Going back to Africa. In the African Bush are a number of big animals that can turn quite quickly into poo or toe jam. Most incidents occur when a local blunders into a herd or a pride by accident and surprises them. When I lived in Zambia we supported 2,000 local farmers growing Burleigh Tobacco across the Eastern Province south of the Luangwa Escarpment. There were Elephant, Buffalo and Lion all knocking about. None of the locals were armed and rarely were there any problems. Only one I recall was one gentleman who was stoned and completely bubaluss (drunk - it’s a very descriptive word - not sure of the spelling) and rode his bicycle into a herd of elephants. His death huge amusement to everybody left.
I had several times when elephants very close to my camp at night, we just carried on chatting and we would talk to elephants - we didn’t threaten them, they didn’t threaten us.
Pretty much African animals want to be left in peice, but if you are sneaking about trying to track them and do them harm, they immediately sense you are up to no good.
And the bigger ones are higher up the food chain and will on occasion turn around to teach you some good manners.
And then there are poachers, bandits and former terrorists, often well armed.
So if you are hunting then most rifles will be loaded, as a shot is potentially imminent. But in Africa - certainly in Zambia and Zim - most hunting rifles do not have slings. They get caught in the bush. So guns are carried in the hand and thus under control at all times.
Most big game rifles are Mauser type actions, and most of the big stopping rifles will have a firing pin blocking safety. The original wing safety is a very solid and secure system completely blocking the firing pin. It is not particularly fast to take off safe, hence safety taken off if things are going to get exciting. And triggers are firm, or double stage.
If its a double rifle, either a sidelock or higher grade boxlock, it is likely to have intercepting sears and thus hammers are blocked unless triggers are pulled. And many will have a lock on the safety.
Yes in the African bush PHs and Guides will often carry a rifle fully loaded, and their rifle will remain fully loaded in camp. Things can and do go wrong very quickly.
Even in Lusaka I would sleep with a loaded shotgun by my bed as there was a lot of “bandit” activity with former “freedom fighters” from Rhodesia and South Africa now unemployed and the new governments not overly keen to welcome them back. Three times in one year I had bandits open with AKs. Once they went in next door, and the paramilitaries shot them in the street, once they tried to burgle neighbouring farm, all local farmers did a sweep through the bush at night and the only thing shot was the farmers prize bull, and once when driving close to the mozambique border I saw some Renamo about 150 yards down the dirt track. I stopped and then reversed very fast and I had the crack of rounds coming past.
Nowadays many parts of Southern Africa are safe, but equally many parts are not.
If you are hunting, then the PHs primary job is your safety, and they should really know how to read animals and their intentions.
Shooting any animal that is not on licence is going to cause a lot of paperwork - buffalo not so much, but Lion, Elephant, Rhino a huge amount. And if you do shoot one make sure you have a licence to shoot one or that it has powder burns on its carcass. Much less of an issue and paperwork if you get squashed for being silly.
Let the PH deal with such situations - that is what he is being paid for and that was he has grown up with.
When stalking into animals its a different matter entirely - you are going into harms way and you can easily bump something, just like you can bump a roe buck in thick woodland. This a different matter entirely. Mostly they go the other way, but occasionally they won’t. In such situations fast shooting may be required, but again it should be the PH that opens the proceedings unless it is “your animal”.
If you bump into poachers, you will likely have a national parks, or police scout with your group armed with an AK, FAL or G3 for such situations.
And also remember that the primary job of most PHs is to be a good host and in many ways entertainment. They have a litany of good stories to tell and to make the hunts exciting so that you part with lots of dollars.
