Remember, the first day of a hunt is as good as the last.

The stand overlooked a big field of almost impenetrable CRP grass. The wind was howling that day and I didn’t expect to see much. Also, I had no particular expectations. I was in western Nebraska, unfamiliar country, unguided hunt, on some country leased by Hornady (a Nebraska company, of course). Neal Emery was sitting with me on that frosty morning, and I was grateful for an enclosed blind and a propane heater. (Hey, one of the things I learned in the Marines is it’s not necessary to practice to be miserable!)

We saw nothing until mid-morning—and then whitetails started to pop up like mushrooms. Mostly we saw antlers, the rest of the animal hidden in the tall growth. But as we watched the antlers float along there were occasional glimpses of body. Again, I had no expectations; it was just a deer hunt with friends. So I could have shot an OK 8-pointer, then a spectacular tall, heavy 8-pointer, and then a weird 4×3 with cool palmated beams. All of these were in easy range. Lacking expectations, I was mesmerized…and it never really occurred to me to shoot.

At my place in Kansas, neighbor Chuck Herbel and I pool our properties and lease some ground for deer season. It would be grandiose to say that we “outfit,” but we take a dozen or so whitetail hunters annually, and I was doing exactly what I exhort my hunters not to do: I was “stockpiling” whitetails. Worse, I was doing it on a time-constrained hunt, in country I didn’t know…and passing bigger bucks than I’d expected to see in the first place.

I think I can say that I knew I was doing this and didn’t care. I was enjoying different country and I was seeing bucks…bucks that I understood only an idiot would pass. The enticing thing was that CRP field was full of bucks, and they never spooked. So, foolishly, I figured I’d see a couple of them again. For the moment, I was having fun watching deer.

The next day was dead calm. As a whitetail hunter my biggest failing that I hate to sit still! I’m usually good for about four hours before I start to go insane. On that day, absolutely expecting to see (and shoot) at least one of several bucks I should have shot the previous day, I sat all day, dawn until dark. I saw a couple of bucks moving along the far edge of the CRP, out of range, and, toward dark, a couple more in a green wheat field on a neighboring property, out of bounds. None were familiar, and in the CRP I saw only two small bucks. In other words, all the bucks I’d passed had vanished.

Far sillier, I’d taken these gambles on a three-day hunt. Madness! On the last morning I crawled into a tripod on the edge of that CRP. Just at dawn I watched a buck swagger up a mowed strip toward me. Well, I was also watching my watch. It said we were about three minutes into legal shooting when he was as close and as clear as he was going to get, and I shot him. It’s not fair to say there was ground shrinkage. It’s more honest to say that I never studied the antlers or counted points. I knew he had antlers, and he had the body shape of a mature buck. That was enough.

I shot this Nebraska buck on my last morning…but on the first day I passed a half-dozen larger bucks.

A few days later another of my editors, Scott Rupp, told me he was headed back to his native Pennsylvania to hunt with a Savage 99 in .300 Savage with aperture sight. I commented that, for some of us, using the rifle is more important than the deer we take. That was surely me on that Nebraska hunt; I was itching to take a deer with a gorgeous Dakota M10 in .275 Rigby (aka 7×57). And, on the last morning, I did.

So, exactly, why did I pass better bucks than I expected to see in the first place? Part of it was lack of familiarity with the area. We don’t have much CRP in my part of Kansas. I didn’t know that, on a windy day, it creates a protected shelter that whitetails gravitate to, and on calm days they’re more likely to be somewhere else. Most of it, however, was pure folly, if not stupidity. You can’t stockpile whitetails, meaning pass a buck now and expect to see him again. Actually, this applies to most big-game animals throughout the world, so it’s a general lesson with a specific example.

You want honesty again? I hate taking an animal early in a hunt. That makes it hard to build a story, and it’s worse with the TV camera rolling. You have to film backwards, really awkward. But that’s business, and hunting is reality. My reality: I’ve taken a lot of nice whitetails, but I admire really big eight-pointers. On that first morning in Nebraska I passed two dandies. Folly, foolishness, stupidity! Ten days later, when the Kansas rifle season opened, I took my own advice and shot a big 8-pointer on opening morning. Two of our hunters took my advice as well, filling their tags with good, solid bucks. Maybe we’d have seen bigger deer if we’d passed, and maybe not. With our tags filled, we’ll never know. So if you take the first animal you see, make sure you’re happy with it!

My longtime personal credo is that, when Mother Nature offers a gift, one shouldn’t kick sand in her face. The last day of a hunt is as good as the first, so one must keep trying, but let’s not ignore the corollary, that the first day is as good as the last. Obviously it depends heavily on your personal goals, which are yours to set. It’s okay to go for greatness–the long ball, or nothing. Note: the higher your self-imposed standards, the most likely you are to go home empty-handed! It’s also okay to set “minimum standards.” But what if you encounter that minimum standard on the first day? In some circumstances it is okay to look around for a bit, but never expect that an acceptable and satisfactory animal encountered will ever be seen again!

I’ve played this game so many times. I love the hunt itself, so aside from business concerns (building a story, building a TV show) I am reluctant to shoot early in a hunt, but I also recognize the risks in passing. Clear back in 1981 I took a monstrous Alaskan brown bear on the first hunting day. We spotted him at distance, and my guide, Slim Gale, started stripping his pack. I said something stupid like, “Hey, it’s the first day, there’s no hurry.”

Slim said, “Good Gawd, man, what’s wrong with you, that’s a ten-foot bear.”

Totally bemused, I went along with the deal, and Slim was wrong. It wasn’t a ten-foot bear; it was an eleven-foot bear, probably my best North American animal–and I had wanted to pass!

This huge Alaskan brown bear was taken on my first hunting day back in 1981. Since it was the first day I tried to pass the bear; fortunately my guide insisted, and obviously he was correct!

More than twenty years later we were looking for a brown bear for Donna. It was the first day, and we were passing the southern tip of Admiralty Island, enroute to another spot, when guide Alisha Decker spotted a bear at incredible range. More incredible, she knew it was a big bear. This time I didn’t argue, but I was intrigued. As we worked toward shore she was sharpening her skinning knives, so I asked her, “You’re serious, aren’t you?” She grinned and whispered, making sure Donna couldn’t hear above the spray, “Oh, yes, that’s a ten-foot bear. We’re going to get him if we can.”

The latter was certain: This young lady (and Alaskan Master Guide) was determined. We beached gently, wind good, and I took on the role of boat handler while Alisha and Donna made the stalk and shot the bear. This was a very expensive hunt and initally we weren’t happy about a first-day bear . . . somehow it seemed wrong (as, I suppose, mine had been so many years earlier). However, Donna’s bear was exactly ten feet, as called; the biggest bear of that season and, realistically, a bigger bear than Admiralty Island should produce. And it was taken on the first day, which is as good as the last day.

Guide Alisha Decker and Donna Boddington approach Donna’s bear. Donna was very reluctant to shoot on the first day and she’s just starting to realize how big this bear is. Unusually large for the area, passing it would have been a mistake…on any day!

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All travel has its risks, so do your best to be prepared for them.

Hunting is supposed to be fun, and it’s also, statistically, more injury-free than a lot of other hobbies and sports. There are, however, irrefutable principles to keep in mind. First is Murphy’s Law, “whatever can go wrong will,” and then there’s the corollary to Murphy’s Law: When something does go wrong it’s most like to happen at the worst possible time. There’s also the simple reality that, despite the very best preparations and precautions, bad things can and occasionally do happen to good people. I’m not a gloom and doom guy, and I don’t spend a lot of time brooding over stuff that might happen, but it’s always wise to keep the famous Boy Scout motto in mind: Be prepared!

While we tend to focus on catastrophic events such as getting bitten by a snake or a lion, the reality is that genuinely serious accidents are rare. Also, just like going to the grocery store at the corner, less glamorous events like vehicle accidents are more likely anywhere. As are ailments such as tummy issues from unfamiliar food. We’ll deal with more serious events in a bit, but minor cuts and scratches and inconvenient but non-life-threatening ailments are going to come along now and again.

Most outfitters have well-stocked medical kits for real emergencies, so it shouldn’t be necessary to take a heavy medical kit on outfitted hunts. Do-it-yourself expeditions are obviously different, but across the board it’s always a good idea to pack a personal first-aid kit against the little stuff. Most of the contents should be obvious: Band-Aids of various sizes; antiseptic wipes, and for sure antibiotic ointment. It depends on where you’re going, but it’s amazing how quickly even the smallest scratches can get infected in tropical climates. Obviously you must talk to your doctor about medications, but analgesics, a general antibiotic, and an anti-diarrheal such as Imodium can come in handy. If you’re lazy like me, African Sporting Creations is a good source for ready-to-go first aid kits.

As hunters we probably focus too much on incidents with dangerous animals. They do occur, but more mundane incidents such as vehicle accidents and unexpected illness are far more common.

The silliest thing I ever did was once in Namibia. Looking at the ground for tracks when I should have been looking up, I caught a thorn in my lower eyelid. Facial cuts always bleed profusely, but I must have hit an artery because I couldn’t get it stopped. Yep, we Super-Glued it, worked like a charm!

So, let’s get on to the really bad stuff we all worry about. Fortunately, catastrophic incidents are rare. They can’t necessarily be avoided, but the best way I know to mitigate them is to carry a medical evacuation membership. Today I have Global Rescue, so I carry a Global Rescue card. But here’s the thing: It’s important to understand how the card should be used. No matter the company, if you have a head cold or get mad at your outfitter, you are not eligible for evacuation. There are exceptions, but typically if you have a problem, you get to a local care facility, and that’s when your medical evac folks get into gear. However, some providers offer field rescue service that will actually deploy help right to your location in the field if warranted.

Maybe they bring you home or maybe to a care facility in South Africa or Europe and then, when things are a bit better, they bring you home. But here’s the big thing: How do they know what action to recommend unless you contact them? So this a three-part deal: First, you have your membership card. Second, you have communications (like a sat phone). Third, you have the common sense and will to use them.

This last is where I personally failed. I like to say that I had my heart attack on a mountain in Uganda, but actually it was a wimpy little ridge. On a very hot morning we tracked a buffalo to the top, and I was oddly out of breath. Eventually we shot the bull, and I was doing high-fives with the game scout when the world started to spin and I went out cold. They fanned me and poured water on me, and after a bit I crawled to the buffalo and we did photos and TV.

Here’s where the stupid part starts. I didn’t know what was wrong, but I had the tools in my daypack: My medevac card and a satellite phone. I should have called immediately, and perhaps a real doctor could have made a proper diagnosis and got me on the road to help. Instead, tougher than common sense dictates, I waved it off. I didn’t make the call. The International Hospital in Kampala missed it, giving me a bag of antibiotics for a pulmonary infection. The commercial flight home was horrible. By the time I landed I couldn’t breathe, and Donna took one look at me and said, “You’ve had a heart attack.” It took the folks at French Hospital ninety seconds to confirm that diagnosis. Privately, they told Donna I wouldn’t have lived through the night. I lived, but the drama was unnecessary. I had the card, and I had the sat phone. A consultation could not have averted the incident, but would have gotten me to proper care sooner, and home in much better shape.

Three things: Medical evacuation membership; well-charged satellite phone, maybe with an extra battery; and the common sense to use them. You don’t need to own a sat phone; you can rent one. My go-to is Explorer Satellites; they rent phones (with minutes) for reasonable rates, and they can recommend the correct system for your destination. Iridium has long been the standard, but Inmarsat is better in the Southern Hemisphere (i.e. southern Africa, Australia, South America). Few of us need multiple systems, so it’s probably better to rent and let experts guide you.

Part of the deal with all reputable medical evacuation providers is round-the-clock consultation with a doctor. This is smart business because evacuation may not be required, but if it is the wheels can be set into motion via satellite phone.

I didn’t expect to have a heart attack. Nor did Angie Heister, walking down a trail in Zimbabwe, accompanying her husband on safari, expect to be flattened and gored by a Cape buffalo. The difference: They not only had their medical evacuation cards, they had enough sense to use them. The outfitter’s preparedness got her to Victoria Falls by helicopter, but with her lungs collapsed, a huge wound in her thigh, and serious spinal injuries. Weeks passed before she could be moved back to the United States. Just remember that Mr. Murphy awaits the unwary and unprepared, and that bad things, however unlikely, can happen to good people.

Lastly, let’s also remember that bad things happen to good trips planned by good people. Hey, traveling is what I do as a major part of my business. I take my chances. There are, however, uncertainties in many part of the world, so in recent years, personally and when giving seminars, I have advised folks to take out “travel insurance,” but I’ve rarely followed my own advice.

Recently, much to my chagrin, I learned that “travel insurance” is not the right term for what is needed. In April 2016 I was headed to Armenia, an out-of-the-way Asian destination. In previous years I’d been burned on plane tickets to Iran, only to find I could not get a visa. So, this time, Donna bought travel insurance from Allianz Global Assistance, recommended by the airline. Three days before the hunt, Armenia and neighboring Azerbaijan started a little border war. Figuring it was sort of like a shrew attacking a mouse, I was all for ignoring it until they told me that the reserve we were headed to was under artillery fire, and we would be hunting within observation of enemy snipers. Carrying a rifle? Not a good idea! So the cancellation was unavoidable, but I was content that the non-refundable plane tickets were covered.

Turns out, when I read the fine print, they were not covered. Travel insurance might cover you in case of traditional issues such as death in the family or medical emergency, and these things can happen to hunters, but we also deal with destinations where other serious stuff happens. Last week two buddies of mine were headed to the Central African Republic. The day before departure their outfitter was attacked by supposed rebels. He and his client managed to escape, with their vehicle shot up and tires shot out, but no injuries.

I recommended the hunt, but also knowing C.A.R. has been dicey for years, I recommended the hunters get travel insurance. Wrong words! What you need, instead, is “travel cancellation insurance,” and make sure it’s good. Global Rescue, for example, offers “CFAR” (Cancel For Any Reason) coverage. That’s the type of insurance I should have had, and that’s what my C.A.R.-bound buddies needed.

Always read the fine print and ask specific questions. There is a story of a guy in Zimbabwe who, while standing on the edge of a draw waiting to hear the death bellow of a buffalo, somehow managed to shoot half his foot off with a large-caliber double rifle.

Horrible, but it got worse. He had a temporary membership to a medical evacuation service. He had called the company to activate the membership; he gave them his departure, and they gave him a start date. But when he needed help badly, coverage was denied because his membership was required to start twenty-four hours before departure. The fact that their office gave him the start date didn’t matter; they refused evacuation. Obviously Mr. Murphy was right there beside this unfortunate gentleman, and it was clearly not his fault because he was misled, but it’s important to always read the fine print. It’s a small but critical issue in the art of being prepared.

Helicopters save countless lives because of their speed and agility. Regrettably they aren’t available everywhere we crazy hunters go, but in a real time-sensitive emergency a chopper is the usually the best option to get to help.

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The .300 Winchester Magnum is versatile, effective, and widely available.

The 7mm Remington Magnum was introduced in 1962, the .300 Winchester Magnum a year later, in 1963. Remington’s Big Seven took off like a rocket, and for many years was the world’s most popular cartridge to wear the “magnum” suffix. The .300 Winchester Magnum was slower to catch on. There were reasons for this. Cartridge design theory has it that a cartridge case needs a “full caliber neck” to properly grip the bullet. This means a .30-caliber cartridge should have a neck of at least .308-inch. In order to cram as much powder space as possible into a case that would fit into a .30-06-length action, Winchester’s engineers gave it a 2.620-inch case, longer than the 2.494-inch case of the .30-06, but with a short neck of just .264-inch.

Purists suggested that dog would never hunt, but there was more. The .300 Winchester Magnum was designed to replace the long-beloved .300 H&H, then the world-standard fast .30-caliber. Just a year later the even more beloved pre-1964 Model 70 was replaced by the post-1964 Model 70, and Winchester’s new .300 was stranded in an unpopular platform.

Left to right, .300 H&H, .300 Winchester Magnum, .300 Weatherby Magnum, .300 Remington Ultra Magnum. These four are the fast .30s Boddington has the most experience with. All have their attributes, but the .300 Winchester Magnum is the most popular and most available, and today the velocity gap has narrowed between it and the longer-cased, faster cartridges.

I like the 7mm Remington Magnum, and I’ve taken a lot of game with it over the years; it’s effective, accurate, and has little recoil. However, at heart I’m a fast .30 guy. I had a .300 Winchester Magnum back in the 1970s, a great piece of walnut surrounding a Mark X Mauser action. I never hunted with that rifle before it was lost in a burglary. In the rebuild I got a left-handed Weatherby Mark V in .300 Weatherby Magnum, and I’ve been a fan of Weatherby’s .300 ever since.

Mind you, I’ve dabbled with most of the fast .30s. In the early and mid-2000s I spent a lot of time with the .300 Remington Ultra Mag, a great cartridge. I’m a recent fan of the .300 H&H; with handloads it’s amazing what this old cartridge will do, and that long, tapered case feeds like a dream. In 2010 I took a Blaser R8 in .300 Blaser Magnum to Nepal. It was impressive, but when it became apparent that the Blaser unbelted magnums weren’t going to be marketed in America, I traded that barrel for, you guessed it, a .300 Weatherby Magnum barrel.

In 1989 and again in 2007, for my Safari Rifles and Safari Rifles II books, I did surveys of all the African professional hunters I could reach, both times receiving more than a hundred responses. Certain differences in these surveys were interesting. In 1989, under the heading of “recommendations for medium plains game” the .30-06 was the favorite (thirty-three mentions), followed by the 7mm Remington Magnum (twenty-five) and the .300 H&H (twenty-two). The .300 Winchester Magnum was barely there with just five mentions. Fast-forward eighteen years. In 2007 the 7mm Remington Magnum nearly dropped off the survey, as did the .300 H&H. The .30-06 remained strong, but in appropriate game categories the .300 Winchester Magnum came in right behind the .30-06.

Although I’ve never been a fan, the .300 Winchester Magnum has been an inescapable cartridge. As a gunwriter I’ve used it in many rifles, and I’ve hunted with it quite a bit. Despite the short neck, as we’ve all learned, it’s a very accurate and efficient cartridge. During the Gulf Wars it’s gotten a tremendous boost. Many of our Special Operations units now use it because it’s accurate, has a lot more reach than the 7.62x51mm NATO round, and can be built into a lighter platform that doesn’t kick near as much as a .338 Lapua.

From what manufacturers tell me, this is just a small microcosm of what has happened. The 7mm Remington Magnum remains popular, but its demand is not what it once was. At the same time, the .300 Winchester Magnum has surged ahead, and is now the world’s most popular “magnum cartridge.”

When this photo was taken the barrel on the Jarrett .300 Winchester Magnum (bottom) was brand new. Accuracy with the production LAW Model 704 was very similar, and both, depending on the load, were plenty good enough for any hunting purpose. Today, after break-in, the Jarrett has a slight edge, but both are superbly accurate rifles.

So why this turnaround? Well, in part the 7mm market has been diluted. The 7mm Weatherby Magnum goes back to the 1940s, but now we have the 7mm STW and 7mm RUM, and the 7mm WSM and 7mm RSAUM do everything the 7mm Remington Magnum will do, but in short actions. But that’s not really a valid argument, because there have long been faster .30s, and now we have the .300 RUM, .30-.378 Weatherby Magnum, and a slew of faster wildcats and proprietaries.

I think, instead, the truth is finally out, and 7mm fans aren’t gonna like it. The 7mm offers a lower-recoil alternative to the .30, and this is valuable. Its heavy-for-caliber bullets are efficient and effective. But a 7mm will not do what a .30-caliber will do. Although the 7mm is awesome on the deer/sheep/goat-caribou classes of game, all of my life both western guides and African PHs have admitted that 7mms have wounded a lot of elk and large plains game. On the other hand, there isn’t much you can’t do with a 180-grain .30-caliber, and a bit more that you can do with a 200-grain .30 caliber. So I think the 7mm Remington Magnum and .300 Winchester Magnum, the world’s two most popular magnums, have flip-flopped positions based primarily on the greater versatility of the .30-caliber.

Still, the .300 Winchester Magnum is a cartridge I’ve been slow to accept. As I said, I’m a .300 Weatherby guy, although I readily concede that the unbelted .300 RUM has more case capacity and, from a case design standpoint, has more accuracy potential. Honestly, I probably wouldn’t have recognized the true (and current) worth of the .300 Winchester Magnum if it hadn’t been forced on me. My friends at the new Legendary Arms Works (LAW) came on board as a sponsor of our The Boddington Experience TV series. For filming I needed a rifle with maximum versatility, and to me that’s always a fast .30-caliber. They weren’t yet chambering for .300 Weatherby or RUM so I got the next-best thing, a .300 Winchester Magnum. I’ve used it to film most of our episodes for the last two years.

A fine Eastern Cape greater kudu taken at 300 yards with the Jarrett .300 Win. Mag. No matter where you are, there are few things you can’t do with a fast .30-caliber and a good bullet.

In the same period, a couple of years ago, South Carolina riflemaking legend Kenny Jarrett convinced me that I had to have a rifle on his new receiver (which he was making in left-hand action). Of course he preferred that I get his proprietary .300 Jarrett. That’s an awesome cartridge, but non-standard cartridges complicate my life. So I pushed my default button and asked him to build me a .300 Weatherby Magnum. It was at a show, and we old shooters are all a bit deaf, so I guess he didn’t hear me. When, in due time, the rifle arrived I was horrified to see that it was a .300 Winchester Magnum.

Now, two years down the road, I’m thinking I might have been wrong all along. Accuracy is more about good barrels and good ammo than cartridge design, so we can theorize that the .300 RUM or Jarrett or WSM might be the most accurate fast .30, but well-built rifles make you question that. Over the years I’ve seen a lot of .300 Winchester Magnums that were stunningly accurate, and both of these are. You’d expect the Jarrett to be but, initially, the LAW .300 edged it out. Now that the Jarrett barrel is broken in it groups a bit better. Both rifles shoot under one MOA with almost anything, and both group well under a half-inch with loads they like.

Although it may not be as personal a statement as an oddball cartridge, there’s nothing wrong with choosing a popular cartridge. Honestly, I no longer have time to handload like I once did. Everybody loads for the .300 Winchester Magnum, so there’s a rich load selection. Both rifles really like Hornady’s 180-grain SST, but I just got in some Black Hills Gold with 180-grain AccuBond; on a too-windy day the first group out of the Jarrett was just over a half-inch. Looking good!

We can certainly say that a full-length fast .30 with a 2.85-inch case holds more powder than a 2.62-inch case, so has the potential to be faster. However, I’ve long known that my .300 Weatherby Magnums and RUMs needed a 26-inch barrel to strut their stuff.

As a primarily Western hunter I’m not bothered by long barrels but, realistically, if you aren’t getting a lot of goody out of the extra length there’s no real reason to carry it around. Not being a .300 Winchester Magnum guy, there’s something I’ve missed. The popularity of the cartridge has led to a lot of load development, and with newer propellants the velocity gap has narrowed.

In Weatherby’s ammo (loaded by Norma) the .300 Weatherby Magnum is now rated at 3,250 fps with a 180-grain bullet; the .300 RUM the same. Other loads for the .300 Weatherby Magnum are a bit slower, down in the 3,100s. The .300 Winchester Magnum has traditionally been rated at 2,960 for standard loads with a 180-grain bullet. There’s no real magic in getting a 180-grain bullet to 3,000 fps, but it sounds better, doesn’t it? That standard Black Hills Gold load I just shot delivered 3,015 fps over the chronograph. Hornady’s Superformance load with 180-grain SST is rated at 3,130 fps…but in both of these rifles (with 24-inch barrels) it actually delivers about 3,180 fps, which is knee-deep into .300 Weatherby Magnum territory.

Cartridge popularity means load development, and with newer propellants .300 Winchester Magnum velocities have been increasing. Rifles vary in velocity, but in Boddington’s rifles Hornady’s 200-grain ELD-X clocks well over 2900 fps; Black Hills Gold’s 180-grain AccuBond load exceeds 3000 fps; and Hornady’s fast Superformance 180-grain SST load is nearly 3180 fps, well into .300 Weatherby Magnum territory. Obviously factory loads will vary in accuracy, but with the .300 Winchester Magnum, there’s a wide choice.

Of course, at some point velocity is just a number; way out there, aerodynamics and bullet performance are more important. Hornady’s new Precision Hunter load with its 200-grain ELD-X bullet is thus very interesting. Construction aside, bullet weight covers a lot of sins, so for elk and African plains game I’ve often hedged my bets with 200-grain .30-caliber bullets. That Precision Hunter load is rated at 2,850 fps, on the fast side for a 200-grain bullet in the .300 Winchester Magnum. Except that’s another conservative rating: In my rifles actual velocity averages about 2,920 fps. I took the .300 Winchester Magnum to South Africa last year, where I could mess with some different loads at different ranges. I’m going to do it again this year. Mind you, I have not yet fully converted from my beloved .300 Weatherby Magnum—we go back too far—but these days, when you combine versatility, efficiency, and effect on game with availability, I have to admit it: The .300 Winchester Magnum is pretty hard to beat!

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Safaris in central and west Africa are not for everyone, but they provide great rewards for the adventurous.

The saying on the street, especially among folks who haven’t been there, is that African hunting is too easy, just a matter of driving around and shooting animals. There’s some truth to that here and there, although in all cases ethics and in many cases law precludes shooting from a vehicle. It’s also true that much African hunting is pretty cushy, certainly compared to North American standards. Usually you’re hunting from a comfortable, well-appointed camp, and African outfitters have a huge advantage that doesn’t exist in many regions: Available help! Often there’s more than is really needed, because creating employment is part and parcel to maintaining hunting areas.

The average safari in East and Southern Africa is conducted from a comfortable camp, well-supplied and ably staffed. Yes, they do laundry every day and, yes, much hunting is done by driving until actual animals or fresh tracks are spotted. Then things change. No two hunts are alike, and any hunt can turn into an all-day ordeal. Buffalo and elephant usually require serious tracking, but almost any animal can occasionally be taken just by stepping out of the truck.

No different than hunting whitetail deer or anything else, you never exactly how a hunting day is going to play out, but if you really like to work for your game, and you think Africa sounds too easy for your tastes, there’s another side to it. Think about getting off the beaten track and hunting in Central and West Africa, where currently ten countries are open to hunting, about half the continent’s total of hunting countries. Although there are broad transitional zones, there are two primary habitat types: From northern C.A.R. and Cameroon and southern Chad westward across northern Benin and Burkina Faso all the way to Senegal lies a wide belt of sub-Saharan thornbush and savanna; below that, from southern C.A.R. and Cameroon and both Congo’s westward through Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea lies the true forest zone.

Boddington and Ralf Schneider at their first “spike camp” in the Liberian forest in 2013. African camps vary a lot, but this was pretty much at the bottom of the scale!

Conditions vary considerably. In most of these countries genuine professional hunters and real outfitters have concessions, so the conditions have some relationship to African hunting elsewhere. Uniquely, some of these countries allow “chasse libre”—“free hunting”—whereby it’s possible to rent a hunting block, hire a vehicle and help, and do it yourself. In some areas it’s a bit of a blend, where you can work from established camps through an “outfitter,” but you’re actually hunting with local hunters and trackers, absent a “professional hunter” as we know the term. Regardless of the exact circumstances, this entire region has one thing in common: This is Africa’s tough stuff, “extreme Africa” if you will.

Logistics are difficult throughout this region, so camps tend to be rougher and supplies harder to come by. The weather is generally much hotter and, unlike southern Africa in the long dry season, in the forest zone rains can be expected. This is good and bad. Bad: Mobility can be severely impacted. Good: A shower brings relief from the heat and, more importantly, forest animals love to move just after a rain…and tend to hunker when it’s dry and the forest floor is noisy. (The old adage in the forest is “no rain, no bongo.”)

Species diversity tends to be less than in southern Africa, but a lot of these areas still hold lots of game. Part of the attraction, too, is some of Africa’s great prizes: Derby eland and western roan in the north; bongo and forest sitatunga in the south. Buffalo of three varieties remain widespread, and there are pockets of both lions and leopards (neither currently importable to the USA). Of great importance to long-gone African nuts, the region holds a wide variety of pygmy antelope not found elsewhere: in Ghana, the tiny royal antelope; in Liberia, a selection of little guys including zebra duiker and water chevrotain. Pigs, too; warthogs in the north, giant forest hogs in the south, and the red river hog widely distributed.

This is a western kob, one of several animals available in northern Cameroon at reduced cost–much less expensive than a Derby eland.

So there are many reasons to hunt this part of Africa beyond simply proving how tough you are. But let’s be clear: This hunting is not for everyone. Not everybody is going to like it, not everybody is in adequate condition for it, and this is not a good region for inexperienced hunters. A few examples. Just a couple of years ago, on a blistering March day in Burkina Faso we wounded a buffalo at daybreak. We eventually got it, but that morning we stayed on the track longer than we should have, and when we broke off at midday it was an honest 130 degrees. More than twenty years ago, when I was a lot younger, we took the track of a Derby eland bull just after dawn. We got the shot at eleven, but it was another imperfect shot. We stayed on the track and got him at about five o’clock, and it was a long, long way to the truck. In both cases straighter shooting would have shortened the days, but the point is this is a region with no fences, few roads, and no shortcuts.

There is also an essential knowledge base. I’m halfway through my second hunt in Liberia, which I would call a semi-guided hunt. The camp is OK and the people are great—and excellent forest hunters—but there is no hunting tradition here. It’s very hot and very humid, a deadly combination for the meat and hides, and although the guys are willing, they are unskilled in preparing skins for taxidermy. So my hunting partner, Mike Adams, and I have been spending at least a third of each day helping with and supervising the skinning, changing salt, and fussing over the skins.

Timewise, this is not a huge problem here because most of the small forest animals we’re hunting are nocturnal, so a lot of the hunting is at night. But unless you know skinning, including turning the ears and splitting the lips, and how to preserve skins in an unfavorable environment—and you’re willing to pitch in—chances are you’ll be disappointed when your taxidermist gets your skins.

Even at that, this safari is a vast improvement over my first hunt in Liberia three years ago. Then, although base camp was similarly comfortable, there was no game in proximity to camp. So we had to spike out a half-day’s journey, then sleep in hammocks or makeshift shelters, returning to base camp when we ran low on food. This year, in a new area, we can walk from camp and find game.

The do-it-yourself (chasse libre) safaris in this region are a whole different order of magnitude. I’ve avoided them for practical reasons. First, I don’t speak French, and that’s the common language of Central and West Africa. Absent reasonable fluency in French, difficulties are compounded. Second, it has seemed to me that these hunts are costly (in both time and money) in relation to success achieved. Which perhaps reveals a personal character flaw: The adventure sounds great, but I also want results!

On the other hand, Sports Afield’s Publisher, Ludo Wurfbain, is a huge fan of the chasse libre safaris, and has done a number of do-it-yourself hunts in several countries in the region. Over the years he has achieved amazing results, and has taken most of the key game in the region, but usually just a couple of animals per safari.

The region has a reputation for costly outfitted safaris, and this is absolutely true if you’re after either of the two great prizes, bongo or giant eland. Take those off the list and safari costs in C.A.R. and Cameroon go down dramatically. Move a bit farther west to Benin and Burkina Faso, and you can find the least expensive buffalo hunting on the African continent. The hunting in Liberia is so specialized that you have to be a pretty far-gone African addict to be interested, but the safaris are not expensive and government trophy fees are low.

On my first hunt in Liberia I was fortunate to share camp with another chasse libre veteran, Ralf Schneider. The Liberian hunt was actually one of his first outfitted hunts in years but, like me, he wanted a zebra duiker and a water chevrotain. Like me, he got neither, but persistence sometime pays. Hunting with the same outfitter, Morris Dougba’s Liberia Forest Safaris, I shot a water chevrotain and a zebra duiker on my current safari. But here’s the point: Ralf is an expert in this weird region of Africa, and I learned a lot from him. I knew to bring essentials like a hammock to sleep in (off the ground and away from creepy-crawlies), water purification tablets, headlamps, and good skinning knives. I also knew to bring niceties like a battery-powered fan, electrolyte mixes, and some goodies just in case. Ralf brought preparation to a new level. His “emergency safari kit,” sealed in a waterproof five-gallon bucket, was a treasure trove: backpack stove, raingear, bivy sack, tea and coffee, Top Ramen, and maybe even a wee nip of something. He could survive for weeks just out of his bucket!

I paid attention. On this hunt I haven’t needed the hammock, water purification tablets, or the freeze-dried emergency rations I added to my kit, at least not yet. But we’ve used most everything else! We’ve also sweated a lot and put up with some frustrations. But the skins on the drying rack tell the tale. The forest has been good to us!

For extreme African hunting it’s important to pack very carefully, and include some items you may not have thought about. Clockwise from top: A good first aid kit (this one from African Sporting Creations); multi-tool; gloves (against bugs or thorns? You never know!); an array of lights, for both night-hunting and functioning safely in the dark . . . these are the Spanish-made LEDWave lights; silverware and water purification tablets; a battery-operated fan (with lots of batteries), an incredible blessing in tropical climates; and a satellite phone, essential for emergencies and easily rented with plenty of minutes.

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