Members input to design a Dangerous Game Range - group project

[Gert Odendaal]

Good day to all forum members...I believe you are all well and save as is your families in this challenging time. As the heading indicates, I would like if any member who always wanted /do hunt dangerous game animals give their practical suggestion of how he /she would design the following features:
1) Mechanical winches to pull a sledge with dangerous game target on it, mechanical or by hand.
2) Mountainsides : gravity feed sliding targets to be winched back after item completed /score taken
3) Use of recycle -able material important feature
4) Safety dedicated outlay
5) This shooting range will cover the following dangerous game animals :
Hippo in a stream
Crocodile in a stream
Elephant life size targets stationary : frontal view/side view /rear view de-camping
Buffalo/charging
Lion charging
Leopard

Most of this range surface has a mountain as a back stop, I really would like not to include used tyres at all..
Reason being : veld fires, rubber pollution, unsightly in a nature environment, you do not hunt in Mozambique , Zimbabwe of anywhere in Africa surrounded with tyres...

The range should be a circle outlay...start at clubhouse, commence with all the ranges to minimise congestion , end at club house after person completed all six courses...
If possible please include photos possible examples of items /set up of targets ect../ videos of similar set ups you have participated in previously....
Thank you in advance ...

 

[fourfive8]

Agreed about the "junk" that can accumulate around a shooting range. Best to plan on controlling and minimizing that from the beginning. Strict rules would have to be discussed and understood by all from the onset.

The last three of the group- Buffalo, Lion and Leopard type charges seem common and somewhat tricky to realistically simulate. I'm not a PH nor anywhere near an expert so take my ideas with a proverbial grain. Just a thought about the charging scenario for the last three. When in Africa and hunting in the bush and in areas where these animals live I have, in the back of my mind, I (we) are most vulnerable from a charge from the side or rear angle. My experience also is that after hitting an animal and during the follow up- seems all eyes, PHs, trackers, hunters are toward the front or angled front... not so much the rear. If it could safely be designed, a rear angled, close range charge somewhere along the course would be most realistic, IMO, and truly a test of handling a charge from an angle of greatest vulnerability. Good luck, sounds like an important and fun project

 

[chashardy]

Check out the SAAM Shooting School in Texas. The have extensive set ups with moving targets as well as a walk through range with pop-up elephant, buffalo, etc. You can probably get a lot of ideas about how to set up a range.

 

[Gert Odendaal]

Agreed about the "junk" that can accumulate around a shooting range. Best to plan on controlling and minimizing that from the beginning. Strict rules would have to be discussed and understood by all from the onset.

The last three of the group- Buffalo, Lion and Leopard type charges seem common and somewhat tricky to realistically simulate. I'm not a PH nor anywhere near an expert so take my ideas with a proverbial grain. Just a thought about the charging scenario for the last three. When in Africa and hunting in the bush and in areas where these animals live I have, in the back of my mind, I (we) are most vulnerable from a charge from the side or rear angle. My experience also is that after hitting an animal and during the follow up- seems all eyes, PHs, trackers, hunters are toward the front or angled front... not so much the rear. If it could safely be designed, a rear angled, close range charge somewhere along the course would be most realistic, IMO, and truly a test of handling a charge from an angle of greatest vulnerability. Good luck, sounds like an important and fun project

fourfive8 Thank you kindly for your input , it is much appreciated... It will be my first dangerous game hunt re-enactment shooting range to design and develop..I am fortunate to have some of the best PH, Dangerous game hunters and different environment hunters on this great forum , no reason why I can not access their experience gathered through the past decades ..... something I have learned from this forum, every forum member is always willing to share their perspectives and opinions with anybody who wants some assistance and information, this is what makes this such a great forum to be part of......My ultimate goal is to be able to build a shooting range where the average hunter can develop his /her skills to become a more proficient hunter in a very challenging environment....and to have fun while doing it...

 

[Gert Odendaal]

Yes, Tanks upload this link on the 9.3 x 62 thread...thank you Tanks, it is much appreciated..

 

[Gert Odendaal]

What I very much like about this set up is the fact that there are material used that is easy to dismantle and recycle ...not tyres build walls that makes such a build extremely expensive and it really do not give a clean environment approach..

 

[Gert Odendaal]

What I very much like about this set up is the fact that there are material used that is easy to dismantle and recycle ...not tyres build walls that makes such a build extremely expensive and it really do not give a clean environment approach..

 

[Gert Odendaal]

Shot placement in many threads are discussed and pointed out by members in the mids of rifle caliber being perceive as a more important aspect ....the larger the caliber the better chance of killing the animal..especially in dangerous game hunting where the stakes are very high..using a caliber you are very proficient with on the lower scale of medium to large bores instead of heavy/ super bores is much more the correct choice to make , even if you can shoot these heavy/super bore rifles ...an interesting perspective from a well known PH/Hunter/Author ....

 

[Roguemeister]

Hi Gert. Colin Patrick designed a sled that gets pulled with a motor connected to your car battery, called a charge box. I've seen them made with weed Wackers as the motor too for SANPARKS shooting assessments. We use these for trails guide assessments. You are able to put a variety of targets on, lions, Buffaloes, hippos are some of the targets we have used... Maybe look into that for your charging targets?

What I like about it is you can pack it up and move it around to give it different trajectories etc. We have had it on open shooting ranges, in riverbeds and in thickets so you never know which bush the animal is going to come out of.

 

[Gert Odendaal]

Hi Gert. Colin Patrick designed a sled that gets pulled with a motor connected to your car battery, called a charge box. I've seen them made with weed Wackers as the motor too for SANPARKS shooting assessments. We use these for trails guide assessments. You are able to put a variety of targets on, lions, Buffaloes, hippos are some of the targets we have used... Maybe look into that for your charging targets?

What I like about it is you can pack it up and move it around to give it different trajectories etc. We have had it on open shooting ranges, in riverbeds and in thickets so you never know which bush the animal is going to come out of.

Roguemiaster ,thank you for the reply , it is much appreciated, will it be possible to send me Colin`s contact details???

 

[Nhoro]

You can also google panterror, I think they based in SA. They do a winch based system that pulls a sled that you can attach targets to.

 

[Frederik]

Gert why build a range when you can come to the BASA shoots and no need to reinvent the weels?
Unfortunately there are certain standards and requirements need to have a range built and gettting it registrered as a range and unless you have a big area with good backstops, mountain like you suggested the tyres will be needed to build barriers between the ranges.

The BASA range on Doc Willies farm worked well didnt it?

 

[Gert Odendaal]

Gert why build a range when you can come to the BASA shoots and no need to reinvent the weels?
Unfortunately there are certain standards and requirements need to have a range built and gettting it registrered as a range and unless you have a big area with good backstops, mountain like you suggested the tyres will be needed to build barriers between the ranges.

The BASA range on Doc Willies farm worked well didnt it?

Fredrik, our Sebra Shooting/hunting club are using Dwandzani Training/shooting range on the Balmoral shooting range...we do our long range shooting there, our SAJW hunters/sport shooting items there once a month...I want to add another feature to our Sebra club`s shooting items..building a BASA type shooting range will do just that..it will provide us with another facet of hunting/sport shooting... And it will be a fun project for me/club members to manage as well and practice our big bore shooting skills on moving targets...

 

[Gert Odendaal]

You can also google panterror, I think they based in SA. They do a winch based system that pulls a sled that you can attach targets to.

Nhoro, thank you very much, it is much appreciated...

 

[Philip Glass]

I would like to add some simple movers to my range. I have been to SAAM three times and theirs are awesome. I would like just one crossing target and maybe one charging target. I have not looked into the logistics of the set up yet but I am all ears here on this thread.I hope someone posts some info I can use.
Philip

 

[Nhoro]

Have a look at this thread. https://www.africahunting.com/threa...ters-and-guides-shooting-test-may-2019.50705/

Might give you some ideas.

 

[Gert Odendaal]

Frederik, I really do not want to use old tyres, it is a fire hazard as well as looking unsightly , we have the whole mountain as a backdrop..I want to keep every simulation range as natural as possible...there are a forest of black wattel trees , so we can lay out the different ranges safely...this Dangerous Game shooting range will only for use by the Sebra Hunting/ sport shooting club .... not open to the broad public...one of the requirements of Gerhard Landman , owner of Dwandzani..it is not a profit driven project..and I want to use as much material from the region as possible..no steel or any metals that will find their way to the scrap metal dealers....as mentioned previously...it will be to the benefit for our Sebra branch only...

 

[Gert Odendaal]

Excellent, Nhoro, I will make use of three sources...the Dangerous game course set up attended at SAWLC , the SAAMI set up and the set up you uploaded...I need to build a range to simulate elephant hunting (frontal, side brain and side lung hart shots and hip bone shot departing elephant) Buffalo charging /running from left to right , Lion charging straight like your video ..., hippo in water and crocodile in water and laying on the sand bank...

 

[Gert Odendaal]

I would like to add some simple movers to my range. I have been to SAAM three times and theirs are awesome. I would like just one crossing target and maybe one charging target. I have not looked into the logistics of the set up yet but I am all ears here on this thread.I hope someone posts some info I can use.
Philip

Philip , I agree, the more simple the set up the better , and the hunters will enhance their shooting skills faster ..

 

[IvW]

Shot placement in many threads are discussed and pointed out by members in the mids of rifle caliber being perceive as a more important aspect ....the larger the caliber the better chance of killing the animal..especially in dangerous game hunting where the stakes are very high..using a caliber you are very proficient with on the lower scale of medium to large bores instead of heavy/ super bores is much more the correct choice to make , even if you can shoot these heavy/super bore rifles ...an interesting perspective from a well known PH/Hunter/Author ....

Yes sure.....

Together with Mauritz Coetzee I was one of the first members who helped with this at BASA.....I had many issues regarding calibers as well as the scoring system they used....

Yes it is so that lets say 500 Jeff will be able to stop an elephant better than a 375 H&H......

However if one gets to tied up in scoring systems and then try to unfairly even the playing field you start losing the plot....
Forcing participants to have to reload for instance by limiting the shooter to two cartridges in the mag, because the double rifle guy's have to reload is wrong. If you want to use a double that is your choice, if you want to use a bolt that only takes two in the mag that is also your choice, if somebody uses a bolt with 6 in the mag so be it....

If I want to use my 500 Jeff for the elephant and buffalo charge and lion charge range I should be able to do so, If I want to use my 12ga Poor mans double loaded with Brenneke slugs for the leopard charge range then I should be able to do so. If I want to use my 375 H&H for the hippo and croc in the water I should be able to do so. The scoring system should also allow for that.

Range and targets should be set up to accommodate kill shots and clearly indicate them as they happen....static video cam can be used to confirm that. A brained elephant is dead with that shot not the two or three that follow......

As an example lets say on the leopard charge range, I use my two pipes which is the one I would use for follow up in the field on a actual leopard. First shot is a kill shot after 1.6 seconds, second kill shot(not needed) as well at 2 seconds....Now another shooter uses a bolt, first shot is 0.9 seconds hits the target but misses the brain and neck/spine, second kill shot is 1.6 seconds kill shot and he manages another kill shot 2.7 seconds....who should get the best score from that.....

Too much emphases on speed rather than accuracy can be a disaster to drill into somebody and they do the same in the field. Never ever sacrifice accuracy for speed..

I would much rather have somebody hold their ground and place 1 accurate killing shot than start banging away to see who can place the most shots somewhere on target in the shortest time.

The biggest problem by inexperienced hunters is to start shooting too quickly in a charge situation and the biggest issue with these types of shoots are too much emphasis on speed rather than accuracy......

Ranges should be built to represent actual in field scenarios.....not easy but should not be over complicated....