Folks,

we, at the Big Bore Assoc of SA have been having some serious issues relating to expanding our service and concept beyond SA. It is relatively expensisve, for a non profit, volunteer run association to "crack" into the big world given postal cost for our journal and bank charges for foreign payments.

One thing we've considered is creating a more affordable foreign membership, the main benefit of which will be full access to our website and our quarterly journal. Clearly, our main event being shooting days cannot benefit the foreign member at this stage.

Please take a look at this journal and our site(see links) and then give me some feedback on this poll and comments on the forum.

Journal No. 23

BASA

Question:
Would you join BASA for access to the site and an electronic (pdf) of their journals?

Choices:
No, I have no interest or intention.
Yes, if it were $30 p/a
Yes, if it were $40 p/a
Yes, if it were $50 p/a

Question:
Please rate the journal

Choices:
Poor
OK
GOOD
GREAT
FANTASTIC

Question:
Please rate the web-site

Choices:
Poor
OK
GOOD
GREAT
FANTASTIC

 

Stephan, I didn't take the poll since the download speed is so slow on the Big Bore Journal that I gave up on it. I've got a nice high speed broadband here so I think the problem is at your end. I own the Big Bore Handloading guide and think it is a great publication and have corresponded with Pierre Van der Walt. I would love to have a web based subscription, but you've got to get the web access speed up.

Hi Wink

Thanks, will have it looked into.

I've sent you an e-mail

Anyone else who strugles to open the journal can send me an e-mail and I'll mail the pdf version back to you.

stephen@thegrillmaster.co.za

Regards
Stephen

From my side in SA with wireless the download of the journal wasnt to bad.

BTW, Stephen when and where is the year end shoot happening this year ?

I was able to download the journal with no difficulty using broadband. The journal does appear to be well done and contains many articles of interest.

As far as membership, it seems to me that the penalty for NON-RSA membership is MUCH too high!
Assuming we will only have access to the pdf version of the journal, so there will no postage or printing costs for our membership.

At todays exchange rate the Non RSA membership is +/- R800, and the joining fee is +/- R400! Twice the RSA price for less service.

I will support the same price as RSA membership, for the "Electronic Edition", but not double. [the wire transfer requirement is a nuisance however - credit cards would be a good bit easier]

Good Luck with your venture!

Les Howell

quote:

Originally posted by Wink:
Stephan, I didn't take the poll since the download speed is so slow on the Big Bore Journal that I gave up on it. I've got a nice high speed broadband here so I think the problem is at your end. I own the Big Bore Handloading guide and think it is a great publication and have corresponded with Pierre Van der Walt. I would love to have a web based subscription, but you've got to get the web access speed up.

Stephen:

I agree with Wink. I did take the time to download the journal and really liked it, especially the article "How CZ Africanized Us Amreicans." However, you have got to find a way to speed it up at your end. It took a really long time to download.

Dave

Hi Les

What you say is true, and is the basis of this very poll so please look at a totally different fee going forward. It really is a question of sufficient interest to warrant setting up a more efficient payment system.

Frederik

The shoot will be at SWAT on the 22 November. We have had two very successful shoots there and our new targets & concepts are great. See you there?

Journal is very nice! Had no difficulty seeing it with Satellite broadband (which is not that fast).

Website is pretty conservative and could be done better (with more information more easily accessed) I think.

I agree that the penalty for non-RSA membership with electronic access is simply too high. If you don't have to ship paper it should not be so.

Must be some way to avoid the wire transfer for payment! (Something ... Credit card, PayPal.)

Stephen.
Got it up an running in less than a minute.
Great read!
But I would love to have the paper magazine, sit in my easy chear with a good Lagavulin single malt on the side table

I´m willing to pay the postage expences if there was an option between the internet and the paper version.

Regarding the cost of the membership, I tend to agree with LHowell, but I have no problem with you guys covering your expences.

I think the magazine is great and have no problem with it been pdf but you have to do something with payment, It is very difficult to me to use other payment than credit card from here.
Also would like to see more action in your forum.
Thanks
Martin

Looks interesting. Finally, a magazine without a lot of fluff dedicated to something we're actually interested in. (African Hunter comes pretty close too.) Keep us posted on international memberships.

The resolution on the pdf could be better... Also, muzzling that Boatman fellow might not have been a terrible idea... Or at least have him read Hemmingway, Rouark, TR, etc, rather than just insult them.

Stephen,

I am happy to concur with every one of the posts here so far. I do think that electronic publishing is the way of the future and that that is the way that you need to go. It would also be much more profitable to maintain online archives of all of your journals for someone who is a subscriber to access whenever they quickly want to refer to something. For those who would much rather have their copies with them, you could offer your journal on DVD, again something that could be done really cheap compared to printing on paper.

BTW I tried signing onto your forums some time ago but couldn't for reasons that must have something to do with your website. In any case, this is a moot point because I would be happy to subscribe once you start offering electronic subscriptions. Please just make it possible to accept credit card payments. ALl you need to do is to open an account with any major bank like Citibank, Chase, Ing, etc and they would help you to set this up.

Cheers!

Stephen
That is an excellent publication and worth every cent.
The size is actually very good considering how many high quality images you have in there. If you want to make it smaller you would have to compromise on quality and that to me would be a great loss. Much rather wait a little longer for the download. At 6.8 MB it is about the same size as most other online publications of this size, it does have 44 pages after all.

I too would buy a printed version, with the quality authors and relevant big game and big bore info in it I would say that it is a far more relevant publication to DG hunters than Magnum or any of the other. No disrespect to Magnum here but it has diversified to a point where DG articles are a rarity.

With what you offer I would say that you should not be reducing the international subscriber costs, but rather raising the South African costs to match the quality of the product.
Publish these articles and build an archive on your website and you will very soon become the go-to for all matters related to big bores.
Good luck to you and I look forward to seeing more top quality content.

It seems very difficult to get access to the forums, i have tried a few times - you have a PM in this regard.

Vlam with you suggesting that you raise the costs for South Africans to R800/yr you obviously have too much money - maybe you can subsidise the rest of us!

No Scott
I simply know how much effort goes into this sort of thing and what it will cost to continue to produce this sort of content. There are authors to be paid, and not to mention the cost of production and layout. Computers and software to keep up to date, imagery to purchase hosting for the website and forum, secretaries to handle increased membership needs, the list goes on. This is currently running on the effort of a few passionate individuals, but as it grows will need to be administered by professionals who are able to maintain the pace and coordinate efforts etc. Bottom line is that if you can afford to shoot a big bore and intend to pursue any hunting sport in earnest then this is very little to ask. Perhaps you should look at the question the other way around, and ask yourself how you can boost your own earning potential so that you too can afford to support the efforts that are require to produce true quality. Perhaps this is the sort of question that half our country needs to be asking themselves at a whole bunch of different levels. How to see past the door that has just closed and on to where the next one will open.

Lets be honest. For the cost of two boxes of big bore ammo, you have access to some of the best writing on the subject. This in itself should allow you to save that 3 times over in not making poor judgments based on inferior information.

Or maybe I've just got too much money, and a bunch of unrealistic dreams. Yeah, that must be it...

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Vlam:
...Lets be honest. For the cost of two boxes of big bore ammo, you have access to some of the best writing on the subject. This in itself should allow you to save that 3 times over in not making poor judgments based on inferior information.
QUOTE]

Well said! Some excellent information not to mention great writers. I enjoyed it very much. Will consider taking the plunge.

BASA will not grow outside of RSA until you start accepting credit card payments.

I tried to subscribe long ago and got to the payment method that required a bank transfer: Nuts!

I tried to access your forums and you wanted too much information, including my passport number: Nuts!

I will keep trying to download your Sep 2007 issue ...

Say "Hi" to Pierre for me.

Good Day

RIP is spot on regarding payment methods.

MJC

I agree with you on the effort to register and payment options.
Stephen, If you need help setting up the credit card payment options, please get in touch. I have several options you can try, most of them very simple to set up. Contact me at mail@africanbushsafari.com

I've read some of the articles on-line in the past, though I don't remember whether they were actually on the BASA site. They were pretty good.

If they are on-line subscriptions I don't see how they are worth much since a lot of the cost of foreign subscriptions is postage.

There is a certain percentage of big bore fans that I'm sure would pay anything but generally the guns crowd are a bunch of cheap SOB's!

I'm not a marketing guy but a bunch of $10 subscriptions might outweigh a few $30 subscriptions.

Most of the stuff in the US gun rags is just the same old stuff that just keeps getting recycled. That's great for the uninitiated but admittedly my interests are narrow and if Magnum magazine, for example, doesn't have anything about buff or ele in it I loose interest fast. And I disagree with Gregor Wood's opinions too much!!

But in the past the articles in BASA that I have read were pretty good. A refreshing article by arch rival(!) Richard Harland was about shooting/reloading from the shoulder and at least was a practical discussion of reality and not the same old bull shit from guys that don't know what they are doing and are stuck in some "proper" method universe.

I'll give you $10. I'm cheap too.

Hope for the best for you BASA guys.

Excellent magazine! I didn't realize my 375 H&H Safari Classic (which I ordered from the Custom shop through jason Morton) had a McGowen barrel. Any feedback on McGowen barrels in general?



Chuck

chuck375,
McGowen, eh?

That explains the shift from 1:14" twist hammer-forged barrels on the Czech-produced older rifles in .375 H&H.

I knew that the .505 Gibbs and .404 Jeffery barrels on the new CZ rifles were McGowen, and 1:10" twist BTW, as I have measured mine, and looked at the rifling pattern that is McGowen to my experienced McGowen-eye-ball.

Your barrel is button rifled by McGowen, 1:12" twist, and I think it is better than the old hammer-forged slow twist.

Most of the tiny-group target pics I have posted here have been from McGowen barrels.

McGowen barrel = Excellent barrel.

Besides, McGowen is the only producer in the world of .395-caliber barrels.

I think both McGowen and Krieger claim that their .404 Jeffery barrels are .424" groove. I had one McGowen slugged at .4236", yep, closer to .424 than .423.

Lothar Walther barrels may be claimed to be .423, and Mike Brady slugged one at .4226", yep, .423 to the nearest thou.

Krieger: cut .424"
McGowen: button .424"
Lothar Walther: ??? .423

All by design, and on purpose.
I like the faster twists on big bores.
McGowen barrels are as good as any for my purposes.

McGowen barrels notwithstanding, the factory CZ's are always nuts on in my experience.