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AFRICAN MEDIUM-GAME CARTRIDGES
by Pierre van der Walt

2018 Randburg, 500pp, color and B&W photos, 8x11, self-printed hardcover

Hunters and gun owners are particularly fond of proclaiming certain publications are the last word on their sport, and this tome certainly comes close. The author’s first book, African Dangerous Game Cartridges, became a modern standard reference on big bores. African Medium-Game Cartridges has around 380 color images and charts; it covers the 39 currently most popular .270, 7mm, .30, and .303 hunting cartridges in the greatest detail we’ve ever seen. It covers not only the history, but the ideal loads, the right projectiles, how to reload them, and the game each cartridge should be used for.

The author has been a long time “guns and ammo” writer for various magazines in Southern Africa. He takes the reader on a grand tour of the history, specifications, design, characteristics, performance, and applications, as well as the reloading quirks, of each of these cartridges. At the end of each cartridge chapter there is a comprehensive range of reloading data for American, European, Scandinavian, African, and Australian propellants. Roughly 7,300 reloading “recipes” are provided in African Medium-Game Cartridges. One reviewer quipped, “Any information not included about a cartridge in this book is most likely not worth having.” Possibly somewhat of an exaggeration, but let’s turn that into a positive: “This book is well worth owning!”

Apart from cartridge information, this book also contains countless photos of, and interesting information about, Africa’s medium game species and hunting destinations.

If any of the following terms intrigue you and you wish to learn more about them, this book is for you: 

Understanding Sectional Density
Minimum Wound Surface Area Theory, Kinetic Energy and Energy Dump Theory
Hydrodynamic Impulse Theory
Drag Force and Stagnation Pressure
Secondary Explosion Effect Theories
Von Neumann's Wave Pressure Theory
Steigers' Propellant Abuse Theory
Stowers' Case and Bullet Shape Theory

And these are by no means all of the ballistics topics that the author covers.

The following cartridges are included in this book:

6.8 Remington Special Purpose Cartridge
.270 Redding / Sabi (.270-308 Improved)
.270 Winchester
.270 Winchester Short Magnum
.270 Weatherby Magnum
7mm-08 Remington
7x57mm Mauser / .275 Rigby
.284 Winchester
.280 Remington (7mm Express Remington)
7x64mm Brenneke
7x61mm Sharpe & Hart (&x61mm Super)
.275 Holland & Holland Belted Nitro Express
7mm Remington Short Action Ultra Mag
7mm Winchester Short Magnum
7mm Blaser Magnum
7mm Remington Magnum
7.21 Lazzeroni Tomahawk
7mm Weatherby Magnum
7mm Dakota
7mm Shooting Times Westerner
7mm Remington Ultra Mag
.300 Whisper / AAC Blackout
.30-30 Winchester
.308 Winchester
.30-06 Springfield
.300 Remington Short Ultra Mag
.308 Norma Magnum
.300 Holland & Holland
.300 Winchester Short Magnum
7.82 Lazzeroni Patriot
.300 Blaser Magnum
.300 Winchester Magnum
.300 Dakota
.300 Weatherby Magnum
.300 Remington Ultra Mag
.30-378 Weatherby Magnum
7.62x39mm M43 (AK-47)
.303 British
7.65x53mm Belgian / Argentine Mauser