Gary Reeder
Kase and I did the same sorta. On one of our early
Monday, December 02, 2024, 16:21

African hunts we had our PH to get some of his guide friends that guide for dangerous game to go over their choices for dangerous game.We were planning our African Classic rifle and wanted to see what the guides that actually go up against some of these critters use to keep their clients safe.
The caliber choice was a bit odd. Of the 6 PHs there 3 were carrying a 416 Rigby, 2 had 470 Nitro and 1 had the 500 Nitro. The 416 lovers liked the cartridge due to it's power and no belt on the case which solved a lot of problems. These guys were serious about their guns and even what they wore. No pockets on their shirts and no sleeves. Nothing to snag and hang up when they needed the gun right now. Shorts were chosen as long pants could easily make a scraping noise in the ever present thorns. No socks on their sneakers for the same reason. Even the small noises could ruin a stalk on a dangerous game animal. Their hearing is much better than ours. African animals are used to things trying to kill and eat them so they keep the adrenalin ready to go.
Having read one of the Capstick books (these were before I found out that Capstick was all BS with no substance) I was asking questions that I am sure these guides thought I was a rank beginner that didn't know which end of the barrel the bullet came out of. They weren't wrong as this was my second or third safari, so I had a lot to learn. It was a good idea that I had furnished a case of Bock beer to loosen up their tongues.

All of them went for the heavier bullets in the caliber they chose. No hollow points. They liked the older BRNO rifles due to the "perch belly" magazine that held an extra 1 or 2 rounds. Two of them went with the double rifles, no single trigger rifles. No ejector on their rifles as that made an extra little noise that could mess things up when you had a dangerous game looking for the source of the shot or the wound he just got.
In Capstick's book he mentioned all the elephants he had taken (which were none I found out later) and all his field experience was hanging out in the Duck Inn as bartender. All in all we got a lot of info that afternoon and much of it changed a lot of what I thought I knew about Africa. The info about the PH's guns was worth the time and opened my eyes to how the world of dangerous game ran.
After we got back our African Classic ended up being the BRNO rifles in 375 H&H and a couple of them that we re-barreled into 416 Rigby. We built one in 458 American that became Colleen's African rifle although on that hunt she used a custom Ruger #1 in 30-06 and a Colt Sauer in 300 Winchester Magnum. Kase chose an 8mm Remington Magnum rifle for the African Classic with a back up rifle being a Ruger #1 in 45-70. I built a Ruger #1 in 470 Nitro that I took on our next African safari but never used it, instead opting for my handguns in 450 GNR, 378 GNR and in 9.3 X74, all contenders. Back then we could bring all the guns we wanted, no limits. I think we each brought 2 rifle gun cases. I think I brought 6 or 7 handguns in a rifle gun case.
The info we got from the guides changed our choices of guns and ammo. I think all in all we built 12 or 13 rifles in our African Classic series. The African Classic is still being built but a little different these days.

On our first 2 African hunts we stayed in the small tents on hunt #1 and in the larger tents on hunt#2. The Land Cruiser shown in one of the pics made the hunt more like an African hunt would have been in the 1950s.
The next several safaris we went on we used a lot of that info and it came in right handy. These pics were the next two safaris where we used that info. I think we took 18 to 22 animals on these 2 safaris and it cost me maybe $20,000 plus the airfare. Today to take those same animals would be closer to $35,000 or more. But Lordy the memories we made.