The Hearing Imperative
I J Larivers

(Originally published in African Hunter magazine)

When I first started shooting, most of the club’s committee consisted of the ‘old guard’- folks who’d been on the range or around firearms a lot for most of their lives, throughout the Rhodesian bush war and events like the first Practical Pistol World Championship in 1977. It wasn’t long before I got involved with the club’s reloading teams. It could be quite comical on a Wednesday evening with the old-timers bellowing at each other to discuss the merits of different bullet types and powder charges, for a good many of them had spent most of their shooting lives without using hearing protection.

The greats of yesteryear, like Elmer Keith and Bill Jordan, didn’t hear too well either as the years wore on. In their halcyon days, hearing protection just wasn’t seen as necessary and that ringing in your ears after a day on the range was just part and parcel of shooting. I grew up like that too, but fortunately didn’t do a lot of shooting until the use of hearing protection had become the new normal.

I do have tinnitus – that annoying background ringing in the ears – today, but it’s a result of two large doses of quinine after contracting a particularly bad strain of malaria on the Zambezi River. What shooters didn’t realise back in the day, was that there is a condition called Noise Induced Hearing Loss. It is a medical condition, wherein the cumulative effects of repeated exposure to loud noises causes degradation of one’s hearing.

There are times when it’s not practical to wear ear defenders: a military scenario and hunting are examples. When I was in tsetse control during the last days of the war, I always kept a pair of spent 9mm cases on the light switches of my Series III Land Rover for the purpose – and of course I never used them, except maybe if we did some impromptu shooting practice on the old airfield that doubled as our range.

I have done a lot of shooting over the past forty years as far afield as the United States, Namibia, South Africa, Ecuador, Australia and Bali, and in this day and age, I have not come across a range where both eye and ear protection are not mandatory. In the major international disciplines such as the International Practical Shooting Confederation, these safeguards are a condition of match entry. Even air gun shooters wear ear defenders – not because of the deafening report of a .177 Hammerli, but to minimise distractions from background noise.

As the former editor of a hunting magazine, I will come under fire from my readers for letting through photos of people supposedly shooting without eye and ear protection, or having a family pet on the range during what appears to be live fire. The good reason for this is that any time the human ear is exposed to sounds in excess of 85 decibels there is the risk of damage to the sensory receptor cells in the ears called auditory hair cells. Experts will tell you that even a single exposure to such a loud noise can result in temporary damage to these cells.

A decibel equates to ten Bels – named in honour of Alexander Graham Bell and originally used to quantify telephonic power in the early 20th century.

Hair cells are sensitive to vibrations in the air – sounds – which they then biochemically convert into impulses along the auditory nerve which the brain translates into perceived sounds. The result of damaging them with unduly loud noises is sensorineural hearing loss, and what this means is a diminished hearing sensitivity. You can still detect volume, just not the subtler nuances between sounds. Human hair cells are not capable of reproduction, and therefore the damage to hearing will, over time, become permanent. Millions of people around the world have developed high frequency hearing loss as a result of unprotected exposure to loud noises, and the shooting fraternity is particularly at risk. In addition to the pure volume in decibels of a sound stimulus like a gunshot, its frequency and duration are also causative factors in damage to your hearing, hence the use of hearing protection in the construction industry.

Noise Induced Hearing Loss may go almost unnoticed, but as time goes by, once sharp and clear sounds become indistinct and muffled. People with the condition begin to have difficulty distinguishing similar words from one another and perceiving common sounds like ‘v’ and ‘s’ – particularly in environments where there is a lot of background noise.

Sound is caused by vibrations travelling through the air, and as such is moderated by physical barriers and distance. The closer you are to the source of the sound, the louder and more distinct it will be, and this applies to the muzzle of a firearm as well. When a topographical obstruction like a wind current or a physical barrier interferes with a soundwave, it causes what is called an acoustic shadow. In the case of a shooter, the head creates a partial acoustic shadow, so the effect of a gunshot and any resultant hearing impairment is not necessarily the same for both ears. The report, in the case of a right-handed shooter will be greater – by about 3dB – in the left ear and vice versa.

If a noise needs to be 85dB to potentially damage one’s hearing, how significant can 3dB be? Very. To understand the decibel scale, remember it is logarithmic. Increments are non-linear; logarithmic scales are used to measure wide ranges of values such as light intensity and loudness of sound. While ten decibels is ten times greater than the faintest sound the ear can perceive, twenty decibels is one hundred times greater. To put this into perspective, a 3dB increase means the intensity is doubled.

As a general guide, if you’re sitting in a quiet room, you’re probably being exposed to around 40dB. If your alarm clock goes off, that goes to around 80dB. Go outside to mow the lawn, or use other machinery and you’re going to be in the 90-110dB range.

‘Firearms’ are collectively rated on most charts as giving off around 140dB, but not all firearms are created equal, and higher velocity cartridges and shorter barrels are going to be louder. An MOA single shot .358 Winchester I occasionally shoot at long range silhouettes has a 360° muzzle brake – and that can add in excess of 10dB to the report.

It’s easy to see how long-term exposure to gunfire can irreparably damage a person’s hearing. Indoor ranges and covered ranges will often prohibit the use of magnum loads to reduce ambient sound, especially as someone standing alongside a shooter is exposed to even greater noise.

As with most things, prevention is far better than cure, especially when there is no cure. And because Noise Induced Hearing Loss is cumulative, even though some permanent damage may have been done from the beginning, it is never too late to start using hearing protection.

Hearing protection is basically divided into two categories: passive and active. Passive would consist of earplugs or hearing protectors. I know a lot of shooters who insist on wearing both types concurrently.

Ear defenders range in price from dollars to hundreds of dollars, and it’s probably not worth skimping too much in this regard. The effectiveness of different types and brands is determined by something called a Noise Reduction Rating. This is a unit of measurement used in the United States that compares the effectiveness of various forms of hearing protection.

The higher the NRR number, the more effective the device presumably is. Again, the NRR reverts to a bit of a generalisation because sounds are comprised of varying frequencies, and earplugs and defenders do not temper different frequencies to the same degree. The formula used to determine the actual effectiveness of a form of hearing protection is to take the NRR value, subtract seven and divide by two. Therefore, if you are using a set of disposable earplugs with an NRR of 29 (29 – 7 = 22 / 2 = 11), and you are using a lawnmower producing 90dB, you are not being exposed to 61dB, but rather 79dB (90 – 11 = 79).

By the same token, if you are using those plugs together with a set of ear defenders which are NRR rated at 27, you do not add the two values together, but rather add a decibel value of five to the highest number, e.g. that combination would afford 34 dB of protection (29 + 5), and the exposure from the lawn mower would be down to 56dB.

You will also occasionally see reference to SNR values. This refers to the Single Number Rating, which is an insulation value, in decibels, which is averaged over relevant frequencies. If, for example, a product has an SNR value of 35dB, it will absorb 100dB, reducing it to 65dB. For years, I used Deben’s passive Slimline ear defenders. They are a good quality product at an affordable price, and their noise reduction rating is 24. The quality is important, because the efficacy of hearing protectors depends largely on the fit. They must fit properly and seal tightly around the ear, or the Noise Reduction Rating is almost meaningless.

One day, a newer member of my shooting club, who is in the business of supplying medical equipment, convinced Paul and me and a few other folks to order a set of 3M Peltor Tactical Sport Hearing Protectors. The price was way above what I normally paid for a set of passive defenders, but at the very least I would have a state-of- the-art set of passive defenders if I didn’t like them! 3M is a quality brand, and Paul is very happy with his. They are even used as passive protectors, even though they are NRR rated at ‘only’ 20. I like the way mine amplify ambient sounds, and as they cut out at 85dB, they fit the bill nicely. There are many applications for a good set of hearing protectors that will also allow you to hear normal background sounds and conversations and be aware of what is happening around you, while at the same time filtering out harmful noises.

Modern active electronic ear defenders are the solution to this problem. The shooting fraternity is pretty much divided down the middle as to whether they are a good thing or an abomination. I personally like the idea of active noise reduction, because I can clearly hear the range officer’s commands. Zimbabwe’s top Practical Pistol shooter, Paul Friendship, on the other hand, feels that the background noise is too distracting when he’s on the line – we both have the same hearing protectors, but I use batteries!
How do they work?

Active ear defenders incorporate a battery-powered amplifier that works with microphones in each ear muff and normal background sounds are picked up, amplified, and fed through miniature speakers on each side. Better models have volume controls, and any loud, harmful noises – in the 80-90dB range – are filtered out by an electronic circuit, which cuts off the speaker in the headset. Across the board, varying active sound suppressors come in the 15-30dB NRR range, and, apart from the amplification of normal background noises, they are no better or worse than passive hearing protectors. And no, I don’t care if they’re MP3-compatible.

It really comes down to the individual shooter’s choice as to what type of hearing protection to use. The least expensive are earplugs, and the best types like the Silencio Red-E-Fit offer NRR ratings of up to 32. The price tag goes way up if you order ones custom-fitted to your ears – or active ones, which are available – but they do afford the best seal. Many shooting ranges, including mine, have inexpensive throw-away earplugs for sale to casual day members, and you can buy ones like Silencio’s silicone Economy Earplug, which are re-useable. The only complaint that many shooters have is that earplugs can be uncomfortable, and may be dislodged with strenuous activity.

In the cheaper types, the ear cushion is foam-filled, and this is replaced by liquid silicone in the better models. If you wear ear protection and eye protection, your shooting glasses, for example, may interfere with the fit around the ear and the liquid silicone is much more adaptive and ensures a better seal.

Active, electronic ear defenders seem to be all the vogue now. If all else fails, they are no worse than passive hearing protectors, though they are much more expensive… and remember… batteries are the curse of technology! But, all things considered, they may be the last pair I ever buy, and I am happy with them.

In summary, all types of ear defenders have their place. I always throw a couple of pairs of disposable 3M foam plugs into my range bag, because someone on the range is always going to forget hearing protection; at the price, there will always be one or two pairs in my car, too. My old Deben passive hearing protectors also live in the car, along with an older pair of shooting glasses – for I can be forgetful, too. The simple fact is, there is no alternative to sensible hearing protection.

CHRISTMAS WITH CHEWORE
I J Larivers

There’s always a grain of truth in superstitions. For instance, if you see a chameleon walking across your path, that’s OK, but if it’s walking down the path, toward or away from you, it is a harbinger of disaster. So says Ndebele legend. If you think about it chameleons are weighted far more on the prey side than the predator side, and despite their artistry of camouflage, that only works if they’ve got some obliging background in front of which to do their stuff. So, they’d best make haste from point A to point B. Because you are not likely to see a chameleon walking down the path. If you do, and you actually register it, you’ll probably bewondering enough about it that you’ll step on the puff adder around the corner. See? Chameleons walking down the path are bad luck.

This and other legends I learned over Christmas of 1994, whilst spending a relaxing ten days at Tashinga National Parks rest camp on the shores of Lake Kariba with a colleague.

To make ourselves useful we offered to bring up a Unimog truck for the station, and a cattle crush which had been modified to incorporate a scale for use with Chewore, the baby rhinoceros.

Although Tashinga was one of National Parks’ Intensive Protection Zones for rhinos, the local villagers surrounding the National Park are not adverse to setting as many snares as they can steal the wire to make for bushmeat more than anything else. Little Chewore’s mother was caught in one such deathtrap, and although after her discovery and capture she survived, for a long period she was unable to produce milk for her offspring. Thus it came to be that the little brute was incarcerated in a large pen on station where she quickly made friends with, and provided hours of enjoyment for, anyone who overcame the myriad obstacles of getting to Tashinga to see her. This was a perfect opportunity for the station ecologist, Paul Wood, to accumulate a lot of raw data on a healthy growing baby rhinoceros.

Having arranged for the ‘Mog and the cattle crush to be relayed across the lake by ferry, we made our own way over in a 17-foot powerboat, and were met by the Senior Ranger, Gary Douglas. We settled into a couple of days of lying in what little sun there was, catching more than our fair share of fish, getting in a little pistol practice on the station firing range, and feeding and playing with Chewore.

Chewore’s pen was made of sturdy mopane logs, and was more than large enough to accommodate her antics. She loved being scratched behind the ears, and reciprocated with the high-pitched whistling squeaks that baby rhinos are famous for. She consumed gallons and gallons of formula throughout the day from whoever wanted to feed her, and there was a long queue for that job. She had been given a couple of old car tyres as toys – pet shops don’t usually stock stuff for baby rhinoceroses – and she would spend what little time she wasn’t eating sleeping or squeaking, chasing them around her enclosure to the delight of anyone who cared to go in and roll them for her. Just as well, too, for a baby rhinoceros is a stocky, sturdy, powerful scale model of an adult rhinoceros. Chewore loved to play, but the problem arose when you wanted to leave. She still wanted to play. She weighed more than I did, and the only way of getting out of her pen was to send a tyre off in any direction that would allow you to slip out the gate.

Gary had friends out for Christmas, and my colleague Paul Oleszczuk did impala fillets to an old Polish recipe. That Christmas was made up of many things: good company, the African bush, and Chewore.

Then came the buffalo.

Gary had received reports of a wounded buffalo along the foreshore to the west of the camp. Wounded buffalo make ordinary buffalo look like stuffed cuddly toys. Night was fast falling, and one of nature’s imposing sound and light displays that had been in the background all day was looking to erupt into the mother of all thunderstorms.

After some years of drought, the lake foreshore was void of anything that might credibly be called vegetation, and didn’t look too inviting just then if you happened to be the height of a person – which we coincidentally were – and the tallest thing for several hundred metres around. I was carrying my FN-FAL rifle seemingly just for the sake of conductivity.

But go out in search of the beast we did. Gary had a short wheelbase pre-production Land Rover, and, as we drove onto the foreshore I saw one of the most impressive lightning displays I have ever seen in my life – partly as it was all around us in an arc of 360o. The thunder was still a muffled rumbling ominous growl in the distance.

We drove a kilometre or so east of the camp, in which direction we knew the buffalo herd to have gone. The lions would be following the herd, and any wounded animal would soon be dealt with naturally. No buff, wounded or otherwise, anywhere to be seen. We were questioning the veracity of the report, but decided to take a quick look to the west – the animal would have to be seriously incapacitated to be this far behind the herd.

Sure enough, just as we were having thoughts of home and warm, dry, beds, two eyes shone in the beam of the spotlight maybe fifty metres away. It was a large cow, and her left front leg was hanging from the limb by a thin strand of skin – she had clearly been attacked by a crocodile whilst wading in shallow water. She couldn’t move fast, but surprisingly she could move, and didn’t regard us at all like long-lost relatives. Gary had the heavy rifle, a .458 Winchester, and climbed from the Land Rover and put in a good heart and lung shot into the buffalo’s left side. She went down in a couple of minutes. That was about the time the heavens opened, and, soaked to the skin, we got back after midnight, with fresh buffalo liver for the next morning’s breakfast. The rangers recovered the remainder of the carcass the next morning.

Chewore of course had been unaware of any of this, and was sitting out the deluge in a sheltered section of her boma.

She had been rescued from a place known as Tunsa Springs in the Chewore area of the lower Zambezi in the mid 1990s after her mother had been snared. Chewore had been CASEVAC’d out by helicopter, and Mom followed in a truck. Tashinga would offer them both the protection they needed to survive. Eventually, one of the guests at former National Parks warden Steve Edwards’s Musango Safari Camp fell so much under the baby rhino’s spell that she gave up her day job in Switzerland to take care of Chewore full time.
By definition, habituated animals have lost their fear of man. This can be a problem with something as big as a rhinoceros, and it is even more of a concern when the animal is rare, endangered, and targeted by poaching gangs. As expected Chewore became a regular fixture at Maronga tented camp, which offered her a degree of protection, and she would often sleep in the kitchen tent and socialize with guests.

When she had grown to near adulthood, it was thought best to relocate Chewore to Hwange National Park, and she was duly sent to Sinamatella. As her contact with humans had always been in a positive light, she was oblivious to the dangers of being a rhinoceros in Africa, and by way of exploring her new surroundings crossed the border into Botswana. Fortunately the poaching problem at the time was less acute there, and she again had the good fortune to find herself in the company of guides and rangers who looked after her and even exploited her habit of wanting to find out what was in the cooler boxes at sundowner time! And they say rhinoceroses don’t have a sense of humour.

So far, though Chewore is probably only somewhere around middle aged, the story has had a happy ending. She is now one of a handful of black rhinos who live at the Khama Rhino Sanctuary.

Located some 25 kilometres northwest of Serowe in Botswana, the Khama Rhino Sanctuary is a community-based wildlife project which was established in 1992 to reclaim a tract of wild bush, and involve the local communities in conservation – especially of the endangered rhinoceros. Incorporating almost 8,600 hectares of Kalahari sandveld, the sanctuary is home to both black and white rhino, some thrity other species of wildlife and 230 species of birds. The prime focus of the Khama Rhino Sanctuary is the rhinoceros breeding programme, and so far Chewore has done her part by giving birth to two calves. To date, sixteen rhinos from Khama have been relocated to other protected areas, and the sanctuary itself is heavily protected by not only its own corps of rangers but also soldiers from the Botswana Defence Force.
By all accounts, Chewore is now far less inclined to approach humans, and seems to have found her true niche in nature at last.

She was the first rhinoceros to be hand-reared by National Parks at Tashinga, and being a pioneer of sorts there were a number of lessons to be learned about the re-integration of habituated rhinos back into the wild from her example.

According to current conventional wisdom, the release process should be gradual, and into a location far enough away from where the calf was raised that it will not try and return to be with humans. One of the things that seemed to attract Chewore after she was released was all the people-food goodies that she had been given as she was growing up and which she knew would be forthcoming from the ubiquitous cooler boxes around camp. While it is tempting to give baby animals treats, this is very rarely doing them and favours.

With it looking like much of the rhino’s hope for future survival is going to revolve around captive breeding, little Chewore was a pathfinder in many ways.

PHOTOS:

1. The author with Chewore.
2. Transporting the modified cattle crush.
3. Chewore’s mother recovering from her injuries.
4. National Parks Warden Paul Oleszczuk putting in some range time.
5. Chewore making sure the table settings were correct.
6. In later years – photo Barry and Lynda Revell.

The Tragic – and Needless – Deaths of Claudio and Max Chiarelli:
Conspiracy Theories and Lessons Learned
I J Larivers

(This article was originally published in issue 107 of African Hunter magazine, 2016)

At around 15.30 hours on Sunday, 13 March, the well-known and well-respected professional hunter Claudio Chiarelli, holder of Zimbabwe professional hunter’s licence number 58 (1989) and his son Max died tragically – and needlessly – in a hail of gunfire in the Mana Pools National Park. Initial reports blamed poachers, but in fact it was blue-on-blue: euphemistically-named “friendly fire”.

Claudio and Max had been performing voluntary support duties for National Parks in the area, in concert with the Zambezi Society. On that fateful afternoon, they had gone out to collect a National Parks ranger patrol that had been following poachers’ spoor, and to deploy a further two three-man patrols; six rangers were travelling with them, as was Francesco Marconati, who operated Vine Lodge in the park. This would feed a lot of grist into the omnipresent rumour mills, in and out of Zimbabwe, because
of the “Chinese connection” to Vine Lodge.

Claudio and Max’s vehicle was parked on the side of the road in the middle section of the park; unwittingly, they had stopped a mere fifteen metres from the spot where the
poachers’ spoor had crossed the road. The National Parks APU had been on spoor since around 09.00 that morning, and as they closed with the road, suddenly they heard the sound of voices.

Claudio and Max had opened the bonnet of their Land Cruiser and were standing in front of the truck; Francesco and the other rangers had deployed farther back around the Cruiser. At this time of the year, the end of the rainy season, the bush can be unbelievably thick and visibility almost at a minimum. As the rangers slowly advanced, one of them caught sight of a flash of blue, Claudio’s shirt, and assuming it to be a poacher, they opened fire. Tragically, Claudio and Max died instantly.

The rumours began flying thick and fast, and it was only
after Richard Maasdorp and Gary Layard of the Zambezi Society had visited the park and spoken with those involved that the actual facts emerged.

There were some sketchy accounts of what had happened in the media, but it was in forums and social media that a lot of the information, and some conjecture and misinformation, was distributed.

Reports that Claudio and Max had been killed by poachers were soon laid to rest. They were not involved in anti-poaching patrols, except as part of the support infrastructure that National Parks itself so desperately lacked then. But some of the posts are worth mentioning:

“That does not sound like an accident to me. What patrol will simply open fire on an unidentified vehicle and its
occupants? That even defies any shoot on sight order as that too requires the target to be identified as a poacher”,
wrote one contributor. Probably from a climate-controlled office half a world away.

The realities in Zimbabwe are very different. The thickness of the bush played an obvious role in target acquisition, but so, too, did the life-and-death stakes that poachers and rangers play for daily, and which are almost incomprehensible to someone living a cloistered first-world existence.

Poachers and traffickers of endangered species face minimum mandatory nine-year prison sentences in Zimbabwe. This means they will think absolutely nothing of ambushing and murdering park rangers. Since 2013, over a thousand game rangers have been killed while protecting protected wildlife in Africa. So yes, in many African countries there are shoot-on-sight (and please spare me the misleading and emotive “shoot-to-kill” so beloved of the tabloid hacks – there is no such thing) standard operating procedures. They have to give the anti-poaching units a fighting chance.

More enlightened – from the standpoint of legislation – countries like Zimbabwe also have laws like the Protection of Wildlife (Indemnity) Act, which indemnifies law enforcement from prosecution from such acts.

Academicians can and will carry on debating the eeew- ickiness of the so-called “coercive conservation practices” until the end of time, safe and comfortable in their first-world offices. The realities are much different.

“How can you possibly make that ‘mistake’? No poachers ever are caught standing by a white safari rigged Land Cruiser. In a lot of cases, volunteers help by deploying and picking up patrols or wherever else they can. If they are getting in the way of corrupt poaching syndicates, what better way to smoke a group of these volunteers to make them quit and get out the way?” wrote someone else.

The trouble here is that the rainy season in the Zambezi Valley is not hunting season, and even if the commentator had actually been to Africa, very few overseas hunters have seen the bush at its densest state with almost zero visibility.“

I am not buying any of it” was one succinct comment, followed by “Nor am I. I have been in contact with some friends in Zim. They all think this was a set-up.” Ah yes, the ubiquitous and adumbral “friends”. They’re everywhere.

I was starting to feel annoyed, because the Zimbabwe rumour mill was worse. “This was a hit…pure and simple” being one example, and if this sort of thing was getting onto the Internet, watch out. I felt that all these cloak-and-dagger stories were actually demeaning to Claudio and Max. It was almost as though what happened was being used for a perverse kind of entertainment.

Retired CID Detective Superintendent Charlie Haley, formerly officer commanding, forensic ballistics for the
police and respected throughout southern Africa as one of the most knowledgeable ballisticians on the continent, was also asked to inspect the bodies. Charlie’s verdict, when I asked him, was a single sentence: “I examined the bodies and all I saw tied in with the official report.” In his 22 years in the police, he has seen just about every conceivable type of shooting. He also mentioned that all of the rounds that hit the bodies appeared to have been tumbling, which to me is indicative of bullets that have been deflected by something like dense bush. It is not indicative of calculated and controlled fire.

Fortunately, saner voices were also heard. “Rather than spawning conspiracy theories this is an opportunity (albeit a very, very unfortunate circumstance) to press for more funding, training, management and everything else associated with the goal that these two men gave their lives for. Let’s hope their lives were not [lost] in vain.” And herein lies a lot of truth.

National Parks is broke. Yes, they are in a position to earn a large amount of revenue, but it’s a bit misleading, flim-flam, even, calling them a parastatal, because they are wholly owned by government. So there are often “better” uses found for the earnings they generate. The Director- General also doesn’t need his fleet of fancy SUVs, so some of their money could probably be better spent, too. But that is what it is, and Zimbabweans, having always valued their natural history heritage, have made a plan. A lot of the anti-poaching efforts these days have been, of necessity, privatised. I can’t express how much I admire this initiative. It is outstanding, and has undoubtedly saved much of the country’s wildlife. It is not uncommon for me to be asked from a number of different quarters, just who a potential donor should support. I invariably advise folks to look local first.

Bubye Valley Conservancy is one of the pioneers for the use of tracker dogs against wildlife crime in Zimbabwe, and that costs money. So does the large, well-trained anti-poaching unit they have created to protect the world’s third-largest Black Rhino population. Much of the money for that comes from sport hunting, but now that the US Fish and Wildlife Service has caved in to the Cecil-lovers’ “lion lives matter” campaign (don’t rhino lives matter, too?), much of that revenue has fallen away.


Around Kariba there are the Matusadona Anti- Poaching Project, the Bumi Hills Anti-Poaching Unit, the Tashinga Initiative and The Gache Gache Anti-Poaching unit. Elsewhere, there are the Dande Anti-Poaching Unit, Flying for Wildlife, Lower Zambezi Volunteers Group, Lower Zambezi Valley Wildlife Support Group and many, many more.

I also have a great deal of personal admiration for the work done by the late Rory Young (murdered by insurgents in Burkina Faso) and Chengeta Wildlife. So yeah, there are a lot of very deserving causes out there who are all doing magnificent work. But do you see a problem? I do. It is something that they are all working to overcome: the issue of coordination. The “standard” in the phrase “standard operating procedures” is the operative word. And this is directly relevant to the tragedy that befell Claudio and Max Chiarelli.

At the beginning of February, many of these stakeholders had an inaugural meeting in Harare to discuss how to best coordinate their efforts. The initial mailing list had over 60 names on it. (What jumped out at me, as an aside, was the fact that National Parks Intelligence and Security Section and police CID Minerals and Border Control from Harare were not included and I believe it was a huge mistake to not involve them. I’m going to say it was just an oversight.)

From such meetings and cooperation will come standard operating procedures. And a way forward. On the day Claudio and Max Chiarelli died, there were no effective radio communications. GPS devices were not in use by the patrols. There was no central command post at the park headquarters that knew, from a system of reporting lines, where everyone was. National Parks has to rely on folks like Claudio and Max and Francesco to supply a lot of its infrastructure, but more attention needs to be given to the basics: the tools they have to use. The infrastructure and the equipment. Which is where donors are needed. Perhaps the various private conservation entities will wind up working off of a repeater-based universal radio net, or maybe they will have their own structure but be able to contact other elements when necessary. I don’t know, and it really doesn’t make a lot of difference. The operators on the ground need standardised training, standardised maps, standardised radio procedures, &c.

Some stakeholders expressed the fear that because of this incident, National Parks would move to curtail the involvement of the private sector in the fight against poaching. I don’t believe they can, because they lack the resources to carry on without civilian input. And, it would be a very silly move from a PR standpoint, because they would only be fueling the rumours that the crime syndicates behind the poaching are trying to muscle out independent anti-poaching initiatives.

There is no point in vilifying an over-worked, under- paid Parks ranger for what I sincerely believe was an honest mistake made in a high-stress situation, but there is a point in learning from that, going forward, and honouring Claudio and Max by doing everything possible to get the job they were so passionate about done without something like that happening again. It can be done.

Of all the folks who have asked from time to time about who to support with donations, there has not been one Cecil-loving keyboard warrior? Two Facebook sites, Justice for Cecil and Cecil the Lion Community, have over 50 000 followers. If each were to realise that his or her opinion would carry a lot more credibility if they coughed up just $1, how much could be accomplished? Not to piddle it up against a wall by building a bronze statue of Cecil at the entrance to Hwange for $30 000 as one group has suggested, but by buying radios, GPSs and investing in specialised training and paying for productive informants.

Zimbabwe professional hunter, Hannes Wessels, summed up the backdrop to that fateful day in Mana when he wrote, “Like many local safari hunters marginalised by the collapse of commercial hunting triggered in large part by the international outrage following the ‘Cecil the Lion’ debacle, Claudio was trying to help stem the ongoing slaughter in the Zambezi Valley which is motivated by the demand for meat and ivory. Claudio and Max, for no personal reward whatsoever, were doing what they could to help. It cost them their lives. Where now is the loud-mouthed anti-hunting brigade? Will the media so much as take note of the fact that these two men died trying to save animals that are under siege in a non-hunting area. For them there was never any question of personal gain; they did it because they, like most true hunters, love the animals they occasionally pursue and kill.”

Claudio and Max Chiarelli were laid to rest outside Harare on Friday 18 March at a memorial service that drew
over 600 friends and colleagues. Rest in peace.

Photos

1. Max and Claudio Chiarelli
2. The spot, along the main road into Mana Pools National Park, where the contact occurred.
3. Claudio Chiarelli
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Claudio Chiarelli was born in Libya in 1950, an Italian colony at the time. He spent his early childhood in Tripoli with his brother, Enrico, his mother and his father. When the Gaddafi regime came to power and the independence revolution erupted, the family was forced to leave the country.

They returned to Italy, but not before Claudio had acquired vast hunting skills at a young age when he triumphantly bagged many pigeons and pesky neighbourhood cats around Tripoli.

After a stint back in Italy, the adventuring spirit overtook Claudio, and he departed for Angola to hunt elephants. True to his colourful character, he endeared himself to the local community with his generosity and sense of humour. He was thwarted once again by civil war, and on his return trip to Italy, he met his beautiful young bride-to-be in Asiago. Guilianna and Claudio fell madly in love and travelled to Kenya to start a deep-sea fishing safari business in the face of the hunting ban in Kenya. They were married in the local registry in Nairobi and entered the world of fishing and luxury lodges on the coast.

Their sense of adventure led them to Zimbabwe in 1982 when Claudio established his big game hunting business in the Charisa Safari area. It was as successful a hunting business as Zimbabwe has ever seen.

Claudio was known for his love of life, his gracious and respectful relationship with his staff and his unsurpassed conservation and hunting ethics. The couple’s greatest achievement, by far, has been their two beautiful children, Virginia and Max.

Above all, his fierce devotion to his family and his profession, combined with the positive influence he has had over the years through his willingness to teach young people the ways of the African bush, will have a profound and resounding effect on all those who knew him for a long, long time.

K9s IN THE FIGHT AGAINST POACHING
I J Larivers

(This article was originally published in South Africa’s MAN Magnum magazine in February of 2017)

Very often, especially on social media, there is a call for “new measures” to combat one or other poaching atrocity that has just occurred.

The problem with CITES and other policy-makers is that poaching and trafficking are already illegal so passing more laws or revising policies on paper won’t really do anything. The key to most successful operations is intelligence, and that costs money. Money to pay confidential informants, so that local villagers will realise that there is money to be made – safely – from selling out their friends and neighbours the poachers and the traffickers. Funding is what will make a difference, especially buying information and paying for a working informer network. Trouble is, the majority of the Cecil-lovers out there are nought but keyboard warriors. The 21st century breed of “conservationist” whose conscience is assuaged and who can feel really great about themselves simply by hitting a “like” button from half a world away, no muss, no fuss. What is the strength of their convictions, in dollars and cents? This is the reservoir that needs to be tapped in order to make a difference.

In southern Africa, there are real conservationists, who don’t mind getting their hands dirty and their boots on the ground, and they are behind places like the Save Valley and Bubye Valley conservancies, and the myriad private-sector anti-poaching initiatives which are currently helping to stem the poaching and illegal trafficking tides. These folks need financing to do a job they care about and that the government no longer either has the resources – or perhaps the inclination – to tackle. They no doubt wondered about a world gone mad when the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force in 2015 attempted to solicit $30,000 in donor funds for a bronze statue of Cecil the Lion to be erected at the entrance to Hwange National Park. Mercifully the statue was put on hold when the funding wasn’t forthcoming, but at a time when Matusadona Anti-Poaching Project was announcing a reward of $400 – what they could afford – for information, think what the collective community of anti-poaching initiatives could have actually accomplished with $30,000.

In my book, good intelligence is first and foremost. Then you need meaningful penalties and sentencing and aggressive law enforcement. Those who cry “we need to do something more” are partly correct, but in most cases the laws are there, they just have to be vigorously applied. Most parks and conservancies have beefed up their boots-on-the-ground manpower thanks to private sector funding, but one avenue of action that is just currently taking off in Africa is the use of K9s. It is expensive to acquire and train dogs – and their handlers – to an appropriate standard, but the benefits can be enormous.

Ruger is a young Labrador retriever-German shepherd cross who has been making headlines in Zambia sniffing out ivory, firearms and ammunition. He was scouted and trained by Megan Parker, the director of research for Working Dogs for Conservation in Montana in the United States. She is a properly qualified conservation biologist – which most animal rights activists are not – and is very experienced at training detection dogs. Ruger is Zambia’s first anti-poaching K9, and is stationed adjacent to South Luangwa National Park where poaching is a serious threat to wildlife; it is his mandate to detect elephant ivory, rhino horns, bush-meat and arms and ammunition.

Megan Parker calls Ruger a “bad dog” but is quick to point out that bad dogs are the best for this type of work. He was very difficult to work with at first, but not giving up, Parker eventually teamed him with game scouts assigned to Delta Team, an anti-poaching unit funded by Zambia’s Wildlife Authority and the South Luangwa Conservation Society. For Ruger and for the scouts, it was a case of learning new tricks.

Dogs, of course, have much more finely-attuned senses than we do, and Ruger can conduct a vehicle search in minutes. (To put this in a perspective of sorts, a dog can detect a teaspoon of sugar dissolved in a million gallons of water.) Having done more than my share of anti-poaching roadblocks in the past I can confirm that it could take me an hour or more to do the job properly. Ruger proved himself on the job when he singled out a particular vehicle. Initially no contraband was found, but in the end searchers uncovered a matchbox wrapped in plastic, which contained a single percussion cap used to set off the powder charge in a muzzle-loading musket. Good dog.

This sort of success among rural Africans is akin to witchcraft, which is still today a very real part of their lives. In one public demonstration held for government officials at a Zambian courthouse, a game scout carefully concealed a small piece of ivory – which it took Ruger under three minutes to uncover.

One of the things that makes K9 anti-poaching units costly is the fact that – like all special forces – the selection process is all-important. And Parker, and Pete Coppolillo the executive director at Working Dogs for Conservation, do not hold African village strains in high esteem; commercial kennels in Africa are more attuned to turning out security, not detection, dogs. Just about everyone in Africa today who is working with anti-poaching K9s is sourcing them from overseas. As for Ruger’s “bad dog” status, the 150 poachers and traffickers he has put behind bars to date will no doubt concur.

Craig Spencer, the head warden of South Africa’s Balule Reserve relies heavily on Shaya, also a Belgian malanois, trained as a police dog in Germany and supplied by the Endangered Wildlife Trust and funded in part by by the German NGO Rettet Das Nas (loosely translated as “save the horn”).

In Zimbabwe in 2015, professional hunter – just so we all stay clear on where the lion’s share of the real input comes from – Peter Fick of Pete Fick Safaris made an urgent appeal on behalf of Bubye Valley Conservancy on the Accurate Reloading forums for funding for, among other things, a K9 unit. One of the points Pete made was that properly trained anti-poaching dogs could be used all around the country when not specifically employed in the conservancy. Clearly, there is a clear and present need for this type of “technology”, especially given Bubye Valley’s 2015 loss of three times as many rhino as in the previous year (Bubye Valley is home to a third of the world’s remaining black rhino population).

Black rhinos are a critically endangered species that in most cases cannot be hunted, and there are very limited returns from photographic safaris in most of Zimbabwe. For now, anyway. It follows that the conservation of the rhinoceros comes at a huge cost. As Bubye Valley says:

Ngulube is a Belgian malinois who knows more about what’s going on in his area of the Kruger National Park in South Africa than park staff who have spent decades there – and he “sees” most of it through his nose. On any given day, he may be looking for traces of arms and ammunition – the nitrocellulose of gunpowder and microscopic traces perhaps of gun oil. (I was once singled out by a detection dog at Heathrow on my way to Iraq. I had 20 or so rolls of camera film, which like many explosives is also a form of cellulose and the dog was intrigued, to say the least.) The part of Ngulube’s brain that processes scent is forty times bigger than ours, and foxhounds Chico, Jetta and Kombi, sponsored by Unitrans Volkswagen in South Africa, can smell even better than he can. They can follow a scent trail that is hours old, and for many, many kilometres through the bush. These three are currently being trained to run loose, at a much faster pace than even rangers on horseback could move, directing in helicopter-borne QRFs. Dogs, drones, choppers – it’s all on the table, depending on how big your pocketbook is.

“Since accepting the responsibility for black rhinos, the Bubye Valley Conservancy has had to increase the size of its anti-poaching force by a factor of six! Not only were more personnel required, but they also had to be trained to deal with a whole new level of poacher; not the subsistence level snaring they were used to – but professional killers armed with automatic weapons. More vehicles were required, as was a specialised radio communication system, kit, weapons, and a full-time experienced anti-poaching manager to run and lead the team. This all costs a lot of money – and we are very grateful to organisations such as The Beit Trust and The Lowveld Rhino Trust, as well as many of clients and friends for stepping up and donating much needed equipment and funds. However, the annual running costs of the anti-poaching operation still amount to upwards of US$ 300,000 that the shareholders of the Bubye Valley Conservancy have to somehow find in the ever more difficult business environment that is trophy hunting – and with none of this money being generated by the rhinos themselves.” Notably, there is not a single big-time animal rights “charity” in sight when it comes to this kind of funding.

Bubye Valley’s plan was to initially acquire four Belgian malinois – the same breed the Secret Service uses to guard the White House (and so far, not one malinois has solicited a single Columbian prostitute or  been found drunk on duty or left his collar in a washroom).

Because of the dogs’ acute senses, poaching gangs, who traditionally operate in hours of darkness will be unable to evade pursuit and capture. And being based near Matopos National Park – which has the government’s largest population of rhinos – together with a helicopter they will be available for QRF anywhere in the country.

The K9s will need an all-encompassing backup infrastructure – dedicated kennels and highly-trained handlers. Once this is in place, the dogs can be used for tracking, area searches, and vehicle and luggage searches. This all comes at a huge cost.

US$ 1,500 to set up a trust, so that transparent accounting procedures will be followed. $24,500 estimated for the construction of kennels. $3,000 for training equipment. $3,000 for veterinary supplies. $1,440 per annum per dog for basic life support. $31,200 for specialised trainers’ and handlers’ wages. $14,400 annually for life support for the trainer and handlers. $45,000 for a dedicated deployment vehicle, and $9,600 to run it for a year. An estimated $1,440 per year for office and administration costs. Do the maths and then think back to the “species that cannot generate its own revenue” part above.

In nearby Gonarezhou National Park Invictus K9 has set up their first anti-poaching dog units including two German shepherds Sammy and Roxy. It is certainly one of the new faces of anti-poaching.

I think that the majority of the keyboard warriors spoken of earlier are well-intentioned enough. It’s just a question of harnessing that resource for something other than bronze statues of dead lions. (Or, as the Chinese recently offered, a new vehicle for Zimbabwe’s National Parks investigators – complete with realtime satellite tracking so that someone would know where they were at all times.) 

The K9 initiative is one of the “new measures” that could really make a difference for African anti-poaching operations in the long run – not cheap, but relatively low-tech and sustainable over the long haul.

RANGE TRAINING PISTOL CLASSICS
I J Larivers

(This article was originally published in South Africa’s MAN Magnum magazine in December of 2017.)

I was sitting in the pub after a day’s shooting at my club and a few of us were discussing “the good old days”. Some things from then were better than others, I suppose. Most of us had shot the local Practical Pistol circuit back in the days when holsters were made out of leather and there was only one division. Courses of fire were more, well, practical; today’s element of gamesmanship had not yet taken over the sport. And no, I am not saying that in a condescending way at all. IPSC is the Formula One of sport shooting, and that’s just fine. There is a tremendous amount of fun and camaraderie to be had, and it’s a great ambassador for sport shooting worldwide. It’s just different than it was back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, because it is now just a game. Stage names and stage designs no longer are intended to reflect the real world practical use of firearms or realistic training scenarios.

As the Castle lager – an inspiration for profound philosophical thought – flowed, we hatched a plan to put together a mini-match with some of the Golden Oldies – other than ourselves, that is. More for us, truth be told, than the newer members. The three courses of fire that we decided on were El Presidente, the Mozambique Drill, and Cirillo’s Hostage Shoot. But though these matches are still shot regularly on a lot of ranges, it’s surprising how many folks don’t understand their history and why they remain some of the best training drills out there.

I should mention here that having trained armed security guards and government law enforcement details for many years, I am a big fan of the basics: stance, grip, sight picture and trigger control. Repeated ad nauseam until it became second nature. I look askance at the sport shooter-concept of taking people like that and teaching them to kick doors in, run down passages, &c., on the range. Walk, then run. But the drills I am discussing here are really suitable for anyone, pistol or revolver, and by introducing a spirit of competition and making people shoot against a clock for a score you engender camaraderie and interest.

The El Presidente is considered to be the classic training drill by us walking anachronisms. It is an exercise developed by the late Col Jeff Cooper, who was the innovator of all that passes today for “practical” shooting sports, and indeed the lion’s share of the principles of modern handgunning, including holding the firearm with two hands. He was the founder of Gunsite, aka the American Pistol Institute, which was the first modern private firearms training facility in the US, and the best in the world. He was the guiding light of the 1976 Columbia Conference, at which modern IPSC shooting was born, and he was the first President of IPSC. With comments like “The organisers of the competition (an IPSC world championship match held in South Africa in the early ‘80s) have erred insofar as there is any such thing as a competition holster” he gradually grew more and more estranged from the sport shooting disciplines like IPSC, but for the “old guard” he remains, well, Yoda.

While training close protection details for the president of a Latin American country, Cooper created the El Presidente. It was intended to achieve two things: to train shooters in a wide range of basic skills, but, more importantly, to measure their progress over time.
To set up the classic El Presidente, place three targets in a line downrange, three metres apart. The shooter commences the drill standing ten metres uprange, and facing away from the targets, with hands shoulder-high in the position of surrender. On the audible start signal, the shooter turns toward the targets, draws his firearm (from concealment in the original incarnation) and engages each target with two rounds. The shooter then reloads and re-engages each target with two rounds. This is what is today known as a Virginia Count exercise: timed, but with a stipulated number of rounds – the shooter may only fire 12 rounds.

El Presidente is simple to set up, shoot and range, but it brings into play every skill needed for proficient self-defence – the draw, the reload, movement, and engaging multiple targets. Cooper considered par to be a perfect score in ten seconds, but I have seen it done in half that. The perfect score is important. When the shooter sacrifices accuracy to beat the clock, the drill loses much of its relevance. It’s worth mentioning here that the drill may be done either score divided by time, or within a pre-set par time.
The modern El Presidente commonly has the targets one metre apart, concealment is no longer required, and the shooter must change direction for his second string after the reload, but no one will complete the drill creditably unless their gun-handling skills are good. El Presidente also tests your gun and equipment, and when I said earlier it is also a measure of progress, the whole idea is to get that perfect score down in less and less time as you become more proficient from other drills. If you are doing that your skills are improving. If you practice it every weekend until you are like a machine it is more difficult to use it to gauge overall progress.

In order to become a proficient pistolero, you need to put in constant practice. A lot of the basics can be polished with dry fire exercises and then cemented with live fire on the range. El Presidente was the first modern combat training drill, and it is still very relevant.
The Mozambique Drill is another time-honoured classic. The 1976 Practical Pistol world championships in Austria, though held under the banner of the newly-formed International Practical Shooting Confederation, was shot as a “combat” pistol match. In the days before political correctness was inflicted upon us, and targets resembled humanoid silhouettes rather than pizza boxes, and especially in Africa, the mantra “two to the body and one to the head” was oft heard on the range. This has its origins in a defensive course of fire called the “Mozambique Drill”. Sometimes also known as the “Failure Drill”.

During the Mozambican War of Independence, which lasted just under a decade, from 1964 to 1974 between the soon-to-be former colonial power Portugal and the Mozambique Liberation Front, a mercenary named Mike Rousseau was one of the combatants on the Portugese side. Rousseau was engaged in a firefight at the airport in Lourenco Marques, now Maputo, and at one point, Rousseau’s primary weapon was a Browning 9mm handgun. As he came around the corner of a building he found himself facing an insurgent armed with an AK-47. Rousseau brought up his pistol and fired two rounds, centre of mass, into his opponent’s chest. The FRELIMO soldier not only did not go down, but he did not lose his AK, either. Rousseau had lowered his pistol to the ready position but now decided to fire a third shot to the man’s head. In the heat of combat, his third round hit the insurgent in the throat. Nonetheless, it broke the spinal cord and ended the fight.
Shortly thereafter Rousseau made the acquaintance of Col Cooper. When told of the encounter with the insurgent Cooper realised a great embryonic training drill when he saw one. He named it the Mozambique, and by the late 1970s, it was part of the training regimen at Gunsite.

In 1980 two Los Angeles Police SWAT officers enrolled in a week-long pistol course at Gunsite. They liked the Mozambique Drill, and appreciated its superiority as a fight-stopper. With Cooper’s blessing it became incorporated into the LAPD’s curriculum. In the interests of political correctness, it was re-christened the “Failure Drill”. Even simpler than the El Presidente, it originally consisted of firing two shots at the centre of body mass, lowering the pistol to the ready position and assessing the need for the third shot. Soon the return to the ready position was modified to a straight transition from the centre of mass to the head. Why an experienced combatant like Rousseau had not done this is anyone’s guess. Maybe he had.

In today’s world there are lots of reasons why two shots to the centre of mass won’t necessarily neutralise a target: poor choice of calibre or poorly-performing ammunition, body armour, heavy clothing, or a drug-induced high. It doesn’t really matter why in a gunfight, the critical need is to end the encounter.
Rounds fired centre of mass should end an attack by disrupting blood flow to the brain, or damaging the criminal’s spinal cord; damage to the lungs is secondary, but significant nonetheless. But if they don’t, the aggressor still poses a deadly threat. While the intention should not be to kill, but rather to end the threat, a bullet to the head will probably conclude the fight immediately.

Today’s Mozambique/Failure Drill is done by firing two shots to the centre of mass and one to the head as quickly as possible. This is a range exercise, so the clock will be running, and the distance to the target can be anywhere between five and fifteen metres – or even farther, depending on the shooters’ skill levels. Again, it is Virginia Count, so the stated course of fie must be followed and no more than three rounds may be fired. The two rapid shots to the centre of mass present very little challenge to anyone who is proficient with their firearm, but the trick is then to slow down just that little bit to get a precise head shot.

The late Jim Cirillo was a big advocate of as much rangetime as you could possibly put in, and he was also very favourably disposed to the pistol shooting sports. But why his name might be familiar to many shooters is that he was a blooded veteran of the New York Police Department’s famed Stakeout Squad. He was the author of the book Guns, Bullets and Gunfights, and the book Jim Cirillo’s Tales of the Stakeout Squad was the biography written about him by American author Paul Kirchner. Both are available from Paladin Press. Jim Cirillo was never an armchair anything when it came to firearms. In over 250 stakeouts, he was involved in more than 20 gunfights, and killed at least 11 perpetrators. So a drill based on his experiences carries some credibility.

The Cirillo’s Hostage Shoot replicates an encounter Cirillo had with three armed robbers in a supermarket; as they tried to flee, one only exposed his head briefly, and two were obscured by a cashier. Cirillo fired six rounds from his Smith and Wesson M10 .38 Special revolver in what the re-enactment deemed to be about three seconds, taken from Cirillo’s own estimate. All the robbers were hit, and one died at the scene. We’re probably all familiar with the History Channel video clip of Jerry Miculek engaging three targets with a revolver, El Presidente-style without the turn and firing 12 rounds on target in three seconds including the reload, but none of them were shooting back at him. Cirillo commented afterwards about the three seconds, “I’ve spent so much time on the combat range I ought to know!”

To set up Cirillo’s Hostage Shoot, you arrange two targets – the current International Defensive Pistol Association 18” x 30” silhouette target is probably the best for all these drills – at a ground-level position, and superimpose between them a designated no-shoot target to represent a hostage. Place this target array at 7 metres. Then, at 10 metres and 90o to one side (bearing in mind your range’s safety angles) place another target which either has only the head portion exposed or conversely only head shots will be counted. Again it is a Virginia Count exercise, with a time of three seconds for one scoring hit on each target being the goal, or score divided by time.

The above three stages make for a challenging but not overly-complicated mini-match, or personal training drill. The total round count is 18, and by either setting a more generous par time for the Cirillo’s Hostage shoot or just recording the shooter’s time as it is rather than use a par feature on the timer it can be quick and fun for shooters of all skill levels.

And a good starting point from which to gauge future progress.

AN ELEGANT WEAPON, FOR A MORE CIVILISED AGE
By I J Larivers

I have had a meaningful relationship with the 1911-type .45 ACP for forty years now. It was – almost but not quite – the first centre fire handgun I ever owned, and long before that I remember a regular fixture in my parents’ room at bedtime was my father’s Remington Rand .45 on the nightstand. That was back in the ‘60s, and Col Jeff Cooper was making his mark on the gun world. My Dad’s .45 lived in Condition 1 – cocked and locked. I never asked him about that, because it was just the way it was, but I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t have known Col Cooper from Col Sanders. He’d picked up Condition 1 at some time in the same place he picked up the pistol, which was the US Navy during the Second World War. It would be a decade and a half before I bought my first .45, a Colt Government Model MKIV Series 70. By then my father had passed on, and my friends and I were keen followers of Col Cooper’s doctrine and the emerging sport of practical shooting. Real practical shooting, not the action discipline it has become.

In 1978, just before I emigrated to Rhodesia I met a fellow by the name of Mike Large, who was then living in Nevada. Mike had been in the Rhodesian Army, and later the Prison Service, and was one of the founding fathers of Practical Pistol in Rhodesia. Here was a guy from half a world away, in my home town, who’d actually shot against Jeff Cooper and beaten him. Mike’s forte was the Browning Hi-Power, but we spent a lot of range time breaking in my new .45, and it was Mike who got me out of the “gravel pit” mentality of shooting at tin cans, and into some proper training routines.

It was around about this time that I learned how much consumer tolerance was associated with the 1911. Very few products seem to take so much fiddling with to get just right. I owned two at the time – that old .45 and a Jeep CJ-5. There were no Kimbers or Les Baers or Para Ordnances back then, and folks like Bill Wilson made their living by customising Colt 1911s. Now, myriad manufacturers build their own, “new and improved”, but I’ve always preferred to get a basic Colt, and build it up my way. I once pulled out all the stops in Zimbabwe to get my hands on a stainless steel compact .45 from Schutzen Arms that came ready-fitted with all the bells and whistles. It never did work right, though it wasn’t the manufacturer’s fault because it had left the factory as parts, and they did provide me with excellent backup service trying to get it to work. I tried to shoot the local Practical Pistol circuit with it, but after it fell apart at the national championships one year I bought a first generation Glock. In .45, of course.

Those were the days before IPSC consisted of as many divisions as it does now, and I finally had a high-capacity, major calibre handgun. Say what you will about “Tupperware”, but that Glock .45 and the .40S&W I later replaced it with served me well for many years. They were reliable, and for my money are excellent duty sidearms.

Then, early into the new millennium, 2003-2004, I did some contract work in Iraq. There I was issued with the Beretta M9. Again, I will speak no evil of it, for though I only ever fired it on the range it did all that was expected of it.

But it was while I was in the Sandbox that Obi-Wan Kenobi began speaking to me. Over and over. “An elegant weapon, for a more civilised age”. I instinctively knew he wasn’t talking about either the Glock or the Beretta. One thing every AAFES base exchange in Iraq had was a good supply of gun magazines. When I had some down time I began to fantasize. I was going to build another 1911 .45 when I got back, but this one would have a theme. I would put nothing on it that I couldn’t have put on my original Colt .45 back in the late 1970s. And of course, it would be a Colt. MKIV, S70 if possible.

When I got back to Zimbabwe I bought a Glock .40.

And then came the impetus I needed. 2011. The hundredth anniversary of the adoption of John Moses Browning’s iconic masterpiece by the US government. It was truly a case of natural selection, for by then IPSC’s concept of a Classic division for single-stack pistols was being discussed at an advanced stage, and the other criterion – that I could compete with what I carried – was on the horizon.

Almost as if by providence a Colt MMKIV Series 70 fell into my hands. Literally. “Here, you want this? I’m leaving the country”.

So, I cast my mind back to 1977 and my original Colt. The first thing to do was to make a list of what I really needed on the gun, and another list of what I really wanted. I had to bear in mind what the IPSC rule book would mandate, and to play by the rules I’d set for myself I got some old copies of American Handgunner from back in the day, and completed my lists based on what would have been available to me back then. So, what this is really all about is what I believe I should have on a 1911, and why.

The first thing I did was strip the Colt down to bare bones. My good friend Detective Superintendent Charlie Haley had many years ago given me a jar of Parker Hale’s fine Motty Rifle Paste. Few shooters today have probably ever heard of Motty’s Paste, but it was a form of jeweller’s paste that was made to remove nickel deposits. The container and label alone are worth having. I caked the slide and frame in Motty’s Paste and spent the better part of a day just working the bearing surfaces while watching TV. I then handed the frame over to my gunsmith to put a rounded bevel on the base of the magazine well.

Zimbabwe by then having become something of a pariah nation, I sent my shopping list for bits and pieces across to the ‘States with various professional hunters who were going to the SHOT show and who were able to smuggle back what I wanted. I fell back on my tried and true for most of the stuff, and bought Wilson Combat parts.

Now, for what and why. There are really only two modifications an older Colt really needs – a good set of sights and a decent trigger. Back in the day, the vogue was to mill out the Colt’s slide and fit a Smith && Wesson revolver sight in the rear. Figuring I would develop a load and stick with it, I opted instead for a high profile set of fixed iron sights. Black, no dots or other distractions. I remembered reading decades ago that Chuck Taylor recommended iron sights with about 1/8” visibility on either side, and I selected a set that looked about that to me. They were marketed as “retro” sights, but I suppose that fits. (After the foresight went AWOL one day, I had the slide machined and fitted a dovetailed STI replacement, which worked perfectly with the existing rear sight.) I went with the iconic three-hole Wilson extended aluminium trigger with the set screw to obviate overtravel. Maybe cheating a little on the whole 1970s thing, I got my dream trigger by dropping in a computer-prepped hammer and sear set.

In my personal case two other mods were necessary – an ambidextrous safety as I shoot a handgun as a southpaw, and an extended magazine release for the same reason – I drop my mags with my trigger finger. The safety was a departure from my Wilson Combat theme because Ed Brown’s is pretty much state-of-the-art, and I had the magazine release built up by way of extending it, rather than fit a button with a wider diameter. The idea was to drop the mag when I wanted to.

I then replaced the extractor and all the springs, which I think is a sort of must-do in any gun of unknown history, and even though this particular model hadn’t seemed to deform many cartridge cases on ejection, I had my ‘smith relieve and re-shape the ejection port.

Now, for what I wanted. I much prefer the flat mainspring housing to the arched one, and as I bought a Pachmayr one, I put their fine grips on, too. I have never owned a .45 without Pachmayrs. My gunsmith fitted an extended ejector, which we tuned with a diamond file until it worked flawlessly. That took a couple of hours. Even though I had bevelled the magazine well, ala back in the day, I fitted one of the plastic mag funnels that hooks on the bottom grip screw bushings. I just plain like a Commander-style hammer, and I confess I cheated a little here, too, with a jaunty squared STI hammer. And lastly, a beavertail grip safety. Now, I don’t like most beavertails. But I came across one that was a bit of a conundrum. It was downswept. It gave me a higher grip, and it looked nice. To me, anyway. I have seen them over the years, but I have no clue who makes them. I posted photos on a couple of forums and someone suggested it might have been made by the now-defunct King’s Gun Works.

I now had a beautiful, retro Colt 1911. To be fair, there wasn’t a lot of competition in Zimbabwe in the new IPSC division, but that gun won me the Classic Division national titles in 2012, 2013 and 2014.

When Zimbabwe’s top Practical Pistol shooter, Paul Friendship, moved from Standard Division to Production Division, he gave me an STI full-length recoil spring guide, which is the only other thing I’ve done to the old workhorse. I’m not sure it actually does much, but it certainly doesn’t hurt anything.

I carried a similarly-modified Colt MKIV S70 in Rhodesia, and provided my own .45 Colt Commander as a duty sidearm in Bophuthatswana. I bought an old Colt 1911-AI and built it up in the early ‘90s. I struggled with my vexatious Olympic Arms “Safari Jams”, which was responsible for my buying a Glock, and now, finally, forty years on, I have a Colt 1911 that functions as flawlessly as any STI, Kimber, or Les Baer.

An elegant weapon, for a more civilised age.

THE ZAMBEZI VALLEY’S RIFA EDUCATION CAMP
I J Larivers

There is something very special about the Zambezi Valley, no matter the time of year or the reason for the visit. And one of the most special places in the Lower Zambezi is the Rifa Education Camp.

Rifa as a concept dates from 1982, when the Zimbabwe Hunters’ Association, founded in 1949, built the inaugural education camp at Nymomba, where the mighty Zambezi exits the Kariba Gorge; but the site was not as easily accessible as it should have been to facilitate the likes of school busses and two wheel-drive vehicles. Five years later, in 1987 the present camp was officially opened, with students from Sanyati High School in residence – and for over thirty years, set against a backdrop of acacia trees, wild figs and tamarinds, it has provided a unique wilderness educational experience for youngsters from all over Zimbabwe.

Camp Manager, PH Dave Winhall

In earlier days, before the creation of the Kariba Dam and the subsequent siltation and formation of the wide flood plain below the Kariba Gorge, the Zambezi would have flowed past the present-day site of Rifa; today, the mini-floodplain that separates the camp from the river serves a number of educational purposes, such as housing the camp’s famed “vulture restaurant”. Continue reading …

Silvercore has been providing bear safety training to industry professionals, both in person as well as online, for many years, but this marks the first time we speak with someone who survived a horrific grizzly bear attack by using his pocket knife.

In episode 9, we sit down and talk with Colin Dowler, who shares in detail his harrowing experience of grit and tenacity. Colin is sharing his story to increase the knowledge base of bear behaviour and bear encounters. He hopes that we all become more aware of potential dangers and become adequately educated and prepared before entering into bear country.

Please note that sections of this episode deal with intense and graphic content, listener discretion is advised.

You can listen to episode 9 of our podcast on Podbean, Apple iTunes, YouTube, Spotify, SoundCloud, Google Podcast, and Google Play. All you’ll have to do is search for ‘The Silvercore Podcast.’ 

If you have any feedback or questions that we can address, please reach out to us via social media or at 1-855-771-5837 or info@silvercore.ca. Finally, don’t forget to rate, review, and subscribe to the podcast, and while you’re at it, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!

Travis Bader
Silvercore Inc.

It’s here! The much-anticipated part 2 of the Train your Brain to Win series with Ryan Steacy. In part one, we sat down with Ryan and discussed the mental management practices that have allowed him to be the National Service Rifle Champion 5 years in a row.

Part one was recorded right before Ryan was to fly to Ottawa to compete at the Connaught Range to see if he could extend his winning streak to a 6th year in a row. In this episode, we delve deeper into Ryan’s mental management process, discuss Mental Marksmanship as coined by Keith Cunningham and Linda Miller, and field some questions from our listeners. Does Ryan’s process allow for a win 6 years in a row? Is this something that you can use in your everyday life? Listen and find out.

You can listen to episode 8 of our podcast on Podbean, Apple iTunes, YouTube, Spotify, SoundCloud, Google Podcast, and Google Play. All you’ll have to do is search for ‘The Silvercore Podcast.’ 

If you have any feedback or questions that we can address, please reach out to us via social media or at 1-855-771-5837 or info@silvercore.ca. Finally, don’t forget to rate, review, and subscribe to the podcast, and while you’re at it, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!

Travis Bader
Silvercore Inc.

Do you want to hit your target every time? Whether that’s a literal target or a personal or professional goal, in this podcast, Ryan Steacy will describe a mental management program that will help you win in any aspect of your life. 

Learn the secrets that the professionals use to win as well as one simple trick that has helped Ryan succeed even in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.  

Whether it is in the boardroom, your personal life, sports, or in Ryan’s case on the rifle range, this podcast will help teach you how to ingrain winning into your subconscious.

This is a two-part episode, a first for The Silvercore Podcast. In this episode, we will discuss Ryan’s mental management process shortly before he leaves to compete in an attempt to win the National Service Rifle Championship for the sixth year in a row.

In part two, I will be sitting down with Ryan soon after he returns from the championship. Here we will see if there is anything that needs to be addressed for future competitions or if his mental management process comes though for win number 6.

You can listen to our podcast on Podbean, Apple iTunes, YouTube, Google Podcast, and apps on your phone such as Spotify, SoundCloud, and Google Play! All you’ll have to do is search for ‘The Silvercore Podcast’

After you listen, let us know what you think! While you’re at it follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!

Travis Bader
Silvercore Inc.

In this episode, we sit down with  Graeme Foote. Graeme is a competitive shooter who is recently back from attending the Sniper’s Hide Cup, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg of exciting things he should be commended for.

Instead, Foote should also be recognized for his excellent marksmanship abilities, his work ethic, and the work he does within the shooting community for Project Maple Seed.

Project Mapleseed is an apolitical rifle marksmanship training program that focuses on teaching traditional rifle marksmanship, and Foote is a Rifle Chair and active participant at the non-profit organization.

You can listen to our podcast on Podbean, Apple iTunes, YouTube, Google Podcast, and apps on your phone such as Spotify, SoundCloud, and Google Play! All you’ll have to do is search for ‘The Silvercore Podcast’

After you listen, let us know what you think! While you’re at it follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!

Travis Bader
Silvercore Inc.

I have been fortunate enough to have firearms experts safely instruct and mentor me from a very early age. Including the same firearms training as the police before I reached my teens, and soon after held certifications from Smith and Wesson, Glock, Remington, Beretta, and the Canadian government to name a few. I have been fortunate to be exposed to the professional side of firearms ownership, and that expertise has shaped my perspective of firearms ownership in Canada. I want to give back to the community by dispelling some of the firearm myths as well as answer the questions I hear most frequently. Some points of interest that have been raised are:

• Why would anyone need a firearm?
• Can anyone own firearms in Canada?  If so, what types of firearms and how do they start?
• How can you legally

  • Store
  • transport or,
  • display firearms
  • My relative has a firearm that they left for me, what do I do?

If you have any questions you would like to have answered, by all means drop me an email and I will do my best to have them addressed.

Sincerely,

Travis Bader

CEO

Firearms Canada Inc.