Recent content by spoonieduck

Mine is bigger than yours. I'm 5 ft 5 inches and, when it comes to really BIG animals, I like to shoot them with a 416 Weatherby Magnum. Yes, it is extremely accurate. It kicks but if you really lean into the stock, you won't hurt yourself. Nobody has ever dinged himself firing my rifle...

I read a book by a muzzle-loading expert. I think his name is Fedallah. He tried to blow up muzzle loading rifles so that he could tell people what to beware of. He was using black powder and, I think, pyrodex. His warnings would go double and quadruple with modern powders. The only way he...

An eland will take a big hit. A 338 with a reasonably heavy, well-built, deeply penetrating bullet will reduce the incidence of long follow-ups.

If you are ultra-cautious and meticulous, there is no limit as to the number of firearms and ammunition types you should own. If you are given to, at least, occasional lapses, you are best advised to own only firearms that won't accept each other's ammunition. A .270 cartridge, for example...

Memories fade. Even the most vivid memories fade. Hartmann's score was 352 which doesn't begin to count all the aerial combats he was involved in. Did he remember all of these with precision? Maybe, but combat stats involving pilots in all theaters give post war over-estimations of...

Like I said, I never personally met him but the story about losing the fatally hit man-eating leopard to have the carcass destroyed by hyaenas sounds much like I read in one of Capstick's books...ohh...over 40 years ago. Sure the story written by a sports hunter who hired him for his...

I'm an old guy but never actually met the gentleman. Despite this, I was amazed when I found one of my own observations printed in his 'Safari Planning' book. It was something like, "My philosophy is to avoid bucket-list expensive hunts, that I could afford but rarely, but to go on plenty of...

I agree that steel plate is not only of limited value on a large animal. It is probably even poor in comparing different bullets in head-to-head trials. I'm reminded of a famous shooter [he is so famous that I can't remember his name]. He said a 220 swift, when loaded with a solid of about 55...

Some responders must be trying to be funny. A T. rex was the size of an African elephant. It's brain was smaller than an elephant's but its peripheral nervous system would be roughly the same. Because of its bipedal posture, its heart/lung area would be at least as vulnerable as an...

Well, I'd like a reasonably priced set of matched dueling pistols, originals, of course. No, I don't plan to meet an opponent in a misty field a first light. I just want them despite the fact that I'm old enough, now, that I couldn't own them long enough to realize any significant investment...

Excellent post but, with extremely limited experience myself, I hesitate to add anything but will. I used a 375 HH to make a side brain shot on a bull years ago. The range was sixty yards and he was walking slowly forward. I fired immediately above the maxilla a little closer to the ear than...