Read that Wanderings of an Elephant Hunter

Pete Wass

Pete Wass

Well-known member
just before I headed home. The Palm Coast library got a loan of a copy, printed in 1911,, from California some place. I thought it interesting, what he had to say about rifles. He did not like large bores or double rifles. His two favorites for killing elephants were the 7 MM Mauser, shooting German loaded 200g solids @ 2300FPS. Said he could kill any elephant he ever encountered with it. His second favorite was the 6.5 Mauser with corresponding weight bullets, also for smaller game. Both rifles weighed about 7 LBS. He said something to the effect that if one relied on "Shock" to kill elephants, one would need a Field Gun to do so. Rough way to live, I called it. It was a good and easy read. He also had disparaging things to say about ammo loaded in the UK. I was surprised to see that but he did call spades spades.

I have favored 7 MM rifles over the years myself. Always had great luck killing deer with them, my favorite being the 284 Win but I have carried 280 Rem's for the past decade or more. Not much difference between them that I could ever see.

Pete
 
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I read 'Pondoro, Last Of The Ivory Hunters' by John "Pondoro" Taylor and 'Wanderings Of An Elephant Hunter' by W.D.M. "Karamojo" Bell when I was a kid..... I couldn't believe Bell shot all those monsters with the 7X57

Interesting times

al
 
Too bad bell

gpoldblue said:
I think if you read further that while W. D. M. Bell did kill elephants with his 7mm rifle,it was done from an "ambush" method of waiting 'til the elephant passed by then shooting it behind the ear.
His last use of the 7mm cost him his life trying to stop a lion. He was severely mauled and died later. The book is a very good read. Thank you.
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Was too early to read Keith.
 
Throw "The killers of Kumoan" in there as well. A chronicle of the various man eaters killed by Corbett in India/Pakistan
 
I have an autographed

alinwa said:
LOL!!! Too true!! Or Even Ruark


BTW, kinda' off topic but 'Hell, I Was There' is too great a read to be out of print, but it IS!
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Copy of "Sixguns". I sent it to him and he was kind enough to sign it and even sent me the return postage back. I wrote him several letters with questions about the 44 mag, etc. and he was always kind enough to reply, often with lengthy letters all neatly typed out...on a typewriter. This was back in the early '70s. I have always appreciated his tending to a young, at the time, whippersnapper.
 
gpoldblue said:
I think if you read further that while W. D. M. Bell did kill elephants with his 7mm rifle,it was done from an "ambush" method of waiting 'til the elephant passed by then shooting it behind the ear.
His last use of the 7mm cost him his life trying to stop a lion. He was severely mauled and died later. The book is a very good read. Thank you.
Click to expand...

Bell died on his estate in Scotland in 1954.

Stryker60
 
gpoldblue said:
I think if you read further that while W. D. M. Bell did kill elephants with his 7mm rifle,it was done from an "ambush" method of waiting 'til the elephant passed by then shooting it behind the ear.
His last use of the 7mm cost him his life trying to stop a lion. He was severely mauled and died later. The book is a very good read. Thank you.
Click to expand...

The way I read the book, they chased the Elephants until they were able to walk up to them, for the most part. He did like to use the brain shot if he was able to but also killed many by shooting them in the heart and lungs. He was in the business of Ivory, not sport hunting, as you know. I'll bet a bad or missed shot with a Double 500 might result in being mauled, as well. Hunting on that level is a dangerous game.

Somewhere along the way, we went crazy with power I guess. His point was shot placement, as I'm sure you know.

Pete
 
"Bell and his wife spent their later years sailing his racing yacht Trenchmere competitively.[18] He also hunted red stags in the Scottish hills and became a proponent of the .220 Swift calibre, writing of its superior effect on deer due to its high velocity bullet.[19]"

Bell died 30 June 1954.
 
tim said:
Throw "The killers of Kumoan" in there as well. A chronicle of the various man eaters killed by Corbett in India/Pakistan
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Ohhh man, :) and Patterson "The Maneaters of The Tsavo'

And lest we forget all the Peter Hathaway Capstick stuff....
 
I would rather smack

A malaria laden mosquito with a ball peen hammer than risk PIO with a tennis racquet.
 
They have to keep coming up with the latest and greatest game killers just to stay in bussiness. Read about Bell back in the late 60's and wondered why one would want for more than a 7MM in the States.
 
Louis.J said:
They have to keep coming up with the latest and greatest game killers just to stay in bussiness. Read about Bell back in the late 60's and wondered why one would want for more than a 7MM in the States.
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Well.... read Keith, hunt elk and you'll find that 338 is marginal for the big tough leggy game in hill country.....
 
The caliber debate will last till there are no more campfires to sit around and then it will be large laser vs is small phasar. I personaly follow Keith and like the large bullet, .375 H&H is a nice elk round.
 
Keith

Well,maybe there was a little machismo at work there. But, he recognized the importance of the right tool for the job. Not sure he was necessarily thinking about the ethics of a clean kill, but his choices in rifle caliber certainly worked toward that end if he wasn't. In the end nothing replaces a rifle caliber of sufficient terminal ballistics for the job, a steady rest, a well placed shot and a recognition of our own ability to make it at the games given range. A number of things about hunting are about self awareness, personal honesty and self control.

If I were to ever elk hunt, and I prolly won't, it would be a good excuse to find a pre 64 Winchester M70, all original, in .338 Win Mag. I have shot several and the recoil is very manageable and both rifles were very accurate. Or, possibly a .35 Whalen or a .358 Winchester if ranges were to be modest. Elk hunting could be fun!
 
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Keith

No, I agree with Elmer 100%. The only elk I ever killed was with a .308 and I felt undergunned. He was close and I made a decent shot, got lucky, but if I go again Ill have a .300 mag. Nothing like a big piece of lead moving fast. It will help, I said help, poor shot placement depending on the angle of the shot. Elmer was asked about a .270 for elk in one of his books he said it would make a good rabbit gun. Doug
 
I vaguely remember

Doug Casner said:
No, I agree with Elmer 100%. The only elk I ever killed was with a .308 and I felt undergunned. He was close and I made a decent shot, got lucky, but if I go again Ill have a .300 mag. Nothing like a big piece of lead moving fast. It will help, I said help, poor shot placement depending on the angle of the shot. Elmer was asked about a .270 for elk in one of his books he said it would make a good rabbit gun. Doug
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A Keith comment to that effect. I have shot a moose with a 30-06 and 200 grain nosler partition bullets. I had a friend who was sub permittee and he was slinging good bullets from a 33 Winchester model 1886...he's the reactionary type? He was a nice prime 5 1/2 year old bull, about 850 lbs.

My wife shot a nice yearling moose, about 400 lb, with one well placed shot from a 308 model 70 featherweight pre 64, 150 grain partition. Eastern moose are notoriously glass jawed(most of the time), but I still wouldn't use much less on them. I would think a 270 or 7mm with 150-160 grain bullets would be a good moose choice. I don't own a 270 and have one 7mm but that's on a drilling with iron sights only.

I've read were elk are tougher animals.
 
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