AFRICA HUNTER QUEST©   

    Chapter 40 - THE DISCIPLE   

    Donny was ready. Sorta. As ready as he knew how to be. He knew this SITREP encounter with GG could potentially morph into a hellish combination of an oral-dissertation defense and confessional. Regardless, he was confident of what he had learned and the decisions he had made. He had been surprised at how easily all of his experiences had knitted up into useful concepts for defining all likely future hunting scenarios, but particularly for a potential return trip to Africa for plains game. Strategically useful was a laundry list of things he wanted to do differently in his preparation and desirable equipment modifications.   

    He selected a morning in late July when a front was due to push through. He knew it would be overcast with a dead-calm wind, so muggy that just thinkin’ too long or hard could cause a man to break into a sweat. Donny was confident the only person at the range would be GG. The condition and shooting opportunity were more important than personal comfort.   

    Donny showed up at first light. GG’s truck was in its usual spot, and GG was at his usual bench. “Don’t have to worry about the sun risin’ in the west,” thought Donny.   

    Donny parked at the far end of the range so GG would be facing in his direction when he walked up. Donny figured that would give the Old Man more time to shift gears, potentially avoiding a potential “what in blazes do you want” greeting.   

    As Donny walked up, he could see and hear that GG was kindly shooting a pop gun. There were the ubiquitous bipod and bag, but the rifle was different from all the others he had seen. The rifle looked like it was off the shelf. It was a short action with at least a 26-inch, old-style straight-fluted barrel. As he walked closer, he could see that a muzzle brake had been integrated so expertly onto the barrel that there was no machined joint clearly visible. The black stock had what looked like a ¼-inch thick black foam pad glued on to serve as a cheek piece. There was the familiar Pic rail onto which what looked like a small-objective hunting scope had been secured with beefy steel rings.    

    It was difficult for Donny to believe the Old Man shot anything off the shelf, so there had to be some stealth aspect to the setup that would betray the mad science in

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progress. Then Donny saw it:     piss-ant 22-caliber bullets that were black with pointy black tips. Moly coated bullets, a passing fad decades ago.   

    GG had seen Donny coming and greeted him with a smile.   

    GG:    The intrepid Africa hunter, safely returned from the dark continent. No doubt brimming with considerable tales of daring-do.   

    D:    Yes. It was a good trip. Cosmic experiences. Many animals in the salt. Many things learned. One issue still to be resolved.   

    GG:    Fabulous. That you only have one issue requiring resolution tells me you had a good trip and have done well. Seriously. I always come back with multiple issues, sometimes almost to the point of feeling like I have to reinvent the wheel. The more I think I know, the more I know I don’t know.   

    D:    Every shot I took resulted in a recovered animal. It’s the shot I didn’t take that’s the focal point of resolution. I decided that not taking the shot was the right thing to do, so I have closure on that aspect.   

    GG nodded his head in understanding.    

    GG:    I’m sure you will get to that, but first tell me about the positives, the successes, and the takeaways. Pull up a stool and sit a spell.   

    Donny grabbed a stool and set it down at an adjacent bench, facing GG.    

    D:    The entire experience was unimaginable, ‘who-da thunk it’ educational and personally humbling. Truly an experience of a lifetime.   

    Around here it’s easy to take for granted that we are at the top of the food chain. Over there, there are a bunch of critters that have credentials and a track record that could easily convince me otherwise. My current skill set would put me on the wrong side of a Vegas betting line, even with my 270 Winchester thunder stick. Put a spear in my hand, either I'm toast or I would be forced to relinquish my carnivore card, going all-out vegan. My primal wiring is intact, but it’s currently incapable of sustaining significant amperage.    

    GG just smiled and nodded his head.    

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    D:    The tracker was seemingly tapped into another universe, a universe few North American hunters know even exists. Offhand, the Inuit are the closest I can think of that have the same skill set as these African trackers.    

    These folks seem to be one with the animal. Their observation skills and apparent attention to detail are still incomprehensible to me. The PHs aren’t far behind. There were times I honestly thought they were communicating telepathically. They both possessed the refined primal wiring our ancestors had way more than several thousand years ago.    

    GG:    I take it your hunting methods were walk and stalk or spot and stalk?   

    D:    Yes. Once I was over there and had made an actual stalk, I quickly realized that shooting from a truck is kindly cheating. Not only that, shooting from a truck would have robbed me of true Africa hunting experiences. It would have been nothing more than a shopping-and-shooting-spree body count. I feel I wouldn’t have earned my animals shooting from the truck.   

    I believe it needs to be a contest. The animals need to be given a fair chance to win. Their combined senses of sight, hearing, and smell coupled with what I swear is a hard-wired ESP 6th sense can make us look like buffoons, rifle-be-damned. When they do, the least they deserve is fast exit with a tip of the cap.   

    GG:    Well said. Were you in the thick stuff?   

    D:    Both the thick stuff and the wide-open spaces. I never knew how dependent I am on my eyes until I was in wall-to-wall brush and I couldn’t see squat. I was nothing more than a glorified smart bomb being carried, then externally guided to the target. I hesitate to use the word ‘smart’ given my antics with the safety and forgetting to check scope zero and power.   

    GG:    Welcome to the line every Africa hunter seems to stand in at one time or another. (Grinning an evil grin.)  How did you do snaking your way through the jess with your 270 spear?   

    D:    (Rolling his eyes) You damn-well know the answer to that. Busted a kudu by thrashing around like I was on a moose hunt. Between dodging cobbles and brush, it was an obstacle course from hell, one I never mastered. In terms of noise signature, I may as well have been a marching band. I know one thing for sure:     if I ever go back, it will be with a way shorter barrel and no suppressor. I’m gonna try out a

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tactical sling to see if it would work better. Speaking of work, going to the gym and running more to build up cardio would be part of a ‘new and improved’ preparation plan.   

    GG:    Other than losing in hand-to-hand combat with the brush, how do you think your 270 Winchester and 180-grainer performed?   

    D:    There are really two ways to answer that. The first would be as a die-hard 270 Winchester advocate. The answer would be “Great! Its use produced a recovered animal every time I pulled the trigger!”   

    Everything in that response is absolutely true. But in making it, I would be denying the reality of a shot not taken because I had assessed I would likely not recover the animal. That assessment had been made prior to the hunt when I developed my hunting plan and had been subjectively confirmed by what I was seeing in the skinning shed. Not only that, there were clues pointing to the correctness of that assessment that were being furnished by the terminal performance results that my 180-grainer exhibited on other animals.    

    GG:    So, what is the second way you could answer my question?   

    D:    Even with a maxed-out bullet weight, my 270 Winchester is no more than marginally satisfactory based on that same reality. I think the Africa experts are being fair in their appraisals. They are careful. I didn’t know until I got over there that I would also consider the notion of ‘careful’ as important.   

    GG sat nodding his head. He understood. Donny noted there was no snarky facial expression indicating “I told you so”.   

    D:    Your empiricism was the starting point. It forced a bullet selection based on animal weight. Fortunately, that bullet weight and subsequent analysis produced impact velocities compatible with its generic design and the expected shot distances. But that bullet weight also pointed out the potential for performance limitations that I had wired into my plan. I told myself before I left there would be no rear quartering shots. Although I didn’t know it at the time, the results of a broadside shot on a zebra added an element of field truth to the subjective assessments I was making in the skinning shed.    

    GG:    What were those skinning-shed autopsies indicating to you?   

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    D:    In the words of a savvy Africa hunter, “there is no replacement for displacement”.    

    GG:    So, I take it you were playing ‘same and different’ with autopsy results from different caliber bullets?   

    D:    Yep. The wounding produced by my system was less than wounding produced by what I am gonna call ‘premium’ 30- and 35-caliber bullets. My wounding could be characterized as ‘enough’, but was obviously less than wounding considered ‘preferred’ as produced by these larger calibers. Bottom line is I now believe that true Africa hunting experts had awarded the ‘preferred’ title based on judgements made from thousands of field trials. Comparing wound cavities made from my 180-grainer with bullets of larger calibers was the reality and perspective that I needed.   

    I have every reason to believe that the wounding produced by my system was compatible with the manufacturer’s design intent and recommended impact velocities. For that matter, I believe that the wounding I saw produced by both the 30- and 35-caliber bullets was also in keeping with the manufacturer’s design intent. The estimated impact velocities of these 30- and 35-caliber bullets likely fell within the ranges you speculate are compatible with their generic designs.    

    I saw an example of marginal to poor bullet performance from a 7-millimeter, VLD-style hunting bullet that I interpret failed to properly expand as it passed through the lungs. Even though the animal was recovered, I assess that the bullet’s VLD design with no poly tip really isn’t compatible with my notions of preferred terminal performance.   

    I also was aware of an instance with a 30-caliber cup and core that likely failed upon impacting a zebra’s shoulder joint. It was a poster child example of a deer bullet being used in a way that was incompatible with its generic design and impact velocity. The hunter was fortunate to find the animal and put it down, but sealing the deal was apparently ugly.    

    GG:    So, is your assessment of the 180-grainer’s performance the basis of the one issue you need to resolve?   

    D:    Yes. I had a sharp-angle, left rear quartering shot on my kudu. My hunting plan was that I shouldn’t take rear quartering shots at all. I saw nothing in the field or in the skinning shed that provided a compelling basis for any change.    

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    GG:    Would you have taken the shot if you had been using a solid copper bullet?   

    D:    I don’t know, but I am leaning toward probably not. The wound cavities I was seeing from my 180-grainer and the 30- and 35-caliber bullets had all been made by generic designs with expansion ratios likely greater than what you identified for solid copper bullets with your gel testing. I would expect the actual holes and surrounding disrupted tissue made by a .277-caliber solid copper bullet would be smaller than what my 180-grainer produced. This size disparity would logically have been greater when compared to wounding produced by the 30 and 35-calibers I saw in the skinning shed. That difference would not have inspired too much confidence, particularly when viewed in the context of the wounding produced by the 30- and 35-calibers as being ‘preferred’.   

    The other issue, purely speculative, was the relative distance my animals would likely have traveled after the shot if I had used a solid copper bullet. As it was, the distances traveled by my zebra and black wildebeest shot with my 180-grainer didn’t give me the warm and fuzzies. Even though my PH and tracker had extraordinary field-craft skills and my PH told me that travel distance was typically a non-issue, the angst I had during tracking those two animals psychologically underscored the notion that the longer the tracking after the shot, the greater the risk of no recovery.    

    Use of a solid copper bullet likely wouldn’t have improved those travel distances. I had no data base to tell me that the field reality concerning travel distances I was seeing could actually be classified as ‘okay’, with enough leeway to accommodate any presumed longer distances needed for recovery if a solid copper bullet was used.    

    Bottom line:     the vibe I was picking up wasn’t good to begin with. At the time of the shot, my gut was telling me “no”. I assess the vibe would have been the same if I had been shooting a solid copper bullet, and I really don’t think I would have made that big of a leap of faith.   

    GG nodded in understanding.   

    GG:    You had a particularly vexing hypothetical. I subject myself to the agony of hypotheticals after every trip to Africa.  I will subject myself to the same evaluation process as you have after I use my new 30- and 35-caliber bullets.   

    Donny nodded and smiled. The Old Man was preaching to the choir.   

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    D:    Fortunately, I was able to obtain closure while I was over there. My PH pointed out that my 180-grainer didn’t fully penetrate my zebra on a broadside shot to the ribs. He said that Finn Aagaard had a general rule of thumb that if a bullet didn’t completely penetrate such a broadside shot on a particular animal, its penetration was likely suspect on something like a rear quartering shot. My PH kindly thought the zebra was a conservative representation of a kudu. Although my PH never said so in words of one syllable, I suspect he thought I made a reasonable decision by passing on the shot.    

    GG:    Spoken or not, that’s a strong “amen, brother”.   

    D:    Yes sir!    

    He didn’t volunteer much concerning what I was doing or how I was doing it. I almost got sideways with him at the git-go because he thought I was a tactical Tommy into long-range sniping. That scenario was obviously not to his liking, but he never really said so until I forced the issue.    

    GG:    They can read you like a book, can’t they?   

    D:    Yes. After I explained my ammo and he saw what I did sighting in and with my pre-stalk ritual, he let me take shots other than full broadside. I later found out the ballistics and terminal performance potential of my system apparently passed muster as a red-headed stepbrother to a 7x64 with a 177-grainer.    

    GG:    That underscores the relevance and importance of local practice. Your PH finally figured out what to expect from your system because he could relate it to local practice and experience. You were the wild card. Sounds like you quickly gained his trust and confidence, something not easily done. Good for you.   

    D:    Bottom line, I learned that having a bullet with the flexibility to take a shot at any angle is important in order to exploit all legitimate opportunities that are presented. My 180-grainer’s field performance demonstrated its flexibility for making broadside and front quartering shots. That same field performance suggested potential inflexibility for making rear quartering shots. The objective has now become finding an alternative chambering and bullet that produce wounding compatible with ‘preferred’ and the flexibility to take an any-angle shot.   

    GG grinned.   

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    GG:    This all started with an itch for kudu needing scratched. Still have the itch?   

    D:    Going to Africa has given me a bad case of plains-game-hunting chicken pox. That kudu is an itch that needs scratchin’.    

    My realization about bullet flexibility changed my entire way of thinking concerning chamberings and bullets. It resulted in a two-part epiphany.   

    GG:    How so?   

    D:    My bottom line dictated a different chambering and bullet, a combination that could be considered ‘preferred’ based on local practice. The easy answer would be to use a 35 Whelen with a 250-grain bullet, sole sourced from Robertson. But I recognized that solution was based on a specific animal under a specific circumstance. I felt I needed to at least take a broader look, so I bought both Taylor’s and Aagaard’s book. Man, was I glad I did.   

    It was tough sleddin’ with both of them. They talked about chamberings I had never heard of. Taylor’s references were particularly obscure and foreign because many of the chamberings are now essentially obsolete. Furthermore, virtually everything he talked about fell into the current category of big and slow. As you well know, I have a hard time relating to that concept.   

    Then came the first installment of cosmic clarity. Taylor’s medium bores, the ones he talks about in Chapter 5, included chamberings that were generally acclaimed to be the gold standards for hunting plains game. Chamberings like the 318 Westley Richards, 333 Jeffrey Nitro Express, both the 350 Rigbys, and the 9.3 Mauser were used by the professional hunters of the day to repeatedly take game to feed their staffs. Universal acceptance. No complaints. Any plains game animal. Any shot. They just flat out worked. Their acceptance and prolific use by these professionals are the strongest testimony any chambering can receive.   

    Not only that, this performance was obtained with cup and core bullets. No wading through a manufacturer’s marketing superlatives. No esoteric analysis or testing to select the right generic bullet design.   

    Data in Taylor’s book indicated that the calibers of both the 318 Westley Richards and the 333 Jeffrey Nitro Express are essentially .338. The calibers of the Rigbys and the 9.3 Mauser are essentially .358. I found myself wondering if the ballistic

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performance of these iconic chamberings could be replicated with modern-day, commonly available brass and .338- and 35-caliber bullets.   

    Then the second installment of cosmic clarity hit:     a 30-06 case has sufficient boiler-room capacity to duplicate the muzzle velocities of all of them! I found out that 30-06 case has been necked up by manufacturers to both .338 and 35-caliber and exists in modern-day chamberings like the 338-06 A-Square and the 35 Whelen. Dies are available for each. Stock 30-06 cases can easily be necked up by hand loaders to accept both .338 and 35-caliber bullets. Hunting bullets up to 300 grains are available in .338 caliber, and hunting bullets up to 310 grains are available in 35-caliber.   

    GG smiled. The Pilgrim was square in the middle of the path.   

    GG:    Well done. It took me multiple trips to Africa to arrive at the same place on the path that you have found with only one trip. Any idea which chambering you want to select?   

    D:    No. I wanted to talk with you before I got serious about pursuing either one.   

    GG:    As far as I’m concerned, there is no wrong choice. Your reloading skills will allow you to max out either one, as the off-the-shelf ammo available for each is minimal. You likely have more bullet choices in .338-caliber than you would with the 35-caliber, thanks to the 338 Winchester magnum and the 338 Lapua. Either caliber would support a reasonable short-range and potentially long-range bullet selection. From memory, both the A-Square and Whelen chamberings would produce less recoil with a 250-grain bullet than a 300 Winchester with a 200-grain bullet, assuming the same rifle weight.   

    Regardless of the chambering you select, I would suggest you buy a box of the heaviest bullets you would conceivably want to shoot. Use those bullets to craft a dummy round to take to your gunsmith so he can custom throat the chamber of your switch barrel. This will max out the velocity potential with all bullet weights and potentially avoid a compressed load with your heaviest.    

    D:    Just to make sure, can I use the bolt I have now with either chambering?   

    GG:    Yes. The 270 Winchester’s parent case is the 30-06, as is the 25-06 and 280 Remington. With all the prior work you have had done to your rifle, all you

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would be paying for is a match-grade barrel, chambering, and rifle setup by your gunsmith.    

    D:    Am I correct in assuming that selecting a bullet for these chamberings would be relatively straightforward?   

    GG:    I would think so, particularly for the likely bread-and-butter 250-grainers. Impact velocities might be too low for effective use of untipped, solid copper bullets. But traditional cup and cores, bonded lead cores, and dual-lead cells would likely do just fine. Cup and cores may actually be preferred in some applications because of a potentially lower impact-velocity range for heavier bullets.    

    I would be pleased to help you do gel testing if you wanted to get freaky. You are more than welcome to my gel testing data sheets.   

    D:    Thank you, sir. I really appreciate that.   

    GG held out his right hand.   

    GG:    By the way, my name is Thackery. Call me Thak. Here’s my card with my cell and email. Contact me any time.   

    Donny shook Thak’s hand.    

    D:    Thank you. My name is Donny. Pleased to meet you, sir.   

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