Kano
AH veteran
When chasing problem hippos, one often finds himself walking the countryside at night, because that's when the culprits come out of the water - and if you are after a particular bull who misbehaved on land, that's pretty much the surest way you're going to get him.
For long, my "hippo rig" consisted of a flashlight secured to the barrel of my .375 the best way I could.
It did get the job done, but was cumbersome, untidy, and a pain in the backside to take on and off. Moreover, even though shots are usually quite close, attaching things to the barrel in this fashion is severely frowned upon by the benchrest community, who knows a thing or two about accuracy.
I saw on the Net a number of rifles modified with the addition of a short length of Picatinny rail on the forend. I believe Phil Shoemaker had the idea first. Much better setup than mine, and I had been itching to do something similar.
The difficult part was to procure the rail, no Cabelas or Midway around here... Anyway, I finally got what I needed, grabbed my .458 Lott and some tools, and here are the results.
The flashlight is on and off in seconds, and it is attached to the stock, not the barrel. The rail is permanently in place, I just dug a channel in the forend and epoxied the rail there (OK, it took some wiggling and chiseling and filing and cussin'...).
The extended pressure switch is where it belongs: in the trash can. It's much easier to just press the tail switch with the thumb or the index finger (the silver switch on the side is the the intensity adjustment, the on/off switch is on the light's tail).
For long, my "hippo rig" consisted of a flashlight secured to the barrel of my .375 the best way I could.
It did get the job done, but was cumbersome, untidy, and a pain in the backside to take on and off. Moreover, even though shots are usually quite close, attaching things to the barrel in this fashion is severely frowned upon by the benchrest community, who knows a thing or two about accuracy.
I saw on the Net a number of rifles modified with the addition of a short length of Picatinny rail on the forend. I believe Phil Shoemaker had the idea first. Much better setup than mine, and I had been itching to do something similar.
The difficult part was to procure the rail, no Cabelas or Midway around here... Anyway, I finally got what I needed, grabbed my .458 Lott and some tools, and here are the results.
The flashlight is on and off in seconds, and it is attached to the stock, not the barrel. The rail is permanently in place, I just dug a channel in the forend and epoxied the rail there (OK, it took some wiggling and chiseling and filing and cussin'...).
The extended pressure switch is where it belongs: in the trash can. It's much easier to just press the tail switch with the thumb or the index finger (the silver switch on the side is the the intensity adjustment, the on/off switch is on the light's tail).
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