing destroys a hunters confidence quicker than excessive recoil. And don't bring a massive variable power scope. Any good 4X fixed power will do. Leupold is still my favorite "value for money" again based on experience. It's strong - doesn't need to be checked every time you bump it and good for low light shooting early morning and evening. Judging distance in South Africa is one of the most difficult challenges hunting here due mainly to two factors. First lots of huge wide open spaces and second the amazing variety of the size of our antelope. It's hard enough without the hunter looking through his scope wondering if it's on 3X or 12X and even worse being unable to find the animal due to the narrow field of view at high power and being afraid to shoot because he can't hold it still.
3) Our "one gun hunter" is likely to use off the shelf factory ammo.
On those three assumptions -
a) A Proven caliber for Africa plains game-
b) Accuracy - able to produce a clean kill at 200yds without excessive recoil using readily available factory ammo
c) And a good 4X scope.
My final recommendation would still be first a 30-06, second 308, and third 375H&H. The 375 is only necessary if you are hunting in an area where you are likely to encounter dangerous game.
There are many many other great calibers. They can be broadly grouped into two main categories. First and by far the largest and most popular over the years are the "military" calibers. 30-06, 308 (7.62x51mm) , 7X57, .223, and even the British 303 have all proven themselves in Africa and worldwide.
The second group I call the African group. The early "white hunters" in Africa soon found that dangerous game often needed something heavier than the conventional "military" guns. Starting with F C Selous' famous 4 bore elephant gun (4 bullets to a pound - each shot fired a quarter pound of lead) through the famous nitro express doubles like the 500s, 470, 465 and bolt actions like the 416 Rigby and 404 Jefferys , British gun-makers developed many calibers specifically for hunters in Africa and India. They also developed many calibers specifically for plains game hunting. Holland & Holland developed the first 7mm Rem mag called the .275 H&H Magnum in 1912. It was also based on a 375H&H case and a 7mm bullet. It became the 7x61mm Sharpe & Hart in 1953, and eventually the 7mm Remington Magnum in 1962. The .275 H&H had been a cartridge ahead of its time.
375 H&H is the most popular calibre invented by Holland & Holland, and was introduced in 1912 as a Nitro Express cartridge using cordite, but worked its way into becoming also the world's most popular African safari calibre to date, due to its versatility.
Holland & Holland alone developed and made rifles for more that 15 hunting calibers from the .240 Apex to the .700 Nitro Express firing a 1000 grain bullet.
Joseph Lang developed the .470NE in 1900. It was produced from 1907 until today and many experienced African hunters still prefer it to the .458 Win mag which was developed to replace the 470 NE.
The abundance of game in the "new world" and commercial hunting meant that these calibers were tested on untold thousands of animals. John "Pondoro" Taylor's book "African Rifles and Cartridges" is one of the best books ever compiled on real world performance. Taylor was a famous PH and shot thousands of animals. He preferred the big bore double rifles but he said that the 375 H&H was "Undoubtedly one of the deadliest weapons in existence. I've had five of these rifles—two doubles and three magazines—and have fired more than 5,000 rounds of .375 Magnum ammunition at game. One of them accounted for more than 100 elephant and some 411 buffalo, besides rhino, lions and lesser game." Having hunted over thirty years on the African continent, Taylor is credited with over 1,000 elephant to his bag. He also developed a stopping power mathematical formula called the "Taylor KO Factor". It's very good as long as you remember it was developed for solid bullets. The Germans developed the 9.3X62 and later the 9.3X64 as their answer to the 375H&H. The 9.3X64 "Brenneke" H-mantel was the first "partitioned" bullet construction long before Nosler came along.
"Karamojo" Bell shot over 1000 elephant with a 7X57. It's the thickest and hardest skull to penetrate but the 7mm mag I mentioned earlier failed to penetrate a Kudu's shoulder blade. This is the mystery of ballistics.
The third group I call "varmit" calibers including many of the "wildcats". 22-250, 220 Swift are two of my favorites. A bench rest, powerful scope, and spotting scope are the perfect combo for testing your "sniper" skills. At high speeds the heads are meant to explode on impact when shooting prairie dogs at over 300 yds. I would probably choose a 7mm rem mag for coyotes at similar distances. It's a great varmint caliber. They are meant to destroy at long distance.
There are dozens of great calibers for specific purposes.
For hunting we also need the following for effective bullet performance:
Penetration - the bullet should fully penetrate the body.
Expansion - a soft head should mushroom for maximum internal damage but ideally finish as a lump under the skin with no exit wound. 100 percent of the energy is absorbed.
Retention - the bullet should retain at least 90 percent of it's weight. It should not break up or explode and the core should not separate from the jacket. Minimum meat damage.
In my experience 7X57, 308, 30-06, and 375H&H have all met the criteria. So has my 300H&H - but only if I hand load with 180gr Nosler partitions. Unfortunately 7mm mags, 243, 270, 264 Win mag have all failed here on plains game when it comes to bullet performance and knock down power. Granted, you can hand load any of them for better performance but you are really attempting to change them into something else. Most of the magnums have too much recoil for the average hunter - especially the Weatherbys.
One small caliber that still amazes me is the 6.5X55 SKAN (1894). I don't know why but I have never seen a kudu walk away from a well placed shot. It has also proven itself on deer and even elk in the USA and is still very popular with moose hunters in Norway and Sweden ( see Petersen's Hunting article
The 6.5x55 Swedish Mauser). The 6.5x54mm Mannlicher-Schonauer is nearly identical. The bullet performance is still amazes me.
At the risk of boring everyone further we have to wonder why, with today's technology, our most popular, proven, hunting calibers are 100 years old?
Don't get me wrong - I'd like to own a hundred rifles but this this is a "one gun" thread.
