As we look forward to summer sunshine, spare a thought for this month’s ‘cover star’ Mark van den Boogaart who did it tougher than most during this season’s red deer Roar back in April. The seasoned hunter weathered storms, mud and 24 hours of torrential rain, yet gallantly battled through to single-handedly take what was undoubtedly the toughest trophy of his hunting career. In review this time we have a handful of exceptional firearms, Daniel O’Dea running the rule over the sensational Sako 100 switch-barrel rifle, while Con Kapralos has been out and about with the Mauser M25 Extreme straight-pull which is due to arrive on these shores any day now. Rifles aside and Paul Miller has turned his attention to the Yildiz Pro Black Sporter 12-gauge shotgun which he reckons, with the quality on offer, is a bit of a steal at less than $5000. Every shooter has benefitted from a decent pair of binoculars at some point and Matt Godson has taken a deep dive into the latest Frontier laser rangefinders from Hawke, a product he says will give great service to hunters and target shooters alike. And on a sad note this month, we bid farewell to John Downing, aka Jeremiah, war hero and former editor of the SSAA ‘Journal’ who has died aged 91. His friend and former colleague Geoff Smith has paid a fitting tribute to a genuine shooting ambassador and a true one-off.