Innholdsfortegnelse for Sept/Oct 2024 i Man Magnum

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…

Most hunters are fond of natural materials like leather and wood, particularly if the latter is in the form of a well-made gun or rifle stock, and even more so if this stock is not covered with a shiny layer of some plastic material. If you have a stock made of a good piece of walnut with an oiled or hand-rubbed finish, there is a way to care for it: Fold a piece of canvas into a pad and rub the stock, with the grain of the wood, until it is quite smooth. Then take a piece of wellwashed linen, fold it into a square, and if you cannot use a sewing machine, get your wife or girlfriend to double-stitch it on two sides. Take a big handful of almonds…

NOT too long ago pistol calibre carbines were few and far between in South Africa. I wouldn’t go so far as to say we are now spoilt for choice, but we are seeing more and more carbines making their way to gunshops in South Africa. One of these is the Derya ZY9 series of carbines. Derya Arms started in 1998 in the Beysehir region in Turkey, and manufacture high-quality firearms ranging from shotguns, semi-auto rifles, and carbines to pistols, for the sport shooting, hunting and tactical markets. They claim that 95% of their products are exported to 65 different countries. The ZY9-B14 looks and functions like an AR-type rifle, with the main difference being the calibre as it is chambered for the 9mmP handgun cartridge. Various barrel lengths are…

THOSE who spend a lot of time on the range know that quality steel targets go a long way to enhance training and, that the sound of the ring on steel when hit by a bullet, is rather satisfying when compared to shooting paper targets. At HuntEx (April 2024) I was trawling stands to find steel plates for my .22lr rifle. I shoot plates out to 300m (for fun) but the 10mm steel plates I currently use (bought for pistol shooting) are really hard work to put out on a range where targets are used from 25 to 300m. The thick steel is heavy and the stands (I use rims), adds to the labour. I am often tired by the time the range is set up, never mind started any…

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…

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…

WHAT is a trophy? The Oxford English Dictionary defines a trophy as “a memento or souvenir, e.g. a deer’s antlers, taken in hunting”. The same dictionary defines the word ‘memento’ as “an object kept as a reminder of an event”. Notice that it is the event that one wishes to be reminded of. In hunting, this includes the occasion, the scenery, the weather, the terrain, and the roles played by one’s companions. It includes the hunting and tracking skills required, the excitement, and in some cases the danger involved, and also the difficulty of recovery. In other words: the whole experience. By definition, the size of the quarry’s horns is incidental. And such definition goes back thousands of years. The Assyrian conqueror Tiglathpileser 1 (circa 1100 BC) claimed 4 wild…

My nephew who resides in Mozambique has asked for an opinion on this rifle. It is in .458 Lott calibre and will be used on buffalo hunts. Would you care to comment?- Anton Bredell, Namibia The rifle is an earlier Ruger Model 77. The action’s nonrotating extractor makes it look much like a model 98 Mauser, but it lacks certain M98 features. As your photo shows, it has a fully recessed bolt face, which is a good safety feature, given that the Ruger lacks the M98’s double safety-collar within the receiver ring. However, this means that its M98 style nonrotating extractor does not offer controlled feeding (does not grip the cartridge rim on feeding – only on extraction). The Ruger’s extractor is strong, and its claw is wide, like the…

IT’S ALL about money – but in Africa, it’s not as simple as that. The characters and issues involved were almost farcical, and the stage for this drama was set on Impalila Island, the most easterly point of Namibia’s Caprivi Strip. My hunting companion, Peter, was determined to hunt a hippo on dry land rather than to ‘snipe’ one in the water. The Chobe River was the southern boundary of our hunting block, a river that we traversed every day from our safari lodge. On the far bank was the Chobe Game Reserve in Botswana. During our daily boat trips from our base lodge to the island disembarking point, we saw pods of hippo all the time but never on dry land. Frustratingly, they were present in large numbers.…

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 “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…

OUR eldest son, Keith, who is an established and well-known gunmaker here in the UK, recently sent me some photos that are of interest from a South African perspective – more specifically the Eastern Cape – and potentially of local historical interest concerning the Addo Elephant National Park. For lovers of classic British hunting rifles, the calibre, .350 Rigby Magnum, will also be of historical interest. In all my years of guiding, I never once had a client arrive on safari carrying a .350 Rigby Magnum. Though a proprietary Rigby cartridge, it was popular in East Africa and India. The current owner of this particular rifle is quite happy for me to write about it, though he requested that, for privacy purposes, I did not disclose his name, to which…

“C skill, perhaps even an art” – Clay Pigeon Marksmanship, by Percy Stanbury and GL Carlisle, 1964. Have you ever considered taking up clay shooting? It’s affordable, exciting and accessible – most shooting clubs offer this discipline. It takes skill, yet it’s great fun for complete beginners, especially if they have a good instructor and a quick eye. As featured in Magnum Nov/Dec 2023, South African clay shooters won gold at the 41st FITASC Universal Trench World Championship in 2023. Local 21-year-old Luca Peacock won the Individual World Champion title (in his first year of shooting as a senior), and the South African Protea team won the World Championship Man (Open) team award. FITASC stands for Fédération Internationale de Tir aux Armes Sportives de Chasse, which is an international governing…

WHENEVER I write an article about an old gun, the ‘climax’ of the story is the loading procedure and shooting the piece. To me there is nothing more exciting than firing an antique gun that has lain dormant for more than a century. I guess I have a pretty vivid imagination because making ready to shoot any antique firearm, I put myself into the shoes of some long-forgotten man preparing to fire his new gun for the first time. However this thrill is not always possible – as in my article “The Tranter Touch” that appeared in the April issue of Magnum 2008. Although I wrote a very detailed history about gunmaker William Tranter, the only gun I had to illustrate the article was a beat-up derelict with no inner…