Ralph Badenhorst

Ralph lives and works in Ermelo, Mpumalanga. He started his apprenticeship as a gunmaker in 2014 under his father at Ralph Badenhorst Geweersmede. They specialise in any custom and bespoke rifles ranging from bolt-action, precision, doubles to single-shot Kipplauf rifles. Both hunting and precision rifles are crafted and manufactured in-house.

Ralph’s favourite calibre to build for hunting is .375H&H, for precision shooting is any 6mm variant, and for dangerous game is .577 Nitro Express in a double or .500 Jeffery in a Magnum Mauser bolt action. They currently manufacture big bore barrels in-house from .375 to .600NE.

He is rebuilding his Jeffery and Co .500 Jeffery in a takedown version with a DSB Magnum Mauser action which he will Color Case Harden.

Ralph says that when he worked in KZN as a Wildlife ecologist, he hunted a lot but nowadays he enjoys gong-style competitions. His bucket list hunt is a sable in Tanzania or Zambia.