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DIE BONTEBOK
The open grasslands of the great Karoo.
The Big 40 x 40 HUNT As narrated by Greg Sykes
after 40 years of being a hunting widow every winter, enough was enough and the time was ripe s any hunter knows, that first hunt is an experience that she too should join the ranks of the hunter. There and then that will never be they decided to make this their forgotten. For Ludy Starke, that first hunt took place many many 40 x 40 hunt. Petri is an accomplished shot, years ago on a farm just north east of Victoria West in the heart not only in practical pistol, of the Karoo. Ludy as a teenager, a discipline in which she has Springbok colours, but also went with his father to inspect some dams that they had built with a rifle. Petri has for years and taking his .22 hornet with competed in Silhouette shooting, just in case, was rewarded with .22 competitions and the CHASA hunting shoots hosted by her permission to hunt a Springbok. local club. Petri’s weapon of While that first hunt did not produce any biltong, the hunting choice is her trusty Sako A II .243 Win with a Leupold 12X bug bit deeply and since then nearly every year Ludy has been Turret Scope. Normally for competitions she uses match out in the hunting fields across South Africa and Namibia. Of grade bullets, but to prepare for the hunt, Ludy dug up an old course nearly no mention goes to the long suffering spouses of box of ammunition that he had hand loaded in their first year of hunters as they keep the home marriage. The old box of ammo fires burning year after year while hubby is off hunting. was Sako .243 cases 44gr of IMR 4831, CCI 250 magnum primers Well, coincidently in 2020, Ludy and his wife Petri celebrated their and Norma 100grn Soft Points. 40th wedding anniversary and at Just for interest, the IMR powder the same time Petri decided that was bought at Field and Stream
A
for the exorbitant price of R9.00 a tin back in 1978. At the range, the idea was to shoot the old ammo out in order to use the brass for load development for the hunt, but the accuracy of the 40 year old ammo so impressed them and the Norma 100grn Soft Point were ideal for hunting. The decision was made to stick to a winning recipe no matter how old it was. These old rounds that were still loaded with that old powder and primers still grouped well under the magical MOA at 100m. The hunt was arranged at Klipfontein hunting lodge which is located a little north west of Hanover. By chance this special hunt would take place less than 60 km as the crow flies from the farm where Ludy so many years before took that first step into hunting. With Covid throwing our lives into turmoil, the hunt was on, then off then on again and eventually a gap in the ever changing regulations allowing hunting, the family
