Over the past few days I read the book "Jagkonings" ('Hunting Kings' directly translated from the Afrikaans) written by J von Moltke.

It is all about South African Boer hunters' hunting adventures in the Kaokoveld in the current Namibia (South of the Kuneneriver) and the southern parts of Angola (North of the Kuneneriver) during the late 1800's and very early 1900's.
There hunting expeditions had only ox wagons as transport and then of course well trained hunting horses that each hunter used to go out with after Elephants - with the sole objective to collect as much as possible ivory. The odd Rhino (black and white) sometimes, as well as quite large numbers of Hippo were also taken by them.
They (group of 6 - 9 hunters) shot on average 130 to 160 Elephants on such a trip that could took as long as six to eight months at a time.

Black powder muzzle loaders (eight and twelve pounders - what that may mean) were used by them in the 1800's and the old Martini Henry in the early 1900's.

It is mentioned in the book that a good hunter could reload his muzzle loader rifle, while he was chasing the Elephant herd on horse back after the first shots were fired, so that he could get a second shot at a second Elephant, which they killed successfully on a regular basis.

My question:
Is it possible to reload a muzzle loader while chasing a herd of Elephant on horse back?

They may have used premeasured flasks to carry powder daily ( just a guess )and hooking the stock in the stirup is possible....

Mike

quote:

(eight and twelve pounders - what that may mean)

actually the correct term was 8 or 12 TO THE POUND, meaning 8 or 12 gauge or bore guns.

i had the same question once and was told they made preshots. prepared loads beforehand and just had to ram em in the barrel and fire away. how this was done however i dont know

I have chased a herd of about 40 elephants at a slow canter while on horseback. It was May 2003 at Limpopo Valley Horse Safaris in the Tuli area of Botswana. First off, you can't get behind the herd because the dust will blind you nor on their downwind side as you will have the same problem. We only chased this herd for a quarter mile, but I can tell you that the elephants tired quickly. An experienced horseman on a good horse moving at a rocking horse canter could keep up with a fast moving herd and would in my opinion be able to reload a muzzle loader. In good terrain they probably could have chased and shot at elephants for a considerable distance.


You can borrow money, but you can't borrow time. Go now.

Remember that the Kaokoveld in Namibia is much more open, so it will be easier there.

Either way it would have been quite a life.

"Honey, I'm off to work !"
"When will you be back?"
"As soon as the oxwagon is full of ivory, about 6 - 8 months."

ndlovu wrote:

quote:

..... was told they made preshots. prepared loads beforehand and just had to ram em in the barrel and fire away.

A short desription was given in the book explaining how they did this 'on-the-run' muzzle reloading:
The hunter hooked his left arm through the reins so that he could still control the horse, held the rifle by the barrel in the left hand down low on the right hand side of the horse, with the free right hand then poured the measured amount of powder out of a special powder pouch (Afrikaans: kruitbus), inserted the slug (bullet) and all else required which were also carried in a different pouch on the hunter's chest, pulled the ramrod, inserted into barrel, compacted it all, removed ramrod, add primer or whatever it was called and he was ready to fire.

All this only took a few seconds according to the book and the most difficult part was to replace the ramrod back into position on the side of the saddle according to these hunters!

This process was also used in Angola where it was in very thick, thorny bushveld and here they had to put on tarpaulin protected pants and gloves to prevent themselves from being torned to pieces by the thorn bushes.

Would you do that? For 2 to 3s (Sterling shillings) a pound of ivory collected?

This was done by cavelry soldiers all through history. The loads are prepared in advance, by packing the powder in a waxed paper cartridge, sort of like a small paper bag that is afixed to the base of the lubed bullet, with string tied around the base of the bullet. These paper cartridges are kept in a large leather cartridge box on the belt.

The bottom of the bag is ripped open by the shooter's teeth, at the bottom, powder dumped down the barrel, and the waxed bag acts as an over powder wad, and pushed down the barrel under the bullet with the ram-rod. The percussion cap is installed on the nipple from a cap despencer, that is afixed to a lanyard around the neck, or on the strap of the POSSIBLES BAG, that goes along with muzzleloading.

I have examples of these paper cartridges, but have no way to display them here! Mybe some here can post pictures of these paper cartridges!