Rifle Lessons Learned from the Zimbabwe Professional Hunter Proficiency Exam

tokguy

tokguy

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Don Heath is the author. I didn't hotlink it...respect the Mods, lol
Does this man know his stuff ( Gatehouse...don't read this, not gonna like it) or not?
I am an action geek. Love the different one's and the why and how of one over the other.
CRF vs push feed and all the other variations of type 'A' vs Type 'Whatever'...I eat that stuff up.
Opinions from more learned than I are appreciated.
What say?
 
Had a 375 Ruger Ruger Hawkeye that I have shot lots fail to pick up round number two from the magazine repeatedly yesterday. That could have been inconvenient. I found the problem and fixed it. But I’d suspect that most guns don’t get shot and used enough to iron out any kinks.

You can see the offending burr below.

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I’m having a bit of difficulty trying to imagine a model 70 right hand action with the safety on the left side and visa versa.
Where in heck did that come from?
There’s a new complaint I’ve never heard of before.
Oddly enough he makes no mention of the same design on the new Ruger Mkll.
 
Don Heath, John Barsness, Phil Shoemaker, Finn Aargard. Their writings based a lot on what they did, often because they need to know for certain. Not certain about the first one, but I read that the last three knew each other - pictures of them at Shoemaker's place in Alaska. Not your "run of the mill" gun rag writers...

Articles by Barsness and Heath (aka "Ganyana") got me interested first in the 7x57 and then the 9.3x62.
 
tokguy said:
Don Heath is the author. I didn't hotlink it...respect the Mods, lol
Does this man know his stuff ( Gatehouse...don't read this, not gonna like it) or not?
I am an action geek. Love the different one's and the why and how of one over the other.
CRF vs push feed and all the other variations of type 'A' vs Type 'Whatever'...I eat that stuff up.
Opinions from more learned than I are appreciated.
What say?
Click to expand...


Heath is the real deal, his opinion is to be noted.

But I don’t know why I would be upset? In this 10 year old article he’s talking about 416 Rigby rifles and one 458. Presumably the Rigbys were in Rugers discontinued Magnum Safari line.

I use a 375 Ruger Alaskan and it works great whether operated slow or fast.
 
Potashminer said:
Don Heath, John Barsness, Phil Shoemaker, Finn Aargard. Their writings based a lot on what they did, often because they need to know for certain. Not certain about the first one, but I read that the last three knew each other - pictures of them at Shoemaker's place in Alaska. Not your "run of the mill" gun rag writers...

Articles by Barsness and Heath (aka "Ganyana") got me interested first in the 7x57 and then the 9.3x62.
Click to expand...

Agreed! Barsness is excellent.
 
Don was very active as a PH an examiner and trying to change the laws. he made it possible and feasible to have the 9.3x62 as a minimun caliber in zimbabwe for dangerous game.

i had to meet him few times and called him my friend. a shame he is gone too fast and too young.

the 3 other mentionned by Potashminer are very good as well and Finn adventures and reading on calibers not that much known in NA worth a lot like the 7x64 and 9.3x62 as well as how efficient the 458 win mag despite the bad press the caliber got in those days ...
 
I've read his article though and through in AH and about half of the replies posted following it.
No doubt of the man's knowledge of hunting and firearms ,but this is still the paragraph that has me stumped.

"Winchesters new M70 with the controlled feed back, is light years ahead of the old version which just about rivaled the Remington 700. I have only three complaints about the new ones. The bolt anti bind rail on one of them bent and briefly jammed the rifle, but I threw it away and the rifle worked just fine after that. The stocks need to be properly bedded and pinned. They are a good shape, nice wood, but they crack (and worse) if you don't take them to somebody and have the bedding seen to before you start throwing a few hundred rounds down range. My biggest gripe about the Winchester is that the safety catch is on the WRONG side. On the right handed model, the safety catch is perfect for a left hander and visa versa on the left handed edition. Heavens to Hiawatha, surely somebody at US Repeating Arms (who make Winchester) has walked outside and tried to swing the rifle up for a snap shot from either the trail or from a sling! You cannot grab the pistol grip and take the safety off in one movement, and on average it took Winchester owners a second longer to disengage the safety and fire the first shot compared to Mausers or Browning A Bolts. Time and fumbling around with an awkward safety can get you killed in a tight corner, and the real insult is that they make both, and that the current left handed safety is quicker and easier to use for a right hander than a Mauser type flag safety. "

I've put thousands of rounds through Winchester Model 70's in push feed and newer CRF and original pre-64 and not once ever did I think as a right hand shooter that the safety was on the wrong side of the action.
Raising a M70 in one motion and disengaging the safety is simply tabbing the safety ahead with one's thumb.
The M70 safety position has been copied by Ed Brown, Dakota, Legendary Arms,HS Precision and Ruger to name just a few.

Quicker than a Mauser flag for sure. Putting it on the left of the bolt for a right hand shooter has me asking why.
 
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His comments make more sense if you are trained on a Lee Enfield - that safety lever is on the left side, for a right handed shooter. Heath was a competitive full bore rifle shooter, and with revolver, in his younger days. And, as his writing stated, you have to let go of your right hand grip on the pistol grip to operate that Win 70 safety on the right side of the bolt - I am certain he is talking about a "death grip" with right hand and thumb around the pistol grip - clear why he would want the safety on that side - that is where your thumb would be. For a number of years, Parker Hale and FN also made their two position "scope friendly" wing safeties on the left side on their commercial mausers. I did not read this article, but have read several other of his articles and his books - I believe he was reporting mainly on the screw-ups he was seeing by people attempting to pass the professional hunter's exam - giving him way more opportunity to compare how "normal" people react under stress with various rifle actions. Not many North American or Canadian hunters deal with the dangerous game situations he is describing. I read it as a "free" overview about how things can go wrong, in situations that I will never find myself in...
 
Currently, on my work bench, I have a P14, a Weatherby Mark V, a Remington 700 and a pre-64 Winchester Model 70. Every one of them has a thumb operated safety on the right side of the bolt. I doubt Heath would have wanted any of them, if given a choice. As per a posting by Phil Shoemaker about Euro safeties (forward for safe, back to fire) - "that will get someone killed one day..."
 
Potashminer said:
Currently, on my work bench, I have a P14, a Weatherby Mark V, a Remington 700 and a pre-64 Winchester Model 70. Every one of them has a thumb operated safety on the right side of the bolt. I doubt Heath would have wanted any of them, if given a choice. As per a posting by Phil Shoemaker about Euro safeties (forward for safe, back to fire) - "that will get someone killed one day..."
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Good comments.
Yes I can relate to Lee Enfields being left side safety and having learned on one.
Regarding the BRNO and it's safety I've owned several of the 602 375's and as much as I liked the rifles I could never adjust to the "back to fire" position of that damn safety.
I turned down selling a 601 223 to a chap who planned on giving it to a young shooter simply because of that possibility of confusing conventional "back safe" to "back fire"

Good on him however as I can only guess how many dudes show up with rifles they've bought for the trip and have no knowledge of what so ever of how it shoots, let alone how it operates.
Personally of all his picks I would never pay air freight on a Browning A Bolt to Africa unless it was plains game only and there I would still have better choices.
 
I have carried a 602 for allot of years also a Marlin 4570, I like the Brno safety ( when I use it ) it is like cocking the Marlin just seems natural.
 
I have heard many times about the "natural-ness" of safety back to fire, when one is used to external hammers. Only one I have like that is a CZ-452, so only when gopher patch gets "hot and heavy" that I screw up!! But goes to the point, I guess - with excitement or stress, you are going to stop "thinking" and your "habits" kick in - if you are wired that the safety is on left side of bolt, even though you "know" this one is on the right side, going to mess it up when parts of a second count. That, I think, is what Heath was describing - how often he was seeing people "mess-up", and how they did, on that professional hunter exam, especially under "death grip" circumstances... Even in the piece of the article posted above, he was highlighting the observed delay in getting the shot off, among the different actions - he quite clearly pointed out you can not grab the pistol grip and swing the safety lever in one motion - with Model 70, you swing safety, then bring thumb back around pistol grip to get the grip he is talking about. That small delay, apparently, can be the difference between living and dying... I have no intention of being in that sort of situation.
 
Back to fire may indeed feel right if you own lever or falling block exposed hammer rifles.
It's pretty obvious with an exposed hammer.

To me it's unique to BRNO bolt actions based on what I've owned. (there may well be others)
Left or right position of safety on the receiver on the majority of rifles means back is hold and forward is go.
Owning several rifles of mixed make and mixing the two is not something I care to do again.
Splitting the difference between getting a shot off one second faster means naught.

If I held a 602 BRNO in a life or death situation I would no doubt pull the trigger on that lovely single set with the safety forward.
I'd be gored or stomped or clawed because what is learned cannot be unlearned.

LOL> That's just me but feel free to experiment.
 
pounder said:
I have carried a 602 for allot of years also a Marlin 4570, I like the Brno safety ( when I use it ) it is like cocking the Marlin just seems natural.
Click to expand...

X2. I have a 600 and a 602 so my working rifle is the same as my hunting rifle, safety wise.

I do have to say that the safety on my 600, when I disengage it, makes the loudest "click" I've ever heard. Maybe that's why I'm such a lousy hunter......................
 
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