Man Magnum Sept/Oct 2024

WITH hunting season behind us, I took some time to reflect on what went wrong and of course what I managed to do right during the winter months. For the first time in decades I used monolithic bullets on a variety of animals varying in size from springbuck and blesbuck right up to wildebeest, waterbuck and kudu. More details on that later. First I want to touch on some interesting views on equipment that I’ve encountered. I’ll start with scopes. Almost all hunters I spoke to prefer and/or wish for a tactical style long-range scope with adjustable turrets, large magnification range (5-25 or similar) and a reticle designed for sniping. I found this surprising as these scopes are normally very heavy and more expensive as you pay for features not…

Running Out of Time On my 90th birthday I realised that I was running out of time, and my hunting had come to an end. Gone are the days when, if I knew an elephant had good ivory, I would sleep on his tracks and continue following him at first light the next morning. I would not return to my camp. If I had my .22 rifle with me I would load subsonic ammo and try to shoot something small to eat. The subsonic report does not disturb the elephant. I would find a place close to water to spend the night, make a fire to keep us warm and also to keep the wild animals away. After making a small hollow in the ground for my hips I’d try…

Acouple of years ago, I was given two guineafowl by a wingshooting friend whose wife didn’t know what to do with them, so I got a potjie going on the fire and invited them over to try a gamebird stew. They enjoyed it, and the hubby – I’ll just call him Bob – reminisced about his boyhood when he was forbidden to use his air rifle on anything bigger than doves. “I was walking back to the farmhouse towards evening,” he said, “and passed under a tree. I looked up and there were some guineafowl roosting for the night. I couldn’t resist shooting at one, and by sheer chance my pellet broke its neck. This was the big time for me, and I was mortified that I could not take…

THE Cheetah, originally called the 80 Series, has been around since the mid-1970s. The first pistols were chambered in .32ACP while Models 83, 84 and 85 were chambered in 9mm Short (.380ACP) – the Model 84 became fairly well known locally as it was issued to traffic police. Models 87 and 89 were chambered in .22lr. All of these pistols were basically smaller versions of the well-known Model 92, which was chambered in 9mmP. The Model 84 had a double stack magazine with a 13-round capacity and a 3.81" barrel. The other two 9mm Short models had single stack mags (7-and 8-rounds) and of course a slimmer grip. As they were chambered for the lowerpowered 9mm Short, these pistols’ design was more compact using a simple blowback cycling system. This…

I SPOTTED them just before sunrise as my bakkie was crawling up a hill we call Witklippieshoogte. They were off to my left – four youngsters and four ranging in age between three and five years. The rut was over and many of the bulls once again moved around in bachelor groups. My luck had changed. The previous day, after having hunted hard all day, I had spotted the first bulls at dusk near a campsite we call Vyfster. There were several bulls in the mixed herd of about 20 but they were far away and it was almost dark. I thus decided to return to Vyfster the next morning. You have to pass Witklippieshoogte to get to Vyfster which lies about 3km to the northeast and my guess is…

THE “less-than-lethal” Salt Supply Company S2 pepper ball launcher is a self-defence tool that looks like a pistol but isn’t one. It is not a firearm and requires no licence to possess, as its .68 calibre (17mm) projectiles are launched by a blast of compressed carbon dioxide. But does it work and will it resolve a violent confrontation? Is it the answer for someone choosing not to own a firearm but still wanting to protect life and property? And does it have a place as an auxiliary to the armoury of a gun-owner? The Salt S2 launcher is a selfdefence tool designed to quickly stop an attacker without being lethal. It does this by launching 17mm plastic balls with a mass ranging from 45 and 60 grains (roughly 3.5…