So,the story started about 20 years ago, when I went to a local gunsmith to sort out scope mounts on a old .303 Enfield. After chatting about calibers and what is best for our local Karoo hunts(the Karoo is a semi desert area in South Africa with lots of springbuck, kudu, and other plains game) where the shooting distance is anything from 150-350m! At that stage I only had the old 303 and a .22!
I asked the gunsmith what caliber he would recommend... he thought for about 10sec and out the blue said if I can only have one caliber for all hunting in Africa, it must be a 8x68! At that stage i never even heard about a 8x68! My response was a 'eight by what?'
so he explained to my young mind all the pro's and what a great caliber it is... but being a poor occasional hunter with only spare cash mostly used to buy reloading components and the odd hunting trip, I put it in the back of my mind and forget about the whole 8x68 thing!
So fast forward 15 years and i manage to get my hands on a collection of Man Magnum magazines. every edition from the first one in the late 1970's to the latest one at that stage. It was like a treasure cove full of info. In one of those Magnum magazines, there was a whole article about the 8x68 that Karl Stumpfe wrote before he was a big game PH in the Caprivi. I will try and take photos of the article and post it tomorrow.
To be continued....