Gun Laws in SA History
does gun-licencing go? I’d never given this much thought until I wrote about Mike Trebble’s Webley double rifle (Oct 2019). Made between 1888 and 1897, originally chambered in .303, it came to be owned by a German resident of South West Africa. Going by its German proof marks (in addition to its original British proof marks) that owner had sent it to Germany to have the barrels re-bored to a 9mm calibre, and later sent it again for re-boring to 9.3x74R, but the latter was never stamped on the barrels – though it is definitely chambered and licensed in 9.3x74R. During the South African Army’s invasion and conquest of German SWA (1914–15) a South African soldier
