Man Magnum July 2021

I HAVE taken some flak from readers wanting to know why Magnum has not been more vocal and did not provide more detail on the proposed Firearms Control Amendment Bill, 2021 in the previous edition. Well, the publication of the proposed bill caught us by surprise, but more problematic was the fact that we were only days away from our deadline to print when the suggested changes were made available for comments. By the time you read this, the deadline for submissions will be something of the past. So, we simply could not share more information in the magazine. However, we have tried to make readers aware of what they need to do on Facebook and our website. I sincerely hope that each and every firearm owner has submitted his…

45 Years Young Congratulations. With the Covid hangover still interfering with deliveries, I have just finished reading the March/April and May editions and I have to tell you that the March/April edition ticked all the boxes for me. I have been a Magnum reader since the very first edition in 1976. I didn’t become a subscriber until later but I haven’t missed a single copy, not even when I had my briefcase stolen at ORT along with the current edition for in-flight reading. I enjoy the mix, especially when liberally spiced with the stories/memories of Magnum stalwarts like Gregor Woods. Keep it up. Just one question: Magnum has kept silent on the question of the new draft firearm legislation. I can imagine that this is a delicate subject but it…

WHILE baiting a cattle-killing leopard near Gwanda, Zimbabwe, I mercy-shot a gigantic giraffe bull, black with age, blind in one eye, a real ‘old stinker’. He would otherwise soon have been eaten alive by hyenas. I then moved on to Johan Dreyer’s concession on the Limpopo floodplains. Sitting around the campfire, I told Johan about the old giraffe bull. “Well,” smiled Johan. “I get a lot of South African biltong hunters here because we have abundant eland in the Mopane forests. One party proved capable marksmen on the range, so I told them of my rule that no game may be shot within 5km of camp, then allowed their hunt to proceed. All bagged their quarry well within their scheduled period, so they were enjoying leisure time while the biltong…

TURKISH firearms manufacturer TISAS, founded in 1993, is one of the country’s leading firearms manufacturers and has a proven record of producing reliable firearms. Recently, HJ Drinn of Durban, local importers of Tisas pistols, supplied us with the Zigana PX-9 for testing. As we were impressed with their Zig 14 pistol, which is a copy of the Browning Hi-Power (see Magnum January 2020), I was eager to get this clone of the Croatian Springfield XD (sold locally as the HS 2000) to the shooting range. The PX-9 is not an exact copy of the XD. It looks similar, functions alike, plus fits the same holsters, but the PX-9 does not have the grip and trigger safety found on the XD. This is probably omitted as a cost saving measure however,…

I am not a trophy hunter – I never have been. In more than fifty years of hunting I have never had one creature I shot mounted, nor have I kept any part of it for display. I have nothing against trophy hunting; in fact, I spent many years making a living taking out clients from all over the world to hunt the animals of their dreams. I even admit to feeling a certain glow of pride when an ecstatic client pumped my hands with joy after bagging a trophy animal we had spent hours, sometimes days, pursuing. But me, I am just a meat hunter – a fella who loves being out in the bush with the intention of obtaining a fresh supply of venison while enjoying the work…

I SHIFTED uneasily in my camp chair and stole a sideways glance at the old man sitting beside me. This man is my uncle, Rob Acutt, and I owe him plenty. Memories came flooding back to me of how he mentored me in my youth, instilling in me a love of the chase and a deep attachment to the hunt. Sparrow shooting with air rifles led to monkeys and, on a never-to-be-forgotten day with the .22, a duiker fell to me after a long stalk. What boy could forget that? A blesbuck I took on my own was another milestone, and before long eland were my prey. All this before I started shaving, and usually Rob was there for me. More than one carton of ammunition passed slyly through his…