Maturity?

The grey ghost comes into the light

In my opinion the kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros) is the greatest of Africa's "plains game" trophies, and after reading Ernest Hemingway's "Green Hills of Africa" and Robert Ruark's "The Horn of the Hunter" the desire to hunt kudu took me to Africa on my first safari in 2005.

I got a beautiful Southern Cape Kudu during that safari, and I vividly remember each moment of that trip, especially when my kudu materialized from the bush into the lens of my scope.

Last year I had the opportunity to once again hunt in Africa, even if it was for a very brief  weekend. My friend Fanie Venter made arrangements to have me invited to hunt at Falmouth, a private bow hunting preserve in the Limpopo. The goal was to hunt an impala or warthog, and I already told you that story before (see "The Best Blind I Ever Hunted From").

While hunting at Falmouth I saw a great amount and variety of game, which just served to remind me why Africa is the most desired hunting destination in the world, and early in the afternoon I noticed that a large shadow fluctuated inside a mopane bush, a short distance from the property's only water hole.

I focused at that shadow and tried to be even quieter than I had been before, and then, suddenly, the shadow came out in the clear and became a marvelous kudu bull. What a magnificent site!

The kudu is a very shy animal, and he stood still a long time, not trusting the apparent peace of the water hole. After what could have been an eternity he started to approach, danced around and before he started drinking he lowered and raised his head three times, always ready to bolt away in case of any danger.

When he finally relaxed, if kudus ever do that, and started drinking the tepid water he presented a perfect broadside shot, and I had a knocked arrow at a range of eighteen yards!

I just had to draw my bow and release the arrow. But I did not do that.

Although fully grow in body size, this kudu was not yet a mature trophy. Its horns did not have that last curve that make them "point forward", and the ivory tip was just beginning to show in one side.

I admired that wonderful animal for a long time and never even raised my bow. I had no desire to just kill such a gorgeous animal before he could become an unforgettable trophy that would forever live in the hunter's memory.

Yes, I will hunt kudu again. I will pursue them with all my energy and soul, but I have no intention of pulling the trigger unless I have earned that right. Have I matured as a hunter?

The Divided Fall

Your behavior will define your future

The book which cover is portrayed above, “O Coleira Preta” by Brazilian writer Francisco Marins has a story about a jaguar that wants to feed on the local capybaras but is not successful because they would keep vigilant and always supported each other. As time goes by the capybaras started to get tired of living in that state of alertness and vigilance, and the jaguar perceives that.

The jaguar being a smart predator finds a way to conquer the capybaras. He sends a message that he respects the capybaras and likes them, and that he is only interested in eating the ugly ones. And the capybaras get together and after much talking decide that no body would miss a few ugly capybaras.

Well, the capybaras are no longer vigilant, and many of them decide to relax because they don’t consider themselves ugly. And then the jaguar comes and eats several capybaras, and fear takes over them. But the jaguar sends them a message that they should not worry as he only had eaten the ugly ones.

Sometime later the jaguar announces that being hungry again he has decided to only eat the very fat capybaras. Again the capybaras get together and decide that nobody would miss some fat capybaras, and the jaguar once again has not problem eating those.

And the story goes on until the jaguar eats every single capybara in that part of the woods.

A similar story is going on right now, and the centerpiece of it is the private ownership of guns in the United States of America, a fundamental right bestowed upon us by the Second Amendment of the US Constitution: “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

The current federal government administration is taking the same divisive tactics as the jaguar, saying that they do not oppose guns in general, but only certain evil guns like “military style assault rifles” and “high capacity magazines”. Those are ugly and fat capybaras, and you can image what comes later.

Many accuse the National Rifle Association of America of being radical and insensitive to changing times, and that America’s forefathers could never foresee that common people would have as powerful a firearm as an AR-15. However we must remember that the Minutemen were armed with rifles that were fair superior to the British Army smoothbore muskets during the War of Independence, and it just might be that were not for civilians armed with superior guns this great country could not have been.

At these challenging times we cannot behave like the capybaras of the story inside of “O Coleira Preta”! We must follow the words of Benjamin Franklin instead, “we must hang together, or we will be pretty sure to hang separately.”

Write your senators and representatives. Join the NRA. Speak up and defend your rights.

“I'll give you my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead hands." – Charlton Heston

A Blast From The Past

El Gamo Model 68

When I was a child in the 1970’s it was very common for boys to have air guns, but that was not my case. Although I got my first shotgun, a CBC 8 mm rim fire “Mini-Skeet” when I was around eight, my father would not allow us to have an air gun due to an accident that he had around the same age.

In Brazil air guns were almost always a break barrel spring-piston rifle, and my dad had a Diana .177 (4,5 mm) and one day when he was crossing a barbed wire fence it discharged accidently and the pellet hit him just outside of the left eye. He came home covered in blood and the family in shock started to pray for Santa Luzia, the saint protector of eyes and eyesight. My father carried that pellet deeply embedded in his skull for the rest of his life, and although he did not loose his vision, the trauma may have been responsible for an early cataract, which he had corrected by surgery before he was fifty.

Because of the importation restrictions in place at the time, only Brazilian made products were generally available. CBC, Rossi and Urko made quite traditional break barrel rifles with wood stocks, and were the most common, but there was one that stood apart of the lot, the El Gamo.

The El Gamo was coveted because it had a grip “like a machinegun”. Initially the El Gamo was produced by a whole owned subsidiary of the Spanish company, but the in the 1980’s Forjas Taurus bought the company. Initially there were two models available, a single shot and a repeater – the Gamatic, and after Taurus took over a third model was added. It used the same folding steel stock of the Beretta/Taurus MT-12 sub-machinegun.

Even in face of my father’s objections I would shoot an air gun whenever possible, and one occasion I was able to had my mother’s brother Rossi on a long-term loan, but it eventually had to be returned.

Believe it or not, it was not until after I got married that I was finally able to get my hands on a El Gamo, but it did not last long. I got it from a colleague at work, and it was functional but in real rough shape. The barrel was wrapped in electric tape, and the plastic panels on the stock were painted black.

Even in that shape I shot several air gun matches at the Helvetia Gun Club close to Indaiatuba (SP), until a certain day when a “very helpful gentleman” said that he could refurbish the El Gamo for me. It would not take long, nor would it cost much. I don’t think that I need to tell that the SOB disappeared with my gun and I never saw him again. Since this happened about twenty years ago and ten thousands miles south of Michigan, I do not have high hopes that he will bring the gun back.

Last Friday I stopped by On Target Guns & Gunsmithing, on M-43 just west of Kalamazoo, MI, to wish my friend Eric a happy new year, and when I saw an El Gamo on the air gun rack I just could not leave the store without it.

This gun is known in the US as a El Gamo Model 68, and I started to shoot it in my basement range I was surprised by its performance. First of all it is very quiet and has amazingly little vibration for a spring-piston air gun, and although I was shooting it at only about thirty feet, it is surprisingly accurate. Well, it is no on par with my Hammerli AR-50 or my Walther LGR, but it was never supposed to be a 10-meter match rifle.

I got started by shooting shotgun shells and silhouettes, and I just shot a 10-shot string on an air pistol target and except for the first two shots; every other one was inside or touching the nine-ring. This is not bad when you consider that I am shooting an original condition open sights rifle off-hand, and that I currently have an incurable eye condition called middle age.

But the little El Gamo shines when shooting the Gamo Running Deer target. Just swing the little Model 68 ahead of the self-resetting steel target and pull the trigger and it is hard to miss.

In order to get full use of the El Gamo capabilities I probably will have to scope it, but I will do it in the safety of my basement, and no “very helpful gentleman” will ever get his dirty hands on my precious “blast from the past”.