The Toys of War

Following on from passing the .22 rifle handling we moved on to the .375 rifles (elephant guns!).  These are the big beasts and what you need to use if you are to become a 'trails guide', that is someone who guides guests in dangerous game areas. The whole process involves passing the Advanced Rifle Handling (ARH), a trails guide exam (to get your theory), a practical assessed walk into a dangerous game sighting, and a log book of walks (this has to be 10 walks encounters of dangerous game like lion and rhino, and a total of about 50 hours walking in dangerous game areas).

ARH starts with what is called 'dry handling'.  This is where we learnt how to load and unload the gun, shoulder the gun and all the things you need to do instinctively if say a lion was charging at you.  This was actually quite fun, and I could load 3 rounds into the gun, whilst blind folded, within 6.2 seconds (Rach was 7.4 seconds).  So pretty impressive stuff.  The problem for me started when we got to the firing range.

Shooting the .22 was a breeze as it didn't feel like a really dangerous weapon - I mean, it's a gun and the bullets are real and can kill easily, but the noise and the kick was non-existant compared to the .375  The .375 is massive and when it goes off you know you have something very dangerous in your hands, and to be honest this did not thrill me at all.  Some of the guys on the course are gun mad and talk about shooting this animal and that, and this just does not appeal to me, rather it revolts me.  So each time I shot the gun I was left with the realisation that by learning to shoot this gun, and having to carry one on walks, I may be put in a position of having to kill an animal.

After a couple of sessions at the range (and my shooting was pretty good, so with my dry handling I think I would have been OK on the ARH assessment) I dropped out.  I've never been a fan of the toys of war and this just proved it even further.  For the record, Rach also dropped out (for slightly different reasons) and this now leaves us with a few hoours extra each day to chill, which is great!!

What now for us? - well, if we don't get ARH we can't go for full trails guide but we can still sit the theory exam; we can still do all the walks and learn the theory, which for us as we don't want to go into the guiding industry, is fine.  For the rest of the students, who are trying to get jobs in the industry, they are still having to go through the process - many are struggling and finding it a chore, so we are happy to be chilling and being stress free :)  (Plus I now have a bit more time to update this blog!).