Brev fra Karamojo Bell til sin venn William Garrood

[villreinjegeren]

Walter Dalrymple Maitland Bell, better known by his nickname ”Karamojo”

Bell, appears to have been the most successful elephant hunter ever.

Shooting more than a thousand elephant between 1897 and 1922. While researching articles on his hunting career.

 

He wrote something interesting about the shooting/caliber and attacks from Buffalo and elephant.

This is taken from two letters from Karamojo Bell to his friend William Garrood.

 

He wrote:

I am now known as the man who has shot more than a thousand Elephant and slightly fewer buffalo. Actually the figure is less than that: 983 Bull elephant, and 28 cows shot for meat or self-defence, which makes a total of 1011 elephants in all.

Regarding African Buffalo, I must have shot between 600 and 700, mostly for food. I have dug out all my stats, as a fellow called Barclay has been pestering me for them. He wants to bring out a book on big –game shooting records sometime.

 

But let me get to the point. If you read my book carefully (The wanderings of an elephant hunter)

you will find there are two points that I am a bit vague on. The one is why , unlike most hunters, I stopped using big-calibers rifles, and the second is how I managed to kill nearly 700 buffalo without once being charged.

I am going to explain these points to you, my old and trusted friend, so you can understand my book and me better. I could not bring myself to put the material into the book, as people will not believe what I have written, but I have to explain it to someone. Hence these two letters to you.

This, the first, deals with a very strange experience I had with two elephant in thick forrest near Mount Elgon when finishing my first safari. After this , I never used my my double-barrelled 450/400 Nitro Express to hunt elephant with again.

The second letter enlarges on what I meant when I said in my book that I believe that buffalo can be very nasty when in thick stuff with a flesh wound, as someone is going to wonder if I ever met a wounded buffalo.

But let us now get back to the last time I ever seriously used a big-caliber rifle to hunt elephant with, as my conversion to the 275 and the 256 date from this time. I had been following a small herd of elephant when they disappeared into a small but very thickly forested area near Mount Elgon, very close to where I had begun the safari in Karamojo, Uganda. They had gone through the Turkwell River and stopped to take a mud bath shortly before I found them.

At the time, I was experimenting with the double-barelled 450 by wiring both its triggers together, so that when I pulled the tear one, booth barrels went off together. I was not very keen on this arrangement as, besides the heavy recoil, the results it produced were no better than with the 275 and the 256. I had resolved to give the 450double one last try when I saw the elephants tracks heading away from their mud bath.

As you know, an elephant travels more quickly than it appears to. Six miles an hour might not seem much of a speed for an elephant, but when you are following them on foot, and carrying a heavy rifle, it is amazing how far you can end up walking in following them. As I often told you, I reckon I had to walk more than fifty miles on average for each elephant I killed, and I wore out two pairs of boot each month with all this. My native assistants worked on basis of one month on, one month off. That is , except for one, Shundi, who stuck it out for ten months, and then retired.

But I am wandering away from my point. You may imagine my relief when I found the elephants had entered the tick forest near Mount Elgon, after following them for three hours . I had been walking through an area with many thorn trees, and it was possible to see where the elephants had gone by large amount of mud that had rubbed of them onto the trees as they passed.

At the time, I thought this an advantage, as it made the elephants easy to follow. Little did I realize what the drying mud the passing elephants had left on the trees was to do to me, At each step trough these trees, a fine shower of dust and grit rained down onto me – and onto the open breech of the unloaded, heavy rifle I was carrying. As I entered the cool forrest, I decided that they could not that far away, even tough I could neither hear nor see them. I loaded my weapon, placing two cartridges in it but keeping the breech open for safety, resolving to close it only when closer to the elephant.

You can imagine my surprise when I suddenly saw the rear of a bull elephant move in front of me, only twenty yards away. In the gloom, I had mistaken him for a section of forest, and only seen him when he moved. It is uncanny how such a big animal can move so soundlessly in the forest. His cushioned feet make no sound, and the only noise indicating an elephant is nearby is the swish of the bush as it closes behind him.

I tried to close the rifle: and found I could not. I later found that any sand, grit or vegetation that fell onto the open breech made it impossible to close it. There I was , with an elephant standing close by , and me unable to use my rifle! I might as well have had a large stick for all the good it did me.

Little did I know my situation was about to get worse. I heard a swish to my rear and turning, I saw another large bull , standing about the same distance behind me! He was just looking at me, curius, without any aggression. What could I do but freeze, and silently curse my useless weapon.

After what seemed an eternity, I heard the faint noise of voices behind me. It was two of my assistants, one carrying a spare rifle and the other water bottle. Normally, I would have cursed them for talking but that day I could have kissed them.

When I looked again, the elephants had gone, having disappeared with utter silence into the bush. Since that yime, I have never used the 450 again, and now you know the reason why.

In my next letter, I will explain an even stranger experience I had with Buffalo: Why I was only “charged” once in all my buffalo hunts

 

Regards

Your old friend

[villreinjegeren]

Husk at disse gutta som jakta på den tiden, måtte lære alt selv "the hard way" regner med at Bell fikk en del erfaring med over 1000 elefanter og 700 bøfler, man jo henledes til å lure på hvorfor man ikke kunne vært født 130 år tidligere....

[Morgan Cane]

Takk for posten, liker å lese slikt.

 

Kunne tenke meg å lese brev 2 også, der angripende bøffel er tema.....

[Jaktfalken]

Trøsten får være, er at hvis man var født for 130 år siden, var man sannsynligvis en lutfattig nordmann. En som kanskje drømte om en Kragrifle, som for mange var uoppnålig. Jeg er nok ikke veldig romantisk anlagt, og for de fleste var livet et HELVETES slit for 130 siden

[villreinjegeren]

Det er vel det som var virkeigheten for de fleste nordmenn på den tiden, men en del vandret ut, også til Afrika, og gjorde det bra.

[villreinjegeren]

Litt mere stoff rundt dette med Bell og hans våpen:

 

From CHAPTER I - THE RIFLE OF A PAST HALF CENTURY, Wild Beasts and their Ways Reminiscences of Europe, Asia, Africa and America by Sir Samuel W. Baker F.R.S., F.R.G.S., etc., etc.

 

Small-bores have become the fashion of the day, and for military purposes they are decidedly the best, as a greater amount of ammunition can be carried by the soldier, while at the same time the range and trajectory of his weapon are improved. The new magazine rifle adopted by the Government is only '303, but this exceedingly small diameter will contain 70 grains of powder with a bullet of hard alloy weighing 216 grains.

 

For sporting purposes the small-bore has been universally adopted, but I cannot help thinking that like many other fashions, it has been carried beyond the rules of common sense......

 

.........The generally recognised small-bores, all of which are termed "Express" from the large charge of powder, are as follow:—

 

 

Small-bore....Charge of..........Large-.......Charge of.........For all Game

Express.........Powder..............bores....... Powder.............such as*

 

'577.................6 1/2 drams.......4 bore.......14 drams.......... Elephants.

'500.................5 1/2 " ...............8 "..............14 " .....................Rhinoceros.

'450.................5......."...............10 " ............12 " .....................Buffaloes.

'400.................4...... " ..............12 " ............10 " .....................

'360.............................................................................................Toys.

'295.............................................................................................Toys.

 

The two latter rifles, '360 and '295, are charming additions, and although capable of killing deer are only to be recommended as companions for a stroll but not to be classed as sporting rifles for ordinary game. They are marvellously accurate, and afford great satisfaction for shooting small animals and birds. The '360 may be used for shooting black-buck, but I should not recommend it if the hunter possesses a '400.

 

It would be impossible to offer advice that would suit all persons. I can therefore only give a person opinion according to my own experience.

 

For all animals above the size of a fallow deer and below that of a buffalo I prefer the '577 solid Express—648 grains solid bullet,—6 drams powder not 6 1/2, as the charge of only 6 drams produces greater accuracy at long ranges.

 

The weight of this rifle should be 11 1/2 lbs., or not exceeding 12 lbs. For smaller game, from fallow deer downwards, I prefer the '400 Express with a charge of from 85 grains to 4 drams of powder—solid bullet, excepting the case of black-buck, where, on account of numerous villages on the plains, it is necessary that the bullet should not pass through the body. The important question of weight is much in favour of the '400, as great power and velocity are obtained by a weapon of only 8 1/2 lbs.

 

I should therefore limit my battery to one '577, one '400, and one Paradox No. 12, for ordinary game in India, as elephants and other of the larger animals require special outfit. The Paradox*, invented by Colonel Fosberry and manufactured by Messrs. Holland and Holland of Bond Street, is a most useful weapon, as it combines the shot-gun with a rifle that is wonderfully accurate within a range of 100 yards. (* Since this was written Messrs. Holland have succeeded after lengthened experiments in producing a Paradox

No. 8, which burns 10 drams of powder, and carries a very heavy bullet with extreme accuracy. This will be a new departure in weapons for heavy game.)

 

It is a smooth-bore slightly choked, but severely rifled for only 1 1/2 inch in length from the muzzle. This gives the spin to the projectile sufficient to ensure accuracy at the distance mentioned.

 

The No. 12 Paradox weighs 84 lbs. and carries a bullet of 1 3/4 ounce with 4 1/2 drams of powder. Although the powder charge is not sufficient to produce a high express velocity, the penetration and shock are most formidable, as the bullet is of hardened metal, and it retains its figure even after striking a tough hide and bones. The advantage of such a gun is obvious, as it enables a charge of buck-shot to be carried in the left barrel, while the right is loaded with a heavy bullet that is an admirable bone-smasher; it also supersedes the necessity of an extra gun for small game, as it shoots No. 6 shot with equal pattern to the best cylinder-bored gun.

 

There are many persons who prefer a '500 or a '450 Express to the '577 or the '400. I have nothing to say against them, but I prefer those I have named, as the '577 is the most fatal weapon that I have ever used, and with 6 or 6 1/2 drams of powder it is quite equal to any animal in creation, provided the shot is behind the shoulder. This provision explains my reason for insisting that all animals from a buffalo upwards should be placed in a separate category, as it is frequently impossible to obtain a shoulder shot, therefore the rifles for exceedingly heavy game must be specially adapted for the work required, so as to command them in every conceivable position.

 

I have shot with every size of rifle from a half pounder explosive shell, and I do not think any larger bore is actually necessary than a No. 8, with a charge of 12 or 14 drams of powder. Such a rifle should weigh 15 lbs., and the projectile would weigh 3 ounces of hardened metal.

 

The rifles that I have enumerated would be always double, but should the elephant-hunter desire anything more formidable, I should recommend a single barrel of 36 inches in length of bore, weighing 22 lbs., and sighted most accurately to 400 yards. Such a weapon could be used by a powerful man from the shoulder at the close range of fifty yards, or it could be fired at long ranges upon a pivot rest, which would enable the elephant-hunter to kill at a great distance by the shoulder shot when the animals were in deep marshes or on the opposite side of a river. I have frequently seen elephants in such positions when it was impossible to approach within reasonable range. A rifle of this description would carry a half-pound shell with an exploding charge of half an ounce of fine grain powder and the propelling charge would be 16 drams. I had a rifle that carried a similar charge, but unfortunately it was too short, and was only sighted for 100 yards. Such a weapon can hardly be classed among sporting rifles, but it would be a useful adjunct to the battery of a professional hunter in Africa.

 

There can be little doubt that a man should not be overweighted, but that every person should be armed in proportion to his physical strength. If he is too light for a very heavy rifle he must select a smaller bore; if he is afraid of a No. 8 with 14 drams, he must be content with a No. 12 and 10 drams, but although he may be successful with the lighter weapon, he must not expect the performance will equal that of the superior power.

 

It may therefore be concluded that for a man of ordinary strength, the battery for the heaviest game should be a pair of double No. 8 rifles weighing 14 or 15 lbs. to burn from 12 to 14 drams of powder, with a hardened bullet of 3 ounces. Such a rifle will break the bones of any animal from an elephant downwards, and would rake a buffalo from end to end, which is a matter of great importance when the beast is charging......

.......The magazine rifle, which is destined to become the military arm of the future, can hardly merit a place among sporting rifles, as it must always possess the disadvantage of altering its balance as the ammunition is expended. The Winchester Company have, I believe, produced a great improvement in a rifle of this kind, '400, which carries a charge of 110 grains of powder; but even so small a bore must be unhandy if the rifle is arranged to contain a supply of cartridges. For my own use I am quite contented with one '577, a '400, and a No. 12 Paradox - all solid bullets, but varying in hardness of metal according to the quality of game; for the largest animals a pair of No. 8 rifles with hard bullets and 14 drams of powder.

 

 

Bell was a bit of a rebel in his choice of weapons. He began his African career with a second-hand Fraser .303 single shot rifle he purchased in England. He was hired to accompany a mule convoy, providing protection and procuring meat. The rifle had difficulty extracting, "In the cool of the night the .303 extracted reasonably well, especially if a tree trunk were handy on which to thump the lever." He was also advised that it would be too small to use on lion without initiating a charge.

 

He exchanged the .303 for a "Winchester single shot black powder .450 falling block with a long, taper cartridge. Unfortunately, all the cartridges he had for the .450 were loaded with "that abomination, the hollow copper-point bullet". His .450 proved inadequate because the bullets were breaking up in the game he shot.

 

His next acquisition was a .303 Lee-Metford, the latest army rifle. He said, "It used a nickel-jacketed bullet weighing two hundred and fifteen grains and, although soft-nosed bullets were being made for it, I would have none of them." It was with that rifle that he began his "life-long study in nerve control and the knowledge of anatomy".

[jegerparanoid]

Prøvde å google etter brev nr.2 men fant ikke noe. Bare å komme med mye mer i denne kategorien, endelig noe godt lesestoff!

[villreinjegeren]

Jobber med saken, har sendt noen mailer til kontakter i RSA og USA.

[villreinjegeren]

Litt mere om kalibervalg og elefanter

A modern day review of Elephant Hunting in East Equatorial Africa

 

A man who had a great reputation, which far exceeded his actual achievements, was Arthur Neumann. An interesting person, who had a chequered career, from farming, prospecting, trading, later becoming a magistrate, before being lured by the great quarry. He scrimped and saved for years before outfitting his own safari, with which he explored and hunted with the Nderobo tribe near Mount Kenya for three years, and explored north towards Lake Turkana (Rudolph). Neumann at first also hunted with large calibre rifles, but he was introduced to the military Lee-Metford, which he tended to prefer even to his Martini-Henry as a “finishing weapon” from the start. His liking for the light calibre, which he adopted for all his hunting, took a knock though (pardon the pun) when he was seriously injured by an elephant cow after his .303 jammed in the thickets bordering the lake. A lengthy period of recuperation followed, after which he slowly and painfully made his way back towards Mombasa – still managing to bag his three best tuskers with his popgun, even in his half crippled state, on the way home. He lived to write Elephant Hunting in East Equatorial Africa (Rowland Ward, 1897)

[Robinson]

Ett lite spørsmål : Er Karamojo Bell samme jegeren som også kalles Killimanjaro Bell? Dette med 7mm Mauser og elefanter virker jo helt likt. Og da er det kanskje noen som også vet hvorfor han har fått 2 kallenavn.

Ikke vet jeg...

[Skaubjønn]

Jeg forstår ikke argumentet hans for å bruke finkalibret rifle, i dette brevet. Han gikk med en åpen grovkalibret dobbeltløpet rifle og fikk møkk i mekanismen som gjorde at han ikke kunne lukke børsa når han skulle bruke den. Det ville jo kunne skje dersom han gikk med bolten tilbake og åpen mekanisme på en boltrifle!? Og hva har det med kaliberet å gjøre? Finkalibrede rifler er jo ikke mer effektive på elefanter fordi han fikk møkk i mekanismen på en dobling? Det er jo ikke slik at grove kalibre kun er / var tilgjengelige i dobbeltrifler. Og heller ikke slik at man må gå på doblingen åpen på jakt....

 

De åpenbare løsningene ville vel være å:

gå med doblingen lukket. Enten med patroner i, eller lade når han var oppi situasjonen.

Kjøpe en boltrifle i grovt kaliber.

 

Noen som forstår hvorfor finere kaliber er bedre, basert på at han ikke fikk lukket doblingen? Er det meg som overser noe?

[villreinjegeren]

Ett lite spørsmål : Er Karamojo Bell samme jegeren som også kalles Killimanjaro Bell? Dette med 7mm Mauser og elefanter virker jo helt likt. Og da er det kanskje noen som også vet hvorfor han har fått 2 kallenavn.

Ikke vet jeg...

Tror han var samme fyren ja, Kjert barn har mange navn her også kanskje,

Skaubjønn, Ja jeg også stusset over konklusjonen hans, men som du sikkert ser i de andre svarene jeg har lagt inn her så var han veldig kontroversiell (rebel) mht til dette.

Antar at han på sin første elefantsafari som 17 åring (minner kanskje litt om en av våre medlemmer av kammeret på samme alder, men uten sammenligning forøvrig) og var vant til den britiske måten å bære våpenet på brukket hengende i armkroken, og at han da ikke viste bedre, og at ei grov dobbeltrifle i 450/400 ga han juling i skuldra. var bidragende til småkalibret våpen, det tror jeg bare Bell vet.

Det som er det rare er jo at han levde i samtid med de andre store som Selous og de gutta der, noe må han vel ha snappet opp underveis..

[jegerparanoid]

Ett lite spørsmål : Er Karamojo Bell samme jegeren som også kalles Killimanjaro Bell? Dette med 7mm Mauser og elefanter virker jo helt likt. Og da er det kanskje noen som også vet hvorfor han har fått 2 kallenavn.

Ikke vet jeg...

 

Tror vel Killimanjaro Bell er mer en misforstått skrivemåte for Karamojo. Killimanjaro er jo litt kjent en Karamojo, fort gjort å blande de to.

[villreinjegeren]

Brev nr 2 fra Karamojo Bell til sin Venn William Garrood

 

Fra "Days of Yore"

 

Never wound a buffalo

 

 

“I was so glad to hear that my book has reached you safely – and that you have completed the building alterations your wife wanted for the restaurant. Thank you so much for your invitation to visit when I next come to France.“My publisher has repeatedly suggested

I should visit Europe to promote my book, and give some lectures on the hunting techniques I have developed. I should arrive in France early next spring, and will contact you closer to the time for a suitable date.“But what I really appreciate are your comments on my experience with the elephants in my last letter. I see you understand why I could not put that in my book, as nobody would have believed it.

 

“Neither would anyone believe that I have never once been charged by a buffalo, even though I have managed to kill nearly 700 buffalo over the years. Most of the so-called charges are actually a panic-stricken rush for the sound of the rifle, and are not actually charges at all. “My recipe for success there was simple: Never wound a buffalo animal,

but always kill it outright. Then you will never be in the very dangerous position of having to follow a wounded buffalo. Or, you can choose not to shoot the animal: not very easy when you are facing an infuriated buffalo only a few feet away. I made this choice – once, by accident. “Let me start my story at the beginning.

 

It was the year 1909 and I was hunting in the Lado. Leopold II, King of the Belgians had just died, and, according to a treaty signed in 1884, this part of land, which adjoined the Belgian Congo, had to be returned to the Sudan six months after his death.

Leopold had used it as his personal hunting grounds, and what hunting grounds it was: quite literally fit for a king.

 

“I had just gone out on the trail of elephant, armed with a .256 Mannlicher Schoenauer rifle, one of the lightest and most beautiful weapons I have ever handled. Until that fateful day, I had extraordinary luck when using that rifle. Until that day. “I was not expecting to meet buffalo, as the area where I was walking, a swamp on the banks of the River Nile was crowded with elephant. Actually, that was putting it mildly. All the elephant for 100 miles inland were crowded into the swamps …

“I am not exaggerating when I say the reeds were about thirteen feet high. About the only way I could shoot anything was by standing on a tripod … The other alternative, standing on the shoulders of one of my assistants, makes for decidedly difficult aiming. “Yet another alternative was to stand on top of a dead elephant. I was actually walking towards an elephant I had shot earlier that day, intending to do just that, when I heard a snorting noise some distance away.

 

 

“Thinking it might be a white rhino – as I had encountered two that same morning – I raised my rifle. At first, there was no sound at all, only the rustling of the reeds in the light breeze that had just sprung up.

And then came the sound of heavy breathing. It could not have been more than ten yards away, yet nothing was visible. “Buffalo! I felt the hairs on the back of my neck raised, as I had constantly read of how buffalo, especially wounded ones,

would attack without warning. It is difficult to remember exactly what happened next.

All I can remember was that I was terrified, and everything seemed to happen in slow motion.

“There was a sudden snort and a crashing noise as the reeds parted to my right. As I turned, I fired into the parting. The dark black head of a buffalo was now visible not three yards away. I swung the little rifle until it was pointing at exactly the right spot, just above the buffalo’s red eyes. I was about to do what I had done so many times with buffalo: fire four or even five shots in rapid succession, sometimes killing four animals in as many seconds.

“You see, I had trained myself to fire almost as quickly as a machine gun, by using both hands at once, extracting the cartridge and then reloading in one rapid movement.

One old Sikh said the movements my hands made when doing this reminded him of a cobra striking.

I had learned to push the rifle forward with my left hand, while pulling back the bolt with my right hand to extract the empty cartridge just fired, and then pulling the rifle back with my left hand while pushing the bolt forward with my right, loading the next round into the chamber and closing the chamber for firing a fraction of a second later.

“I pressed the trigger, and: nothing, except a click. I immediately realized what I had done: I had reloaded the empty cartridge instead of a new one.

Because I had been working so quickly, I had not pulled the empty cartridge back far enough to extract it.

“I thought this could only happen with a much longer cartridge, where long bolt movements are needed. Opening the bolt again, I saw the empty case.

I also saw the buffalo standing very still. I could feel his hot breath and the angry snorting of his breathing. I could also see that, somehow, incredibly, I had missed him completely with my first shot.

“What now? Reloading was my only option, but suppose the buffalo fled towards the sound: right at me? I can still see the shiny empty cartridge flying through the air to my right as I reloaded.

To this day I don’t know exactly what happened next.

“I remember falling to my right as the buffalo raced past me, to my left. I pointed the gun at his shoulder, as I had done so many times, and pulled the trigger: only, again, to hear nothing but a click as the cartridge failed to fire.

“Back at camp, I found that the Austrian ammunition I was using was defective. In this particular batch, some split at the neck of the cartridge when fired, and others simply refused to fire at all.

“Thinking about what had just happened, I broke into a cold sweat: suppose I hadn’t missed the buffalo? I could easily have been killed when the ammunition failed to fire. I had been very lucky not to have wounded the buffalo, only frightened him. I read that Selous once had a very similar experience.

 

“After that, I stopped using the beautiful little .256 and went back to my trusty 7 mm Mauser. Using German (that is DWM) ammunition, I never had a problem.

“And I was never charged by a buffalo after this, because, quite simply, they never got the chance to charge me: I made very sure to kill them first, and used only the Mauser with DWM ammunition. So, strictly speaking,

I have never been charged by a buffalo, despite killing some 700 of these animals.

But do you think any hunter would believe me when I say this?

Edited April 10, 2012 by Guest

[Purdey]

fantastisk!!

 

mwn er litt enig med deg Skaubjønn. Blir litt som å si at bilen din er dårlig fordi det er glatt på veien.

[Wolverine67]

Utrolig artig å lese. Tror nok det er riktig at han ble litt redd av datidens " kanoner". Han lærte seg nok å skyte utrolig godt, bare hans beskrivelse av ladeteknikken er fantastisk.

Det understreker vel egentlig betydningen av skuddplassering.

[SvenDue]

Det var tider det. For å få fornemmelsen kan "teltturene" over flere uker fremdeles nær oppleves, for de rette lommebøger...

Han likte nok godt å eksprimentere med finere kalibre, vil jeg tro. Ellers var han vel ikke alene om å bruke "275 rigby på big game under den tiden

(som var rigbys geniale kaliberbetegnelse i sin markedsføring av Peter Paul Mausers 7X57 - bygd på en spesiell Mlås fra Oberndorf /1903,

som er litt kortere i bunnstykket enn M98). Han gikk jo meget filosofisk tilverks og studerte elefanthjernen nøye, for å kunne plassere perfekte skudd,

uansett vinkel - derav Bells shot! Når han etterhvert og i en alder av 40, returnerte til sitt gods Corriemoillie i Skottland, ble det også flere eksperimenter

med høyhastighetsvåpen og spesielt "220 Swift under hjortejakt.