May of 2025 should find us down in the Save Conservancy in the southeast of Zimbabwe looking to pull an old bull buffalo out by the tail. With that chore on my radar, I’ll spend the time between now and then burning a SERIOUS amount of gunpowder in SERIOUS practice for that event. It’s a routine I’ve followed before every safari that I’ve been blessed to make and (so far at least!) I’ve never caused a situation where my professional hunter has had to collaborate…and I don’t want this trip to be any different!

Consequently, the bulk of my practice will be offhand, kneeling, with shooting sticks or some other form of field expedient rest. The bulk of the cartridges burned will of course be of the .22 LR persuasion as there is NO BETTER round imaginable. Do it right with a .22 and you’ll be rewarded with a hit where you wanted it…do something wrong and it’ll show you immediately!

Of course, there’ll be a goodly number of rounds of the “big stuff” that will get launched as well, but not as much as you might think. While I want to be intimately familiar with the handling, trigger and bolt throw (or opening arc on a double rifle) on any firearms that I take, doing ALL of my practice with them is unwarranted. Besides, my retinas and bridgework are all getting old and pummeling them unnecessarily seems foolish.

So between the little .22 and the big swatters is my Aaron Little “reimagined” Brno ZKK-601 in .223. A few years ago, Aaron took a rough chunk of Eastern Bloc sporting ordinance and transformed it into a miniature express rifle for me. Oh, there’s Talley rings and a wonderful scope laying around that fit this piece, but I confess to preferring to shoot it with the original irons as intended! It displays a fondness for 70 grain Speers over 24 grains of CFE-223, and will plunk three rounds into less than two inches at 100 yards (despite a front bead that subtends a good twelve inches at that range). There’s the added benefit of training with irons in that when I DO switch back to a scope it’s almost TOO easy!

This little rig is gonna get shot a LOT in the next few months…and I’m gonna be grinning the whole time!

That is a wonderfully fine rifle.

That is a beautiful rifle! There is nothing more satisfying then spending some time with an elegant firearm.

OMG how do you find these gems??!!

Thanks all!

Buzz, this "gem" exists only because Aaron Little caused it to be. What I "found" was a serviceable (but ROUGH) original Brno which I handed to Aaron along with a spec sheet. It was Aaron's talent with both wood and steel that brought this project from concept to reality.