By Dan Larsson
I stepped from Montana into an African safari. With every step, I swiped the grass back and forth, looking for the carnivore I expected to be lying at my feet. The sights had been true, the trigger-squeeze smooth, and the offhand shot felt perfect. The bear stood facing me just over 100 yards. I squeaked with my lips to keep him standing while I took the time to aim and fire. He folded and shot from sight.
This hunt began with planning. The rifle. The ammunition. The time and place. Uberti firearms offered me a cute and quality little rifle modeled after the idea of the famed Selous Courteney’s African stalking rifle. Uberti chamber it in the period .303 British cartridge designed in the 1880s as a black powder cartridge and survives today as a modern chambering. The receiver has a beautiful case-hardened look that I love. Rather than put a scope on the traditional rifle, I put Skinner Sights peep-sights on it. Slim, trim, and accurate. I am reasonably impressed with the trigger quality. It has the right amount of pull weight and is smoother than most.
I rarely shoot factory ammunition as I am an ardent handloader. I have always appreciated RCBS equipment and have used their reloading press for the last 20 years. The RCBS crew recently came out with new models that Bluetooth to an app on your phone. You can save your information and load data, on your phone, for quick and easy repetition of perfect loads. Those loading with the older chargemaster will want to upgrade to the new Chargemaster Link, Supreme, or Matchmaster. I have thrown about 500 charges with the new Supreme model and only seen about three of those that weren’t accurate to the desired charge.
I have shot more big game animals with Barnes bullets than any other brand. I reached out to Barnes and got some TSX 150-grain bullets to load for this hunt. They were easy to load and easy to sight in. The recoil is manageable with the comfortable rubber pad on the 1885 Courteney Stalking Rifle.
I have hunted these specific hawthorn trees for the last half dozen years every fall. Bear hunting is all about food. Like a teenage boy, you find bears where there is something to eat. In the spring, we hunt them where the 1st green grass is. In the fall, berries and bugs are the hot tickets. After the berries and apples are gone, the bears wander, looking for food. Elmer Keith wrote that late-season black bears could be found high in the mountains, feeding on mushrooms, on the thickly timbered North-facing slopes.
I wanted to find a bear down low in the early fall season.
It was the opening day of the rifle hunting for bears, and I headed back to my hawthorn trees. My father-in-law and my 10-year-old son accompanied me on this hunt. We were searching the area for bears when we saw a black shape in a tree. I knew it wasn’t a big bear, but my bear lard reserves were running low, and every bear is a potential fawn killer. I was working my way around to the side to get a massive tree behind the bear to stop the bullet, but the bear kept moving back and forth, denying me the shot.
Suddenly, the little bear shot up the big tree behind him and nestled in a limb 50 feet in the air. He kept looking down at whatever had spooked him. Instantly I knew I was about to see a bigger bear. Scanning the trees and grass below the little bugger, I kept vigilant and was ready for a quick shot. Another black bear raised out of the grass and looked in my direction. I know bears usually only stand for a second or so, and I wouldn’t have time to get on him and shoot accurately. I had no rest, and it would be freestanding offhand. I squeaked with my lips to keep him up and looking as I settled the front sight on his chest. I love that a peep sight allows you to forget the rear sight and simplify the sighting process. The front sight settled on his chest, and my finger took up the slack until I was surprised by the recoil. The bear shot from sight.
My father-in-law and son came over, and we started looking for the bear. He covered me with a Glock while I waded into the grass. The grass was head high. My anxiety rose as all the stories of wounded lions, and cape buffalo came to mind. It was so thick; I was using the rifle barrel to move the grass and look for the bear I hoped was dead. I wished for my semi-automatic 10mm pistol over the single-shot rifle. Selous regularly used huge single-shot black powder rifles when hunting dangerous African games. He survived hunting dangerous game to be shot in the head and killed by a German sniper during World War 1. I gritted my teeth and waded in. It took 10 minutes to find the bear lying in the grass. The Barnes bullet had gone just above his heart and shattered his spine. He was dead before he hit the ground. An epic hunt with an epic rifle.
RCBS Interview
1. What sets RCBS apart from other reloading equipment companies in today’s competitive ammunition market? RCBS has a long history of making great products and taking care of its customers. RCBS was started in 1943 and for 79 years has been a leader in the reloading market.
2. Why should a new handloader start with RCBS? RCBS makes field-tested, proven products that get the job done and make reloading enjoyable. New handloaders will have more confidence knowing everything was engineered and manufactured with meticulous attention to detail. Our in-house RCBS engineers are also end users and truly know handloading.
3. When someone is choosing reloading components, what are some guidelines or advice they should consider? Buy the best quality you can. One of the nice things about RCBS is, if for some unforeseen reason your product gets broken, our customer service will take care of you.
4. How does RCBS support new and experienced handloaders, and how can handloaders use this support? In addition to our great customer service, we carry some of the largest assortments of dies, shell holders, presses and powder dispensers and more. When new calibers are SAAMI certified, RCBS will have dies available.
5. How is RCBS innovating the handloading market? We're always working behind the scenes to come up with the latest and greatest. We're all reloaders ourselves, so when we see an opportunity for a product or process to be better, we go for it.