Holland/Holand

[howiesatwork]

I've not seen a Holland & Holland in a while. I did get to shoot a Rigby sidelocking double in .600 N.E., back in the early 70's. It was impressive, but not what you'd call accurate. A short range (up to 100 yds) gun.
A .460 Weatherby Mag. is more powerful, though, and will give you a workout.
I got to fire one round of 50 BMG in a single shot bolt-action a gunsmith (I can't recall the name) in Houston had built. That was painful, but not as painful as it would have been if I'd not recoiled with it. About 2X the .460's recoil!
This gunsmith had built a 4 gage double, smooth/rifled bores. He said that he was looking to find a fool to shoot it. A pound of lead is a bit much, huh? I watched him bench shoot it while it was sand-bagged down. No, he didn't sit behind it while doing this...

Howie

 

[maximus otter]

But I recall reading (again in one of those "White Hunter" books) about a fellow who had a 2-bore rifle. That's right, 1/2 pound slug; essentially a shoulder-fired small cannon. The dauntless hunter admitted that each time he fired it, it gave him a headache and a nosebleed, as well as spinning him halfway round. But...He said it never failed to bag the game!

Hehe- the guy must have been particularly resistant to flinching.

"FREDERICK COURTNEY SELOUS was born in London in 1851 of intellectuals whose wide interests included natural history. After completing his formal education at Rugby and on the Continent, he sailed for Africa at the age of nineteen to become an elephant hunter.

An acknowledged classic on wildlife and hunting on boths sides of the Zambezi, A Hunter's Wnderings in Africa spans nine fascinating years (1871-80) in the life of Selous, a legendary 'great' of the decade prior to the formal occupation of the country which became known as Rhodesia.

Written during an era when ivory was the principal commodity of trade with the interior of Africa, the work presents one of the best descriptions of the life of an African big game hunter and is rich record of the fauna of that period.

Selous relates how he visited Lobengula at Gubuluwayo to seek permission to hunt elephant, drawing a contemptuous comment from the old king on his youthfulness. In the company of an assortment of companions he made yearly trips into the Umniati, Sebakwe, Umfuli and Hunyani areas, and north to the Chobe, the Sanyati and over the Zambezi into the territory of the Batonka.

He confined his hunting mainly to large game: elephant, rhinoceros and buffalo but inevitably encountered lion and other predators.

For a weapon he used the Boer four-bore muzzle-loader with four ounce round bullets, and when not in the fly belt he preferred to hunt on horseback.

Among Selous' admirers and inimate friends was President Theodore Roosevelt with whom he hunted in East Africa.

Selous' biographer, Millais, wrote of him; "Selous set a standard of conduct which people of our own, as well as those of other nations, might be proud to follow. He, as it were, stamped his personality on the wilderness, where life is hard and man easily loses his grip."

"In January 1917, Selous was killed by German fire in the so-called 'Battle for the Bundu', an obscure World War I campaign fought in the remote southern wilderness of what at the time was then German East Africa."

maximus otter