Gary Reeder
the damage to my right hand has caused me to
Monday, November 25, 2019, 12:03

back out of a scheduled elephant hunt next May. It had been on my bucket list forever along with a Cape Buffalo. I have taken the Cape Buffalo and the hand was giving me trouble even then but I only had to shoot 2 rounds of my 450 GNR hot loaded with the 500 grain Hornady DGX bullet, one to drop him and another for insurance.

My two surgeries were this past early August and I wasn't real sure I could even use the hand for the HHC in 2 months. I managed to shoot a big Watusi on the HHC but my hand stung and ached for a week afterward. I had planned the elephant hunt back in 2017 but with the surgeries upcoming it became doubtful. Late last summer right after the surgeries and on John Abraham's recommendation I started working on designing a new cartridge for the elephant hunt. John told me I would need a lot more punch to put a big elephant bull down. I came up with the 50-110 case necked to 416. John said the 416 bullet would penetrate better than the 500 grain .458 bullet. So the 50-110 necked to 416 became the 417 GNR. I sent Sean Harper, my good friend and my ballistician, the new barrel, bullets and brass and he worked up a load doing right at 2300 fps with the 400 grain Hornady DGS. He mentioned the recoil was really rough. That made me have second thoughts.

About 2 weeks ago John flew to the states to visit his sons and almost every night I spent a lot of time talking to him about the elephant hunt. Finally, with the hand not getting any better I told John to cancel the elephant hunt. I don't need any more damage to my right hand and I sure don't need a wounded, pissed off bull elephant running around tearing up villages. I already have another Cape Buffalo hunt coming up in May ( the taxidermy company lost my big Cape Buffalo mount so they are paying for another hunt), so I am going to work on getting the hand ready for that. I will probably stay with my 450 GNR for that hunt as I did on the first one.

The gist of this long rambling story is none of us are invincible not matter what you think. Take care of your hands. If you need to shoot the big boomers, keep it to a small amount at a time. And wear shooting gloves. That doesn't make you a pussy if you do. That just makes you a smart shooter.