Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Range day with South African PH Mike Birch

My friend Mike Birch is a well regarded professional hunter from South Africa. He makes an annual trip to the U.S. to promote his safari services, and often stops in here in Washington State. We take the opportunity to hit the range, where I try to come up with firearms different from what he uses in Africa. From past visits, I knew he liked the .500 S&W revolver, the .45 1911 and the 5.56 AR-15. This morning I added the .22 Marlin 39A and the .30-30 Glenfield to the mix.

Mike, enjoying the full recoil of 440 grain cast bullets at 1400 fps, from the .500 revolver:


He noted that the AR-15 would be wonderful to have in the truck (baake) when dealing with rhino poachers:


My all-time favorite rifle, the .22 Marlin 39A, was an instant hit. We were using CCI shorts!


And he really wanted to take the .30-30 home...


It was a great day. We were enjoying the foggy, 36 degree weather... Ugh. Still, lots of fun. Always good to hear Mike's hunting stories!

Regards, Guy

Looks like you had a lot of fun. Hope your friend enjoyed his trip back to the states.

What's a Glenfield 30-30 Guy?

They were made by Marlin. It's pretty much just a low-budget Marlin with hardwood stocks instead of walnut. The sights are less expensive as well.

Some people believe that the Glenfields tend to be more accurate because of their fore-end, vs the barrel band on a standard Marlin 336. I sure like mine.

I think this was Mike's first experience with the .30-30 lever action, and he really enjoyed how little the light and handy rifle kicked. It's just plain fun to shoot.

Regards, Guy

Yeah I can see the diff now. Smart looking little rifle.

I have a Marlin 39D. Wonderful little guns.

Those Marlin lever action .22's are wonderful indeed.

Guy