June Content
For almost the entire month of June I will be on safari in Africa. It starts in the Northern Cape where Gun Digest editor Luke Hartle and I will be hunting for free-range kudu for a week with Fort Richmond Safaris. Next week before I leave I will detail the guns and gear I’m taking to Africa to include my complete packing list.
Then, our wives arrive for the second week, which will be for the couples safari, where we will also be joined by EmptyCases Premium Subscriber Bill Mazelin and his lovely wife, Carrie, and another couple.
Finally, we all travel north for another week of hunting in Limpopo. You’ll still get weekly — and probably more — EmptyCases content, it will just be a bit different than usual. What you get will depend on what happens, and in Africa, anything can happen.
My New Book: Rifle Cartridges for The Hunter
Yesterday I sent the completed text for my upcoming book to my editor. We are hunting together in Africa and I’m sure he’ll give me the “what for” while we are there. We are on schedule for an October 2025 release date. All Premium Subscribers will receive a free autographed copy, which will be part of the 100 signed copies I will offer on pre-order. After those are gone, the book will only be available through Amazon.
In the mean time I wanted to get some feedback from potential readers concerning the cover. Below are three mock-ups. Please vote in the include pole, selecting the cover you like best. If you have a better idea, drop a comment.
The Kids
May has been an exceptionally busy month. Our oldest daughter, Montana, turned 21, and I gave her a pistol for her birthday. WV is a Constitutional Carry state, but she will be applying for her carry permit soon. But I think what Montana was most excited about was the trip she just took to Nashville — with her mom and brother — this weekend to celebrate turning 21. I had to stay home to work and to take care of the pack of dogs our family has accumulated.
Our youngest daughter, RayneAnne, also turned 18 in May, which has been an incredibly important month for her. First, she passed her driver’s test. She also graduated from a local community college with two-year degree, graduated from the vocational school, and next Friday she will graduate from high school. I’ve been telling her that if she could use here smarts to get in to college for free, I would buy her a car — I had to buy her a car. She earned the President’s Scholarship from, and was accepted into the Bonner Scholar’s program at, Mars Hill University, where she will also play on the golf team. Also, RayneAnne received a very special graduation gift — a rifle —from a reader. There will be a full article on that rifle coming soon.
Bat is continuing to enjoy his work as a creative marketing director in the firearms industry, where one of his jobs to to enhance the company’s social media footprint. I find it amazing how the industry has changed so much in just two decades. It used to be if you wanted to learn about a company in the gun industry, you wrote them a letter and asked for a catalog. Paper catalogs transitioned to CDs and jump drives, and now everything is on line and even QR-coded. To quote Dylan, “Things have changed.”
The EmptyCases Edition Rifle
I announced the EmptyCases Edition NULA rifle on April 5th and several have already been sold. I’ll be taking one chambered for the 300 HAMR to Africa with me, specifically for the purpose of hunting warthog. The EmptyCases Edition NULA rifle costs the same as the standard NULA, but it comes with the EmptyCases enhancements to include the Spartan adapter, engraving and highlight colors. It is available in any chambering currently offered by Wilson Combat, and, if you purchase an EmptyCases Edition NULA you will get a 25% discount on a Spartan bipod and a 30% discount on a Galco RifleMann sling.
Best of the Breed/Creed
If you’ve been following my writings for long — especially since 2015 — you will probably remember that 10 years ago I necked the 6.5 Creedmoor down to 0.25-caliber. (I was not the only one to do that, and maybe not even the first, but I did try to get Hornady to introduce the cartridge back then. They went with the 6mm Creedmoor instead.) Now they have brought out the 25 Creedmoor, and I believe it is the best Creed of the breed, because of the triple threat — varmint, big game, long range — capabilities it has. If you want to read more about it, click the link below:
Many Thanks!
Please accept my sincere thank you for being an EmptyCases Substack subscriber! It is amazingly rewarding to see the number of folks who partake of the content, and I always appreciate feedback. Hopefully by late summer we will have added a video component to this Substack.
Congratulations to your daughter, and ya'll will have a wonder time. Also, pass along my appreciation for her service.
Hopefully some day I can make it out that way and we can discover the stuff we don't agree about. The 25 Creed is a very versatile cartridge, I think its the best 25 or Creedmoor we've seen to date.