Bill Laughridge

I am taking this snowy day to finish my posts about the Dallas Safari Club Convention which ended Sunday a week ago. I should be at the airport getting ready to fly to Las Vegas for the SHOT Show and SCI Convention but weather has thrown a wrench in that.

My third day at the DSC Convention was similar to earlier days in that I spoke with outfitters, cruised the aisles, drooled over guns, and attended a couple of seminars. I did see some interesting taxidermy and artwork as you can see below.

My two biggest highlights were chatting with “the” Bill Laughridge of Cylinder and Slide and meeting Kevin “Doctari” Robertson. I chatted with Mr. Laughridge about the Browning Hi-Power as well as the new Springfield SA-35. He thought the Springfield SA-35 was a good upgrade to the Browning model as he had worked on customizing a couple so far.

With regards to Kevin Robertson, I was walking the aisles and heard this guy speaking with a couple of people. I knew that voice! I had recently heard it on John McAdams’ Big Game Hunting Podcast. Dr. Robertson is the author of the The Perfect Shot and The Perfect Shot II. Those books combine his experience as a veterinarian and as a licensed professional hunter in Zimbabwe to provide hunters with the knowledge to make a clean kill on tough African wildlife. As with Mr. Laughridge, he was a very nice gentleman and willing to talk.

I also attended a seminar put on by Hornady on bullet design. The engineer presenting the seminar said they were going to work backwards from the animal dying to find the type of bullet needed for the task. An animal dies from the lack of oxygenated blood to the brain. There are three systems that can be impacted that will cause death: circulatory, respiratory, and nervous. In other words, the animal dies from blood loss, damage to its lungs and/or heart, or from a spinal or brain shot that shuts down the nervous system. When designing a bullet the engineers give consideration to placement, penetration, and expansion. Placement is always important while on some animals you need more penetration and on others expansion is more critical. Unfortunately, I had to leave before they finished the seminar.

The other seminar I attended was put on by Michael Sabbeth who is a student of the media. His seminar dealt with how the media portrays hunting and especially trophy hunting. Much of the seminar was deconstructing an interview done by Emma Barnett of the BBC with Danene van der Westhuyzen who runs Aru Safaris with her husband in Namibia. Danene is one of the few female PHs in Namibia and is president of the Namibian Professional Hunters Association. Sabbeth found Barnett to be a master of rhetorical tricks and unethical in her use of them. You can read his deconstruction of the interview here.