IMPORTANT NEW BOOK!
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THE 2023 BEST BOOK ON HUNTING
No hunter, shooter, non hunter or anti-hunter should be without this award winning work by author Sue Tidwell.
1Other Good Books
Do not be without a copy of these.
3Welcome New Members!
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1The Six Big & Bad
Not all are big, but all have big, bad b.. (hearts)!
10- 1
Shot Placement Revisited
"A Bullet's Home Is Where The Heart Is". Put it exactly there.
3Big Beasts, Best Bullets
Technical Reviews of The Premium Brands From South Africa. The Hard Facts.
5Actual Bullet Behaviour
This is what this forum is all about. Your experiences with different bullets on different game.
4Calibre Confidence
A discussion on which chambering you use to successfully hunt with.
2Reliable Rifles
Show us and tell us about the hardware you trust and hunt with.
2Hunter Education
Competition Breeds Confidence - Shooter Confidence To Exploit That .5 MOA Hunting Rifle
3"The Heart Of The Hunter"
Buck that "buck fever" and kill the darn thing dead. BUT: please show respect for the dead animal.
3The Dandy Dozen
The Twelve Elk-size Meat & Trophy Antelope Species Hunted In South Africa.
13The Agile Eight
The most hunted Magnificent Seven antelope - and the striking #8.
9The Tiny Ten
The Ten Small Antelope Not Really Hunted.
7Classic Cartridges
Those 100 year plus veterans that merit re-awakening and usage.
0Let's Go Hunt
Where? What? How?
10Totally Technical
ChamberThermo Dynamics, Internal & External Ballistics, Terminal Dynamics.
5The Colour Of Camo
What hunters want to be seen in. How deer and kudu see. How humans see. Did you see the lioness 6 yards away?
1Safe Shooting
All about civilised field and range conduct.
0Wildcats & Mildcats
What unconventional conversions are you doing or planning? Why that particular combination of case and bullet?
1Random Reports
Any report, thought or question. We shall re- categorise it if necessary.
0Good Gun Magazines
Summaries Of Notable Articles from South African Gun Magazines
1Africa News & Notes
I am an African not because I live in Africa but because Africa lives in me.
2The Way YOU See It
There Are Things Out There That Can Not Be Left Unsaid...
0OLDER POSTS
Still interesting reading material
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- THE 2023 BEST BOOK ON HUNTINGMany books have been written about hunting in Africa; most were by hunters who shared their photographed trophies as well as their stories - all naturally influenced by their pre-disposed bias towards hunting. Then, out of the blue an unknown lady by the name of Sue Tidwell very literally found herself confronted by life in the Africa wilderness with her husband on a hunting safari in Tanzania. Not really at ease with hunting the cute and wonderful animals popularised and humanised by Walt Disney, she experienced the compulsion to write down her honest, unbiased and growing daily understanding of living Africa. "Cries of The Savanna" should be owned and read by every hunter and non-hunter worldwide. Even those who by nature are opposed to hunting shall find it difficult to put this book down. In its deepest sense it is way, way more than about hunting only. Tidwell can not hide the fact that she also figuratively found herself during that safari in wild Tanzania. Good. She now knows that we are Africans not because we live in Africa - but because Africa lives in us. Unabashedly she tells it how it is. She shares how she was scared at times; she also shares those times when she was in awe - while all the time she stayed pensively grounded in Africa's reality. The reader is allowed to believe that Sue had no prior resolute plan to write a book about the trip but then she simply surrendered to some driving compulsion to do so. Clearly she is an amazingly perceptive person who has that rare capacity to be honest with herself at all times. This shows in the opening chapter of "Cries of The Savanna" as she shares her fears when hearing her first lion grunting - not even roaring - at night from somewhere outside their tent. How many of us in Africa can not relate to that? How many times have I felt the sheer amplitude and volume of the sound waves of real, repetitive roars reverberating in my chest- and involuntarily contemplated my sanity for having only that thin membrane of nylon between myself and the king of the beasts. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here are Sue's words: 'With that awareness, I puzzled over the bestial grunt. The umphhh sounded nothing like the king of beast’s ferocious roars from MGM movie introductions. Still, there was little doubt that the foreboding sound belonged to anything other than a real, live, honest-to-goodness African lion. Simba. A simple but potent Swahili word. The dread I felt told me that it could be nothing else. We were, after all, in the heart of lion country." 'Eventually Rick’s hushed revelation “Honey, we aren’t in Kansas anymore” was the straw that broke the camel’s back. “No kidding!” I quietly hissed as I slid out of my cot and climbed into his. Cramped. Uncomfortable. Overflowing. It mattered not.' ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- '....... He [husband Rick] wanted to experience the real Africa, not the watered-down sugar coated version. 'Understandably, as a non-hunter, I did want the watered-down sugar coated version. My concept of Africa included morning excursions through the national park systems teeming with wildlife. Wildlife who, by the way, paid little heed to the oodles of tourists streaming by clamoring for views amid a torrent of ooh’s and ahh’s. Sweltering afternoons would be spent lounging in a sparkling blue pool. Evenings would include dinner with like-minded safari-goers gasping in wonder at extraordinary photos of the day. Nights would be spent cozied up in a safe air-conditioned lodge. Sleeping would be a peaceful proposition on a cushy mattress nestled under a ceiling fan’s gentle breeze. It was a wonderful dream. 'Instead of all that, I found myself in a cluster of grass huts hundreds of miles away from such luxuries. You know the saying Happy Wife, Happy Life. Well, that works both ways. Marriage is about compromise. Although Rick’s version of the dream was insanely different than mine, it still allowed me to experience Africa.' ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 'Even with uncertainty gnawing at me, my feelings of apprehension and exhaustion foundered as other emotions trickled to the surface. Fascination. Excitement. Awe. Astonishment. Curiosity. And thankfulness. Lying wide-eyed -- covered in goosebumps listening to the chortles, bellows, growls, squeaks, whistles, cooing, cawing, whoooops, and ummpph’s of the Africa’s Symphony -- I realized that I had never felt so terror stricken and yet, at the same time, so alive and exhilarated by the promise of the days to come.' -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here is Sue's Facebook link: https://web.facebook.com/search/top?q=sue%20tidwell%20coyle and her Facebook author's link: https://web.facebook.com/SueTidwell.writer Click here for a link to her website, follow the striking presentations and become the owner of arguably the best book on hunting you will ever read. Andries website ownerLike
- Welcome New Members!Readers please look at this link: https://www.suetidwell.com/?utm_campaign=26d067c4-21ad-436c-a89d-866813a4e4a8&utm_source=so&utm_medium=mail&utm_content=56eed813-9fbb-4b1a-a503-0d28b2ad5776&configurationId=cb6a49ef-1bf1-4c03-a8d7-e4f817282fe4&actionId=4fa6d901-cb6c-f675-0bb1-25b282da9253&cid=6da4fedb-02f2-40da-803b-a82bce200cf0 I believe Sue will come to understand why some of us live by the credo that "we are Africans not because we live in Africa - but because Africa lives in us". A hearty welcome to Sue Tidwell. We wish you success with your book. It is with great respect that we are glad to be able - in a small way - to promote your sincere and invaluable inputs into the wider world. Andries Site owner.Like
- The Highly Respected 9,3x62The 9.3X62 Mauser cartridge, is a light big-bore cartridge. With 286gr to 325gr bullets @ 2360fps and 2195fps Muzzle Velocities, it should be obvious that it was intended as a less-recoiling classic big bore cartridge. The 9.3 cartridge is not just the 30-06-case necked up! The 30-06 was designed along the lines of both the 7x57mm Mauser and 9.3X62 put together on the 9x63 Hessmer Berlin DWM case No. 491D. Although the 62mm case of the 9.3 cartridge is frequently compared with the 30-06 case of 63mm length, the 9.3X62 was in fact independently developed as a hunting cartridge on DWM case No. 474C with its own unique dimensions and dynamics. Fairly, should one not rather compare the ’06 case with that of the 9.3 instead? The 30-03/6’s primary and initial intention was to kill people, a rather frail and flimsy creature. The 30-03/06 has been in use since, well, 1906 as a military cartridge, but was later adopted as a sporting cartridge. The only legitimate comparison between the 9.3 and the -06 is that “it is barely possible” to use -06 brass to make-shift a workable but not ideal case for the 9.3. One of the few arguments against the design of the 9.3X62 cartridge, indeed, is its relatively short neck. Actually, after cutting back and necking up and fire-forming the 63mm -06 case to the 9.3 cartridge dimensions, it measures only 61mm. Yet another full 1mm gets “lost in translation”. In other words, it becomes too short and thus not ideal for use in the German 9.3 chamber. I have never had to revert to such drastic measures as to pervert my 9.3 chamber with a 30-06 case yet, but those who did, testifies about a bulge above the case head, and that, noticeable to the naked eye! Which means that the case can rupture right there. [2 x 9.3X62 cases left, next to two 30-06 cases necked up to 9.3 and a 30-06 case far right. Note the 1mm/.039" difference.] [Courtesy Vitas Lesniauskas] [Note the bulge in this 30-06 case. Please use proper 9.3X62 cases when reloading for the 9.3X62, preferably European cases or South African PMP cases.] The German 8x57 cartridge is x57mm DWM Case No. 561 with a base dia. of .469” and the much later American standard cartridge, being “hybridised” between the x57mm and x62mm, would become x63mm of the Hessmer Berlin DWM Case No.491D with a base dia. of .467”. This 63mm case would later become the American 2.5” (63mm) standard with the same base diameter, .467”- 0.469”. 0.0054 of an inch, might not seem significant, but considering minute tolerances of a rifle chamber, .0054 of an inch is significant enough to NOT consider make-shifting brass for the 9.3X62 from -06 brass. Not unlike the 8mm-06, the 8.5x63 (338-06) and the 9mmx63 (35 Whelen), and a myriad of other cartridges too, share the common denominator of being “hybridised” onto the x63mm 30-06 case by necking it up (or down). Further, all these USA-born cartridges, including the 6.5-06, 270 Win and 30-06 Springfield, retain the exact same tell-tale shoulder angle of that of the 9.3X62, namely 17˚30’. The 9.3X62 cartridge, on DWM Case No. 474 C, has its rim slightly rebated, its shoulder moved forward, and its taper largely reduced, exactly as is done with an “improved” cartridge, and that way back before 1905 already. It is obvious that the minute taper Herr Otto Bock did retain in his prodigy cartridge was done with slick and controlled feeding in combination with the proven Military 1898 Mauser action in mind, for life-threatening battle situations that might dwell in the dark jungles and plains of Africa. Taking this information into account, it’s obvious that Otto Bock was a visionary or wizard – take your pick. No one in this day and age could “improve” on his cartridge without sacrificing a whole lot of other desirables. Considering the above-mentioned revelation, it becomes evident that the 30-06, and thus all its siblings, have their origins from the 8x57 DWM Case No. 561! The 30-03/06 is a slightly taller 8x57 on a downsized 9.3X62 case… [Not necked down, there is a difference]. If you ever had difficulty to understand the success of the 30-06, here is your answer: the 30-03 derives from these two German cartridges. The 30-03 was a German designed cartridge and royalties had to be paid on German patents! [All three mentioned medium wildcats that get associated with the 9.3X62 retained the 7.62x63 Springfield’s body taper, borrowed from the 7x57 Mauser, as well as neck length.] he “Ball Cartridge, caliber .30, Model of 1906” became the 30-06 Springfield that was plagiarized from the 30-’03 by shortening the neck by .007”. The real American cartridge of 1906 was a cartridge named, 405 Winchester, a straight-wall cartridge typical of American straight-walled cartridge design. “However, both the Springfield rifle and the Springfield cartridge infringed on Mauser patents, which led to the US paying infringement royalties to Mauser.” – W Todd Woodard on the 30-06 cartridge in Shooter’s Bible Guide to Cartridges (2011). Courtesy of 9.3 x 62 Mauser Journal that is available here https://93x62journal.co.za/Like