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Firearm safety and handling rifles (continue)
Bolts:
Every bolt fits the specific rifle. For safety reasons, it is advisable to store the rifle's bolt in a different place from the rifle (in case of theft / robberies) as the rifle is worthless without the bolt. It will take considerable time and money to have a specific bolt made for a rifle.
Storage:
By law in South Africa one has to store any rifle in a safe - 12 rifles require a safe for 12 rifles, one rifle requires a safe for one rifle etc.
Firearm licence:
In South Africa the rifle is licensed. In the US it is the person that is licensed. We agreed that it is necessary to license the person rather than the rifle as the person needs to take the responsibility for the rifle. People also should be able to prove that they can handle firearms in a responsible way before being issued with a license.
Rifle hunters that travel to South Africa to hunt have to declare their firearms and obtain a temporary license for the period of time that they will hunt. The license needs to be kept with the hunter/rifle at all times. Upon arrival at Johannesburg International airport (after passing through the gates before going through customs) in the luggage collection hall, is a police station where the hunter has to declare their firearm/s. The policeman will check the serial number, correlate it with the documentation and issue a temporary license.
Handling a rifle:
Fit in shoulder, elbow up, cheek against barrel. Left arm should be comfortable. The length of the stock is important and in many cases have to shortened for women hunters. (So guys, no use to buy a rifle for your wife and want to use it at times! It has to be fitted for her hee,hee) When handling the rifle, lean into it as if you are going to shoot - women apparently tend not to do it.
When hunters admire each other's rifles, they like to dry shoot in order to feel how the rifle handles. You can dry shoot rifles but dry shooting is not allowed with some other calibres - for example the .22 that we used in our lesson could not be dry shot. Always check with the owner of the rifle first.
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