Mitch Mitchell

You have had a long, hard night in your African-tented camp with your PH drinking Jack Daniels and gorging on Impala steaks. In the chilly pre-dawn, you wake up in your tent and begin to put on your boots for the day’s hunt. A searing pain shoots up your leg and you cry out in agony. You have made one of the most common mistakes of visiting hunters. Scorpions are active at night and are extremely numerous in the African bush. They can be easily seen at night using a black light (remember Saturday Night Fever when you still frequented the…

Of all the snakes I have caught, this is the one I like to hold the least. Perhaps it is the knowledge that no antivenom is available or perhaps the concentrated, tense posture of the snake. Because they are arboreal, you will not easily run into a twig snake. If you do run into one on the ground (like I did) it is probably wise to recognise it and give it a wide berth. Description The Twig, Vine, or Bird snake (Thelotornis capensis) has a pale blue-green upper head heavily speckled with dark brown, black, and sometimes pink. A wide…

These two recipes incorporate gemsbuck and Shepherd’s bush roots taken from Kudubos, our game farm in Namibia. And yes, I admit it: I made these recipes up. So sue me. They are still really delicious, though. Here they are served with kudu biltong, pepper game salami, cheese, and cranberry sauce, garnished with wild pear (drolpeer) flowers, Buffalo thorn, and stamvrug tree leaves. Use other types of edible leaves if you must. These recipes will dispel once and for all the vicious rumor that bowhunters can not be chefs. Paté de Oryx Gazella What you will need: 30ml vegetable oil 100g…

Fer au Vin is translated as “snake with wine”. This dish is not for the squeamish or faint of heart – but it is delicious!Almost any snake will work, but the adders are nice and fat with lots of meat.In this case we will prepare and eat mamba.Justice will be done – we are killing and eating them for a change.Cleaning your mambaIngredients15ml (1 tablespoon) Vegetable oil, butter or fat75g (3 oz) bacon, rinded and chopped175g (6 oz) mushrooms – make sure they are not poisonous1 onion, skinned and chopped1 medium-sized mamba or other snake, cleaned and cut into 3cm/1½” pieces60ml…

We South Africans just don’t get it.You guys in the USA, New Zealand and other places simply cook up the shrimp (we call them prawns) and hope for the best.Why spoil such a great meal that way? They taste – well – damn awful. Unlike you guys, we cannot convince ourselves that this is food fit for for a king.So, welcome to Taste Central.Here’s how we do it in spectacular Mozambique – the Portuguese way.What you need:About 2 kilos (4 pounds) of nice big prawns.Half a liter (one pint) of virgin olive oilA generous scoop of butterA liter of beer,…

“The charge of a wounded buffalo does not faze them too much. Give them the snarl of an angry lion in the Mopani and they can deal with it. They know what to do with the grey avalanche of an Elephant charge.” But when a professional hunter finds a black mamba in a hide or one stands up at face level next to a trail with its neck flattened in a narrow hood, the bravest of Africa’s hunters become – what is the right word- extremely careful. No, let me just say it – they get scared. And well they…

This dish takes about 14 hours to prepare – but it definitely is worth the effort! Ingredients A Springbok, Impala, or any venison leg Marinade 5 ounces (150g.) cocoa powder 4 tablespoons salt 2 teaspoons dried red pepper flakes 1 teaspoon ground cloves 2 tablespoons brown sugar 2 tablespoons olive oil Vegetables About 1.75 pounds (800g.) of a combination of fresh veggies: squash, zucchini, cantaloupe, green and red pepper, mushrooms and onions. Two cloves of garlic, skinned. 3. Chocolate sauce 7oz (200g.) water 4 tablespoons cocoa powder 6 tablespoons sugar 2oz (60g.) butter 8-10 Shepherd’s Tree leaves Editor’s note: Shepherd’s Tree…

In Part I of this article I talked about new ideas and advanced concepts relating to barrels and iron sights. In Part II the receiver was looked at in detail and I delved into the parts of the traditional lock: receiver, magazine and trigger, with some aside comments on ‘minor’ points such as lubrication, rear sights, and bolt handle knob, etc., although it may be argued that there are no points concerning a dangerous game rifle that could be termed as minor. Here, in Part III, I will look at several factors in building a stock for a dangerous game…

In part one of this article several issues associated with barrels and iron front sights were discussed at length. Now let’s look at one of the other two traditional parts of a firearm; the lock or, in modern terms, the receiver. I will talk about some ideas for their possible refinement, and try to examine every feature in detail. If there is anything I have overlooked or if you know of any new products or ideas we should know about I would love to hear additional thoughts from our readers. After years of research and worldwide combat experience, Paul Mauser…

The basic design for a Dangerous Game Rifle (DGR) was finalized by English gun makers such as Holland and Holland, Rigby, Jeffrey, et al. before the start of WWI. Drawing on the experiences of big game hunters in their African colonies and using the new smokeless propellant, Cordite, these custom gun smiths could now build relatively lightweight rifles that surpassed the stopping power of the earlier 4 to 10-gauge black powder rifles. In the last 100 years, metallurgy, gunpowder, bullet design, and sighting systems have improved exponentially, but in all that time the form of the DGR has changed little.…