I agree with Erik. I think the "white thing" is the edge of his eyeglasses.



Eyeglasses:





Now, looking at the very rear of the bolt, I can see where it kind of appears to be going at an angle. But, I think it may just be the light and shadow of the photo. It's hard to tell, but I think I see the 3-position safety in its normal position, however. For me, there's just not enough detail in the photo to be sure, though.



Rear of bolt:







Just my two cents....

-Bob F.

Take a look at this photo again and forget everything else but the rear of the bolt. Doesn't look like it is facing at a 45 degree angle?

I'm not casting any negative aspirations at the photographer. It is a great photo, staged or not. I would do one of these "at a shot" ( ) as they do catch the eye as we have all proved.




Now I think this photo needs to be examined. I think Eric is purposely sitting several metres behind his rifle to make his scope look bigger!

I am amazed at all the speculation here. Get it? Specs?



Anyway, I have a very hi-res copy of this on the front cover of a magazine, and although the shooter is blurred compared to the elephant due to the depth of field and aperature used, there is clearly a bolt there, although the bolt looks flatter than the typical bolt handles we have in the US. It looks to me like one of those spoon type bolts that I have seen. Butter knife, or some other term I can't remember. The end of the bolt is not visible as it is below where his shoulder comes across in the picture but I imagine if it's the spoon type its not obvious anyway. If it is a regular bolt end it is too far down to see in the photo anyway. The bolt handle follows the curve of the stock and sits deep in a recess, but it is definitely there. Didn't winchester have an insanely curved bolt handle compared to the remingtons? maybe it was one of those?



Sorry to disappoint you guys. Does anyone know what kind of rifle this is anyway? Is it a Dakotah? Do they make a flat curved bolt handle like that? Do they use Winchester actions or custom?

Sheldon,

The only rifles that I know that have that spoon shaped bolt are the German Steyr Mannlichers or Schonoeur some spelling like that..
I have a hunting model for my son...

Mike

I found this photo while surfing the Dakota Arms website.

I don't know the guy or the situation; but it sure looks like he got his money's worth of excitement on this elephant hunt!

I imagina alot of that is camera angle, but you got to wonder how big it looks thru his scope!

Maybe it's just me, but doesn't it look like the bolt is missing from the action??? Where's the bolt handle? Looks more like it must be some "arranged" picture, perhaps from a safari vehicle on a game drive?

Erik D.

The bolt appears to be there. With a large telephoto lens the compaction of the photo could produce this great photo.

forget how big the jumbo is, just think about the size of the diamond in the guys' shorts!!

jeffe

This is the cover photo on my 1998 Hunters & Guides customer testimonial brochure. It's laid out like a magazine and stuffed in a folder with a bunch of other stuff on the various countries they provide hunts in.

Sheldon,

Do you have the details behind this picture then?

Hi Mark.



I had to rob the folder out of my 7 year old's school bag. He took it to school to "read".



It used to be in the rack beside the main shitter, so it's not like he hasn't read it before. I'm suprised it's in such good shape and all the pages aren't cut out!



Anywa, the 34 page magazine inside has the above photo on the cover in what looks to be a crocodile skin picture frame. It says "Safari Newsletter 1998" across the top center, then "Take aim with Africa's finest hunting team!" in a handwriting font below that.



The Hunters & Guides Africa logo is at the bottom center. There is no photo credit that I can find anywhere in the magazine. There are a ton of great trophy photos. I have been drooling over them for several years. There are also great photos of trucks, camps, and some pretty high profile advertisers in there, like Dakota Arms.



This is a pretty high class promotional package. Being in advertising, I am pretty impressed and would love the opportunity to work with them and try to arrange some contra , but I can't seem to find much word of them on the internet anywehere. Are they out of business?



Did I mention contra?? I am more than willing to trade the services of my company for hunting opportunities. For those of you PH's and outfitters interested, check out our brochure to see what kinds of things we do.



Sales mode "off".

I found the photo in the Trophy Room section of the Dakota Arms website. It identifies the hunter as Dr. McAllister, but offers no other information.

Here is the other photo Dr. McAllister submitted to Dakota.

What kind of scope does this guy have on his Dakota? Is that a sun-shade on the front of the scope, is that why it looks so long? (Pic from Dakota's website).







Regards,



Terry

Terry, you do know who that is don't you?

He's a regular poster here on AR.com; that's LV Eric!

Hey LV Eric! Your phone's ringing...Terry wants to know why you put the Hubble telescope on your DG rifle!

Mark,

I looked at the name, it is LV Eric.

LV Eric, tells us about that scope and rifle.

Regards,

Terry

The scope looks like a S&Bm big scope for a buffalo rig.

Now you guys know why I taught myself to shoot a scope with both eyes open... Mike

In my screen at maximum resolution I see the bolt handle down in battery. It doesn't have a sweep but looks like it points straight down.
Frank

Not that the bolt handle matters. It is still a fabulous photo with a long lens over the shoulder at the moment when it counts- and plenty.

I took the liberty of running the photos through my photo editing program. Here's the "enlarged" picture with brightness and contrast enhanced.











Here is the original picture, with the same treatment.

I took this picture in Burkina Faso several years ago. It was taken with a cheap 35mm camera with fixed focus and maybe a 40mm lens or so, so the elephant was actually closer than it appears. Somewhere in the bowels of AR is the story of the elephant charge and the French film crew getting tangled all up in mic cords, etc while we were running to jump on the back of a Toyota. I had my bow in my left hand and just shot the picture over my shoulder while airborne over the tailgate, I guess??? Scared the pee out of me, for sure. Btw, this was the first elephant I'd ever seen in Africa. Nice introduction, huh?











Elephants don't like me. In fact, the elephant in the background of my signature got ticked-off at having his photo taken and, after a heart-stopping trumphet, ran my butt off with a false charge, too.

JudgeG Sullivan
Give it the arrow up close in the face, However you must wait until it is real close ... About 5 feet the it is a charge
Well bwana tell me how did you feel when that elephant came charging.


PS still respects MS for what he does.

Cheers,

Andr�

Judge: I hope you don't mind, but that picture is my wallpaper. The other pic has been wallpaper too.

JudgeG - I see a recurve & some arrows in the pic? Were you bowhunting on that trip?

I wish we could get a story with that photo.I'm sure it would be a good one.Maybe someday I could have an expierence like that one,although I think I would want just a little more room between me and my quarry .

Kongoni:



I bowhunted for plains game and shot a buffalo with a .404 Jeffery. A film crew from France followed me around a good part of the trip. They wanted to show the economic impact of hunting. I've not seen the film (and my French isn't the best), but I've heard that the film was very fair and put hunting in a good light. The commentator and camera folks were amazed that I didn't shoot every animal I saw and really had to work hard for my shooting opportunities.



Elephants are something else. I hope to have one on the ground in three weeks!

Good luck JudgeG.Hope you get a "nice tusker" Even though I don't particularly like Judges or Lawyers or..

I still cannot make out where the bolt is. The swing safety is pretty obvious in the pic but I just can't make out the bolt handle

The bolt handle is laying close to the stock, like on this bavarian model rifle.
Steyr Manlicher has the same setup with their bolt handle.
I do not like it it is to slow for me.




Cheers,

Andr�

Bwanamich,

As you might have noticed above, I have been wondering about the same thing. However, I went to Dakota Arms website and looked through some of the pictures there. It looks to me like their bolthandles don't come out of the wood until pretty far down because of the boltshandles angle. Thus, with the angle of the ele picture from right behind, we can perhaps barely see were the bolt handle begins to appear. At least that's my theory!

Here's a picture of another Dakota, where you can see what I mean:



Erik D.

Its' clear now! It must be covered by the shoulder of the shooter.....Thanks, I feel better now knowing that my eyesight might not have been at fault; just my knowledge of Dakota rifles

I think you are right Erik
To much stock, strange contraption.

Cheers,

Andr�

I think the bolt is definitely turned up and the photo has been deliberately altered.

The guy wanted to take a photo aiming at an elephant and the PH got antsy so he turned the bolt up. I have a friend who had to do exactly this otherwise the PH said NO!

The proof to me is the blurred white "thing" that is strangely way out of focus to everything else around it AND the rear of the bolt is clearly at a 45 degree angle.

John,

I kind of had the impression that the "white thing" was the rim of his glasses. Also notice the line going towards his ear from the "white thing", if you get what I mean. Which I presume is the... Well, whatever the english name is for the things holding glasses on ones head that goes over the ears!!! Hmm, time to take some classes in basic English it seems!

On the otherhand, This might be a manipulation as you mentioned, trying to give the impression of glasses etc, where the turned up boldhandle was on the original photo... Which would be pretty devious.

Erik D.

ErikD's photo above shows the dakota bolt handle being half set in the stock and only visible from a "behind the bolt" angle is the last half of the handle. The "shooter" in the photo has a bolt as evidenced by the wing safety and the bolt handle is hidden by his shoulder....

Glad this is settled..