Just got back from a hunting trip to Africa where my hunting buddies and I went for Cape buffalo and a variety of plains game. We were up in the Limpopo region of South Africa right on the border with Zimbabwe, which continues its transformation into hell on earth thanks to its president-turned-insane-crackpot Robert Mugabe.

I spent the days chasing critters through the mapone trees with two different rifles. My primary gun was my Ruger Magnum chambered in .416 Rigby. My affection for that rifle and cartridge is nearly boundless and I would be very content lugging all 12 pounds of it (scoped) all day, every day while hunting Africa. I love it because everything I point it at falls over dead after I pull the trigger.

But I also took along a Remington 798 chambered in .30-06 and was pleased with it too. I recently tweaked the 798, which is a Mauser-action rifle produced in Czechoslovakia and imported into the U.S. by Remington, giving it a new trigger, turning it into a sweet, accurate shooter.

Initially I had planed to bring a .375 H&H for my light gun, but these two classics, the .416 and the .30-06, made for an excellent two-gun battery.

—John Snow