What gun do Professional Hunters like to use?

[Daniel Cary]

I always thought PH's had the finer looking bolts .. peep sight, shorter barrels, 470 Ackley, worn in, etc?

 

[steve white]

PH in Zim. carried a Browning safari in 458 WM, and hand loaded for it. PH in TZ had a 416 Rem. in a Rem model 700 push feed. Both wore open sights only.
PH in Namibia carried an attitude, lol.

 

[IvW]

500 Jeff
404 Jeff
375 H&H

All on Brno ZKK602 actions.....

 

[Altitude sickness]

My personal favorite I’ve seen wasn’t the best model .500 NE DR one of my PH’s carried. Which I loved. And would love to own.

But the very worn model 70 in .458 WM.

Zero blueing left on it. Most of the checkering worn off. That rifle was far more attractive to me.

Since I will never have enough hours of carry to wear my own in that well. I would love to find one.

The issue though is what I love is the wear. And the value comes from putting that wear on yourself.

 

[mgstucson]

@tigris115,
Unless your story is pure fantasy requiring enormous willing suspension of disbelief by the reader, any human being small in stature, at or under 100 pounds, would have to carry a short, light firearm just to be physically capable of carrying and handling same. This would then leave only the minimum DG calibers like 375 as real possibilities. The story goes that she found among her mentor's battery of arms, an ignored and neglected Winchester 1895 lever action rifle in 375 Whelen that had been "donated" to her mentor by Col. Townsen Whelen himself after a hunt many years ago, and promptly dismissed and put away in the closet. The executor of the mentor's estate was thrilled to discharge his obligation to this young protege, with a gun of such limited apparent value. She cleaned it up, and practiced with it and found that even though it had much lighter recoil, it would nearly match ballistics of a 375 H&H with 300gr bullets. She was a natural, and with this rifle could soon place 2 shots on target with the lever action faster than any PH with a big double, and she would still have 3 more in the magazine (which served her well over her career on rare occasions when charged by multiple DG animals). This overlooked, compact, light rifle with ballistics belied by its light recoil, was the perfect match for this young woman, dismissed by other PH's. This girl with her speed of foot, speed of hand, speed of eye and speed of mind had found her Ex-caliber (corny pun intended). With single-minded devotion she became a shooting savant who could place 300grs at 2400fps into the brain of any animal alive, standing, moving, or charging, from any angle under any condition. Her finely honed tracking skills and ability to move and maneuver through dense cover due to her small stature and compact firearm, coupled with her peerless courage, determination, and marksmanship, soon garnered her an enormous reputation as a prized PH, belied by her diminutive stature and affable good nature.

 

[375Ruger416]

Actually, Phil Shoemaker’s daughter Tia uses a 416 to back client’s up on Alaskan brown bear and is supposed to be quite a petite person.

Recoil tolerance seems to be highly individual and not based on physical size. Of course, the ability to carry a heavy rifle generally is.

 

[Flipper Dude]

My PH rifles. IIRC

1. 416 Rigby. CZ

2. 375?

3 458 WM. model 70

4 505 Gibbs. Original Gibbs. Mauser?

5. SAA

6 . IDR

7. 458 Lott

8 458 Lott

9. 416 Rigby

10. 458 WM Model 70

OK. , prolly out of order, but I’m into 2nd bottle of red wine. Skipped one, but not up to editing.

 

[375Ruger416]

My PH used a Krieghoff 470NE that his father carried when he was a PH.

 

[shark_za]

My opinions,
You get two types of PH , I think the one post above kinda shows this.

Newbie starting out or DG part timer vs the old hand that might be a land owner or is well off due to a successful long standing operation focussing on DG.

For the newbies, cost a major factor.
1. A factory CZ or Zastava .375
2. A CZ in an improved .458, it used to be 3" and a lot of friends got them bored out but there are Lott's a plenty now.

Old richer hands
1. Elephant specialist guys with 500's
2. .470 NE doubles are probably the most common serious backup rifle.
3. 416 and 404 bolt guns
4. .458 improved

 

[Borderer]

I haven’t as much experience as others on here, but this is what I have seen from the 3 PHs I have hunted with and 4 others I have spoken to:

PH 1 - 470 Westley Richards Double and 30-06 Benelli bolt action

PH2 - 458 Lott and 30-06 Sabi bolt action

PH3 - 458 Lott in both a Sabi and a Sauer 202 (he preferred the Sabi) and 308 Winchester 70

PH4 - Sabi bolt actions in .458 Lott and 7x57 plus an old .500 NE double rifle

PH5 - 375 and 308 Sako 85

PH6 - .308 Parker Hale bolt action - plains game only

PH7 - Mauser M98 in .404, 8x68 and .243

PH8 - Custom M98 action rifles in 8x68, 9.3x64 and .458 Lott

PH2 and PH3 were trained by PH4, which I think accounts for the preference for Sabi.

I also met a man who spends 3 months a year working in a camp, hunts for camp meat but does not take clients out. He had a Sako 85 308, a Verney-Carron 500NE and a CZ 550 375, which he used 99% of the time

 

[Tally-Ho HUNTING SAFARIS]

I like to use my blaser R8 in 416RM for big game with red dot redlex sight
And mostly on pg too
Or i will use my custom 375HH with a low power scope for PH
Other phs at tallyho
375 HH steyr with reddot burris fast fire 3
OtherPH
416 rigby CZ with ooen sights

 

[JG26Irish_2]

I think a lot of younger PH's will opt for a CZ550 or Bruno ZKK602 in 458WM/458Lott simply because it is a solid performer at a minimal cost outlay. Ghost ring sight or possibly red dot. Even for a short, slight female, this is a choice worth consideration if used for DG backup. The difference in felt recoil and carry weight of the 458WM vs the 375HH is so small as to be insignificant.

A more successful, established PH who may own his own reserve or concession and who is likely to encounter elephants while hunting other species or who is hunting for elephant is going to want a 500NE or 470NE.

 

[mdwest]

On PG hunts I’ve seen a wide range of firearms carried by PH’s ranging from .[emoji[emoji6]][emoji6]’s to just a sidearm in [emoji[emoji6][emoji6]]mm or .[emoji6][emoji[emoji6]]…

On DG hunts it’s been a pretty wide variety as well… .[emoji[emoji6]][emoji6], .[emoji6] Rigby, .[emoji6] Rem Mag, .[emoji6][emoji[emoji6]] WM, .[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]] NE, and .[emoji6][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]] NE I can recall seeing off the top of my head.. and I’m probably forgetting a few..

 

[ftrovato]

These are the conversations I so enjoy!

The 5 PH's I asked when in Mozambique last fall carry 458 Lotts. One of them had just bought a 500 Jeffrey and said he was a bit taken back by the amount of recoil it produced.

I carried a 500 NE and it was fair to say that if a double was more affordable a few of them would be happy to carry that too.

They did say, for them, bigger is always better when it comes to dangerous game and they were not comfortable carrying anything smaller than a 458.

 

[Beck]

I have been on a handful of dangerous game hunts now. I have seen a PH use Steyr Manlicher in .458 Win Mag, Sako Kodiak in .375 H&H, a Krieghoff double in .470 NE & .500 NE, and finally a sabatti double I think that was a .450/.400

 

[Rare Breed]

My PH rifles. IIRC

1. 416 Rigby. CZ

2. 375?

3 458 WM. model 70

4 505 Gibbs. Original Gibbs. Mauser?

5. SAA

6 . IDR

7. 458 Lott

8 458 Lott

9. 416 Rigby

10. 458 WM Model 70

OK. , prolly out of order, but I’m into 2nd bottle of red wine. Skipped one, but not up to editing.

All mine have carried 458 Lott except one who had a 470 DR

 

[Muskox]

Not 100% the same thing. I know several people that guide in Alaska.

Generally it is whatever 338-458 rifle they can afford when they start out.

There are Savage 110's, Browning X-Bolts and a variety of other things in their hands.

I would assume in Africa it is the same.

My own experiences in Africa were as I described. One PH had a 243 as his only rifle in Namibia.