Wieland on Shooting

Not many rifles become famous by way of literature. An exception is the one Margot Macomber used to kill her husband in Hemingway’s short story.

Mrs. Macomber employed a “6.5 Mannlicher,” and ever since The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber was published in 1936, the Mannlicher has been synonymous with a particular type of elite rifle used by the “better class” of people – or at least the richer class – to hunt everything from black-maned lions to mountain sheep. The Macomber story notwithstanding, however, in Africa, Mannlicher rifles have been overshadowed by Mausers, for a variety of reasons.

Today’s bullets on medium game.

If there is one area in which hunters are immensely better off today than they were 20 years ago, it is bullets. Whether you are shooting factory ammunition, or loading your own, it is easy to find a bullet that will give good terminal performance on game.

If you’re gonna go, go small

When it comes to writing about rifles for Africa, more ink is spilled about big rifles than all others combined. There is something about writing about a .500 Nitro Express, or a .577, or a .505 Gibbs, that not only intrigues writers, it attracts readers.

But other rifles are essential, too, to your ultimate satisfaction with your safari if not for preserving your immediate skin.

When I hunted in Tanzania with Derek Hurt in 2004, we each carried a double rifle. Mine was a new .500 Nitro Express sidelock, his an old Manton & Co. boxlock .470. Exactly how old Derek’s rifle was, I have no idea. Seventy years? Eighty?

The Manton had obviously been around. Very likely, it went to India before washing up on Africa’s shores, but there is no way of knowing for certain. Derek bought it because he needed a solid back-up rifle, preferred a double, and did not want to spend a fortune.

As Good Today as They Ever Once Were

If one were to start up a rifle-making company today, according to the conventional wisdom, one would have to offer the newest calibers, the latest composite stocks, a bunch of pseudo-technical gizmos, and all the other over-hyped wrinkles in order to survive.

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