I don' t know where ElKampMaster is right now, but he sure set up one heck of a session this morning. EKM arranged for several of us to meet up with a 20 year PH in Tanzania (Allan) who owns an extremely well established shooting facility in Denver. The session (which Allan graciously started a few hours before the normal operating hours of the club) was focused on the " Big Bores" , but it became immediately apparent how the lessons applied to game/calibers of all size. I shoot .416 and have felt intimidated by the recoil. After a 1/2 hour of instruction from Allan the .416 doesn' t even cause a flinch. We started at .300 winnie, to .338, to .375, to 416 rem/rigby, to .458 and finished with .500 Nitro Express. In a short period of time I learned the correct techniques to handle any rifle available, just by learning to shoot " correctly" (btw, I did not wear a " pad" of any kind, just a t-shirt and sweatshirt). I think everyone hit skeets at 50 yds with the iron sights on the .500 N.E. double. The .500 N.E. hurt the wallet more than the shoulder at $12/shot!!!

I can' t believe how much my shooting improved with just a few minutes of instruction from a professional. After a few minutes of Allan' s time. I am more convinced than ever that people that grump about how bad .30-06 recoil is, just don' t know how to shoot, but could learn very quickly with some help from someone that knows what they are talking about. In any event, props to EKM for setting it up!

Colorado,
You were the smallest (body weight wise) guy there! We were all watching each other real careful and it was amazing how those big boys turned out to be " not that big of a deal" ! The technique is everything. I figured with the 500 Nitro Express Double (a $10,000+ gun) Allan would have positioned himself close to the shooter so if anyone really " lost it" he could at least grab his rifle -- he took no such precautions -- knew he didn' t need to as he had been able to watch us as we worked our way up through the calibers.

America has wonderfully liberal gun laws (for now & compared to elsewhere) and a fairly tolerant gun culture (say, compared to Britain). Regrettably, the result is that most folks get taught how to shoot guns the same way they learn to play flag football in the park.... just get out there and give it a go. For the 90% that never stray beyond smallbores this lack of training is not a problem. For the 10% of folks that stroll into the Magnum Arena (NFL play now --- not flag football in the park) many get turned back with stories of injuries, owies, and misadventure -- they tried to play in the NFL without even going through Spring Training -- and with predictable outcomes. Some prevail and move on up and take their place with no such training -- kudos to them -- but it is called doing it the " hard way" .

In Mag Fest 2003, we ran we through a gambit of calibers that 99% of hunters/shooters will NEVER experience and will go through life considering them to be mythical " suicide calibers" ! The consensus of our group afterwards -- " It was exciting" -- " I had some apprehension" -- " This is awesome" -- but in the end..... " The physical challenge was no big deal -- it just wasn' t -- it' s a mind thing." [With the exception of folks with personal injuries, the mind game is the most difficult component to master -- many never do.]
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On a seperate note aside from big bores and what it takes to handle them, I always wondered why I was a relatively poor off hand shooter with a rifle, did quite well with a shotgun on upland and waterfowl, but unsatisfactory with a rifle, especially a scoped rifle. Over 35 or so years I' d become quite fond of shooting off a rest of some sort like a tree or my knees. Who taught me? My brother and myself -- trial and error -- typical -- turns out my technique was all wrong -- what an eye opener -- and it only took minutes with an " in the trenches" professional versed in hunting in a locale where you HAVE TO HAVE IT DOWN CORRECT, where the game doesn' t necessarily flee in your advance, and the penalties for poor personal technique can be very severe!

Now, in the last 30 years how many people have I shown how to shoot per the " flag football" model? ...... ouch!!! -- especially with my boys I have some remedial work to do because NOW I am not blissfully ignorant as before -- time to get it right!

Make The Big Dogs Bark!!
Never Go Undergunned,
EKM

I have to thank EKM for doing all fo the leg work to get this rolling. What started out with me saying that I would like to meet him on the range to try out his .416 turned into on of the greatest shooting experiences I' ve had. Allan taught me a few things that I' ve NEVER heard before, and I know they will help me for the rest of my life in shooting/hunting.

Many thanks goes out to EKM and ColoradoElk for letting me shoot there big bores, for which I am grateful. Although the .500 nitro was a gun that I thought would steal the show for me (a beautiful double rifle) ColoradoElk' s 45/70 left me wanting to run out and buy a new rifle.

Thanks again guys,

Jorgy

ColoradoElk' s Marlin Guide Gun in 45-70 and Jorgy' s 7mmRemMag caught my attention and are " slots" I want to fill in my rifle rack! Time to cut some more of the dead wood, drag it off to Gunbroker.com where it will become someone else' s treasure and put the proceeds towards the " good stuff."

Never Go Undergunned,
EKM

Lost Highway,
You asked about how it went, so I bumped this post up with yours.

Never Go Undergunned
EKM

EKM I would really be interested in finding out more about shooting the really big bores...is there any place I can look to find this stuff?

oldelkhunter -- email me and I' ll follow up!
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Big Bore Rifles don' t have a real large following, so finding much literature on it or finding people who can REALLY talk knowledgably about them AND the kind of hunting they are intended for is quite limited.

Reading:
Craig Boddington' s " Safari Rifles" is a technical piece and gets into the history including present day AND gets into a survey of what Professional Hunters recommend for their clients: 1 gun, 2 gun, 3 gun batteries (not AA Batteries, BJ) and WHY. I spent a lot of time here before I opted for my 416 Rigby -- weighed it against the 416RemMag for a LONG time (really close in overall trade-offs).

Ruark' s " Use Enough Gun" gets into his experiences in Africa using 4 rifles: a 220 Swift, a 30-06, a 375HH, and a 470 Nitro Express double. Fun reading there.

Barnes Reloading Manual #3 -- Barnes gets into cartridges/calibers and aggressive loads that the other manuals don' t even touch!

Websites:
(A) www.accuratereloading.com -- forums -- (1) Big Bores, (2) African Hunting, (3) Big Game Hunting.
(B) www.sci.com -- community -- local chapters

Training:
Hands on instruction, is the most interesting (and possibly the most diverse and possibly most unavailable) part -- we were lucky enough to " fall into" a shooting center owned by an African hunting PH who had also taught at the PH school in South Africa. There has to be more of them around cut from a similar " bolt of cloth" . Shooting centers in affluent sectors of metro areas (source of safari clients) would be a possible contact point -- safari club international events would be another.

Example:
The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Geometrically a straight line can be identified by its two end points. In our case one end point is your eye and the other is the game animal. Do not let anything interrupt this line! Your rifle should come up from below, parallel to this line keep allowing you to keep both eyes on the animal until the rifle sights (iron or scope) come up into view. Don' t give up the animal with (both) your eyes until you see it in your sights!

Reprimand:
On the dry fire simulation which involved several steps (the one above just being one of them) I violated this rule, hoisted the rifle up at a 20 degree angle thru the sacred " sight line" with the intent of " zeroing in" upon the target by " snapping to it" or " settling in" from just above (Just like I been doing for 30 years, by Gawd). " FREEZE! That lion at 50 yards charged just as you covered him up with your rifle and your forearm, you lost him in your scope and since you were blocking me as PH I couldn' t shoot him off of you before he roughed you up a bit -- you were lucky, but you are going to spend the next six weeks in a Niorobi hospital with the nastiest infection you' ve ever seen! DON' T DO THAT!"

" Okay, Yank -- even if you are just hunting elk don' t violate the sight line -- keep your eyes on the game. A hunter that knows this will have his elk shot while another that blocks the target, points the rifle in the general direction, peers through the scope, tries to find the elk, and then peeks over the scope, and then ducks back down to the scope -- all he can find is trees, and meanwhile the elk are gone -- and he loses the target altogether" NOW START OVER!"

[I' ve been working on this one with a scoped air rifle in the back yard and three different targets over a 150 degree arc from left to right. You can do it --- your mind will " magically transition" over from two eyes at 1x in plain view to one eye at 4x through the scope without ever giving up sight/location of the target -- it' s bizzare but it works (but ONLY if the rifle comes up level from underneath AND DOESN' T BLOCK your " line of sight" !]

It is amazing how quickly you can identify, acquire, and fire offhand (accurately) using this method combined with the other methods taught.

Never Go Undergunned,

EKM

Sounds like everyone had a good time and educational as well. Allan is he here on HuntingNet? Would like to get his take on technique on the larger bores.

losthwy,

Can' t say how much Allan uses a computer, email, or forums. To my knowledge he doesn' t - insofar all my communication with him was via telephone.

Fortunately for you, you are right here in the Denver Metro Area, so you can visit Cherry Creek Shooting Center with relative ease. With no intent to " bash" Allan in any way, I would say he is a business man -- a nuts and bolts kind of guy. Greetings and salutations and a short amount of small talk is acceptable; however, if you wish to tap his bank of knowledge upon which he has built his profession, then I' d encourage you to make an appointment with him and agree upon rate per hour and I' m betting he will bring you right along in short order. I can testify that he packs a lot into a short amount of time -- you' ll get your money' s worth. I wouldn' t look for nor reasonably expect to get it for free -- although it would be cool if he did participate in an internet forum and would teach pro bono -- I' m betting probably not.

Side note, some of the techniques were specific to handling big bores. Others (like the sighting technique above) can be used on " anything" .

Never Go Undergunned,
EKM

Thanks Elk
I intend to call him and set up something. If it' s who I' m thinking of I' ve talked with him a few times. He does seem straight forward and methodical. Both good qualities in an instructor.