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Originally Posted by tabs
A friend who has been to Africa multiple times and has his 4 of the Big Five in the record books..(he is missing the Big Horn Sheep) has had a detached retina from pulling the trigger on a 505 Gibbs once too often. He won't pull the trigger on the Big Boys anymore...
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The most powerful rifle I have ever hunted with is the ubiquitous .458 Winchester Magnum. Even at that, if you show up with one, you are going to raise the suspicions of the man that is going to be your guide. The vast majority of their clients cannot handle that level of recoil, much less anything bigger. One will be called upon to demonstrate one's ability with such a rifle before the hunting begins. Most prefer that you show up with nothing larger than a .375 H&H, which will kill anything on the continent, with authority.
They draw a distinction between "hunting" and "stopping" rifles. The .458 is the upper end of the former, and the beginning of the latter. The .505 is squarely in the latter. Pretty unnecessary unless it's your job to clean up others' messes. And yes, recoil does get to be a very real problem once it gets to that level. No one shoots this stuff just for fun. Hell, I have .458 loads approaching 20 years old that I loaded for my last hunt with the darn thing that remain unfired today. I keep promising myself "someday", but I'm quite honestly getting too old for such nonsense anymore.
Quote:
Originally Posted by HardDrive
Higgins, why must you post things like this? It is one of my life goals to get a deer with a .45-70.
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They do seem to work quite well. Especially where you live, and hunting in the dense woods of the UP. I cannot think of anything better. Maybe next season...