SUBSCRIBER OF THE MONTH

Abel Alexandre

Abel lives on his farm in the Mossel Bay coastal district. His favourite hunting area is the Karoo in its entirety.

A wingshooter by ‘birth’, Abel uses a Sako .308 rifle for antelope hunting. His last hunt was for two bushbuck rams in the Gamtoos area of the Eastern Cape. He has been a member of the South African Hunters, KZN Hunters and Southern Cape Hunters Associations for a total of 42 years. A Kalahari sandgrouse hunt is still on his “To Do” list.

Abel was born in rural Portugal in the late 1950s where his maternal grandparents were subsistence farmers of wheat, olives, greens, wine, honey, etc. Hunting formed part of that food chain and was very much part of his birth DNA.

Abel says, “My grandad would sit for hours in the wine cellar loading 16-bore shotgun shells, explaining every step of the procedure to my very eager ears”. The first gun that Abel shot (when he was five-years-old), was a 9mm Flobert shotgun, loaded with no 8 lead shot. It was used extensively for sparrow and weaver-type birds that were a tasty delicacy.

His hero grandad (also the local village butcher) was instrumental in installing a strict code of: If you pull the trigger, make sure you can clean it, cook it and eat it.

Today Abel sees himself as a soulful hunter who prefers to hunt alone. He still practices the art of walk-and-stalk hunting and has a huge respect for the environment and the animal/ gamebird that he hunts. He places much emphasis on the treatment and butchering of the animal, and the pure joy of cooking the delicious table fare.

Abel has bought or read every single issue of Magnum since 1976 and estimates that he has been a subscriber for 30-plus years.