How to reload a big game rifle

[HWL]

Being short finally has an advantage!

...not everywhere....



HWL

 

[IvW]

I don't agree with this information.

First of all, a rifle needs to fit you properly with regards to stock design, especially when it is a DG rifle.
I have practiced extensively with my rifles and have never short stroked a cartridge. Short Stroking occurs when the bolt is not opened with authority all the way to the back before cycling the bolt forward again.

My DG back-up rifle (500 Jeff), does not have a scope fitted(most PH's I know only use open sights or ghost ring sights). Therefore the mentioning that the scope and "all of this" is in the way after your first shot holds no water for me.

Then mentioning that you can look at the whole herd of buffalo after the first shot is also hogwash. They will be departing at that point in time. 99% of a follow up on a wounded buffalo will involve following only one animal, the wounded one, unless it is only lightly hit.

In the case of elephant, when hunting tuskless cows for example(or just being close to a breeding herd) would be the time you need to be concerned about multiple animals at the same time, that may decide to charge. If a charge ensues from an un wounded elephant or elephant's, you then need to first determine that it is not a mock charge, do you have time for a shot over the ele or through an ear and still have time to reload and shoot if the charge is pushed through, if more than one is charging which one presents the greatest threat and needs to be dealt with first. If you take a shot in this case you will not have time to follow the above re-loading sequence.

Removing the rifle from your shoulder and lowering it that far down and then looking down at the action to ensure the next round has been loaded successfully will cost you a lot of time and could cost you your life in split second charge situations.

If the rifle fits you properly and functions as it should and you reload with authority there is no reason to remove the rifle from your shoulder that far to re-load. You can only stack feed(fired case or misfired round remains inside the rifle as the bolt picks up the next cartridge from the magazine), if you are using a push feed action and the ejector spring is too weak to eject the round or case or you have not pulled the bolt back with authority or far enough. A controlled feed Mauser type action cannot do this if you short stroke, it will still have the round or case under the extractor. All you need to do is pull it all the way back and it will eject and load flawlessly.

If the rifle fits you properly you may just need to lift your head up slightly and away from the stock(which improves your sight picture of the target animal), while you cycle the bolt with the rifle still firmly in your shoulder.

The only time you should remove the rifle from your shoulder to re-load is if you have emptied the rifle and you need to re-load the magazine from your cartridge belt or you have time in between the action just to top up the magazine before follow up further.

Not entirely sure who this training is intended for but it cannot be for a PH, probably game scouts or anti poaching or such, where the guy's do not have much experience.

Your rifle needs to operate flawlessly, it needs to fit you, you need to check the ammo you intend using by cycling each and every round you carry with you through the action of your rifle, you need to practice until you can re-load from the shoulder. It needs to be a natural movement. If you do this you will never have any issues.

The old saying, "Practise makes perfect" is very relevant and the more practice and experience you have the smoother it will be.

Re-loading while dealing with dangerous game has to be instinctive and you need to trust your rifle and your own abilities. If you have done this enough times, you will have no issues with re-loading.

 

[IvW]

I like the leather pad on the stock which will make for a better fit when using a scope and seems it can easily be removed when removing the scope for follow up with open sights.

Another nifty re-loading item I had made and use is a wrist/armband that holds extra rounds on my left arm. This makes for extremely fast reloading of the magazine as it eliminates fumbling around for cartridges from a ammunition belt pouch(I do carry an ammunition pouch on my belt as well).

 

[Peter Larsson]

I saw someone put up a wire down a slope and send 5 liter plastic cans with water sliding down it.
Standing under the wire you have to hit or be knocked over.

 

[Gert Odendaal]

I like the leather pad on the stock which will make for a better fit when using a scope and seems it can easily be removed when removing the scope for follow up with open sights.

Another nifty re-loading item I had made and use is a wrist/armband that holds extra rounds on my left arm. This makes for extremely fast reloading of the magazine as it eliminates fumbling around for cartridges from a ammunition belt pouch(I do carry an ammunition pouch on my belt as well).

I have seen this wrist type armband in Richard Harland`s book, The Hunting Imperative, Richard Harland used to cull elephant herds in the corridor of Rhodesia in the 70`s ..he says as you pointed out IvW, it is an accessory that assisted him when he needed to reload fast and shoot fast in such a situation. My own opinion in this regard is that I am not comfortable shooting fast /reloading fast with a telescope on my 404 Jeffery ...I have taken off my telescope in favour of the v-express sights..up to sixty meters I am still shooting in the killing zone..I practice to re-load/cycle the rounds I will be using to shoot at a big bore day /dangerous game course as smooth and fast as possible using the "keep in shoulder position" and take down position when cycling and shooting at a target...I try to be proficient in both methods...but I agree with you on the "keep in the shoulder" technique...although at the BASA ( Big Bore Association of South Africa ) shooting days some of the PH/range officers prefer the "take down re-load cycle procedure" instead of "keep in the shoulder" technique.
I think the '" keep in the shoulder technique " comes natural to a dangerous game hunter/PH who handles his rifle every day/experience real dangerous game situations in the bush, knows his rifle by heart, have a rifle that feeds/cycle flawlessly and is in excellent mechanical condition. As pointed out by one of the judges in the Zimbabwe PH course test..a lot of rifles participants brought to this test do not nearly feeds properly when doing stress cycling /reloading exercises, most of these rifles fails mechanically during the course.
If only I was as proficient with my 404 Jeffery as I was with my BSA spring air gun when I was a child...I really would have stood out of the crowd when shooting my 404 Jeffery in stressful dangerous game hunting scenarios...because I used my BSA spring air gun every day , walking long distances shooting at every bird, ,pigeon and mice I could see...even sleeping with it , and always did competition shooting with my friends when shooting birds for the pot
Conclusion:
You will only be extremely proficient if you use your big bore rifle every day and have the finances to practice live shooting at different targets every day....cycling, cycling ..and more cycling...

 

[IvW]

Yip, practice makes perfect.

I have had the privilege of knowing Richard for many years and it is in fact from him that I learnt about the wrist band and have used it with great success ever since I had it made.

I use shallow V express sights on my 500 Jeff as well as my 2 x 375 H&H. One problem that arises from this is that your eye needs to focus on three items while you aim. The rear sight(V), the front bead as well as what you are aiming at. The older you get the more this becomes an issue and can slow down your time from aiming until you pull the trigger. The faster you need to shoot the worse it becomes. You will invariably see people miss high rather than low when they shoot fast, especially when what you are shooting at is moving.

The other problem is V sight's work better with only one eye open, which in some cases may also not be the shooters dominant eye.(Right handed with left eye dominant.)

Correct stock fitment goes a long way to eliminating this, as when you shoulder the rifle, the sights should line up perfectly, if not the stock/rifle does not fit you. Therefore a stock cannot fit correctly for both scope or open sight use, that is why the leather pad, easily removable is a good idea.

A easy test is to close your eyes, shoulder the rifle as you normally would and then open your shooting eye, if they do not line up the gun does not fit you.

I have always prefered bolt actions to doubles for my own reasons, however early on during my hunting career I had a few close calls with leopard and quickly realised that a bolt action provided only one shot on a leopard follow up and charge, that was it. There simply is not enough time to cycle a bolt.

Back-up shots invariably went high on these cats due to the speed and above mentioned issues.

Not being able to afford a double for exclusive use on leopard back-up, I started the search for an alternative. A "Poor Man's double, if you like". I started experimenting with my Brno SxS sidelock shotgun. Slugs and Buckshot were used and tested for penetration on a number of animals. Warthog, Gemsbuck, Impala, Bushpig, Blue wildebeest all became part of the testing. It soon became apparent that buckshot was of no use except at extreme close range, they just did not penetrate reliably. Slugs where the best and I prefered Brenneke and Swartklip penetrators(no longer available).

Then I needed to improve the handling properties of my "double". The barrels were cut down to 24 inches, a front sight was fitted and then I opted for a ghost ring on the back.

Now I had a light double, which provided me with 2 shots without the need to re-load, fitted with a sighting system where I could keep BOTH EYES open. If the cat got past the first shot I could feed him my left arm and then still let him have the second barrel using only my right arm.

This is a lovely firearm and excellent leopard medicine.

Just to avoid confusion, there is a big difference between a peep sight and a ghost ring sight. Peep sight has a small hole for precise aiming and a ghost ring has a large hole(normally 8mm) with thin side walls.

It is fast, you can keep both eyes open. Your eye will automatically focus the bead on the target and at the same time centre the bead in the ghost ring. Your eye therefore only focuses on two things(the bead and the target) making sighting faster and more accurate for high speed situations.

If you get the opportunity try one out, you may be amazed.

 

[Gert Odendaal]

Yes, IvW the ghost ring set up is the best way to go for old aging eyes..here is a photo or two of my ghost ring set up I made for my .458 Mannlicher Schoenauer ( 1965)

 

[lcq]

I'm a lefty so I don't have a choice

 

[Royal27]

I'm a lefty so I don't have a choice

I'm a lefty too, and shoot primarily left hand rifles now.

But, when I shot right hand rifles I always kept it on the shoulder. Right hand came back and worked the bolt while left hand stayed in place. Thumb on left hand moved up to keep from being hit by bolt.

This was actually one of several reasons I bought my first left hand bolt. The technique I described above worked fine with a lighter rifle, but with a heavy CZ550 that muzzle was gonna drop more than I wanted it to, if I didn't lose grip on the rifle all together when I moved my thumb .

 

[lcq]

I'm a lefty too, and shoot primarily left hand rifles now.

But, when I shot right hand rifles I always kept it on the shoulder. Right hand came back and worked the bolt while left hand stayed in place. Thumb on left hand moved up to keep from being hit by bolt.

This was actually one of several reasons I bought my first left hand bolt. The technique I described above worked fine with a lighter rifle, but with a heavy CZ550 that muzzle was gonna drop more than I wanted it to, if I didn't lose grip on the rifle all together when I moved my thumb .

I hear you I only have 1 lefty but it feels so foreign I keep reaching for the bolt with my right hand. I'm beyond redemption

 

[Royal27]

I hear you I only have 1 lefty but it feels so foreign I keep reaching for the bolt with my right hand. I'm beyond redemption

I've never had an issue with that, knock on wood.... that is also why I now shoot all left hand. I don't want to reach for the wrong side at a really bad time!

What I did have an issue with was loading the magazine the first few times. All backwards feeling had to switch hands and fumbling with bullets.

 

[lcq]

I've never had an issue with that, knock on wood.... that is also why I now shoot all left hand. I don't want to reach for the wrong side at a really bad time!

What I did have an issue with was loading the magazine the first few times. All backwards feeling had to switch hands and fumbling with bullets.

kind of makes for a holy shit moment if you are being charged

 

[Royal27]

Exactly!

Practice practice practice!

 

[Gert Odendaal]

Gentleman, I suggest both of you invest in a nice double rifle to lay to rest the fast recycling exercise when in a life threatening hunting situation. I am sure your spouses will agree with me that love for their husbands come before finances????

 

[Royal27]

I'm going to reach out other the SAAM guys and see what they have to say. They are after all the ones who taught me to keep my head down.

Will be very curious to here their feedback though as they typically stress "a way" and not "the way.`

I heard back from Dog, who is a former SEAL and runs the SAAM school at FTW. He's graciously given me permission to post his response. I'm personally going to keep the rifle shouldered. It just makes more sense to me.


Royal,

Good to hear from you. Sorry for the delay. Actually view video several days ago but have been running and gunning here at the FTW. Tim is hunting out of country so I’m instructing and holding down the fort with other issue that always arise on a 12,000 acre ranch.

Certainly what he is showing is a valid way (A-Way) to approach the problem. Everything in shooting has it’s Pro’s & Con’s. What he is saying about running the bolt is exactly what we put out. Very distinct bolt operating. Up, Back, forward, down for Magnums.

As far as his shooting technique, everything he says is a Pro other than dropping the gun out of the pocket of the shoulder. The Con (Time to Back UP), mainly because you have to remount the gun which is going to be slower than if the gun remains in the shoulder. We have many clients that cannot load their rifles from the shouldered position so they do have to drop the gun down to the same position as the PH is describing to get leverage on the action.

Keep in mind that we stress to stay on the gun so our shooters are not disengaging from their primary role and that is to get their animal on the ground. The Guide/PH primary job is to provide protection to their hunting party and back up the hunter as required. We have ton’s of video’s of hunters engaging their target and not following up their shots. At the point of firing your first shot, no technique will cover all the variables that may arise.

The PRO, if we can do everything he said and back up our owe shots faster then his technique that would be better, yes? So what’s the common ground, the technique we are teaching is with both eyes open so you have a clear fields of view, additional you do not have to take the gun out of your shoulder to view the threat around you just slightly lower the barrel and view over the scope or in the case of big bores with the barrel in a slight higher position from the line of sight (After firing) you can clearly see over the scope and barrel, run the bolt with the receiver in the “Work Space” viewing next round entering the chamber (especially after clearing a jam) and stay in the fight.

Hope this helps, Tim gets back I’m pretty sure he would agree but we can ask for his input. Thanks , Dog…….Keep on Training

 

[Gert Odendaal]

Another point needs to be look at: When you have the rifle in your shoulder , taking aim at the animal you need to put down as fast and accurate as possible without being eaten, stump/trample on you do have a posture , a stooping posture where you lay forward into your gun, following the animal coming toward you with the front bead of your rifle ...while engaging the animal by finding the correct shot placement and shooting until the animal lay dead at your feet...this is a forward motion...when taking the rifle from your shoulder , you are moving backwards in a sense , starting to stand up more straight while you broke contact with the rifle butt and the front bead is not on the animal anymore....this cause a huge delay...and would make for inaccurate shot placement...it takes time to engage the animal in movement again...

 

[boldo 42]

Found another video. Different advice from what I'd heard about taking the rifle from the shoulder to reload.

Whatever works for you.

 

[Gert Odendaal]

I think the ultimate will be if I can shoot a dangerous game rifle flawlessly , extremely accurate using both types of shooting techniques. Than will be something to be able to do....with a lot of practice and dedication it might just be possible...

 

[Gert Odendaal]

These are the two gentleman in the video who will conduct the course, Dr. Kevin Robinson and Pieter Nel..extremely knowledgeable persons and specialists in their field of work...

 

[Gert Odendaal]

I did some re-loading for the .458 Mannlicher Schoenauer , I used gas checked cast bullets , 520 gn , S335 ,67 gn that will give me around 1900 f/s..the cartridge over all length is 83.2 mm , this will be a nice load to shoot in these practice conditions...these rounds feed extremely smooth through the rotary action of the rifle. I did some adjustments on the ghost ring aperture as well and will do some fine tuning tomorrow at the farm when shooting a few rounds to zero the ghost ring at 50 meters.

A few photos of the rotary magazine of the .458 Mannlicher Schoenauer: