The Perfect First Safari Rifle
Selecting a rifle for a friend's first safari might seem daunting – it shouldn’t be.
As things started to fall into place for a summertime safari, folks started dropping off the roles. With an ideal group size of six, I decided to invite my father’s good friend to join our crew.
“Do I borrow a gun there? How does that work?” he asked, never having hunted outside of the US before.
Considering we knew we’d be hunting at four different outfits and knowing that being confident in the rifle you’re using is paramount, I told him I’d take care of it all.
For some, choosing just the right rifle is an art. This late in the game (with just enough time to send in for SAPS approval), it was more about an appropriate pick, not necessarily one driven by emotion or attachment.
A perfect plains game safari rifle if there ever was one – the Sauer 100 Classic.
The parameters were rather simple:
Reputable manufacturer with a solid history of accuracy and reliability
Highly common chambering big enough for most plains game (no modern barn-burners need apply)
Wood and blue – it’s safari after all!
Having just helped my neighbor with his yearly sight-in of his well-loved elk and mule deer rifle, I had a very particular gun in mind. At the range the week before he had slipped it out of his saddle scabbard, revealing a battered Sauer in 270 Win. that despite its wounds and wear marks could print a 3/4” group with little effort.
Not long after, a Sauer 100 Classic landed at my local Rocky Mountain Discount Sports and promptly came home with me. Chambered in 308 Win., I knew finding ammo for it would be simple whether in the Eastern Cape or Limpopo.
Topping it with a Meopta 2-12x50 and a set of lightweight Talley rings, we were off to the races. The first ammo through it shot to just under an inch – Federal Terminal Ascent bullets that would prove more than adequate for game up to kudu and zebra.
A nice, tidy group on paper, the Sauer 100’s barrel really liked the Federal Terminal Ascent bullets.
With the rifle fully sorted, I sent along photos of its results on paper – it was no slouch in the accuracy department, had just enough weight to negate any recoil a 308 Win. might create and was a looker to boot.
Landing in Africa, Gavin finally got a chance to give it a go, settling in behind the rifle at what constitutes a range in the rural parts of the Eastern Cape.
One, two, three holes inside a quarter dollar, and from a hasty rest.
Travel to the other side of the world hadn’t affected zero one bit – the Meopta scope was dead nuts.
“I think that will do – let’s get after those impala!” he exclaimed.
With an over-abundance of those lithe antelope, our first stop was an effort to bring population numbers down to sustainable levels as the winter grass waned.
Fifteen minutes later we round a bend in the thorn-tangled thickets to a flash of tan and white – impala on the move.
Sliding off the two-track and hiking up a rise, Gavin followed the PH to the edge and a moment later the report of the little Sauer echoed through the bottom. A first safari rifle had taken a first safari critter.
Asked to cull the overpopulated impala numbers, Gavin’s first shot dropped this antelope in its tracks.
For the rest of the trip Gavin’s rifle would prove to be deadly accurate and the sticky fingers of every PH and outfitter from the Eastern Cape to Limpopo inquired after it with great interest…
Not a chance – a hunter doesn’t let loose of their first safari rifle.
