Because of the Chink Virus, many of us had to give up hunting last year.

Now things are getting back to normal, we are getting ready too.



























1. Arriving at Mlele International Airport

2. Sighting in our rifles

3. Buffalo

4.Buffalo herd and camp

5. Rene and Alan running away from us!

6. Collecting Tse Tse Dawa

7. Poachers camp

8. Countryside

9. Crossing one of the many rivers

10. Buffalo

11. A beautiful waterfall

12. Buffalo herd bathing in mud

13. Buffalo and sunset

Exciting stuff!

For me, finding the “right” load and then prepping and loading the ammo for an upcoming hunt is a large part of the experience. Looks like it might be for you, too.
I hope you have a great hunt and bring home a lot of empty brass.

I feel your anticipation! Brian

Given your antics, you better not let Walter near any of that until you get to Tanzania…

Saeed, are you going to be hunting that Western block this year? If so have you heard any reports yet?

Looks good!

SO FAR SO GOOD.

Walter, has not left his fingerprints on anything...

Appears, it need to stay that way.

I feel bad for the animals and the skinner's LOL

Is that 4350 in those cases?

Damn, I can't wait for the daily reports!

Got a few questions.

H4350 is used for these loads.

This is a relatively mild load, as I can go quite a bit higher.

But found this velocity works for best penetration.

This rifle is very easy to load for, it seems to like whatever powder you load it with.


It is probably one of the funniest rifles that frequents safaris camps.

I built it in an afternoon.

Has the wrong stock - half the magazine protrudes below the stock.

In my hurry I set the lathe wrong when I was cutting the screws on the barrel.

To get the cutter to reach the end of the shank, I had to bevel the outside of the end of the barrel.

After installation, this gives the impression that the barrel is actually loose - you can see a gap between the end of the barrel and the action!

In any proper workshop this would have been a reject!

I left it as it is and shot it.

Shot so well I decided to leave it.

It does raise all sorts of questions from knowledgeable people - especially my friend Dwight Scott - he built my first 375/404.

When he saw this he said "WHAT?"

When I told him what happened he was back to his usual self, and started laughing "OH JEEZ! I should have known! You probably made this on purpose!"

The hats are being prepared by Hessa, as she usually does them for us now for many years.

Once you wear these hats, you become invisible.

They have magic.

Just like my bullets that never miss.

We are hunting a new area, and reports are suggesting it is a great place to hunt.

We have two new hunters this year, they have been hunting all their lives in Sweden.

They have been hunting funny looking animals that live in the snow.

Cannot imagine how they are going to react to chasing buffalo in midday heat!

I love the story of the rifle and caliber! Does it still have nail polish down the flutes?

I love Hessa’s designs every year.

Yes.

The red nail polish is still intact! Adds to the character!

We were in camp once where other hunters were passing through, and stayed to have lunch with us.

They showed us their fancy custom made rifles, lovely looking guns.

Their PH picked mine and said "now here we have a real working rifle!"

Nothing fancy, just does the job.

Looking forward to the reports. Hope the Swedes performs better in the heat than their cross-country team does in snow Your 375/404 should be ideal for our nordic moose up here. Nice performing bullet for sure.

We have sent word ahead for blonde baboons to match them with!

We don’t want them to feel homesick!

quote:

Once you wear these hats, you become invisible.

They have magic.

Just like my bullets that never miss.

Damn, it's already started!

quote:

Originally posted by K Evans:
For me, finding the “right” load and then prepping and loading the ammo for an upcoming hunt is a large part of the experience. Looks like it might be for you, too.
I hope you have a great hunt and bring home a lot of empty brass.

Absolutely true for me too.

Saeed, are all your loads for the safari the same bullet weight?

The hardest thing for me is finding the time to do it. But I somehow manage.

Saeed, I love that you are hard core about these things.

I think for the die-hards, it comes down to this:

Who wants to buy what he can make himself, and make better than can be bought?

Your groups seem to be getting larger, though.

I see two holes rather than the usual one.

Might be time for a new barrel.

..
"375/404 Special No Miss Ammo"

Love It!

These bullets actually weigh 307.3 to 307.5 grains.

We use run of the mill normal copper rod, which we buy from hardware suppliers.

Over the years, I have found that the density of these varies.

Apparently the very first ones I used when I designed these bullets was less dense.

The current lot we have is a bit heavier.

I don't bother adjusting the program for the weight - so far, no animal has written back complaining!

So this is the actually weight of this years production.

I am just glad to see a normal routine being carried out. Can’t wait for the play by play.


Good luck sir and have a splendid time!

Alan sent me a photo of a trail camera mount that screws into the trunk of a tree.

We looked for them here, and could not find any.

So we made our own, and got swivel mounts from Amazon.

Works like a charm.

Saaed, don't forget to bring your new joke book. You'll be a big hit around the campfire :-)

Saeed, I don't see crimps on your bullets. Do you not crimp them?

Mike,

I don't crimp my bullets.

My magazine takes 2 rounds.

I load one on top as we get out of the truck to chamber, making three in the rifle.

The one at the bottom tends to get pushed into the case after a few days as I hardly ever shoot the bottom cartridge unless get into several buffalo.

Our driver, Lima, and me have developed a sort of a relationship.

He does not trust me, due to my past playing tricks on him.

Like hiding his car keys - now he ties them on a string and drops them down his trousers!

Or removing the return spring on the accelerator, or disconnecting the battery.

But he has cottoned on to me, and just the mere presence of me around gets all his advanced warning systems into high gear.

America's PATRIOT anti missile system does not come even close to his!

Now he even dreams up things I MIGHT do top him.

Because we are such close friends, and he remains by the truck while we are hunting, we have developed an idea for him to participate.

As I get out of the truck, I walk up to him and ask him to pick the right round from my belt.

He turns to the trackers and asks what are we hunting.

He then carefully picks the right cartridge for that, and I chamber it.

Works great.

He loves eating gun powder, as the rest of the trackers do too.

Years ago, my wife was in Germany, and found black organic rock salt.

She bought a bottle and brought it home, saying "Here, this black salt that looks like gun powder. I am sure you will have fun with it"

That was quite a few years back, and we have been having so much fun with it.

I take one primed case with no powder in it.

I seat a bullet in it by hand.

During the hunt, when we stop for lunch, I put some of that salt in it, seat the bullet and put it in my ammo belt.

The trackers, Lima and the game scout start preparing their lunch.

Which is normally partly cooked meat - buffalo heart is their favorite.

They add tomato paste, onions, and oil and cook it.

I remove the bullet, and add the gun powder to their cooking.

They love the looks we normally get from the newly arrive game scout.

Sometimes we get one that smokes, so I ask him not to smoke for a couple of hours after eating.

Then he ends up not smoking for the rest of the day.

Scared he might blow up!

Now you might understand what I have been saying.

That it is wonder of wonders we ever manage to hunt anything, when everyone is on their toes because of practical jokes!

One ti8mer we were driving along, wind behind us.

And right there in front of us was an old kongoni bull standing close by looking straight at us.

We stopped, took pictures, and Roy asked Walter to shoot it.

Walter takes his time to get ready for this.

No matter.

The kongoni stool absolutely still, looking back at us watching Walter trying to shoot him.

He did.

Roy said "Even the animals are confused now when they see us! They never know what these funny looking creatures are up to"

Looking forward to your hunt and the reports. Nice with two Swedes joining the hunt

Definitely looking forward to your daily reports, this year even more than normal.

quote:

Originally posted by DLS:
Definitely looking forward to your daily reports, this year even more than normal.

How sad!

Sitting in California and looking forward to waking up every morning to see what a bunch of multi nationality, clueless bunch of nuts are up to!

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:

quote:

Originally posted by DLS:
Definitely looking forward to your daily reports, this year even more than normal.

How sad!

Sitting in California and looking forward to waking up every morning to see what a bunch of multi nationality, clueless bunch of nuts are up to!

Yes it is. But, I have a cure for that problem.

I have started doing a 3 hour fast walk, jog on the running machine.

I need to be in shape to keep up with Alan and Roy!

Once you pass 70 you need to keep the joints flexible!

Best of luck and looking forward to your stories. I need one of those invisibility hats!

quote:

Originally posted by Sniper:
Best of luck and looking forward to your stories. I need one of those invisibility hats!

Those hats only work with our NO MISS bullets.

And we don’t sell these!

With sort of hunters we have, they need all the help they can get

I can only imagine!

We had a hunter who fired 12 shots to get his buffalo.

We had one trying to shoot a warthog with his Blaser.

He got so worked up he missed his first shot.

Then he proceeded to load his rifle - by not pulling the bolt back far enough to pick a new cartridge, and slamming it forward on an empty chamber. Getting loud CLICK!

This went on for a number of tries.

I could not help him, as I was rolling on the ground laughing my head off!

Had a throat ache for ages after that!

I can go on and on with similar stories, but I don’t want you all to get the impression that we totally useless at hunting.

We need to have some respect in this matter!

After all, we are genuine veteran hunters

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
These bullets actually weigh 307.3 to 307.5 grains.

We use run of the mill normal copper rod, which we buy from hardware suppliers.

Over the years, I have found that the density of these varies.

Apparently the very first ones I used when I designed these bullets was less dense.

The current lot we have is a bit heavier.

I don't bother adjusting the program for the weight - so far, no animal has written back complaining!

So this is the actually weight of this years production.

All the best with the upcoming hunt, Saeed.

I did not know that just a regular solid copper rod shaped into bullets could punch through the massive flesh and bones of a Cape Buffalo. Amazing!

Looking forward to hearing about the new hunting area!

Good Luck Saeed!

quote:

Originally posted by RobinOLocksley:

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
These bullets actually weigh 307.3 to 307.5 grains.

We use run of the mill normal copper rod, which we buy from hardware suppliers.

Over the years, I have found that the density of these varies.

Apparently the very first ones I used when I designed these bullets was less dense.

The current lot we have is a bit heavier.

I don't bother adjusting the program for the weight - so far, no animal has written back complaining!

So this is the actually weight of this years production.

All the best with the upcoming hunt, Saeed.

I did not know that just a regular solid copper rod shaped into bullets could punch through the massive flesh and bones of a Cape Buffalo. Amazing!

A famous bullet company offered to sell us “special” copper for bullets.

We thanked them and just used normal run of the mill copper rod sold in building materials stores.

Works like a charm.

Have never seen anything better.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
A famous bullet company offered to sell us “special” copper for bullets.

We thanked them and just used normal run of the mill copper rod sold in building materials stores.

Works like a charm.

Have never seen anything better.

One day I will have to try this.Of course, in the .375/.404 Saeed calibre.

Saeed, is Hessa joining you this year? Or not until after she finishes all of her schooling?

Hessa has just started university.

We actually had planned to go to Namibia last year during the holiday.

But the Chink virus put paid to that.

We will have to see how things pan out in the future.

She loves shooting.

Beats the boys at it

Our friends have arrived.

Today we took them to the desert for breakfast.

Tomorrow we head to the jungle.