managed to worm my way into an trip to Africa. There are limits to what I can take, based on the selections already established by the other three hunters who have been there several times. Because of their plans, I can only take one rifle. I'm not complaining, since I'm spending very little to round out their party. Their usual fourth member had to drop out. There is a strong possibility that Cape buffalo will be on the schedule, since it is a 10-day outing. The minimum rifle allowed for that is a 375 H&H or equivalent 375 cartridge. Is that what I should be looking at?



If you intend to get in on the buffalo, that would be the minimum. Of the several rifles available for it, Winchester's Model 70 is as good as any and priced right. Check their website. Personally, in the same position, I would have a meeting with

We have noticed that you tend to choose heavier hunting bullets in each caliber. For example, using 180-grain loads in a 30-06 instead of, say, 150 grain. Why is that?

My response: Anymore, I suppose I'm in the minority here. The knowledge of what velocity could and can do was probably promoted by Roy Weatherby more than anyone else. During the 1960s, when he was becoming quite famous among riflemen, a 150-grain bullet in the 300 Weatherby Magnum was considered a devastating load. Today it would be 180-grain loadings, so at least that now tends to buck the trend toward light and fast. Another area where the trend is toward heavier bullets are those who want to try their hand at long-range hunting. These folks use high ballistic coefficient bullets that often even require a special, tighter twist than normal. But, for the

A discussion developed yesterday, June 27, 2016, in my former gun shop, as to what's the best all-around big-game cartridge. That's not an easy question to answer, as anyone might ask, "What kind of big game?" The cartridge is likely to be much different for the person who never intends to hunt outside of Tennessee, compared to someone else who can't wait to get back to Alaska. So the conversation led back to refining the question.

The most popular big game in the continental United States is whitetail deer, and the subject was changed to focus on that particular animal. At that point I wanted to drop out of the discussion. Seemed like kind of a cop out. The number of effective cartridges for whitetail would easily use up the fingers of both hands, and well into your toes. That direction alone could lead to more questions, starting with

I've been kind of keeping mental track of shooting at various distances over the years. A lot of years. About 60 or so.

When hunters came back from a trip, they would eventually get to the details of that single most important shot taken. Back in the 1950s and '60s, I think most of them tended to tell it like it was. Maybe the truth continued on even well into the 1980s. I has been in the more recent years that widespread truth has been thrown out the window. I primarily blame Bill Clinton and his wife for this.

Now, I think only a few of my friends still tell the truth about how long a shot that was, and even admit to missing from time to time. Craig Boddington seems to be a truthful guy, as well. That's good, because he is the prominent voice of the hunting world today. Maybe he should be the President.

Some persistent liars are the guys with semi-automatic