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 caliber to be used on these animals is the great .375 H&H Magnum. Other calibers we recommend are the .416 Remington Magnum, .458 Winchester Magnum (on this caliber 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 caliber 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 caliber 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 calibers 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 such bullets as 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.
 
Should you be bringing your own weapons, Brooklands will issue you with an Invitation letter to facilitate importation well in advance of your Safari.
 
Zimbabwe is generally one of the easier African countries into which to bring weapons for hunting,however a Temporary Import Permit will need to be completed on arrival in to Zimbabwe by all hunting clients.

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.