Indholdsfortegnelse for Mar/Apr 2023 i Man Magnum

GRAND POWER is a Slovakian-based firearms manufacturer that started out in 2002. With only 80 permanent employees, they may not be the largest firearms manufacturer, but they produce some very well-made firearms, of which almost 95% are exported. Grand Power originally manufactured pistols only, but quickly expanded their range to AR platform rifles as well as 9mm carbines. I had the opportunity to test one of their carbines, the Stribog SP9A2. The SP9A2 is blow-back operated with a closed-bolt firing mode and very robust design which provides excellent accuracy and controllability, and proved utterly reliable. More about that later. This carbine has an 8-inch cold hammer-forged black nitride coated barrel with a 1½ x 28 tpi threaded barrel, making it very easy to mount a suppressor. It has a non-reciprocating…

AS WE sat around the boma, each with a cold Black Label in hand and the potjie gently emitting aromas of cumin, I was immensely grateful that we were all together in the bush once more. The sun was down and the jackals were calling. Having neglected to bring a camping chair, Matthew sat on a metal bed, carefully preparing the skull of the magnificent impala ram he had shot earlier in the day. The rest of us sat pondering how many more times we would hear the story of this particular impala and how, in time, the shooting distance would grow ever longer. By the time he gets to tell his own children of it (when it will doubtless be mounted and on the wall above his bed), the…

THE Highland is but one of a range of hunting and precision rifles manufactured by Unique Alpine in Germany. I’ve read several good reviews, especially about their military precision rifles (visit www.unique-alpine.com to read more on their full range of rifles and accessories). The importer, Guns & Bows, kindly supplied us with a Highland in 6.5 Creedmoor (CM) to try out. The JPR-1 model is available in .243 Winchester, 6.5 CM, 6.5x47 Lapua and .308 Winchester and the standard rifle (designated JPR-1 Europe) comes with a classic walnut stock. The Highland is a precision hunting rifle and has a laminated wooden stock with an adjustable cheek-piece, 24-inch barrel and, interestingly, the bolt makes use of a controlled feeding mechanism. Accuracy of 1MOA or better is claimed with selected factory ammunition.…

MY FIREARM collecting hobby began in 1999 with my acquisition of Lategan and Potgieter’s famous book Die Boer se Roer. My interest was gripped by a percussion muzzle-loader on page 87 with inscriptions on its stock stating it had been used in battles from 1846 to 1880, including the battle of Boomplaas in 1848. Fast forward two decades. Recently, in a secondhand shop, an antique fire-arm caught my eye. It looked like any other shortened, percussion cap muzzle-loading trade musket, until I turned it around – then I almost fell on my back. In my hands was the very same Boomplaas musket that had intrigued me back in 1999 and many times thereafter when I paged through the book. I bought the musket and began researching the clues engraved on…

THE most common complaint heard about venison roasts is that they are too dry. Most recipes attempt to overcome this by instructing us to make deep incisions in the meat and ‘stop’ (lard) these with plugs of fat – usually pork fat. My wife and I find this does nothing to moisten the meat; on the contrary, it creates numerous vents for the natural juices to escape. Well, you need never eat another dry venison roast again – modern technology has come to the rescue. My grandson and his wife recently bought us an air fryer. On first hearing of these, I summarily dismissed the notion, as the term “air fryer” seemed an oxymoron, and the concept struck me as singularly unappealing – I imagined it to be some health-nut’s…

Favourite Rifles In the Trail Talk column of Magnum’s Nov/Dec edition, Gregor Woods wrote To Each his Own, discussing his love for rifles with the “African look”, including those with a Schnabel tip on the fore-end. In my own battery of hunting rifles, I have a few which strongly contest for the position of “favourite go-to rifle”. Firstly, there is the .30-06 which was my very first self-acquired rifle, built by Musgrave on a P14 action and stocked by the late Oom Jock Wolmarans. This beautiful, accurate rifle with light imbuia stock and ivory inlay is a very strong contender. Next in line is my .375H&H Mag, also on a P14 action with Musgrave barrel, specially built for my hunting trips to Mozambique. It has taken buffalo, lion, hippo and…

SINCE 2020, the prices of rifles, scopes, ammunition and reloading components have soared and in some areas, game prices too. On top of that we’ve also had massive price hikes for fuel. The average salaried man therefore needs to plan carefully to get the best value for money. Here are some tips. Firstly, get prices from several game farmers and decide what you can afford or want to hunt. Will you be hunting primarily for meat or trophies, or both? If your hunt is also a breakaway holiday rather than merely a meat-procuring exercise, you might not mind spending a little extra money. The seven most popular game species with local hunters are springbuck, blesbuck, impala, gemsbuck, blue wilde-beest, kudu and warthog. Eland is also popular but less so, due…

THE article on the Unique Model L Combo (Jan/Feb ’23 edition) drew some interesting comments. To me the most notable was that the Combo was apparently used by security officers on gold mines in the Free State. Given the current state of affairs with Zama Zamas on mines being armed with an array of firearms, including AK47s, a .22lr might not be the right choice for security personnel any more. Also, a long standing Magnum reader from KZN called me and offered me a 20-round Model L magazine. The deal was concluded and to my surprise I received a brand new 30-round magazine that functions reliably in my Combo. The only problem is that I can now burn through ammunition at an alarming rate. Possibly, having a few of these…

AT RETIREMENT age, I thought it was time to bring some excitement into my life, so in August 2021, I accepted an invitation to shoot a buffalo in the Northern Cape. My rifle hunting had always been done on foot at less than 150m and confined to non-dangerous game, using a 7x57 or 9.3x62 – mainly for meat. As this hunt took place at the tail-end of the Covid-19 pandemic and the prices were reasonable, I decided to go for a buffalo cow past her breeding age. I had contemplated using my 9.3x62 but comments from my friends Chris and Bob to the effect that a 9.3mm bullet doesn’t travel further than about 50 metres (!) influenced my decision to use a Rigby .450 3¼" NE double rifle with 400gr…

AZULU War campaign medal (or, more correctly, a South Africa Service Medal with 1879 bar) to Interpreter Llewellyn Francis Lloyd Esq. came up on auction in 2021 with a reserve price of R20 000. Since these medals average R6 000 apiece, the reserve seemed a little high, but not in this case, because I instantly recognized the name of Llewellyn Lloyd. Its original owner would never have worn it, as he was killed in action at Hlobane on 28 March 1879. So, then, as it was a medal to an Anglo-Zulu War casualty whose death has been described in almost every Anglo-Zulu War book since The Washing of the Spears, I duly bid on it. However, someone else with deeper pockets than mine had also spotted this little gem…

YEARS AGO, on a game-ranch in Namibia, I was hunting with a Texan named Ernie Shoemaker on his first visit to Africa. Ernie had bagged a kudu bull early in the day, so, with the afternoon free, he chose to hunt a warthog. The rancher’s teenage son – I’ll call him Billy – joined the hunting party, along with his bull terrier named Jaws. Boy and dog were an accomplished team; many pigs had fallen to Billy’s .22 Hornet. Using his 7mm Rem Mag, Ernie had non-fatally wounded a big warthog boar in dense bush, and before Billy could stop him, Jaws had launched a determined attack. That evening, around the fire in the lapa, Ernie was relating the experience to the game-rancher – with all the animated exuberance of…

THERE is no historical record positively identifying bushpigs in South Africa prior to 1820. Earlier records refer only to hogs or wild boars, most likely warthogs. The lateness of bushpig records can be attributed to this species’ preference for densely wooded habitat, its nocturnal habits and shy, secretive nature. From around 1820, records appear describing wild pigs whose habits would seem to identify them as bushpigs, but not with certainty. Interestingly, according to Historical Mammal Evidence in the Cape Province Vol 2, by CJ Skead, the earliest record positively identifying bushpigs carries a warning that these animals can be dangerous to hunters. Thomas Pringle, after discussing warthog in the upper sector of the Baviaan’s River valley in 1820, wrote, “I was told by the boors that there is another…

THE GALLERY section of the September/October 2022 issue of Magnum contained an interesting article by Gregor Woods entitled “Getting Your Own Back”. Greg’s informative piece was all about the dangers of ricocheting missiles coming back at the shooter. Here are some of my own experiences of such, and of shots fired by shooters in my presence and by unseen shooters who were entirely unaware that their bullets had narrowly missed someone a great distance away. Just recently three of us were on a Port Elizabeth shooting range with our two vehicles parked side-by-side behind us. We were on the handgun range at the end of a deep valley. As one fellow fired his Colt revolver at a target, the third chap and I stood alongside his vehicle, chatting. Suddenly…

PRE-SEASON AMMO CHECK Some 30 years ago, I was about to leave Durban for Zimbabwe on a major hunt for leopard, kudu, eland, wildebeest, zebra and giraffe. To minimize luggage and border hassles, I chose to take only one rifle – my .300H&H. Having zeroed the rifle, I hand-loaded 50 rounds of ammo with 200gr Nosler Partitions, tested every round for magazine-fit then fed them into the chamber from the magazine, ejecting them onto a soft, padded surface. Satisfied, I put all 50 in a partitioned plastic ammo box, but then noticed that the head of one cartridge was lower in the box than the others. I removed it to discover that its bullet was seated too deeply. Grasping the bullet, I found it was loose in the case neck.…