Dangerous-Game Rifles: When Only the Best Firearm Will Do

Those who choose to hunt the world's most dangerous game in the old way, relying on their own rifle and their own shooting (however you may be able to do that), must have reliable rifles. It matters not that your rifle can put all its shots into a single hole at a thousand yards if—only once—it ever fails to work. Failure generally comes when you're tackling something that can kill you. One of our staff had that happen in Africa. The cocking piece came

The Mauser-actioned “custom” 458, left, didn’t match the other two big rifles for seriousness, value, nor operation. But it could be easily altered into a fun gun, we thought. The compact double 470, center, requires a second mortgage, but is also one of the finest investments in the world of firearms. On the right is the Springfield wearing its QD scope. We got a kick out of testing these.