Professional Hunters, Oddest Cartridge a Client Has Brought?

[Saul]

To all of the PHs out there, I would like to know what is the oddest cartridge that you have seen a client bring on a hunt? I got thinking about this after reading an article about how Hornady hunted African PG with their new Superformance 6.5 Creedmoor. Plus, we all know about Roy's African exploits using the .257 wby. Was the cartridge effective or did it fail?

 

[Divernhunter]

Not a PH but this was our experience. PH was not sure about it at first but by the 2nd drop dead on their tracks kill he did not worry about it at all.
I know the 257Roberts was very effective on PG in South Africa. Shots were all spot and stalk from 135 to 410 yards. All were one shot easy to find(very short run if any) kills. Bullets were 120gr Swift A-Frame at 2899FPS at 20 feet. Killed aprox 12 animals.

 

[Saul]

Not a PH but this was our experience. PH was not sure about it at first but by the 2nd drop dead on their tracks kill he did not worry about it at all.
I know the 257Roberts was very effective on PG in South Africa. Shots were all spot and stalk from 135 to 410 yards. All were one shot easy to find(very short run if any) kills. Bullets were 120gr Swift A-Frame at 2899FPS at 20 feet. Killed aprox 12 animals.

Thats some mighty fine performance out of the .257Roberts. I can only imagine the look on your PHs face, though, when you first pulled that rifle out to when the first animal dropped.

 

[Divernhunter]

That was my daughters rifle. She is an excellent shot. I was using my 338win mag and thought if needed I could back her up. That was never necessary.

 

[BWH]

I read an article once in a hunting magazine. It was based on "deer". The study took place over like a 10 year window.... and thousands of deer. The comparison was how far a deer would go after hit from rounds from .22 - .30 calibers. There was ample data. Long story short.... the .25 caliber had the most effective kill rate/distance after shot by far. I found it surprising/interesting, but apparently very true.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

I read an article once in a hunting magazine. It was based on "deer". The study took place over like a 10 year window.... and thousands of deer. The comparison was how far a deer would go after hit from rounds from .22 - .30 calibers. There was ample data. Long story short.... the .25 caliber had the most effective kill rate/distance after shot by far. I found it surprising/interesting, but apparently very true.

@BWH
That's why I have been using a 25 for the last 45 years. Underrated and deadly.
Bob

 

[Frederik]

Back in 2000 I saw a 300 RUM for the first time with original Barnes X.
Was not a good combo impact speed was too high and bullets imploded instead of expanded.
Acted like solids only good result was on an eland bull.

Then I had an english client use two odd cailbres on two different hunts.

416 Hoffman and a 257 Roberts.

Oddest rilfe and calibre combo was a custom rifle made by a top gunsmith in Austria, Argentine Mauser action gold engraving cold forge finish classic and then it was a 338 win mag.
Nothing against the 338 win mag love the calibre but a classic mauser with all bells and whistles??

 

[318AE]

On my last trip, I brought a 318 Westley Richards and 425 Westley Richards. Both with only iron sights, no scopes. There was clearly some puzzlement and skepticism, until we went to the range to “sight in”. After that, one of the PH’s said “you were born on the wrong continent”.

 

[Red Leg]

 

[Divernhunter]

To all of the PHs out there, I would like to know what is the oddest cartridge that you have seen a client bring on a hunt? I got thinking about this after reading an article about how Hornady hunted African PG with their new Superformance 6.5 Creedmoor. Plus, we all know about Roy's African exploits using the .257 wby. Was the cartridge effective or did it fail?

My 2nd trip I took my 338win mag and my 257W. I shot 100gr TTSX barnes bullets and 120gr Swift A-Frames. I shot about 30 animals with the 257W and it worked just fine. Only one required a 2nd shot and that was the idiot shooters fault. My handloads shot to the same point using either bullet and both worked well. I did use my bigger rifle for the larger PG(Eland, Nyala and Kudu). Others were shot with the 257W(baboons, Bushbuck, Steenbok, (one Kudu),and such). I feel the 257W would have taken any animal I shot.

 

[YancyW]

I found that basically, no one in Africa has ever heard of a 280ai. When they understood it was very close to a 7x64, they had no issue clearly.

 

[IvW]

375 RUM, 454 Casull
After a long hot day tracking and hunting Gems buck, the 6 ft something ex Marine drop at the shot(faster than the Gems buck), badly cut and concussed his small wife check on him after I checked to see he would be ok and I went to check Gems buck as the shot was taken at last light.....he converted back to 375 H&H after that....

The Casull also proved to be a beast not for the faint hearted...

 

[RR 314]

Not a PH but I love my .375 RUM. I did take a .257 STW to Africa and the PH had never heard of such. No tracking please him greatly.

 

[IvW]

.257 is legal for a few few small species irrespective of performance...I prefer to keep it legal and advise accordingly...

 

[Professor Mawla]

Until 1974 , foreign hunters were still allowed to formally come to Bangladesh and shoot marauding Royal Bengal tigers . It was 1973 and I was working with the Sundarban Forest Guards , at the time . An American gentleman came to hunt a marauding Royal Bengal tiger . He was armed with a .460 Weatherby Magnum ( a Weatherby Mark V ) .

The unfortunate gentleman got mangled to death by the marauder and this , in turn prompted all of the Bangladesh forest departments to unfortunately cease handing out LOA ( Letter Of Authorization ) permits to all foreigners for shooting problem animals . They feared negative publicity in front of the rest of the word , and also feared that more dead foreigners would strain foreign relations .

Now , I cannot pretend to know the exact details as to how the gentleman was killed ( because I was stationed in the Dublar Chor Forest Range , while the American gentleman was fatally mangled in the Buri Goalini Forest Range ) . However , I have never been fond of Weatherby calibres or rifles for dangerous game .