BlackRhino
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- Oct 23, 2025
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Hello Africahunters!
I’ve always found this forum to be a great source of practical knowledge. Hopefully, a few of you will find my experience useful this time around.
Traveling with your own rifle by air has become a real challenge—especially with certain European airlines. Still, many of us prefer using our own gun on safari. A familiar rifle—its trigger, scope, and recoil—can make all the difference when the pressure is on.
For my first African safari in the Erongo Mountains (Namibia) more than 35 years ago, I bought a Ceska Zbrojovk (BRNO) ZKK 602 (.375 H&H Magnum). At that time, rifles with the large Mauser system (e.g., BREVEX) were very rare and unaffordable for young people. Thus, the ZKK was the only realistic choice. To introduce you to the advantages of the ZKK, such as controlled feeding, long Mauser style extractor, milled rear sight base, would be like carrying coals to Newcastle, even if the round rear stock favored at that time no longer meets today's requirements. My ZKK was additionally cross-bolted, glass-bedded, and a scope was mounted with easy detachable EAW rings.
Like all rifles based on or are similar to the original Mauser system, the ZKK can be easily dismantled, i.e. the stock can be removed from the barreled action without special gunsmith tools. Just be sure to use the right screwdriver to avoid chewing up the screw heads. I use an ERA Universal screwdriver from Recknagel (about €85). That tool is among other suppliers available for approx. €85 from Recknagel in Germany. Three screws need to be loosened on the ZKK 602. A characteristic feature of this gun model is the recoil lug milled into the rear part of the barrel, which provides an additional support for the system and prevents the stock from splitting even under heavy recoil. I also glass-bedded this part and could significantly improve the accuracy. However, I can't say whether this is always helpful to increase accuracy. One more note on glass bedding. The lateral contact surfaces of the front part of the system are slightly convex. Even if the entire system and the barrel are carefully coated with the separating material, the system and the barrel sit extremely tightly in the stock after glass-bedding and are extremely difficult to separate. I remember clearly that I had sweated blood and water to remove the stock because I had overlooked this. However, if you lightly balance the convex surfaces with wax material before glass-bedding, this complication can be easily avoided and the wax is easy to remove. When assembling the stock and barreled action, the screw on the recoil lug attached to the barrel sometimes causes a little difficulty, as the counterpart into which the screw is screwed sometimes slips a little when stock and barreled action are put together. In this case, it is best to shine a flashlight into the hole in the fore-end and center the sliding piece with a small rod (e.g. a 5 mm drill). I tighten all screws very slightly, and then tighten them as tightly as possible by hand in the order (1) system head, (2) front recoil lug, (3) rear system screw. Then the functioning of the trigger is checked with a snap cap or by closing the chamber when simultaneously the trigger is pulled. The rifle must then be uncocked. After the control shots, I check again whether the three screws are all tight. After reassembling - at least my rifle – has no or not more than 1/2 inch deviation at approx. 100 yards from target.
Now, about the ZKK safety: it’s not great. The U.S. market offers nice three-position bolt shrouds, but I haven’t found a European source yet—if anyone knows one, please share! In the meantime, I use a different method: at the start of the stalk, I chamber a round while holding the trigger and slowly closing the bolt so the firing-pin spring isn’t cocked. Just before the shot, I quietly cock the rifle by lifting and closing the bolt (without ejecting the round). If I don’t fire, I immediately uncock it. Not ideal, but better than relying on the factory sear safety, which doesn’t lock the firing pin directly.
A few quick thoughts on bullet performance for heavy game: early on, I used RWS cone bullets, then the Brenneke TUG (when RWS made this bullet in .375). Later, I tried 300-grain Sierra GameKing boat-tails—they were very accurate but suffered from core/jacket separation, so not great for big animals. These days I stick with 300-grains round-nose bullets from Wim Degol in Belgium. With experience, I’ve come to prefer heavier, blunter bullets for close to moderate ranges. Degol’s core-bonded design with a thick jacket performs beautifully—broadside shots on large game yield about 90% weight retention and perfect mushrooms. They’re comparable to Barnes, Woodleigh, or Swift A-Frame. Another bonus: their shape matches the PMC 300-grain .375 bullets, so I can load inexpensive practice rounds with identical point of impact.
Recently, I recovered two 300-grain Degol bullets from under the hide of two eland bulls and another from the pelvis of a hartebeest hit frontally—all showing classic mushrooming and high weight retention.
Old rifle, simple tools, reliable bullets—sometimes the “poor man’s” setup is all you really need.
I’ve always found this forum to be a great source of practical knowledge. Hopefully, a few of you will find my experience useful this time around.
Traveling with your own rifle by air has become a real challenge—especially with certain European airlines. Still, many of us prefer using our own gun on safari. A familiar rifle—its trigger, scope, and recoil—can make all the difference when the pressure is on.
For my first African safari in the Erongo Mountains (Namibia) more than 35 years ago, I bought a Ceska Zbrojovk (BRNO) ZKK 602 (.375 H&H Magnum). At that time, rifles with the large Mauser system (e.g., BREVEX) were very rare and unaffordable for young people. Thus, the ZKK was the only realistic choice. To introduce you to the advantages of the ZKK, such as controlled feeding, long Mauser style extractor, milled rear sight base, would be like carrying coals to Newcastle, even if the round rear stock favored at that time no longer meets today's requirements. My ZKK was additionally cross-bolted, glass-bedded, and a scope was mounted with easy detachable EAW rings.
Like all rifles based on or are similar to the original Mauser system, the ZKK can be easily dismantled, i.e. the stock can be removed from the barreled action without special gunsmith tools. Just be sure to use the right screwdriver to avoid chewing up the screw heads. I use an ERA Universal screwdriver from Recknagel (about €85). That tool is among other suppliers available for approx. €85 from Recknagel in Germany. Three screws need to be loosened on the ZKK 602. A characteristic feature of this gun model is the recoil lug milled into the rear part of the barrel, which provides an additional support for the system and prevents the stock from splitting even under heavy recoil. I also glass-bedded this part and could significantly improve the accuracy. However, I can't say whether this is always helpful to increase accuracy. One more note on glass bedding. The lateral contact surfaces of the front part of the system are slightly convex. Even if the entire system and the barrel are carefully coated with the separating material, the system and the barrel sit extremely tightly in the stock after glass-bedding and are extremely difficult to separate. I remember clearly that I had sweated blood and water to remove the stock because I had overlooked this. However, if you lightly balance the convex surfaces with wax material before glass-bedding, this complication can be easily avoided and the wax is easy to remove. When assembling the stock and barreled action, the screw on the recoil lug attached to the barrel sometimes causes a little difficulty, as the counterpart into which the screw is screwed sometimes slips a little when stock and barreled action are put together. In this case, it is best to shine a flashlight into the hole in the fore-end and center the sliding piece with a small rod (e.g. a 5 mm drill). I tighten all screws very slightly, and then tighten them as tightly as possible by hand in the order (1) system head, (2) front recoil lug, (3) rear system screw. Then the functioning of the trigger is checked with a snap cap or by closing the chamber when simultaneously the trigger is pulled. The rifle must then be uncocked. After the control shots, I check again whether the three screws are all tight. After reassembling - at least my rifle – has no or not more than 1/2 inch deviation at approx. 100 yards from target.
Now, about the ZKK safety: it’s not great. The U.S. market offers nice three-position bolt shrouds, but I haven’t found a European source yet—if anyone knows one, please share! In the meantime, I use a different method: at the start of the stalk, I chamber a round while holding the trigger and slowly closing the bolt so the firing-pin spring isn’t cocked. Just before the shot, I quietly cock the rifle by lifting and closing the bolt (without ejecting the round). If I don’t fire, I immediately uncock it. Not ideal, but better than relying on the factory sear safety, which doesn’t lock the firing pin directly.
A few quick thoughts on bullet performance for heavy game: early on, I used RWS cone bullets, then the Brenneke TUG (when RWS made this bullet in .375). Later, I tried 300-grain Sierra GameKing boat-tails—they were very accurate but suffered from core/jacket separation, so not great for big animals. These days I stick with 300-grains round-nose bullets from Wim Degol in Belgium. With experience, I’ve come to prefer heavier, blunter bullets for close to moderate ranges. Degol’s core-bonded design with a thick jacket performs beautifully—broadside shots on large game yield about 90% weight retention and perfect mushrooms. They’re comparable to Barnes, Woodleigh, or Swift A-Frame. Another bonus: their shape matches the PMC 300-grain .375 bullets, so I can load inexpensive practice rounds with identical point of impact.
Recently, I recovered two 300-grain Degol bullets from under the hide of two eland bulls and another from the pelvis of a hartebeest hit frontally—all showing classic mushrooming and high weight retention.
Old rifle, simple tools, reliable bullets—sometimes the “poor man’s” setup is all you really need.
