Firearms & Travel

 

Below are some travel tips that will help you in the planning stages— visit our related pages for a link

Sengwe 1 is a Malaria Risk area and it is advisable to take medical precautions, speak to your doctor about preventative medication.

Depending on your itinerary, you might find that you have to overnight at some point after you have arrived in Africa. This can either be in South Africa or in Zimbabwe. Some options for getting into camp are as follows:

· Overnight in Johannesburg, South Africa or in Harare, Zimbabwe and from there and charter out to the concession the following morning.(Prices on request) visit our related pages for a link

· Drive up from Johannesburg to camp in one of our Land Rover Defenders or suitable vehicle. The trip is roughly 10 hours including border crossing times. The cost one way is 500 USD

· We will gladly assist you in making your decision regarding transfers, overnight accommodation, photographic tours and emergency medical air evacuation

 

You will be required to complete SAPS 520 forms to import your rifles and ammunition into South Africa and from there into Zimbabwe. Please follow the links below to obtain all your firearm related paperwork . Should you require assistance please contact us for more information.

 

             SAPS 520 form

 

             USA citizen- Authorisation form for imports

 

             USA  citizen- Checklist

            

             Russia citizen—Authorisation form for imports

            

             Russia citizen—Checklist

 

            

 

             Procedure on Arrival

 

It is advisable for first time African Hunters and even to seasoned veterans to make use of a Meet and Greet service at O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg as it greatly increases the speed at which you will go through the whole process. We are able to offer the service to incoming hunters at a nominal fee of $ 150 USD per firearm import permit. All clients who are hunting with us will not be charged for firearm import permits as they are free to you.

 

Through Air Charters & Tourism (Pty) Ltd we are able to arrange the following non hunting activities:

· Photographic Safaris

· Shopping Tours

· Golfing Tours

· Fishing Trips

· Cultural Tours

· Houseboats

· Diamond Buying Tours

 

It is also advisable that the following insurances be taken out:

             Emergency Medical Air Evacuation

             Sportsman’s Travel Insurance

More Firearm Information

No other piece of equipment is more important to the successful outcome of your safari.

We recommend you bring your own firearms. However, we do have company rifles at all camps in the event you do not want to bring your own. We encourage hunters to avoid using extremely high velocity rifles and in most cases, the heavier grained bullets perform better on tough skinned animals.

The most popular scopes are variable power from 1.2 to 4 (or 6) x magnification.

Below are the legal requirements for weapons to be used on the various species of game animals in Zimbabwe.

 

For Elephant, Buffalo & Hippopotamus, a bullet with a diameter of 9.3mm producing a minimum of 5.3 Kilojoules of energy at the muzzle. The lightest calibre to be used on these animals is the great .375 H&H Magnum. Other calibres we recommend are the .416 Remington Magnum, .458 Winchester Magnum (on this calibre try to find ammunition which guarantees at least 2250 feet per second at the muzzle, (Federal and A Square are normally reliable), the .470 Nitro Express. If you have a large calibre double rifle you would like to bring out, try to ensure it is fitted with a good quality scope of not more than 4 x magnification unless you know yourself to be a well-experienced iron sight shooter.

 

For Lion, Eland and Giraffe, a bullet with a minimum diameter of 7mm producing 4.3 kilojoules of energy at the muzzle. For Lion we recommend a .375 H&H firing good quality Soft Nose Ammunition.

 

For Leopard, Cheetah, Crocodile, Spotted Hyena, Sable, Burchell's Zebra, Kudu, Blue Wildebeest, Waterbuck, Tsessebe and Nyala, a bullet with a minimum diameter of 7 mm producing 3 kilojoules of energy at the muzzle. However, for Leopard we recommend the .375 H&H Magnum firing good quality Soft nose ammunition, the 30-06 Springfield will do as good a job as any on this animal as remember shot placement is far more critical than calibre size. For all the animals in this section, we suggest 30-06 or .308 firing good quality 180-grain soft nose ammunition to be the minimum.

 

For Impala, Reedbuck, Warthog, Bush pig and all other small animals a bullet with a minimum diameter of 5.6mm producing 850 joules of energy at the muzzle, there are many great calibres at this end of the spectrum, the 30-06, .308, 7 x 64, we suggest the .243 to be the minimum.



African game is large and tough, and good penetration is essential for clean kills. Ammunition should be loaded with bullets designed for large animals, if you are a hand loader consider  Barnes and the extremely good Trophy Bonded Bullets.
You should bring your own ammunition, an ample supply of between 40 and 60 rounds per weapon. For your heavy rifle if you are, hunting thick-skinned dangerous game include half "solids" and half soft points of the heaviest available bullet weight.

Some of the ammunition we recommend is Federal & Barnes.

All clients will be asked to test fire their rifles on arrival in the bush before shooting at game. Be certain your medium rifle is sighted in at 100-150 meters and your heavy rifle, if you require one, at 100 meters maximum.

If you want to bring only one weapon the .375 H&H fitted with a good 4 x scope is your best bet, if however you are only hunting plains game the 30-06 Springfield or a weapon with similar ballistic will be the right choice.

A 12,16 or 20 gauge shotgun with ammunition ranging through Nos. 4 to 7 are adequate for all game birds in Zimbabwe.

If you do not want to bring your own weapon, please let us know well in advance of your arrival so we may make suitable arrangements for you, in the way of weapon(s) and ammunition.

Zimbabwe is generally one of the easier African countries into which to bring weapons for hunting.