I recently purchased a Silent Hunter suppressor for my Howa .243 Winchester from Henk Viljoen in Bloemfontein who has been manufacturing suppressors for the last couple of years. So many people have been praising his products that I had to order one from him to see what the fuss is about.
I was indeed pleasantly surprised with the results of the suppressor as there was a dramatic reduction in the sound and the recoil of the rifle. It is very compact (only 38mm x 180mm) and weighs about 500 grams, which makes it one of the most compact but not the lightest steel suppressors available.
I can honestly recommend Silent Hunter suppressors to anyone in the market for a good quality suppressor for hunting purposes. His prices are also very competitive and his products are rated amongst the very best.
I tested the point of impact before and after fitting the Silent Hunter suppressor at 100 meters and there was almost no difference in the POI. These results will be different from rifle to rifle and not everyone might experience the same results as I did.
Here is a short video to demonstrate the difference in sound before and after the suppressor was fitted:
We are often restricted by our budgets when it comes to buying equipment, (whether you are looking for a new rifle or a new fly rod) but sometimes more money does not necessarily mean more quality.
Not too long ago I started looking for an affordable plains/varmint rifle for Springbuck and Blesbuck sized animals that will be able to fire a light bullet (55gr to 100gr) at a high velocity to produce a flat trajectory, which has many advantages when shooting at longer distances.
I narrowed my search and then decided to purchase a Howa model 1500 with a 22″ factory barrel. It was not just the price tag that was the deciding factor, but the reviews from people who have extensively tested them, both on the range and in the hunting field. The caliber that will suit my needs most is the .243 Winchester. Although there are better long range calibers available these days, the .243 Winchester got my nod because of it’s ballistic characteristics and it’s availability of reloading components and accessories.
I fitted a Boyds featherweight thumbhole stock, a Burris Fullfield II 4.5-14 x 42 scope with Warne bases and mounts and a UTG bipod. I am going to fit a Silent Hunter screw on suppressor in the near future, which I will review on it’s own.
I tested the rifle with 100gr PMP factory ammunition and the results were quite pleasing. At 100 meters I got a group of around 1″, 200 meters gave a group of around 2″ and at 300 meters the grouping was between 3″ and 4″. I was not bothered too much with the results as I am going to reload ammunition for the rifle which will produce better results. Currently I am looking at developing loads for 80gr Sierra Blitz Varminter bullets which will give me a flat trajectory and hopefully sub MOA accuracy!
The little Howa behaved extremely well and I am more than happy with it. It has a reliable extractor mechanism which is in my opinion better than the majority of push feed actions available. The trigger takes some getting used to but it is crisp and it has no creep. The sensitivity of the trigger can also be changed, however I will advise that it be done by a qualified gunsmith.
Over all I can highly recommend the Howa model 1500. It is affordable and it is great value for money, however it can easily compete with rifles in a higher price class.
We all develop a preference for certain fly patterns over the years, whether you are fly fishing for smallstream trout on the Smalblaar or whether you are targeting 20lbs Tigerfish in the Zambezi. It’s a matter of personal taste in some cases and it might not even be relevant to the success of the pattern. It might just be because of it’s looks, action, imitation aspects or for whichever reason. Sometimes flies catch more people than fish.
If you have confidence in your flies (and other equipment), you will catch fish. I think confidence is sometimes the difference between catching fish and going home empty handed. If you have a lack of trust in the fly at the end of your tippet you might as well have went with your wife to that craft market.
Here are some of my favourite smallstream flies that I almost always tie onto my leader. Not all at the same time though…
Oh yes, and they aren’t just a pretty face, they lash fish as well!
Mercury Soft Hackle
#14 Knapek Nymph
Hungarian Partridge feather
Black thread
Red thread
Silver Wire
Glass bead
Now to many fly fisherman Carp aren’t a very glamorous species to target on fly. Some people call them a trash fish due to them being quite adaptable to any form of water, which means that they aren’t always found in the most pristine of waters. They will pretty much flourish any where they are introduced, which is not always a good thing for other fish species.
Personally I also have never been bothered enough to take the time to go and fly fish for Carp although I have caught a couple on fly in the past. Until one day that I went out for a quick Sunday session with a friend of mine to one of his private spots.
We were actually targeting Yellowfish but we could not ignore the big Carp swimming around in the river, so we decided to change tactics and target these big bodied busses! It didn’t take long before my friend was into a big fish which after he landed it tipped the scale to just under 12 lbs! Not to trashy in my books…
This got me excited and was super keen to get into one of these Asian beauties. I took a black woolly bugger and made a cast about a meter in front of a fish. Luckily it did not spook as the water was quite clear and after investigating the foreign feathered object “BOOM” the fish ate it!
I had one of the most memorable fights on fly ever, and after releasing the fish I was so annoyed with myself for not targeting Carp on fly sooner.
No more will Carp be a trash fish to me, but rather a very worthy adversary.
I think most of us (unfortunately) can only dream of fly fishing those exotic locations that lie beyond our borders. A trip to these idyllic destinations can cost an arm and a leg and it’s already hard enough standing up straight on two legs fishing in the Vaal!
Places like New Zealand, Idaho and Kamchatka are destinations that most of us will only see in magazines or on DVD’s.
But who would have known that we have some equally epic fishing here in South Africa?
Not too long ago I heard rumours of the Ash … tales of huge trout spawning wild in crystal clear, ice cold water coming out of the Lesotho highlands. Only a few people know of the Ash and its resident population of trout and most of them said the water is close to unfishable and that I would be wasting my time trying the water is so fierce and fast flowing. This sounded like a challenge to me, and one I couldn’t resist.
The Ash River is in essence a manmade river. It is part of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project which channels water from the Katse Dam in the Maluti Mountains in Lesotho into the Ash River between Clarens and Bethlehem, then into the Liebenbergs Vlei River which joins the Wilge River near Frankfort before finally reaching the Vaal Dam to help ensure we have plenty of water up here in Gauteng.
We arrived in Clarens on Friday afternoon to meet our guide for the weekend. He was kind enough to arrange accommodation at a guesthouse situated about 5km from Clarens on the Fouriesburg road. We agreed that we would meet early on Saturday morning at Destination X on the Ash river.
As you can imagine I didn’t get much sleep the Friday night, being quite excited and intimidated at the same time.
Saturday morning came and I was greeted with a flat tyre I noticed while I was loading gear into my truck, but this did not dampen our spirits, as we changed the tyre and made our way to the Ash River. When we arrived at the weir where the guide suggested we meet, I immediately felt under-gunned with my 5wt when I saw how fast the river flowed, and so I opted for my 7wt Horizon TRS.
He briefed us on possible areas we should concentrate on to find fish as well as dangerous areas to avoid. There were a couple of spots where the river bank has eroded and walking there you could easily fall into the river. He said that if we did fall in at these certain places you wouldn’t be returning home.
I started out with a floating line and a big and very heavy tungsten bead head Woolly Bugger. My first tactic would be to try to find fish with this fly and then maybe switch over to a more natural pattern later. Again there were no rules, no proven tactics. The guide also said that there has only been a handful of people on this stretch and that no successful patterns or tactics had been established to date.
With my first cast I realized that it was going to be a long day because the moment my fly line landed on the water and before I could even mend my line, it was already washed to the side on the rocks at my feet. I then regretted not having my fast sinking line with me…
We tried to cover most of the 4 km of the Ash available to us for the day, and unfortunately we only had a limited amount of time, so we had to fish as much of the water as fast as possible.
Later in the morning I spotted a shallow and slower piece of water next to the river bank which I suspected could hold some fish. After having no success with streamer patterns (expect for one missed strike) I then tied a #8 two-tone caddis on as my heavy dropper fly and a #14 black flashback mayfly nymph as my point fly. I cast the New Zealand style rig without a strike indicator upstream and tried to maintain a dead drift on the fast water.
I didn’t have much hope as I suspected that my flies weren’t heavy enough to get down, but lo and behold, my fly got eaten.
It felt like a tree trunk at the end of my 3X tippet in the strong current and I didn’t have much hope as I saw the shadow of the big rainbow trout that had taken my fly. It emerged from the bottom of the gravel bed and fortunately it decided to swim upstream.
If it headed downstream I would have probably headed home empty handed as it would have snapped my tippet like thread. I tried applying as much pressure as possible, and luckily my friend and cameraman, Quintin could handle the net and I only had to concentrate on landing a beaut of a fish!
We landed the fish and I could finally breathe again! I removed the little black mayfly imitation from its mouth, and when I lifted it from the net I couldn’t believe how pretty this fish was. After taking a couple of quick photos I didn’t waste any time getting her back into the water. The water was very cold, and without much reviving the beautiful hen fish swam back into the river.
Personally this was a very special moment for me and one I will treasure for years to come. We are indeed very privileged here in South Africa to have some pretty spectacular places we can go fly fishing and the Ash River is without a doubt one of them.
There are some very big fish in this river… I saw a couple of cell phone photos and I estimated one of the fish in the photos to be in excess of 10 lbs. I will surely return in search of one of those giants…
