Karamojo!
I’m reading Karamojo Safari by WDH “Karamojo” Bell.
You should read this.
In it, he describes the taking of dozens if not hundreds of elephants with a 303 and a 275.
Most of the shots he describes as headshots, straight on, within forty yards, many much closer.
Would you have the balls to stand in front of a charging elephant and carefully place a headshot within spitting distance? he did, hundreds of times.
Now think of all the folks who tell you you need big rifles for big animals. He took a 5 lb 275 elephant hunting. And brought home tons of ivory.
Wow, I wouldn’t do it! — I wonder: does “Karamojo” really mean “cajones” in Swahili? By a quirk of the universe, Bell’s 275 Rigby is featured in an article in the new NRA American Rifleman magazine. The article seemed to be saying (which I didn’t know) that the 275 Rigby is nothing other than the 7mm Mauser, re-labeled by the Rigby Company. Whaddya know.
Og;
Read some of the books by
Jim Corbett.
He wrote some wonderful stories about man eating cats.
Roger
Not interested. No sport. The Elephant doesn’t have a chance, regardless the name they give it.
If he’s done it that many times, what’s the point of the next time?
The point is, to feed people, and sell the ivory. Hell, I’d do it. I’d probably shit myself every other time, but I’d do it in a heartbeat.
The elephant has a LOT of chance. Bell was unique- a powerful lot of elephant hunters became the hunted, and died. Elephants, so say the locals, have cocks on their feet- for when they step on you, you’re fucked.
If it’s to feed people, it okay.
But still, with a .303 straight through the skull, when you know where to aim?
No romance or adventure there.
Capstick once wrote that Bell was considered by some to be indirectly responsible for the deaths of a lot of new ivory hunters; they tried to use the same rifles he did but they weren’t as good a shot as he.
I don’t think the point was romance or adventure, but feeding people, and harvesting ivory. He looked at the whole deal as more business and less adventure.