Kinsolving
New member
So my wife and I just returned from our second trip to South Africa and let me tell you it was a great one! We hunted again with Ubathi Global Safaris, which is a family owned business operated out of the Limpopo province by Ronald and his wife Carolien Barnard, with the help of his mom Rene, our PH was again Justin Kemp. We had hunted with this same company and PH in 2018. My wife shot a 46.5 inch Sable and the darkest bull Giraffe I have ever seen. But my hunting was to he a bit more on the challenging side to say the least! The first day when we headed to the range and I pulled out my Winchester Model 71 chambered in 348 Win., my PH was a bit concerned to say the least about my "Cowboy gun"! After we adjusted the Williams Foolproof peep a tad and Justin shot the rifle he had a bit more confidence in the rifle, its 250 grain Barnes Original bullet loaded by Buffalo Bore and my ability to shoot and cleanly kill an animal. But, then I told Justin I wanted to shoot the two largest antelope in Africa, an Eland and a Roan, with my "Cowboy Gun" and he said that is going to be a very big challenge with "The Stick" as he nicknamed my Winchester 71. After many hard days hunting and lots of miles in "the buggy" and on foot we had accomplished my dream. I shot a 31 1/2 inch Roan at 85 yards with a quick shot off the sticks as he stopped momentarily between running from thicket to thicket. The shot was a bit low, but it hit the heart right in the center and the 250 grain Barnes was resting on the offside shoulder. The Roan ran about 20 yards and was dead as a doornail! Two days later I shot a 37 1/2 inch Eland in a herd of four other bulls as they walked and trotted from one thicket to another. It was a quick shot on a moving animal and I led the bull a bit to much, thinking the bullet moving a bit under 2300 feet per second would need it! But I hit the Eland just in front of the shoulder in the neck, cutting both Carotid arteries and the bullet exiting on the other side. To say the blood trail was easy to follow would be an understatement. He ran 30 yards and was down for the count. We had a blast and everywhere we went everyone was wanting to see and shoot my "Cowboy Gun" and its weird 34 caliber bullet. I have seen a lot of conflicting information on lever actions in South Africa and I can say I never had any trouble bringing it into or out of the country and they are just as deadly there as they are in the USA. Even in this day of 15 pound bolt action rifles, 20 power scopes, 800 yards shots and 1/2 inch groups, the old recipe of knowing your equipment, good shot placement, and a heavy bullet with high sectional density at moderate velocity is still relevant.
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