This is my proud hubby funny story:
My dad decided to get rid of the old .303 British. Seeing that my wife and I are both hunters, he offered me the weapon first before offering it to my brother. Knowing the weapon was stored for quite some time, without cleaning (probably in excess of 15 years), I thought that I will give it a trial run before I begin the license application. No use having a gun that can shoot, right?
Seeing that he lives in Naboomspruit, a good 200km from Johannesburg, I phoned around to get a local (Naboomspruit/Nylstroom) shooting range so make things easier. I arranged access to the range with the range owner as well as the chairman of the local shooting club. Very friendly, he said: "No problem, he will meet us there the Saturday". We collect my dad and off to the range we go. Seeing that my dad likes shiny things, we also thought it would be a great opportunity for him to pull a shot or two with my wife's rifle.
Arriving at the range, we meet the friendly range owner and he designated us a spot on the range. I said first we would like to do 100m and then if its OK, we'd like to move to the 300m range to fire a couple of shots at that distance as well. He said, "No problem, but he is shooting match the following Saturday so he would like to practice with his LH .270 as well. If we don't mind waiting, he would like to finish on the 100m range before we move back to 300m (safety reasons obviously)". So we said "Sure".
So the unpacking of the rifles commences. The wife starts setting up a front rest and then removes her rifle from the bag. Immediately when her rifle came out, the range owner's eyes pop and he developed an immediate twitch. Abandoning his post, he briskly walks over to us and immediately asks my wife, "Listen lady, you do know basic range safety?". My wife being a bit strong minded and not appreciating his insinuation, just said, "I've fired a few of shots". I just shrugged, which caused even more irritation and foreboding on his part. After giving us another once over, he stomped off back to his rifle. Once we were all set up, the range was closed. After the "insult", my wife said she wanted to go first with her rifle, and I just said, "Why not?".
The man's first shot rang out, hitting a little high and to the right. Then my wife gently squeezed her trigger and the report of her rifle made him immediately sit up straight. He looked over at us and then got back to the task at hand. He fired another shot, high and to the right... again. Then my wife squeezed off another round. I looked over to him as he adjusts his spotting scope to look at my wife's target. The two intersecting holes almost centre inside the bull was probably what caused him to immediately start putting away his gear. My wife then shot her third round, in the bull again. By then his kit was packed away and he walked over to us.
He waited for my wife to remove the ear protection and said, "Listen miss, what are you shooting with?", to which my wife casually replied, "This is a .300H&H Magnum. My dad had it custom built for my 25th birthday". He then asked where we were from and if she wouldn't consider joining their club as they need more women shooters, especially with heavier calibres. I had to fight very hard to keep a straight face. Needless to say, as we are Joburgers, she had to decline his kind offer to join their club.
Not sure what he was thinking she was going to shoot with, but based on his reaction to the report of her first shot, made it clear it wasn't a hot loaded Magnum.
Below: Wife with 300H&H Magnum, Oryx and guide!