If you have such a rifle, and if it's accurate and you shoot it well, you really don't need anything else. On the other hand, if eland is not of interest to you, you probably don't need anything larger than a .30 caliber--and most of us will shoot better at a sustained rate with cartridges that produce a bit less recoil. So if the largest antelope is on the game list, perhaps you should mate a fast .33 with something smaller and more manageable, perhaps a .25 or 6.5mm, or your favorite .270, 7mm or .30 caliber.

If I had to choose the perfect single rifle for plains game, it would be my 8mm Remington Magnum. It's a rifle I have used in Namibia, South Africa, Ethiopia, Zambia and Chad, several times as a one-rifle battery. I have used it on eland, no problems, and I've also used it for longer shooting in wide-open country, including gemsbok in the Kalahari and the tiny dorcas gazelle on the edge of the Sahara.

But if I decided to take two rifles I would probably go a bit larger on the upper end, perhaps to a .338 Winchester Magnum, and drop down a whole bunch on the other end to something like the 7x57 in brush country or a fast 6.5mm or .270 in more open ground.

But that's me, and I'm a rifle nut, always trying to get things exactly right. Most people are better off with whatever they shoot best. I have used the .270, 7x57, 7mm Remington Magnum, 7mm Remington Ultra Mag and several different fast .30 calibers on a wide variety of plains game, and all have done well. However, over the past 30 years the cartridge that has done the best work for me is the plain old .30-06. Recoil is mild, bullet performance is wonderful, and in Africa there is very little long-range shooting as we think of it in North America.

I have never shot any African game larger than a zebra with a .30-06, but my wife, Donna, shoots a .30-06 very well and has used it to take the same range of plains game that I have taken with this cartridge--plus a fine eland bull.

My daughter Brittany is a bit more sensitive to recoil. She doesn't like to go beyond her 7mm-08 unless absolutely necessary. Last year, using a 140-grain Nosler Partition, she took a monstrous eland cleanly with her 7mm-08. Again, shot placement is almost everything, and I fear guys like me make too much of the perfect caliber and cartridge selection.

Based not only on my experience, but what I've observed, I'd be perfectly happy to recommend a .30-06 as an ideal plains game rifle. Or, for that matter, a 7x57 or .270 if that's what you shoot best. But some African areas are more open than others, so if you can handle the increased recoil there is a strong argument for somewhat faster, flatter-shooting cartridges.

Earlier I mentioned that I have done two surveys of licensed African professional hunters nearly 20 years apart, in 1989 and 2007. Both times I received more than 100 responses, so there is a wealth of information representing many cumulative centuries of African hunting.