After several works to update its functionality, his friend Carlo has restarted his rigorously private shooting range located at the beginning of the Valle Stura di Demonte: to celebrate he invited a handful of loyal fans of rifled barrels, however setting a rule to access to the firing line. In a place where 6, 7 and 8 mm calibers are usually the masters, we have moved on to consider those from 9,3 mm or 375 "upwards: those cartridges that in 100th century Africa unraveled sublime stories of hunting art, of courage, of risk, of life and death as it is used among real men. We have limited ourselves in this area by targeting the red rods or the well-known silhouettes of the running boar. Two variants have been set in the competition: on the one hand the shot at 35 m with optics firing three shots in support, on the other the shot at 700 meters, loose arm without any supports, always three shots for the rifles and two coppiole for the express. The heat, also present in the locality located at about 1910 m asl, recommended a polo shirt or a shirt while the gauges used revealed an insert, to be placed in a special vest, as anti-recoil. Excellent functionality even if with very powerful cartridges the device tended to make the buttpad slide outwards. We entered the competition with passion by having a set of rifles which, unfortunately, are silent for a long time before being used again only on shooting range cards. Other rifles have been passed to us by friends and among them a pair of express of considerable caliber. An elegant Mannlicher Schönauer Mod. 9,5 decomposable chambered for the 57 × 9,5 Mann. Sch (also referred to as 56 × 270) was often in the hands of African settlers and was used for non-dangerous animals or to provide meat for the family group. The caliber designed by the Austrian company is in fact not very good compared to others of similar caliber, and this makes the shotgun extremely polite: it does not kick, it does not scream, it does not make strange gestures ... in short, you can shoot in complete tranquility even if the XNUMX grs takes effect.
Moving on to a highly innovative project of about fifty years ago, we put on the countertop a Mauser Europa 66 with Africa barrel, chambered for the angry 9,3 × 64 Brenneke, with different vintage charges available: from the RWS we they are the 18,8 g Teil Mantel and the 19,0 g TUG while the DWM of the Vollmantel Rundkopf, 19 g round toe shirts. but in the end we opt for the refills of the Maestro with 250 grs Spitzer ball. of Speer. The hit of this cartridge is felt, not for nothing the ballistic data are a little higher than those characteristic of the legendary .375 H. & H. and the shape of the cartridge case, especially the shoulder angle, induces a very strong recoil. decided. Immediately after we take in our hands a rifle chambered precisely for this cartridge rightly defined as the Queen of Africa: a Steyr Mannlicher Mod. S Safari prepared precisely for the .375 H. & H. Placing this realization alongside the Mannlicher Schönauer Mod. 1910 Two eras and two very distinct products of the Steyr House appear clear. It must be said that the new one, designed at the end of the 60s, certainly does not have the charm of the predecessor that appeared in the early twentieth century and still joined the successor for a few years: however, the functionality of the second generation leaves no room for doubt. The pre-eminent factor is represented by the excellent overall balance for which you shoot with ease, reaching respectable performance, thanks also to the not exactly savannah set-up of the trigger package. In fact, this model was proposed with a direct trigger with a single trigger or with a stecher with two triggers: we had the opportunity to try both, but the one we are talking about today has the European system that greatly facilitates the achievement of results in very long shots or to narrow the range. pink in polygon. Very good grouping obtained from refills with 300 grs Sierra Game King bullet, superb that with RWS with 19,4 g (300 grs) Kegel Spitz bullet.
We arrive at the most extreme modernity with a Weatherby in .378 Weath. Mag. And we note that it is the only weapon equipped with a semblance of a muzzle brake with radial holes, the Magna-Port that certainly works to spread noise and pressure around, but we guarantee that it leaves the shooter's shoulder all the sensations to recall to mind the shooting of the Cape buffalo or other dangerous game. The design of the nine-wing shutter had made an era at the time of its appearance, leaving competitors with the incentive to go from the classic two wings of the Mauser K98 to the six, for example, of the Steyr Mannlicher mentioned above or at least to the three that many, Sako to quote one very noble signature, they have adopted with satisfaction. The original charge indicates, if we remember well, 119 grs of very progressive powder like the MRP Norm: here the refills carry 115 grs with that slight, snobbish decrease in order not to appear aggressive and protracted. Nevertheless, the reactions shine for incisiveness and the precision remains on the classic level of excellence: really interesting. The ball is a 270 grs Soft Point.
Let's lower the tone a little, intended as recoil, certainly not charm, with three Zbrojovka Brno rifles still built in the early 60s. The first of these cameras, the .375 H. & H. decided that in the Steyr for the more contained mass of the weapon. The second adopts the 9,3 × 62, an honest and valid cartridge by the Berlin designer Otto Bock which is one step behind Brenneke's 9,3 × 64 both in terms of performance and recoil, which is decidedly less punishing here, and which we have known a new and recent diffusion in particular in striped semiautomatics for wild boar hunting. The third uses a cartridge that is very popular due to its availability and low cost: the .458 Win. Mag. Is criticized for working at very high pressures and with yields not always up to expectations, but it is chambered by all big shotgun manufacturers and, in truth, usually offers remarkable accuracy. Still on the subject of 9,3 mm, the classic measure adopted by the Germans for their cartridges of substance, here appears a magnificent FN Browning B25 over-and-under with the two rifled barrels to which Concari di Lecco had retouched the convergence according to the wishes of the owner for shots even at medium-long distances: the old collar cartridge called 9,3x74R retains the characteristic features of the time with a long case and a little pronounced shoulder angle so as to develop low pressures, suitable for swing-action shotguns.
After the examination and test of the Bockdoppelbüchse, the review ends with two classic express with side-by-side barrels: one, made in the 70s by Casartelli of Concesio Costorio (BS), presents the locks with double safety bar, mounted on side plates, double Purdey with tenons, third conical on an extension of the rib and fourth obtained in the third with interlocking plug. The caliber, one of the most used in Africa for this type of shotgun, is the .470 Nitro, an authority on the subject with excellent ballistic performance, stopping power and, a factor not to be overlooked especially in other eras, excellent availability. Still from the same manufacturer, a shotgun with mechanics derived from a Mauser DWM proposed in .375 H. & H. is worthy of appreciation, which today appeared as the most popular caliber. The tests carried out by one of the shooters present showed groupings of three shots at 100 meters in the classic clover.
To finish in glory here is the express of the Concari di Lecco, a very famous solver set up with a monolithic action, including the barrel rotation pivot; the drums are classic Anson & Deeley of unshakable strength and appreciable shooting refinement, which is not easy to achieve with this system, but we know that at Concari the difficult is immediately ready and the impossible does not exist. Firing two rounds of the .500 N / 3 "and then immediately two more is a rewarding experience: in the interlude, opening and closing the rifle, one appreciates its truly textbook-style jamming and, before pulling the triggers, double-check not to having placed the right hand too high on the handle so as not to receive the joint of the thumb on the nose and still having closed the teeth without interposing the tongue. Then the rest is fantastic: the setting and the balance of the masses discharge in the right way the recoil that defining lively is limiting. One feels driven by a powerful and decisive force, but still sufficiently progressive, which can be mastered with some repeated practical lessons: in the data provided by Barnes for appropriate charges, 800 kgm of energy are exceeded, 100 more than the aforementioned .470 Nitro. Leaving the shooting range, we gathered around a table at the Osteria delle Ortensie in the nearby village of Gaiola where a refined lunch organized by Mario Cerri and orchestrated by a chef in the mood to amaze was the corollary to the many focused speeches, but look a little, on rifles, on calibers, on hunting, on another always recurring topic that now escapes us ... and on the mountain that, with all due respect for Africa, is nearby and practiced by all onlookers.