Archive for February 2nd, 2001
Day 30
We spent most of the day experimenting with different rifle shots with Tyse, Martyn and his squad of anti-poachers, who were armed to the teeth. Tyse had a device for measuring the speed of bullets - a long, horizontal device (like a plank of wood) with a light sensor at each end. When a shot is made over the top, the bullet is detected by the sensors, and the speed is calculated. Everything was going fine, until Martyn aimed slightly too low and managed to shoot a hole right through the device! Fortunately, he managed to hit the only parts which would not actually break it.
And Tyse had another fun trick up his sleeve. The first thing was to soak some thick telephone books in water until soggy. Then line up several in a row to form a long, solid block of wet paper. Then, fire a bullet through the centre. The idea is that you can see what happens to the bullet by examining the hole made by the bullet in the paper. For example, the solid brass bullets designed to keep their shape would simply go straight through in a straight, narrow line. Hollow tipped bullets, in contrast, would fragment inside the paper, and you can see how the hole gets larger and larger the further into the books the bullet travelled. Those ones made a real mess!
On the way back we saw a jackal with a kill in its mouth, although we couldn’t quite make out what it was.