Innehållsförteckning för May/June 2023 från Man Magnum

Old-school .45 NOTHING says ‘classic’ quite like a 1911 handgun in .45ACP, and there is something special about strapping on a 1911 with an old-school leather holster and a genuine leather gun belt. The Turkish company, Tisas, makes just such a classic with their Zig M1911. Tisas started production in 1993 and currently manufactures several handguns in .45ACP, 9mmP and .380 ACP calibres. Apart from the 1911 clone they also make, among other things, an excellent copy of the Browning Hi-Power, a quality competition pistol, and durable accessories like holsters, sights and pistol grips. The model I tested was clearly a quality handgun with all the features normally expected from more wellknown manufacturers, especially with a classic firearm like the 1911. The 1911 is probably one of the most copied…

WITH today’s high cost of living, many cannot afford a multi-rifle battery, so, to kit yourself out for general plains game hunting you need to choose wisely and conservatively. Shotguns do not fall within the scope of this article. The perfect all-round calibre does not exist, so a one-rifle hunter must be prepared to pass up many opportunities. Two rifles are better; three make life a lot brighter. So, let’s discuss a three-rifle battery for the average South African hunter who buys ammunition off the shelves or reloads to make his calibres more versatile. Obviously, personal preference and circumstances will dictate the choices; the following are my own thoughts which may or may not help you to decide. The species you will mostly be hunting and the terrain in which…

FOR decades I have regarded Tikkarifles as one of the best buys when considering a top quality hunting rifle that is ultra-reliable and superbly accurate. The T3 was introduced in 2003, and has made a name as a quality hunting rifle with a reputation for being accurate out-of-the-box. Today Tikka offers various models based on the T3x action; I counted 26 variations on their website, which includes anything from the plain Hunter to the Tact A1, a specialised precision rifle. The subject of our test report, the Super Varmint in 6.5 Creedmoor with a 1:8 barrel twist, has a few features that sets it apart from the standard hunting rifle, the most notable being a 24-inch heavy varmint barrel with a very attractive and functional Tungsten Cerakote finish. The barrel…

Stopping Buffalo I refer to Gregor Woods’s article “Buffalo Don’t Back down” in Magnum’s Jan/Feb 2023 edition, in which he said, “Decades ago, an author opined in Magnum that hunting buffalo was a bit like hunting domestic cattle.” This made me think about the most challenging hunt I ever experienced – for a blind Brahman cow that had holed up in a wattle thicket near Alma in the Waterberge. That Magnum author of decades ago was wrong. Domestic cattle that have become wild can be more vigilant than kudu, and certainly more vigilant than buffalo. It took me quite a while before I could even determine the colour of the blind cow. It seemed as if she would take off if I so much as thought about her! I used…

IF I GO back fifty-five years, to mid-1968, I was a 17-year-old cadet game ranger in the esteemed Rhodesian Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management. I had joined after completing my schooling in Umtali, where I had not exactly excelled academically. All I wanted to do was work in the bush as a game ranger. They say your environmental upbringing can influence your career choice, if so, it was certainly a truism in my case. Much of my boyhood was spent in Rhodesia’s remote Sabi Valley, before any commercial agriculture took over. Our home was on the majestic south-flowing river’s east bank. Elephant from across the river, were frequent visitors, with the plundering of crops high on their agenda. Most of my school holidays from about age 13, were…

OCCASIONALLY, when I didn’t have foreign hunters scheduled, I took South Africans hunting on my concession on the Limpopo River in Rhodesia. Two of these were Rodney and Max of Johannesburg. Rodney was an attorney and Max worked in his father’s gun shop. Both were in their twenties, and it was obvious they were pretty keen. I took them out to sight in their many rifles. Rodney started with his .338 Win Mag; Max chose his 7mm Rem Mag. Watching them fire at a 100-yard target, I noticed they both flinched, scattering the shots all over the paper. I made them take a few more shots, which settled them down a bit and helped curb the flinching. Soon after firing, Max suddenly started heaving for breath and hyperventilating, and I…

SOME two years ago, I found myself on an extended trip toSt Petersburg, Russia. It was winter, so I could not go out and view as many of the sights as I would have liked. Consequently, I decided to explore Russian knifemaking steels and to purchase a number of knives in different steels and from different bladesmiths. While making extensive use of Google Translate (there is practically no good information on English sites about Russian knifemaking steels), I came across the use of Damask and Damascus in the translations and on checking the difference, realised that Damask/Bulat/Round Steel (Булат derived from the Persian ‘polad’) is the Russian equivalent of Wootz (an anglicised Tamil word ukku/uruku) steel, and Damascus (Дамасская) is Damascus as we know it. On further investigation, I became…

THE CHRONOLOGICAL sequence of Colt’s cap-and-ball revolver production was as follows: 1837 – the Patterson Colt; 1847 – the Walker Colt; 1848 – the Dragoon Colt and a scaled-down version called the Baby Dragoon. The smaller revolver proved so popular it was followed in 1849 by the Pocket revolver that was to become Colt’s biggest seller. Then, in 1851, Sam Colt introduced his famous Navy Colt, being the ‘big brother’ of his Pocket revolver. Next was Colt’s 1855 side-hammer model, also known as the Root revolver. The line of famous Colt cap-and-ball revolvers ended with the Colt Army model introduced in 1860. Small cosmetic changes were continually made during the production run of each model. If a serious collector of today were showing a visitor his assemblage of, say, twenty…

AN Austrian lady, very much a city girl, had accompanied her hubby on our hunt. Coming across some eland dung, I picked up a grape-sized pellet to roll between my thumb and forefinger. Hearing a gasp, I turned to see her expression of utmost disgust as she stared at the dung pellet. “Euw!” she exclaimed, “Was machst du?” Surprised, I raised it to show her, and she recoiled in horror. “I’ll explain later,” I said. I wanted to hunt the eland. Back at the lodge, after showering, we gathered at the lapa. The lady kept a polite distance, but after the meal I broached the subject as we sat around the fire. “You seemed horrified that I handled a scat,” I said. “Yes, I think it’s disgusting!” “Well, perhaps no…

IN SOUTH AFRICA, the Lee .303 rifle has seen use from the time of the Jameson Raid of 1896 to its current duty with the State President’s Guard, so a good many exist in our country. In times past, the .303 was reputed to have felled more game in SA than any other cartridge. Many Lee Enfields have been converted to sporters and remain in regular use, filling freezers with venison and pantries with biltong. The .303 cartridge is more than adequate for hunting game from impala to kudu, and factory ammunition as well as reloading components are readily available. The Lee can also be cut down to serve as a handy farm- or home-defence weapon, one such form being as a ‘scout’ type rifle popularized by the late Jeff…

WHEN I was growing up in the 1940s, the words ‘Made in England’ carried a lot of weight – starting with motor cars. Names like Rolls Royce, Bentley, MG, Land Rover, Austin Healy and many others were the classics of that time. However, my family drove a Morris Cowley or some such vehicle more befitting the family pocketbook. As I grew older, I became aware of British made firearms and my interest went into overdrive. I began to register names like Woodward, Boss, Purdey, Churchill, Holland & Holland, Rigby, Farquharson – the list goes on. As I grew older still, and coveted rifles and guns bearing such names, I realised that, as with the family Morris car, excellent guns and rifles bearing names like Parker Hale, Birmingham Small Arms (BSA),…

THERE is nothing quite like good padkos (road-food). In the same way that a braaied lamb chop or a potjie always tastes better in the ambience of a hunting camp, foods which at home are taken for granted somehow become more much enticing when served as padkos. Again, ambience adds the flavour. When on a road trip, especially if you’re going hunting or to a game park or holiday venue, breaking out the padkos always evokes excitement and heightens spirits. (I have been known to undertake journeys solely to eat padkos!) My family and I have spent so much of our lives on long road trips back-and-forth between South West Africa, South Africa and Rhodesia, and also to farms, ranches and game parks within those countries, that we learned to…