JG26Irish_2
AH veteran
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2023
- Messages
- 211
- Reaction score
- 572
- Location
- United States
- Media
- 4
- Member of
- Bluegrass Safari Club
- Hunted
- RSA-Limpopo, KY, WV, TN, ND, SD, NM
On my first Safari to Africa, I took a matched pair of vintage FN Belgian Browning Hi-Power rifles in 308 and 375HH for my hunt. They both performed magnificently. But, following that hunt, I applied the lessons learned on my first Safari and determined that I would NOT take the same rifles back in 2025 on my next hunt. Why? Let me explain.
The 308 was a lovely little Medallion Grade rifle that was frankly too pretty to hunt with. Plus it had a nice old Balvar scope and while it performed perfectly, I know that my next trip includes 2-3 days in Free State before we go to Limpopo for the balance of the trip. Free State is more open and the shots will be longer and can be up to 300y (typical) and up to 400y at times, If I am confident that I can make such shots. The Balvar scope cannot readily be adjusted for bullet drop in the field. While I could have swapped it for a more modern optic, I wanted to choose a longer range cartridge than the little 308 for this trip and decided early on to replace it with a rifle/optic combo more suited for ELR hunting and leave the vintage 308 alone, unmolested. It was perfect as is and deserved to stay that way.
My FN 375 was purchased because I thought it was a Mauser style CRF design like the 308 is. When it arrived, I realized too late that it was a push feed design and that FN made rifles using both types of action in the 1960's when these were built. So, due to my ignorance I had a push feed DG rifle. It was fine for hunting Zebra or Wildebeest in 2024, but I planned to go after DG in 2025 and even before I left for Africa, I knew I needed to upgrade the heavy gun. Originally, I had wanted a 416 Rigby but settled for the 375HH and after hunting with one, I was comfortable using it for my DG hunt. I just needed to get one with a CRF action. The day I left for Africa last year, I bid on and won a beautiful ER Shaw custom P14 Enfield in 375HH. When it arrived, I mounted a Kahles K16i optic in 1-6x and zeroed it for my 300g Barnes TSX ammo. This will be my heavy gun for DG hunting and larger PG this year. It is more accurate than the already very accurate FN and has much prettier wood. The action is tight and looks like it had never been fired despite being an older custom. I missed out on the matching rifle in 300HH. That would have been ideal but it was not to be. So, I needed a PG gun suitable for 200/300/400y hunting.
Fast forward to the week before deer season. I was monitoring a firearm auction and ended up buying two Fierce Firearms rifles. These are their top of the line Carbon-Titanium Edge rifles. Carbon fiber stocks, Carbon fiber bbls, Titanium Sako 85 clone actions coming with a 1/2 moa accuracy guarantee using factory ammo. Wow! These use a Sako style semi CRF extractor and a Mauser style fixed blade ejector. They are new, modern, super light weight and best of all very accurate. One is a 7mm/08 and the other is 7mm Mag. I mounted scopes on both and zeroed them the day they arrived and I hunted deer with the 7mm Mag last year harvesting a nice 10pt Buck in the 2nd week of the KY hunt. I actually hunted the first week with the Husqvarna but had no shooting opportunities that week and swapped guns just to try to change up my luck. It worked. It dropped the deer at 125y with one shot. I used it again in WV a week later and passed up a magnificent buck only because I had only a neck shot available and mainly because it was slowly moving toward my son's deer stand and I had hoped he would get that buck. The wily old buck altered course and got away. Having hunted with both, I liked them equally, and they were equally accurate. I asked my PH for his professional opinion and he strongly urged that I bring the 7mm Mag.
While I was ready to go with the Husky, I had never fired the 7mm past 125y today mainly because after deer season, the holidays happened and then the weather turned to crap. Then Shot Show and then two weeks of a bad cold from so many close encounters with people at Shot Show. Finally, today I felt better and we had one day warm enough to want to go to the range and put it thru its paces. Following is my report.
While I shot the 375 off sticks and the 7mm/08 from the bench at 200/300/400y, it is not a candidate for Africa on this trip but is a possible candidate for Pronghorn Antelope this fall and will be a coyote getter all year this year. It performed well and I was hitting 4" plates at 200y, 6" plate at 300y and 8" plates at 400y. With the 7mm Mag, I had my Fed Fusion 150g deer ammo as a baseline and then tried the 175g Fed Fusion Tipped boattail ammo as door #2. This shot to the exact same POI, at 200/300/400y despite the bullet being 17% heavier. I also tested the Barnes TSX ammo using their 160g bullets. These had the same bullet drops but shot to the right enough to require 2 clicks left to adjust. This is the load that Fierce used to prove the 1/2moa guarantee on this rifle and it likes them. But the 175g Federal ammo was just as good and I really like the performance of the bonded Fusion ammo. I used their 180g Fusions last year in 308 to bag five African PG critters up to and including a Gemsbok at 200y all being one shot kills. I think the 175g 7mm's will perform just as good if not better. They are faster, flatter and possess better SD than the 308's and with the 3.5-18x Swarovski optic, I can hit any tgt I choose out to 400y from a solid rest. Off sticks I would want to limit my shots to 250-300y at best.
Fierce CT Edge 7mm Magnum
I would be interested in your opinions regarding PG rifle selection for open country hunting where distances may be longer than typical for African Safari? Think Texas Bean Field Rifles as a starting point. Rifle, Caliber, Optic? What is your choice? I know I could have taken any one of these and done fine, including the old 308, the 7mm/08 or the 30-06 or 7mm Mag.
The 308 was a lovely little Medallion Grade rifle that was frankly too pretty to hunt with. Plus it had a nice old Balvar scope and while it performed perfectly, I know that my next trip includes 2-3 days in Free State before we go to Limpopo for the balance of the trip. Free State is more open and the shots will be longer and can be up to 300y (typical) and up to 400y at times, If I am confident that I can make such shots. The Balvar scope cannot readily be adjusted for bullet drop in the field. While I could have swapped it for a more modern optic, I wanted to choose a longer range cartridge than the little 308 for this trip and decided early on to replace it with a rifle/optic combo more suited for ELR hunting and leave the vintage 308 alone, unmolested. It was perfect as is and deserved to stay that way.
My FN 375 was purchased because I thought it was a Mauser style CRF design like the 308 is. When it arrived, I realized too late that it was a push feed design and that FN made rifles using both types of action in the 1960's when these were built. So, due to my ignorance I had a push feed DG rifle. It was fine for hunting Zebra or Wildebeest in 2024, but I planned to go after DG in 2025 and even before I left for Africa, I knew I needed to upgrade the heavy gun. Originally, I had wanted a 416 Rigby but settled for the 375HH and after hunting with one, I was comfortable using it for my DG hunt. I just needed to get one with a CRF action. The day I left for Africa last year, I bid on and won a beautiful ER Shaw custom P14 Enfield in 375HH. When it arrived, I mounted a Kahles K16i optic in 1-6x and zeroed it for my 300g Barnes TSX ammo. This will be my heavy gun for DG hunting and larger PG this year. It is more accurate than the already very accurate FN and has much prettier wood. The action is tight and looks like it had never been fired despite being an older custom. I missed out on the matching rifle in 300HH. That would have been ideal but it was not to be. So, I needed a PG gun suitable for 200/300/400y hunting.
ER Shaw Custom P14 in 375HH
Having filled the heavy gun slot, I went about searching for a suitable PG rifle. Within a few weeks I found a Husqvarna Swedish Mauser in 30-06. While this is not a huge improvement over the 308 ballistically, it was without scope and I mounted a FFP 4-16x scope with precise turrets on it and went about testing ammo out to 400y. I settled on 180g Swift Scirocco ammo which was shooting 1/2 moa at 100y and was accurate enough to hit 6" steel plates at 400y consistently. That is stellar performance out of a factory production vintage rifle that was modestly priced, reliable and would fill the bill. I thought I was ready.
Fast forward to the week before deer season. I was monitoring a firearm auction and ended up buying two Fierce Firearms rifles. These are their top of the line Carbon-Titanium Edge rifles. Carbon fiber stocks, Carbon fiber bbls, Titanium Sako 85 clone actions coming with a 1/2 moa accuracy guarantee using factory ammo. Wow! These use a Sako style semi CRF extractor and a Mauser style fixed blade ejector. They are new, modern, super light weight and best of all very accurate. One is a 7mm/08 and the other is 7mm Mag. I mounted scopes on both and zeroed them the day they arrived and I hunted deer with the 7mm Mag last year harvesting a nice 10pt Buck in the 2nd week of the KY hunt. I actually hunted the first week with the Husqvarna but had no shooting opportunities that week and swapped guns just to try to change up my luck. It worked. It dropped the deer at 125y with one shot. I used it again in WV a week later and passed up a magnificent buck only because I had only a neck shot available and mainly because it was slowly moving toward my son's deer stand and I had hoped he would get that buck. The wily old buck altered course and got away. Having hunted with both, I liked them equally, and they were equally accurate. I asked my PH for his professional opinion and he strongly urged that I bring the 7mm Mag.
While I was ready to go with the Husky, I had never fired the 7mm past 125y today mainly because after deer season, the holidays happened and then the weather turned to crap. Then Shot Show and then two weeks of a bad cold from so many close encounters with people at Shot Show. Finally, today I felt better and we had one day warm enough to want to go to the range and put it thru its paces. Following is my report.
While I shot the 375 off sticks and the 7mm/08 from the bench at 200/300/400y, it is not a candidate for Africa on this trip but is a possible candidate for Pronghorn Antelope this fall and will be a coyote getter all year this year. It performed well and I was hitting 4" plates at 200y, 6" plate at 300y and 8" plates at 400y. With the 7mm Mag, I had my Fed Fusion 150g deer ammo as a baseline and then tried the 175g Fed Fusion Tipped boattail ammo as door #2. This shot to the exact same POI, at 200/300/400y despite the bullet being 17% heavier. I also tested the Barnes TSX ammo using their 160g bullets. These had the same bullet drops but shot to the right enough to require 2 clicks left to adjust. This is the load that Fierce used to prove the 1/2moa guarantee on this rifle and it likes them. But the 175g Federal ammo was just as good and I really like the performance of the bonded Fusion ammo. I used their 180g Fusions last year in 308 to bag five African PG critters up to and including a Gemsbok at 200y all being one shot kills. I think the 175g 7mm's will perform just as good if not better. They are faster, flatter and possess better SD than the 308's and with the 3.5-18x Swarovski optic, I can hit any tgt I choose out to 400y from a solid rest. Off sticks I would want to limit my shots to 250-300y at best.
Fierce CT Edge 7mm Magnum
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