Even the Leupold 1.5- 5 or 1-4 scopes that I have for my 9,3 are not what you need at ten yards and under. As a way around this, I am trying a variety of red dot sights on the next cull, and have also installed a very high front sight with a quick detachable peep sight that mounts on the rear scope base as a back-up plan. Still, when dealing with dangerous game, you want the best, not ‘make do’. It is also a fallacy that on any rifle with significant recoil that you can have a choice of ‘scope or regular open sights. The rifle must fit when you are using the ‘scope. As the butt touches your shoulder and your cheek settles into the comb you need to be looking straight through the ‘scope. Remove the ‘scope and try and use the factory-fitted open sights and you have to force your cheek down into the stock to line up the sights. Too slow in a dangerous game situation, and too painful to practice with on the range.

 

If the rifle is stocked for a ‘scope (which it should be if you primarily use one) then the open sights must mount high enough so that when they are flipped up or attached for use they line up where the crosshairs would be. If I can find a sight that will allow either a ‘scope or some sort of red-dot/ reflex/holo-sight/peep sight that allows a simple change and as fast and accurate shooting as my old peep sights then we are onto a winner, but... There is still the rather sticky problem of stopping power in dangerous situations versus cheapness of practice and general handiness of the rifle under the 99% of hunting conditions. The 9,3s (x62; x64; and x74R), the .376 Steyr and .375 H&H are all excellent general purpose hunting rounds for all round African use. They were, in fact intended as the logical replacements for the medium bores as the 'one man' rifles. Loaded with solids, they work great on the smaller antelope. Loaded with good soft points, they are fantastic on the largest plains game, and are very adequate for dangerous game except under adverse conditions - and therein lies the crunch -‘except under adverse conditions’. You do not play hide-and-seek with elephant cows in the jesse with a 9,3 or .375. You do not follow a wounded lion into a reed bed armed with one either! These are dangerous enough activities without being stupid about one’s rifle. So we are back to needing a rifle with a bore size starting with at least .4 and all the problems that entails.

 

I have tried to use both a .458 with 'light loads' and the 300grn loadings in my .404 to shoot plains game. Some people are a lot more recoil - tolerant than I, but neither was exactly fun to shoot! Then there was the rather awkward matter of regulation. My .404 shot to point-of-aim at 50m with a 400grn Woodleigh solid or Stuart soft. It shot 14” high and 8” left at 100m with 300grn softs. Whether you are adjusting a ‘scope or cranking a peep sight over that kind of variation in point of impact makes it impractical to change loads. In the .458 I tried, there was a similar problem. You could Zero the ’scope for the 350grn loads and revert to open sight for the 500s but that was the best option available. Since the rifle was stocked for use with open sights I collected a magnificent magnum eyebrow trying to shoot an impala with the ‘scope fitted!  

 

There have always been attempts at a compromise. The 9,3 and .375 were the first, and pretty successful. For the 'average' man who shot mainly plain sgame and the occasional big animal they are great, and both have the added advantage that they often shoot bullets of widely differing weights to a similar point-of-aim. Messrs Holland & Holland went to great lengths to achieve this with the .375 and it was one of their main selling points (235grn, 270grn and 300grn bullets were all advertised as shooting to the same p.o.a. at 100 yards). With a bit of careful load selection my 9,3 does likewise. 286 grn solids and softs dead on at 25 and 100m and the lighter 270grn 1” high at a hundred. Both calibres can be built reasonably light and shoot flat enough to be usable out to 200 metres if necessary, but both fall short in the stopping power department. To a certain extent this can be mitigated by just being sensible. If a buff is standing right on the edge of the jesse make sure you have a dead rest and a perfect shot opportunity - you should be doing that anyway, but if you are not armed for a close range stopping fight, don’t put yourself in the position where you might have to. And chickening out of a follow up because you feel inadequately armed is simply not acceptable.  

 

Recently there have been two new cartridges developed to try and meet the need of a dual-use rifle. One which has moderate recoil for practice and plains game hunting, yet possessing a little more clout when the going gets rough with the big stuff. They are also relatively cheap to load for, which is a vital consideration for a man who might be limited to only one rifle. The .400 Tembo (See Pungubwe’s article in this edition) is a great idea. .40 cal pistol bullets for practice and smaller plains game and 350grn softs and solids for the bigger stuff. Ken Stuarts .44 Ganyana (shooting .429” bullets) is also similar. Cheep .44 mag pistol bullets for practice and everything up to kudu and 425grn softs and solids for the big stuff and when things go wrong. Both these rounds address the basic need to have a rifle of tolerable recoil for fun shooting and use with a ‘scope on plains game, and yet have enough punch to be safe under all conditions you are likely to encounter in the bush. There is still the issue of the sighting system and developing appropriate loads where the pistol bullets are both light loads and shoot to the same point of aim as the heavy ones, but they are the only moves I have seen that could possibly take us back to the point where one (centrefire) rifle might just do it all.