What a bunch of wimps we've all become.

As this excerpt shows, if you don't have a big bore double rifle, you can just make one out of your double barrelled shotgun.

Better enroll in Reloading 101, though, before you make any ammunition. For those who haven't read this little story, it's pretty amazing:

“I was especially anxious to bag a hippopotamus, so I made up my mind to try my luck on the banks of the Sabaki. Unfortunately, I possessed no heavy rifle, which is almost a necessity for hippo shooting, but it occurred to me to supply the deficiency by manufacturing a few cartridges for my [12 bore] smoothbore. In these I had double charges of powder and a hardened bullet made of lead mixed with about an eighth part of tin. I well remember the anxiety with which I fired the first round of my home-made ammunition. As I more than half expected that the barrel would burst, I lashed the gun in the fork of a tree, tied a piece of string a hundred feet long to the trigger, and then—taking shelter behind a friendly stump—pulled off. To my great satisfaction the barrel stood the test perfectly. More than that, on trying the penetrative effect of my bullets, I found that they would smash through a steel plate an eighth of an inch thick at thirty yards’ range. This was quite good enough for my purpose, and gave me great confidence in the weapon. All the same, I had a very narrow escape one day while manufacturing some of this ammunition. My plan was to remove the shot from the cartridge, put in the additional powder, and ram this well in before replacing the wad and putting in the bullet. I had clamped my refilling machine to my rough-hewn table, and was stamping the double charge of powder well down into the cartridge, when suddenly, for some unknown reason, the whole charge exploded right into my face. Everything became pitch dark to me, and I groped my way about the little hut in agony of mind as well as of body, for I thought I had been blinded. I am thankful to say, however, that gleams of light soon began to return to my eyes, and in a few hours’ time I was almost all right again and able to go on with my cartridge making.â€

Lt. Col. J. H. Patterson, D.S.O.
The Man-Eaters of Tsavo, 1907 (writing of events that occurred ca. 1898 in British East Africa)

He killed the hippo with this contraption too.

Wow... Here's to the old days

well, it is alive and kicking in this day as well... only it is not the hunters who load this way. Poachers use the guns they have, and if it is not a AK47, it might be a piece of iron made by grampa... I have read a documentary somewehere about this. Apparently what the locals do is to fill the cartridge to the brim with whatever gunpowder they can buy or make, and then top it with anything hard, like a screw or a metal ball from a machine... I have talked with an old hunter who use the powder that will perform OK when he fill his brass to the rim, and when he need to reload more, he just dips his shell in the gun powder and seat the bullet... Always enought stupidity to go arouond I guess

Ignorance is bliss, till it bites you in the butt!

Those where the days
Thanks for posting.

Cheers,

André

Jest call me "bliss"