DG Stopping Rifle - Double vs Bolt

[grayghost]

When's your next hunt? I will return to SA next year, but plan on a DG hunt the following year. The last Lion I mounted (when I was in the Taxidermy biz) was the largest our shop ever produced. It measured 10.5 feet from nose to tip of tail. We mounted it leaping onto a Zebra. Believe it or not, the Zebra was the most trouble to mount. Short hair and several thousand stitches to cover up. The only form that fit its measurements was a standing, at ease Zebra. We had to cut it all apart, reassemble and do a lot of extra work. Our client was very happy however. Aside from our fee, he gave me a new Ithaca Supreme 10 ga semi-auto. Said it was too heavy for him to swing on ducks. I agreed and wound up selling it. Good hunting, grayghost

[Rapier]

Grayghost,
In 2007 I will end up in South America, I have committed to go to Paraguay on a 10-day pigeon and doves shoot. Their fall to winter season is our summer and makes a nice break from the heat. Might do a duck and quail south of the border in December.

I may return to Africa in 2008, depending on how everything works out. In December, the back surgery (2 lumbar disks and a lumbar tumor) will be two years on the mend. The trip in May was actually a bit too much, too soon, on the back. The long bumpy plane ride on the return trip set me back aways in the recovery schedule. So I will keep my plane rides down to 6-8 hours for awhile.
Ed

[grayghost]

That's something I would love to do; duck hunt in S. America or Mexico. I ran into Shane Smith at the TN Deer Classic a few weeks ago and he is arranging Duck, Goose and upland birds in S. America. Hunt is kinda pricey, total cost ending up at around $7K. But looking at his pics, no doubt there are fantastic bird opportunitys down there. I just got off the phone with my travel agent (Doug Gray @ Gracy Travel in San Antonio, TX) and he advised that if I go back to S Africa by May 31st, we would get the mid season rate and save about $300 over leaving June 1st or later. Looks like we're going to go back in late May and get some duck/goose hunting in before we do our big game hunting. I can use my airmiles to cover our domestic flight, so that will save another $300. I wish you a speedy recovery with your back. That has to be one of the worse pains to deal with. I'd love to see some pics and hear all about your trip to Paraguay. And let me know if you get into a good duck area in Mexico. Good hunting, grayghost

[MacD37]

The film you've just seen, has been around for some time, and is well known to African hunters!

It was a Republic of South Africa, lion hunt, and by law in RSA all land that contains dangerous game has to be behind electrified fencing, as this was! The lion was against the electric fence, that looks almost like fish net,with very thin poles, when the first shot was fired, and he and couldn't get farther away from the shooters. The only shot that was simply POOR SHOOTING was the first one off the sticks, by the client hunter. The shots at the chargeing lion were about as good as it gets with a lion in full charge!

An African lion is about the hardest thing to stop on this planet, in a charge. He can cover 50 yds in 3.5 seconds,from a standing start. Top that off by the fact that, once he cahrges, the only shot that will nail him for good is a CNS (cernteral Nerveous System) shot, and that is not likely with a bright orange ball of fire coming at you like a fast ball from Nolin Ryan!

The next thing to take into consideration is, the average man standing with rifle at shoulder hight is starting a bullet from 2 feet above the hight of the lion, and the angle is changeing all the time for the lead that must be taken to hit the lion. The bad thing is you have to aim at the ground in front of the lion, to hit him if he is charging you. This is hard to do when looking at a lion at the same time, and trying not to crap your pants! None of the shots at the charge were lead properly, as all shots from these guys were all late, hitting behind the lion! The only shots that hit this lion was the first one, and the last two from the PH, when the lion was running away, and the last one from the client, after he was down. All others missed. Someone said there was a double rifle in the hands of the PH, and that is not the case, these guys were all armed with bolt rifles. If you will view thw film again you will see there were only three shots fired while the lion was on his way in, one from each of three people! For all parctical purposes, these guys may as well have been shooting single shot during the charge, because they only got one shot each! Lions are fast, and bolt actions are slow! 3.5 seconds doesn't give you time to do a lot of shooting.

Eventhough these RSA lion hunts are behind fence, the fence is not between the shooter and the lion, and a zoo lion will kill you just as dead as a wild lion, and most of these places in RSA are, in the thousands of acres, some as many as 1,000,000 acres! That's a pretty big CAN! Still the lions killed in RSA cannot be placed in the record books, because of the proliferation of canned lion hunts there!

[bsterns]

Mac, that was a good description of a charging lion and what happens. I thought the PH had a double barrel because in the slow motion portion of the tape there are two successive puffs of smoke from the rifles and they appeared to be from that one PH in the picture. Upon closer examination, one of the puffs of smoke was from Dr. Gulley's gun at close range. That one broke the lions jaw according to Brian. If you look real close you can see the bullet pass through the lion's chest about 3 or 4 inches behind the right shoulder from the PH's shot. You have to stop the film frame for frame. As the lion is passing Brian you can see the bloody spot on the chest increase in size. You have to see the slow motion several time to see the force of the tail hook of the lion, the bloody spot grow, and count the bullets fired. The other PH shot at least once also and the old lion got up and ran. I watch it over and over and nothing varies from what he told me. If it were a fish story I might be skeptical.

[bsterns]

" Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you!"