Hello PBrick.
Welcome to AfricaHunting.com!
In very broad terms, there are two categories of plains game when it comes to selecting your rifle(s):
1- Small and medium plains game, typically weighing from 20 lbs. up to 300 to 400 lbs. This category includes a vast number of antelopes: Black Wildebeest, Red Hartebeest, Blesbok, Waterbuck, Lechwe, Common and Mountain Reedbuck, Nyala, Bushbuck, Tsessebe, Impala, Springbok, Duiker, Steenbok, etc. but also Warthog, Caracal, Bushpig, Ostrich, Jackal, Baboon, etc.
2- Large plains game, typically weighing 400 to 500 lbs. and more. This category includes a number of antelopes: Blue Wildebeest, Eastern Cape Kudu, Gemsbok, Sable, Roan, Scimitar Oryx, etc. but also Zebra, Giraffe, etc.
Topping the scale at 1,500 lbs. the Eland is almost in a category of its own.
The best rifle(s) to bring is/are the one(s) you already own:
Truth be told, for plains game, the best rifles are really those you have been using for years and you are intimately familiar with.
1- Small and medium plains game. Unless your deer hunting is a very specialized, very short-range affair deep in dense woods with 50 yd shots, and your deer rifle is a lever action 30-30, your best small and medium plains game rifle is your deer rifle. Using heavy for caliber premium quality bullets such as Nosler Partition, Swift A Frame, Barnes TTSX, etc. the .25, .260, 6.5 mm, .270, .280, 7 mm, .308, 30-06, 8 mm, etc. non-magnum, or magnum, calibers will all do a stellar job on small and medium plains game.
2- Large plains game. Similarly, your elk rifle is your best large plains game rifle. Using heavy for caliber premium quality bullets such as Nosler Partition, Swift A Frame, Barnes TTSX, etc. the 7 mm, .300, .318, 8 mm, .325, .33, .35, 9.3 high speed calibers, be they Remington Magnum, Winchester Magnum, Weatherby Magnum, Remington Ultra Mag, Nosler, Vom Hofe, etc. will all do a stellar job on large plains game.
This is really that simple…
The “perfect” single rifle for all plains game:
Any Professional Hunter will tell you that any correctly placed bullet of reasonable caliber and reliable construction will kill any animal that walks the earth.
This is true, and this is why a .270 Winchester 130 gr ‘premium’ bullet in the heart and lungs is a much better recipe for hunting Kudu than a 250 gr .338 Win Mag bullet in the gut.
The best single rifle for all plains game is the one in at least .27 caliber that you shoot accurately, predictably and repeatedly in a 6” dessert paper plate out to 250 yards, each time, every time from the sticks or a field rest position.
If you can do this with a high speed .300 or .33, this is great. It will likely result in faster kills and less tracking. If you can do this with a .280 or .308, this is great. They will be just as dead.
If “gun buying madness” is upon you and if the safari is the perfect excuse to acquire the “perfect” plains game rifle, you would be hard pressed to select a better caliber than a fast 7 mm on the light side, a fast .300 in the middle, or a fast .33 on the heavy side, shooting premium bullets between 160 to 225 gr flat enough to have a maximum point blank range (MPBR) of 300 yards on a 6” vital area. That is IF you are comfortable with their recoil and can shoot them accurately.
Recommendations...
1- Unless you WANT to buy a .300, you do NOT NEED one. Your 7 mm Rem Mag will kill any plains game (PG) that walks Africa, or the earth for that matter. If the heavies (500 lbs +) are on the trophy list, shoot a 160 gr TTSX. If the heavies are not on the list, shoot a 140 gr TTSX. If you prefer GMX, E-Tip, A Frames, Partition, Sirocco, etc. etc. these are fine too. They all kill very well.
2- Unless you WANT to buy a .300, redirect the $1,550 it would cost and shoot two more $750 animals in Africa (Black or Blue wildebeest, Red Hartebeest, Bushbuck, Zebra, etc. etc.)
3- It does not cost a penny more or one sheet of additional paperwork to take two rifles to Africa, so IF your trophy lists justifies it, I would recommend you consider it, if only for backup purpose. After all, TIA ("This Is Africa" i.e. Murphy tends to show up uninvited to the dance). If you go with a 5 days / 5 animals package, just the 7 mm Rem Mag and just one load is perfect. If you go for 10 days / 15 animals, from Steenbok to Eland, the combo 6.5 Creedmoor 127 gr LRX and 7 mm Rem Mag 160 gr TTSX is about as good a dual plains game battery as one can think of...
4- If you WANT to buy a rifle, I would likely not go with the .300 Win Mag, it is too close to the 7 mm Rem Mag you already have. If you WANT a .30 cal, I would go for the .300 Wby. It really adds an edge in terms of MPBR. The RUM is great too but who knows how long ammo will be offered for it... Another way to look at this could also be to bypass the .30 cal (.300 mag) as being too close to the .28 (7 mm mag) and go for .33 (.338 mag). Now that would give you true coverage for the heavies... Yet another, and well respected way to go could be to say that you already have a "light" and a "medium" and that a .375 H&H - the epitome of the one-rifle safari battery, from Dik dik to Buffalo - is the smartest way to satisfy your African new hunting rifle itch...
5- In terms of makes, everyone on AH will have their favorite. I would be unimpressed by subjective "I like this" or "I do not like that" type of recommendations and I would suggest you focus on objective characteristics. For example when looking for a safari rifle, the classic questions to ask oneself would be:
- do you want a control round feed rifle?
- do you want a 5 round magazine capacity?
- do you want iron sights on your rifle?
- do you want integral scope bases on your rifle?
- do you want a true bolt-mounted, firing pin-blocking safety on your rifle?
- etc.
Notice that I am saying "want," not "need." Oceans of ink have been spilled and will continue to be spilled on whether you "need" this or that characteristic ... or not. The perfect example is your Rem 700. It has none of the above, but it sure is a great rifle, although typically not the idea of what most safari goers would argue makes a "classic" safari rifle.
Once you answer these, looking at makes is the next step...
Welcome to the delicious angst of preparing your safari. Enjoy it thoroughly, it is truly half the fun
Welcome to AfricaHunting.com!
In very broad terms, there are two categories of plains game when it comes to selecting your rifle(s):
1- Small and medium plains game, typically weighing from 20 lbs. up to 300 to 400 lbs. This category includes a vast number of antelopes: Black Wildebeest, Red Hartebeest, Blesbok, Waterbuck, Lechwe, Common and Mountain Reedbuck, Nyala, Bushbuck, Tsessebe, Impala, Springbok, Duiker, Steenbok, etc. but also Warthog, Caracal, Bushpig, Ostrich, Jackal, Baboon, etc.
2- Large plains game, typically weighing 400 to 500 lbs. and more. This category includes a number of antelopes: Blue Wildebeest, Eastern Cape Kudu, Gemsbok, Sable, Roan, Scimitar Oryx, etc. but also Zebra, Giraffe, etc.
Topping the scale at 1,500 lbs. the Eland is almost in a category of its own.
The best rifle(s) to bring is/are the one(s) you already own:
Truth be told, for plains game, the best rifles are really those you have been using for years and you are intimately familiar with.
1- Small and medium plains game. Unless your deer hunting is a very specialized, very short-range affair deep in dense woods with 50 yd shots, and your deer rifle is a lever action 30-30, your best small and medium plains game rifle is your deer rifle. Using heavy for caliber premium quality bullets such as Nosler Partition, Swift A Frame, Barnes TTSX, etc. the .25, .260, 6.5 mm, .270, .280, 7 mm, .308, 30-06, 8 mm, etc. non-magnum, or magnum, calibers will all do a stellar job on small and medium plains game.
2- Large plains game. Similarly, your elk rifle is your best large plains game rifle. Using heavy for caliber premium quality bullets such as Nosler Partition, Swift A Frame, Barnes TTSX, etc. the 7 mm, .300, .318, 8 mm, .325, .33, .35, 9.3 high speed calibers, be they Remington Magnum, Winchester Magnum, Weatherby Magnum, Remington Ultra Mag, Nosler, Vom Hofe, etc. will all do a stellar job on large plains game.
This is really that simple…
The “perfect” single rifle for all plains game:
Any Professional Hunter will tell you that any correctly placed bullet of reasonable caliber and reliable construction will kill any animal that walks the earth.
This is true, and this is why a .270 Winchester 130 gr ‘premium’ bullet in the heart and lungs is a much better recipe for hunting Kudu than a 250 gr .338 Win Mag bullet in the gut.
The best single rifle for all plains game is the one in at least .27 caliber that you shoot accurately, predictably and repeatedly in a 6” dessert paper plate out to 250 yards, each time, every time from the sticks or a field rest position.
If you can do this with a high speed .300 or .33, this is great. It will likely result in faster kills and less tracking. If you can do this with a .280 or .308, this is great. They will be just as dead.
If “gun buying madness” is upon you and if the safari is the perfect excuse to acquire the “perfect” plains game rifle, you would be hard pressed to select a better caliber than a fast 7 mm on the light side, a fast .300 in the middle, or a fast .33 on the heavy side, shooting premium bullets between 160 to 225 gr flat enough to have a maximum point blank range (MPBR) of 300 yards on a 6” vital area. That is IF you are comfortable with their recoil and can shoot them accurately.
Recommendations...
1- Unless you WANT to buy a .300, you do NOT NEED one. Your 7 mm Rem Mag will kill any plains game (PG) that walks Africa, or the earth for that matter. If the heavies (500 lbs +) are on the trophy list, shoot a 160 gr TTSX. If the heavies are not on the list, shoot a 140 gr TTSX. If you prefer GMX, E-Tip, A Frames, Partition, Sirocco, etc. etc. these are fine too. They all kill very well.
2- Unless you WANT to buy a .300, redirect the $1,550 it would cost and shoot two more $750 animals in Africa (Black or Blue wildebeest, Red Hartebeest, Bushbuck, Zebra, etc. etc.)
3- It does not cost a penny more or one sheet of additional paperwork to take two rifles to Africa, so IF your trophy lists justifies it, I would recommend you consider it, if only for backup purpose. After all, TIA ("This Is Africa" i.e. Murphy tends to show up uninvited to the dance). If you go with a 5 days / 5 animals package, just the 7 mm Rem Mag and just one load is perfect. If you go for 10 days / 15 animals, from Steenbok to Eland, the combo 6.5 Creedmoor 127 gr LRX and 7 mm Rem Mag 160 gr TTSX is about as good a dual plains game battery as one can think of...
4- If you WANT to buy a rifle, I would likely not go with the .300 Win Mag, it is too close to the 7 mm Rem Mag you already have. If you WANT a .30 cal, I would go for the .300 Wby. It really adds an edge in terms of MPBR. The RUM is great too but who knows how long ammo will be offered for it... Another way to look at this could also be to bypass the .30 cal (.300 mag) as being too close to the .28 (7 mm mag) and go for .33 (.338 mag). Now that would give you true coverage for the heavies... Yet another, and well respected way to go could be to say that you already have a "light" and a "medium" and that a .375 H&H - the epitome of the one-rifle safari battery, from Dik dik to Buffalo - is the smartest way to satisfy your African new hunting rifle itch...
5- In terms of makes, everyone on AH will have their favorite. I would be unimpressed by subjective "I like this" or "I do not like that" type of recommendations and I would suggest you focus on objective characteristics. For example when looking for a safari rifle, the classic questions to ask oneself would be:
- do you want a control round feed rifle?
- do you want a 5 round magazine capacity?
- do you want iron sights on your rifle?
- do you want integral scope bases on your rifle?
- do you want a true bolt-mounted, firing pin-blocking safety on your rifle?
- etc.
Notice that I am saying "want," not "need." Oceans of ink have been spilled and will continue to be spilled on whether you "need" this or that characteristic ... or not. The perfect example is your Rem 700. It has none of the above, but it sure is a great rifle, although typically not the idea of what most safari goers would argue makes a "classic" safari rifle.
Once you answer these, looking at makes is the next step...
Welcome to the delicious angst of preparing your safari. Enjoy it thoroughly, it is truly half the fun
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