As every one asked me upon my return home if I had used explosive bullets, I will express my opinion about them once and for all. Whether they be “Devismes” or “Pertuiset” or “Jacob Shells,” I find them full of inconveniences. Either the explosive bullet is a breakable projectile charged with some explosive substance,—picrate of potash, gun-cotton, fulminating mercury, powder, etc.,—in which case one is obliged at the last moment to place a percussioncap on a nipple, exactly as in the case of a capgun; or it is a bullet charged with a detonator which is protected by a cap when not in actual use. Five times out of ten it does not explode, doubtless because, in your emotion caused by the presence of danger, you have forgotten to take of the protector; or else, if it bursts, it does so on a level with the skin, almost outside in the case of thick-skinned animals, and it no longer has the necessary penetrativc force ; while in the case of animals with tender skins it does damage which, as one can attain the desired result with ordinary bullets, is useless. And then you expose yourself to the danger of letting these projectiles fall, or of forgetting them in a cartridge case, with the result that you and your men run a. risk every moment. In short, the explosive bullet, which I doubt if anybody has ever used with success, may be classed nowadays in museums of balistics, side by side with mortar-pieces and flint-locks. Possessing modern arms and projectiles they are no longer necessary, and are always dangerous.

Have you read Foa's "After Big Game in Central Africa"?

Absolutely fascinating.

That quote may be in it, just been a long time since I've read it.

I read it a long time ago, and reading it again now.

Stranded at home in Sweden in pouring rain, so my iPad with the Kindle app comes in handy.

Just finished a book about Russians going seal hunting north and getting stranded on an ice flow for two years!

I thought an African book by do nicely after that!

Greener briefly goes over the various types of explosive shells mentioned here in The Gun and Its Development starting on p667.

Forsyth goes into great detail in a chapter called "Shell Rifles" covering their many problems as mentioned above before extolling his shell as the solution in his 1867 The Sporting Rifle and its Projectiles. He used (and issued) a 577 caliber version to infantry in Afghanistan and claimed the Afghans complained, as their main source of lead (to shoot back at the British) was scouring the scene of battles for spent bullets and the explosive ones fragmented too much!

Ross Seyfried wrote a few articles in the 90s about trying 4 and 8 bore shells on water buffalo with impressive results when it all worked.

Interesting stuff to read about for sure, and both books are available as PDFs online. They may have "worked" in 1867 as compared to what else was available then but the conclusion I got from several books was that smaller bore jacketed high velocity bullets of the 1890s produced much better wounds, more reliably, with none of the very significant downsides.

Bob

Foa also advices against telescopic sights.

Sounds like my father.

They were in the desert with his friends.

They had empty liter oil cans setup quite far as targets on the sand dunes.

They had a variety of rifles, like 243 Winchester, 6.5 x 55, 7x57, 7mm Remington Magnum.

All with open sights.

He always frowned on telescopes.

When they stopped to have a break, I went and put small condensed milk cans where their liter cans were.

They laughed, as they couldn’t see them well.

I had a 220 Swift with variable scope to 20X.

The laughing stopped as I was picking these small cans off!

After that they all asked for scopes to be put on their rifles.

During these few days on the banks of the river my companions often amused themselves by shooting at crocodiles, several of which they killed. One morning when we were at lunch, one of these reptiles, measuring a good length, which had been killed the moment before, was dragged ashore, and they came to tell us that a man was in its stomach.

Upon verification it was found that its intestines contained at least part of a human body. An arm with the hand attached, a foot with the ankle, and a few ribs were withdrawn—each part being clean cut from the body and hardly damaged, though the flesh was swollen and the skin was discoloured under the action of gastric juices shielded from the light. I ordered these remains to be buried, but nobody would touch them: so I had everything—crocodile and contents— thrown back into the river.

The human remains floated, and the sailors of a gun-boat which arrived below stream reported to their officer that they had seen the arm of a white man descending the current of the river. This news caused great agitation in the district. On the following day another crocodile, containing the head and the shoulders of the man, a part of whose body we had found on the previous day, was killed.

This discovery caused me in future to open the crocodiles which I shot, a thing I had never thought of doing before; and thus I found several times rather strange things, including half a goat-skin rolled into a ball, and a red loin-cloth. At Lake Nyassa, two years later, there was taken from the stomach of a gigantic crocodile over six yards long, an assortment of twenty-four copper bracelets and a large ball of frizzy hair.

At half-past four o’clock in the morning I hear cries, a clamour of voices, which come from the village where the people were dancing. At the moment I rush outside, gun in hand, followed by my men ; a woman in tears throws herself at my feet, wringing her hands and crying that the lion has taken her son. In the obscurity, through which flashes the light of the straw torches carried to and fro by the natives, we run to the village.

Upon making inquiries we find that the lion carried off the poor boy at the very moment when, half-opening the door of a hut, he was passing outside the upper part of his body to get some firewood which had remained on the threshold. Natives are all the same: an accident to one of them is never a lesson to the others. How many times have I not seen blacks bathing at the very spot where a comrade had been carried off by a crocodile a few days before! It will be understood that after the cries uttered by the villagers the lion had not remained in their midst; besides, it is impossible to find any track by the light of the torches. There is nothing to do but to wait. We sit down with the natives near a large fire, deafened by the cries and lamentations of the women. Daylight is not long in appearing.

I ask the natives not to come in any number ; ten men only will accompany me, keeping the most profound silence. As soon as it is light enough to follow a track, we go near the hut where the child was carried off. The trampling of people’s feet have eifaeed all marks; but, on the little verandah which sur~ rounds the hut, one can see the impression of the claws of one of the feet of the animal, and in an instant we find the track behind the hut, which proves that he passed round it. By the side of the track are marks left by one of the feet of the child, whom he must have seized by the top of the body. The animal followed one of the village streets leading to the river, passing with his load before more than twenty huts, the people in which must only have been awakened by cries after his passage.

We thus reach the edge of the stream where the animal stopped, depositing his victim by his side as indicated by a little pool of blood; then he crossed the river, which contains a foot of water, descending the stream for four or five yards, and entered the reeds which border it. Before following him I send Tambarika to see if there are any traces of his exit at the far edge of that thick undergrowth. A well-known whistle tells us that there are: so we take the footpath, to arrive more quickly. After passing through some grass, where a fresh red pool indicates another stoppage, we enter a little plain, still on the track of the nocturnal malefactor; a wood comes after that, and in it we find clots of blood and the belt of pearls which the little fellow wore round his loins, then his loincloth torn off by a bush.

A large pool of blood shows the spot where the animal began to tear its victim to pieces; but that was already more than an hour ago. At last, at the opposite edge of the wood, we enter the tall grass, when a growl makes us stop dead. We all listen. The enemy is there I Is he going to charge? . . . Nothing more is heard . . . I cock my rifle carefully, carefully, keeping within arm’s reach my six charges of buckshot. I consider whether everything is ready; and I enter the grass my finger on the trigger, eyes directed well in front, ears on the stretch, without making the slightest noise with my feet. . . . we hear a rustling in the grass ten yards ahead; we see the tops move, but nothing more. We continue to advance slowly._ Ah! there is a tree to my right! A sign to Kambombe, who climbs like a. monkey, and in a trice he is at the fork on the look-out. . . . “ There is the child,” he says in a. stifled voice, “ but no lion. . . .”

Then, turning his head to the right: “There he is! . . . quick, this way!” And, guided by his gesture, I run to my right; then, a thought striking me, I beckon to the villagers who follow us to approach, and with a movement of my arm tell them to wind round the grass to the left. I send Rodzani to ask them to make a noise so as to drive the lion towards me. I myself take up a position in a glade, standing motionless, all my faculties brought to bear on that square of brush which I count upon seeing the lion leave. Kambombe gives me information in a low voice from his tree: “ He’s ofl' . . . no, he comes this way. . . . He stops and looks in the direction of the men. . . . He raises his mane. . . . Ah! he comes in your direction . . . at walking pace. . . . He is going to pass the ant-hill . . . Ah! if you were here! . . . How well I see him. . . . He looks behind him. . . . There he is! there he is! . . . Get back a little; get back ! " One can understand with what anxiety I hear these words. Following his advice I retire two steps. My men are behind me with their weapons ready. “Only fire in case of necessity," I tell them. . . "' Don’t hurry yourself,” murmurs Tambarika. The rustling grass bends forward, then opens on either side, and the lion walks out eight yards away from me, looking behind him, engrossed by the noise of the voices.

Upon turning his head he sees me standing motionless, shows his teeth and snarls without deviating from his path. At the same time his tail rises, he flattens his ears, and I see he is going to charge at the very moment when, having followed him with my rifle and aiming at the nape of his neck, I pull the trigger. . . . His four feet give way under him, and he falls stone-dead without a movement. I had counted upon the precision of my 303. It was with a hollow bullet that I had made this magnificent shot. I have often used it since with the same success. The animal must be hit at the point where the neck finishes and the skull begins, well in the middle of the thickest part of the neck, and it will fall dead. When one fires as near as under the circumstances above related, it must be remembered that all these rifles shoot high, and the Metford higher than any other; one must aim, therefore, well below the point one wishes to hit. Beyond 120 yards the bullet no longer rises.

Our leopard, then, emboldened by hunger and much less distrustful than his big brothers, returned in the evening and sprang on to a tree so as to get a better view of us. Only, he made the mistake of doing this straight in front of me, and as I had my Winchester within arm’s reach, he received immediately, at a distance of six yards, a charge of buckshot.

He fell like a lump of lead outside the camp, exactly against the fence. We heard him groan once or twice; then there was not a sound. The next day we were unable to find either the leopard or his tracks : only a pool of blood, and there is no doubt to my mind that the lions carried him off and devoured him.

We followed their tracks for a time to clear our minds on the point, but following lions' tracks in the tall grass at that time of the year is like following the path of a bird through the air.

Take an elephant’s foot, preferably young and very fresh ; remove the white flesh which covers the bone, and cut it into strips the thickness of your finger, reminding one of sticks of pate de guimazwe. Place these appetising strips in the sun for two days to dry, and collect the pure fat which exudes from them in the form of clear oil.

To make the dish known as mwendo wa nzou, take one of these strips, cut it into small pieces, put it into a saucepan containing a little water, place it on a gentle fire, and renew the water several times. When a jelly has formed add to it the oil in which you have browned a few onions, a little thyme, etc., or an equivalent aromatic plant, one or two very strong chillies, and let it cook gently for twenty hours, still adding water when necessary. Serve hot—with manioc flour or grated biscuit separately.

Sir Samuel Baker White:
"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."

If anyone requires a soft copy of the book, pls pm me with your email address

Can someone help?

A dram is 27,344 grains!

So 6.5 drams is 177,736 grains??

How do you fit this into a 577 case??

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
Can someone help?

A dram is 27,344 grains!

So 6.5 drams is 177,736 grains??

How do you fit this into a 577 case??

A dram is 27 grains rounded off.
Where drams is used it is for black powder and 6.5 drams would be 178 grains of BP.
BP is usually heavily compressed, apparently some old timers used hammers to pack it in.
The original BPE load for the 3" 577 BPE shell was 167 grains of No.6 so it would be conceivable to pack in 164 to 178 grains of BP (6.0 - 6.5 drams).

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Ahrenberg:
Have you read Foa's "After Big Game in Central Africa"?

Absolutely fascinating.

That quote may be in it, just been a long time since I've read it.

Easily one of the top 20 books on African hunting before WWII.
Read it!

I read Foa's book many years ago and remember that I greatly enjoyed it.

Saeed, you have prompted me to pull it off the shelf and read it again, which I will do shortly.

IIRC, Foa used the 8mm Lebel, as well as the .303.

He was one of the first to take advantage of the high velocities achievable through the use of smokeless powders and the small bores they made so deadly.

quote:

Originally posted by Michael Robinson:
I read Foa's book many years ago and remember that I greatly enjoyed it.

Saeed, you have prompted me to pull it off the shelf and read it again, which I will do shortly.

IIRC, Foa used the 8mm Lebel, as well as the .303.

He was one of the first to take advantage of the high velocities achievable through the use of smokeless powders and the small bores they made so deadly.

And he specifically said they are not good enough for eland!

Too big!

Foa was a gentleman and a scholar.

He reported his adventures with full credit, and references by name (when that was uncommon for Europeans), to the many African gun-bearers and trackers who made his adventures possible.

His last words in the book (as brilliantly translated from the French by Frederick Lees):

The . . . episodes I have just narrated conclude these records of a sportsman. May the reader have felt in perusing them a pleasure, akin to that which I experienced when gun in hand.

Later, when my forces have diminished, when I have given up travelling, and have definitely placed my rifle in the gun-rack, I shall be able at my fire-side, my heart full of regret, to turn over the pages of these souvenirs, and, looking through these impressions, photographs, and trophies, live once more the life of the chase. Like an old soldier who recollects his battles, more than once shall I, in thought, find myself face-to-face with the big game of Africa, and begin again, in company with my brave black companions, combats of former times.

Thanks, Saeed, for putting my mind back into M. Foa’s adventures and souvenirs.

Highly recommended.

My 1900 vintage Lyon & Lyon .577 3" BPE is regulated for 167 grains blackpowder and 650 grain bullet..

This was the heaviest load for this cartridge I think..