The Making of a Hunter It was the year of 1978 when the tide of Danie van Graan’s life turned…
Browsing: Guns
Testing anything new is exciting. Hunting in Africa is very exciting. And when the two come together –unforgettable moments are…
Hunting MethodsThe one tried and proven method of hunting these cats is to set up a bait and wait over…
HISTORYThe .458 Winchester Magnum was a direct descendant of the .450 Nitro Express 3 1⁄4 inch and the .450 Watts.…
INTRODUCTION Crocodiles are very difficult and challenging to hunt as they have extremely good eyesight, hearing, and smell, and have…
Arguably the most versatile of all African cartridges, the .375 Holland & Holland Magnum is capable of taking the spectrum…
No one would confuse Boron, California, with London, but the two cities share a distinction: both are home to makers…
The year 1912 was a hallmark year for those of us who love the sport of big game hunting. Holland…
introduction Wingshooting as the name implies is the shooting discipline where gamebirds are shot in flight. Table 1 gives a…
Introduction When a hunter takes on dangerous game the element of risk is heightened. Dangerous animals are often much heavier,…
Progress is inevitable. Some may argue that all progress is good. I beg to differ because sometimes the cost of…
It is my usual job to write articles about reloading, but we just returned from a trip hunting plains game,…
You aim, press the trigger, and a weak puff informs you that only the percussion cap or a very small…
I have a 416 Rigby built on a CZ 550 Safari rifle. I converted the bolt to a Winchester Model 70 style safety/bolt sleeve and spot polished the bolt and extractor. The magazine received a new floor plate assembly to hold another cartridge. The gun now will hold four in the magazine and one in the chamber.
The recent introduction of new .17 caliber cartridges has brought with it a rebirth of interest in this often misunderstood,…
My first experience with the British .303 was on a recent trip to South Africa, where the ranch we were…
The amphibious river horse Hippopotamus amphibious is a worthwhile adversary and potentially highly dangerous (Figure 1). The size of the…
IntroductionHippos may not be regarded as one of the big five but considering the potential danger they pose and the…
I have used rifles in calibre .458 Lott on seven African safaris, where I shot plains game (impala, hartebeest, oryx,…
During the Second World War the Gibbs factory was bombed by the Germans and a lot of their information and…
The .303 British is one of the most well-known cartridges of the 20th century. It served as the official British…
The great 9.3×62 Mauser is recognised in Europe and Africa as one of the best big game calibres ever, yet…
The discussion regarding the best cartridge for use on African plains game has been a century-old affair; a heated debate that certainly has no end in sight, nor a definitive correct answer. Its only competition is the evolving argument about dangerous game cartridges.
Bore diameters between 6.5mm and .375″ all have their champions, and all can be used on plains game with good effect. However, when it comes to a cartridge that is effective across a broad spectrum of game – from duikers to eland – the .30-’06 Springfield continues to hold one of the top positions.
I guess this story starts when Holland & Holland kindly reminded me that I was approaching 65; I had clocked…
Put a bunch of hunters together at a favorite watering hole, or around a hunting campfire, and at some point,…
Calibre Description and SpecificationsThe .404 Jeffery is a large calibre rimless bottleneck cartridge that was originally designed with the dangerous…
In June 2003 the international hunting community lost a true giant with the passing of George Hoffman, a cancer victim. …
Becky Johnston and I followed Professional Hunter Chris Steyn up out of the river swamp near Landela Lodge. A large…
Secondary Explosion Effect, or S.E.E., seems to occur when a “slow” powder is used, and the powder charge is reduced…
B. Searcy Company is headquartered in the small desert community of Boron, California, about 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles.…
Tomorrow there will be a 30% chance of rain with the possibility of scattered thundershowers which might spread from the…
Bailey Bradshaw is one of the best new rifle builders to come along in a long time. He has been…
In Part I of this article I talked about new ideas and advanced concepts relating to barrels and iron sights.…
In part one of this article several issues associated with barrels and iron front sights were discussed at length. Now…
The basic design for a Dangerous Game Rifle (DGR) was finalized by English gun makers such as Holland and Holland,…
He had mentioned something about “the monster” when he picked me up at the airport in late July. One of…
My hunting buddy Mike Jines and I had just finished another whitetail season in South Texas. Neither of us took…
Having recently completed a free-lance safari for a local hunter/landowner in the Gwaai Valley, I was spending my ‘down time’ with my good friend Stuart Campbell on his Lion Ranch. He asked me to travel to Hwange town to collect some extra groceries, in preparation for the imminent arrival of a small group of South African visitors. Late that afternoon the guests arrived and one of them, an Air Steward with South African Airways expressed his eagerness to ‘shoot something’.
I am often asked what caliber rifle to take on an African plains game hunt. My response is usually, “What do you have in your gun case now”? The reason I ask that is because almost everyone already has a .270 Winchester, .30-06 Springfield, etc.
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This story actually started way back in 1960 with an article by Dr. Wendell G. Swank from Michigan State College which was in the Sports Afield Gun Annual. He and a fellow doctor took their old pre-64 Winchester Model 70 .30-06 Springfield rifles with Sierra bullets to Uganda to harvest game for research.
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 light weight rifles that surpassed the stopping power of the earlier 4 to 10 gauge black powder rifles.
In part one of this article, several issues associated with barrels and iron front sights were discussed at length. Now…
In Part I of this article I talked about new ideas and advanced concepts relating to barrels and iron sights.…
What we have here in the .416 Remington is a relatively flat shooting cartridge, fully capable of making a distant shot on a kudu or gemsbok, yet perfectly able to confidently drop a buffalo or elephant when things get up close and personal.
The farmer went by the name “Boats.” I never learned his family name and his Christian name kept me baffled, but that wasn’t important.