Indholdsfortegnelse for July 2021 i Man Magnum

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,…

IN the late 1970s there were hardly any safari operators in South Africa and I managed to acquire some hunting rights on farms in the Hoedspruit/Timbavati area, adjoining Kruger Park. It was a little ‘tame’ compared to the huge, wide open concessions where I had been operating in Rhodesia and Botswana. However, there were some lion, buffalo, leopard, large and small antelope to be found, and the area became quite popular. In those days, lion and leopard were considered vermin and they could be shot without a licence, any time, day or night. Not all lion hunts end in success, and some are memorable or interesting, and occasionally amusing. I don’t normally make fun of, or criticise, my paying clients, but the following two stories are worth relating. I was…

AS A BOY, my desire to hunt a big kudu bull was stirred by Percy Fitzpatrick’s immortal classic Jock of the Bushveld. I spent many hours rereading the chapter on the kudu bull and gazing at Edwin Caldwell’s illustration of Jock baying the wounded bull. What is it about the kudu that makes him the ‘royalty’ of African antelope? Is it his regal bearing, his amazing physique, unique horns, or his ability to disappear in an instant? It is all of these, but also his compelling mystique as the ‘grey ghost’ of Africa. After shooting my first antelope, a common duiker, on our family farm in the winter of 1963, I was hooked on hunting and spent most July school holidays in the fields searching for birds and animals. My…

STEVE EDWARDS was one of those extraordinary characters that only wildest Africa can produce. His singularly different articles appeared in Magnum from 1999 to the mid-2000s, always expressing an unusual perspective – thought-provoking, interesting, and well-written. He possessed a comprehensive personal library and was very well-read. His writings combined his broad knowledge and acute powers of observation with first-hand experience of a kind that most hunters and outdoors-men can only dream of. Growing up on a farm in Rhodesia, Steve hunted from a nearly age. On leaving school, he spurned any 8-to-5 job and baulked against authority or close supervision. Consequently, apart from taking occasional odd jobs to fund his many solo wilderness adventures (which cost him practically nothing), he went unemployed for months on end. Somewhat eccentric, he was…

IN DIE weke voor my pa se dood vertel hy my van die sondes van sy lewe. “Toe ek klein was, het ek ’n baardmannetjie met my kettie geskiet. Ons was honger en jy dink dis ’n groot voëltjie, en dan kom jy daar en dit is net ’n baardmannetjie. Dan voel jy darem maar sleg.”As kinders het my pa vir ons gedigte voorgelees. Ons het Marais se Winternag in die Namib gehoor. Ons het Watermeyer in die Bosveld leer ken. In Watermeyer se Ballade van die bloeddorstige jagter kla ’n koor van verminkte diere die roekelose skut aan. Die wilde kanarie sê: “Ek kelk die sonlig in my keel / en rym die rondebessie ryp / met kinderhand het hy, het hy / die fluite uit ons bors gegryp.”…

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…

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…

STRANGELY, trophy-hunting has a way of bringing out certain character traits in people – both good and bad. Sometimes it manifests propensities they may seldom reveal in the normal course of their lives. Ernest Hemingway’s book, The Green Hills of Africa, graphically demonstrates this. Hemingway brought his friend Karl along on this safari, who, by that most important of all factors in hunting – luck – managed consistently to bag bigger trophies than Hemingway did. For all its powerful passages and beautiful descriptions, the book manifests Hemingway’s seething jealousy and ugly competitive spirit. Its literary merit lies largely in his honesty. Magnum contributor Terry Irwin once wrote of a client who wanted a trophy nyala. As luck would have it, they came across two mature bulls feeding together in thick…

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INGREDIENTS > 4 cups left-over meat (chicken, lamb or turkey)> 1 onion, chopped> 2 carrots, chopped> 2 cups cauliflower florets> 1 cup rice (half-cooked to> 3 – 4 min before soft)> 2 tablespoons curry paste> 1 tin chick peas or butter beans> 2 – 3 stems saffron soaked in 1 cup of milk> 1 cup plain Greek yoghurt> salt and pepper to taste METHOD Pre-heat the oven to 160°. Cut the left-over meat into bite-sized cubes. Place the meat, onions, carrots and cauliflower into a large oven dish. Add the curry paste, yoghurt, salt and pepper. Mix through by hand. Spread the half-cooked rice on top of the mixture. Drain the chick peas or butter beans and sprinkle over the rice. Pour the saffron milk over the dish. Cover with…

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…

IN 2019, on a visit to the former presidential home of Paul Kruger in Pretoria, I noticed an item in one of the exhibits that caught my attention. Unknown to me until then, the collection hosts a magnificent double-barrelled four-bore rifle which, according to the curator, Oom (Uncle) Paul received as a gift and used between 1842 and 1872. The Kruger House or Krugerhuis as it is known in Afrikaans, is currently a periodic museum and hosts most of Kruger’s original household goods as well as other items of note, including the presidential train carriage which he used during his official visits to other parts of the country. It is a wonderful glimpse into the life and times of Oom Paul. Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger was born in 1825 as…

THE Gats River runs from the Sneeuberg mountains southwards to the town of Graaff Reinet where it merges with the Sundays River at the Nqweba Dam, and so effectively links the town with the village of Nieu Bethesda. It is reputed to be one of the fastest-flowing rivers in the country due to the large variation in altitude from top to bottom, which probably explains its ancient deeply eroded canyon. Two veepos (satellite) farms, Schoonberg and Magnum, straddle the Gats. (Yes, really, the farm’s name is Magnum and has been since the 1850s.) These farms provide the herd of Nguni cattle and free-roaming game with a harsh, but healthy, environment of plateaus In and deep kloofs between the rugged mountains. Hunting seasons and game quotas are issued through the…