'Elephant Guns':

Among the books I've been reading over the Summer holiday break are old stories from Africa of early Elephant and Lion shooting in Southern Africa. Frederick Courtney SELOUS & Samuel BAKER were early pioneers who wreaked havoc among African game and harvested tons of ivory tusks. I'm referring to the era about 1870.

Elephant Guns that were early used - when the European rifles and muskets proved to be inadequate to the job, were really only heavily built double (or single) barrelled muzzle loaded shotguns loaded with round lead ball and a heavy charge of black powder (by the handful !).  Using Four ounce + soft lead balls - and later cylindrical bullets, you might call these Elephant Guns "SLUG-guns". - They were what they had to hand - and did the job as long as your native gun bearers stayed close at hand with the next loaded piece to pass for the follow-up shots - sometimes as many as four or five 'gun-bearers'.

- And follow-up shots were just about ALWAYS needed - normally it took around THIRTY SHOTS to finish a bull elephant - sometimes as many as seventy shots were fired into these huge animals over hours of the chase - and it wasn't always the great white hunter doing the chasing !

Samuel Baker on the job - on the run.

 

I'm certainly impressed by these early guys hunting exploits (I'm no great hunter!) - but looking back at them from today "exploit" is the word. - They slaughtered the wildlife for excitement & "adventure" - but the overlaying reason was profit. I'm not accusing them of anything as, - if I'd been there at the time and had the means - I'd probably have had a shot at it too.

 

 

A Young Selous with African Spear and European Rifle.

(Great legs eh!)

 

There never was any large game for the whites to slaughter in New Zealand (other than the whales that led them down here originally) - as our Maori had eaten all the Moa before we could get to them.

 

Mock Moa Hunt.

 

That's why we introduced rabbits !

 

Marty K.