Range Day, with a South African Professional Hunter

[Guy Miner]

My friend Mike Birch is a well regarded professional hunter from South Africa. He makes an annual trip to the U.S. to promote his safari services, and often stops in here in Washington State. We take the opportunity to hit the range, where I try to come up with firearms different from what he uses in Africa. From past visits, I knew he liked the .500 S&W revolver, the .45 1911 and the 5.56 AR-15. This morning I added the .22 Marlin 39A and the .30-30 Glenfield to the mix.

Mike, enjoying the full recoil of 440 grain cast bullets at 1400 fps, from the .500 revolver:


He noted that the AR-15 would be wonderful to have in the truck (baake) when dealing with rhino poachers:


My all-time favorite rifle, the .22 Marlin 39A, was an instant hit. We were using CCI shorts!


And he really wanted to take the .30-30 home...


It was a great day. We were enjoying the foggy, 36 degree weather... Ugh. Still, lots of fun. Always good to hear Mike's hunting stories!

Regards, Guy

 

[DrMike]

Looks to have been a great day for you both. Good for you.

 

[FOTIS]

Whose 500 Guy?

 

[Guy Miner]

Mine.

Bought it when they were first introduced, 2003 I think. Great revolver!

 

[FOTIS]

Nice I did not know you had one also. I love mine also.

 

[FOTIS]

25 yard group with my flextip loads Cartridge to the right is 700 gr T-Rex bullet at 1230 fps.

 

[Guy Miner]

I only shoot it a few times a year, usually only about 50 rounds a year, maybe 100 at the outside.

Compared to thousands of .45's annually. I've yet to hunt with the .50 revolver. Great gun, excellent accuracy. Lots of thump.

Mike was telling me (again!) what a great gun it would be for hunting wildebeast and warthog from a blind, shots at about 20 - 25 yards... Tempting... :grin:

He was also telling us that he believed hunting cow elephant was more dangerous and scary than any other big game hunting he had done. Said they were far more likely to carry out a serious charge than was a bull elephant.

I doubt I'll ever find out!

Guy

 

[6mm Remington]

That looks like a great day Guy! The 500 looks like a small cannon! In a nice handy lever-action rifle it still would thump on the back side too!

 

[Vince]

Looks like you both had a great time.

That 700 grain load looks imposing, to say the least, and like one that will do the job. Don't give up on Africa yet Guy. Dreams have a way of coming true.

Vince

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk

 

[FOTIS]

Here is my boy Stephan 6 years ago (13 at the time) shooting the 500!

 

[FOTIS]

some what better video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8bA6AegUG8

 

[Guy Miner]

Pretty cool stuff Fotis!

I considered some of those 700's - but after putting a 440 gr hardcast through something like 10 or 12 one-gallon water filled milk jugs... I just didn't see the point. :mrgreen:

Haven't really played around much with different loads. I've shot the 350 gr Hornady hollow points, but mostly just stay with the 440 grain gas-check bullets from Cast Performance. They seem to perform well from the .500 S&W cartridge/revolver.

I have considered getting the .500 lever action rifle, from Big Horn Armory, in Wyoming:

http://www.bighornarmory.com/catalog/bi ... 9-rifle-1/

What a thumper that would be! :grin:

Guy