This is a rather long post; it probably does not even fit in here so be free to move it or ignore.
I am white South African male 50years old and had a great hunting season. I am middle income but have always had a healthy interested in doubles and own 5 double rifles, 6 single shot rifles and 12 shotguns. I belong to a syndicate that comprises of 6 REAL friends (al varsity friends whom I have known for at least 20+ years) and our 8 sons aged 15-22. We have 2 yearly hunts, both 9 days long, one in April- a so-called ‘plains’ game hunt in Kimberley and a September ‘bush’ hunt in Klaserie, bordering the Kruger National Park.
During the April hunt I took my Scherping 9,3X74R (the only scoped double I own) and shot the biggest warthog I have ever seen; after slaughtering it weighed 85KG’s. We hunted springbuck, eland, gemsbok and warthog and in total accounted for 52 animals. We processed the meat, made biltong and wors, and froze the rest. During this time I shot a number of water birds (geese and ducks) with my 12g Dickson and also put in a couple of hunts for guineas and francolin with my 16g Alex Henry. This made for excellent table fair during the hunt.
During the September hunt we hunted 2 adult Buffalo cows and Impala (all I could permits for) and this time my Westley Richards 450/400 was on standby. I introduced 2 teenage boys to wingshooting (with my old Boss hammergun) and took them hunting for guineas, francolin and partridge amongst the big 5- a seriously good experience.
I also went on a weekend hunt for bushbuck with my .303 Rigby but that was unsuccessful and had another 4 weekends of wingshooting (twice for waterfowl (12g 3” Midland), twice for terrestrial gamebirds (Dickson))
To me, this was a great year- however, a typical year. Am I lucky or is this typical (except maybe for the buffalo) of all our members here? Sometimes I get the impression that the members are seriously knowledgably but shoot the doubles in more formal surroundings. I like to believe that these special pieces need to be used for hunting and please, I am not judging, just making an observation. Your comments will be appreciated.
Charls.

You're right Charls, there are a lot of collectors and experts on this Board that do not use their doubles hard but use them only in formal settings such as sporting clays.
And there are those of us that hunt with their doubles as much as they can.
Pennsylvania for grouse and waterfowl then to South Dakota for pheasants, my old Ithaca double gets used often.

Charls

Sounds like a splendid season to me. Thank you for your post. I was in Zimbabwe in 2005 on business. While there, I had the opportunity to spend a day hunting with a local PH. It was one of the most enjoyable days I've spent afield. Your post brought back some good memories.

Cheers
Marcus

I doubt if typical. You have much more variety there than in most places. Too late for me to move dammit! Are biltong and wors like what we call bratwurst or sausage (stuffed tubes) and jerky (dried strips or cylinders of ground meat)?

Hi Charls,
My name is Mike and I noted your comments on your Scherping. I am the point of contact on Scherping guns for the German Gun Collector Assn. I would really like to see some picures of your gun as well as anything else you can tell me about it. Look forward to hearing from you. I can be contacted at vaughans_hart@yahoo.com

M-4
Mike

The Easterner's in the U.S. do not have much PUBLIC land to hunt on, just about all of the land in the east is private......therefore, private hunt clubs, skeet and trap ranges and pen raised game farms is the norm, somebody's private farm etc., waterfoul being the exception in some areas..........Key word here is PUBLIC LAND.........

On the other hand, the westerner's in the U.S. have millions and millions of public acres to hunt on and do so with regularity.....and most of their small and large game is natural and wild and abundant.........the exception would be penned up game ranches like some in Texas where the animals are raised, exotic and domestic alike.....(fenced in)......and advertised heavily on T.V...(we call that zoo hunting)......

Personally, I believe in fair chase, PUBLIC LAND hunting only.......but other opinions here will differ for sure..........

Charls:....Sounds like you enjoy precisely the way hunting is supposed to be.....best of luck.......

I think there may be a misconception of wild game hunting in the East, well, the Southeast anyway. We do 'put out' bobwhites because the land use down here has destroyed the once world famous wild bird hunting, but the whitetail, bear, and turkey as well the rest of the small game is as wild as Charls' plains and bush game...Geo

In the Atlantic Provinces of Canada there's plenty to shoot on the hoof---deer, moose and caribou---and plenty of land, mostly public. If I had the time I'd be gunning with my doubles every day. (I've nearly given up on big game because it seems easy compared to the wing.)

We shared our Canadian Thanksgiving last night with my American buddies from Alabama who put up all the woodcock and ruffed grouse they wanted in New Brunswick, our neighbouring province, and then came home to splendid fly-fishing of salmon on the Margaree and rainbows in the Middle River of Cape Breton.

This is all wild birds; preserves and game farms are not common around here. Hunting is good with lots of land and relatively little hunting pressure. Rarely is there another hunter within a kilometre or two, in the blind or the forest, even on weekends. I think of it as a sort of blessing.

Rifle exclusively CZ Brno circa 1948 7 X 57 for serious hunting; doubles: the American classics of which I'm pretty sentimental, and SKB, Francotte, Sauer, A & N because of their fit, condition and provenance. It's kind of heaven when I think of what I started with on blacks and sea ducks 70 years ago.

And the doves, ducks, deer and hogs. And there are still a few coveys of wild bobwhites around that we hunt occasionally, for old times' sake.

Yeah, but we don't talk about that too much and we don't share'em with anyone...Geo

Thanks for the insightfull comments.
Mike, I will send you photos within the next day or two.
Hal, yes, wors is sausage and biltong is jerky.
Charls

Charls, You indeed are living a treasured life! If I were to have the opportunity to do as you have I would be unable to return home. Here in Pennsylvania we are fortunate to have WhiteTail deer, Black bear, turkey, waterfowl, grouse and dove. We may also include an infinite population of groundhogs and predators like fox and coyote. I will mention Elk too, but as a after thought because the poulation is small and though huntable the chance at a tag is slim.

In my early years I and my family would often travel to a tract of public land north of my home. We would camp in unheated tents and stave off the cold with open fires and good sleeping bags. We hunted whitetails, grouse and turkey, but enjoyed the camp as much as anything. The older men used Savage model 99s in 300 savage, for the most part, except for my father who used a 303 jungle carbine. We younger ones used 30.06s and 308 Winchesters. Our shotguns were mostly pump action 12ga. Snow was what we wanted though we new it would make for a harder time in camp. When in the woods after game weather was of little consideration unless the tree tops began to break in the wind and fall near our tents. The freedom felt hunting hundreds of thousands of acres of land where one could explore without concern of trespass was more than a insignificant element of the over all experience. I am sure you and your freinds know what I am saying. It is the memory of these hunts I find the most appealing when the troubles of life make sleep elusive. Conditions now have, admittedly, moved things further back than they once seemed, but for those who can appreciate it, it remains. I hope you will write here frequently of you experiences and I hope your experiences are frequent! Thanks for the posting and all the best!

Kurt,
Well written!! I hope as well to have instilled these memories within my son so that maybe one day he will have the chance to do the same and pass tradition down through the family.

thanks
Mike

Charls,

It sounds as though you had an outstanding season on both the game and the fowl! Great memories made I'm sure!

I use a double shotgun for almost all my bird hunting (blue and ruffed grouse, pheasants, quail, chukars, huns and turkeys). I don't own a double rifle, but if I did, I'd use that for deer and elk hunting.

I've sometimes thought that a drilling would serve my purpose better in some situations, such as this past weekend pheasant hunting and seeing 30-40 whitetails and 15-20 mulies.

I'll be making up some wors from a pronghorn I harvested a few weeks back, and will probably make up some biltong from any deer or elk I harvest in November. We still have about 2/3 of the season left for both birds and big game.