African Rifles and Cartridges by John “Pondoro” Taylor
Written: Feb 04 '06 (Updated Feb 05 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Interesting all the way through, great drawings and photographs
Cons: More people should read this classic book
The Bottom Line: African Rifles & Cartridges depicts a bygone era, that of the professional ivory hunter and his tools. Most highly recommended.
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| George_Chabot's Full Review: John Taylor - African Rifles & Cartridges |
African Rifles and Cartridges (1948)
This classic book was written by the last of the professional ivory hunters, John H. Taylor, who spent a lifetime doing what many men would love to do once: hunting the big game of Africa.
Taylor explains that of the many species of game in the “dark continent,” four especially are deserving of the title of “big game,” the elephant, lion, rhinoceros, and Cape Buffalo. Those species, especially the elephant because of the value of the ivory, became the focus of his pursuit, although he shot many other species in his long career in the bush.
My copy is a reprint courtesy of the National Rifle Association of the original 1948 edition. Taylor’s prose style is quite colorful and keeps the reader interested the whole way through. His writing might be somewhat compared to Mark Twain’s with similar wit and humor punctuating the main thrust of the work. “Pondoro” incidentally, is a name dubbed on Taylor by the native Africans. It means “lion.” He always obliged in tracking down a man-eater when it targeted a village in the area he was working.
From the early 1920s to the outbreak of WWII Taylor plied his trade, whereupon he signed up with the King’s African Rifles and was posted to Burma. When he returned to Africa post war, he found the friend he had entrusted his hunting gear to had sold the lot and disappeared. Taylor’s loss was the reader’s gain, as this book might never had been written had he had the wherewithal to resume his hunting career.
Taylor’s era was that of the magnificent British double rifle, with examples made by many firms that no longer exist. Names like Rigby, Holland and Holland, Westley Richards, and Purdey appear frequently in the text. The double rifle was the ultimate tool for hunting dangerous game because it was two rifles in one. There was no mechanism to operate in between the two shots, simply two successive trigger pulls, exactly like a double-barreled shotgun. This simplicity was important in the thick brush where Taylor operated and visibility was often measured in mere feet.
The reason a double rifle was and is so expensive is the regulation of the barrels. A rifle is no good if it doesn’t shoot where the sights are looking and a double takes many costly hours of trial and error to get the two bullets to print at the same point of impact. This was done by highly skilled workers who had to align the barrels, solder them, shoot to see where they print, take apart, refit, shoot again, etc. When properly done, the barrels would print together for as far as you would likely be able to make a sportsmanlike shot, about 200 yards or so, according to Taylor. Usually, the ranges were much shorter in the brush where Pondoro did most of his big game hunting. There the absolute reliability of the best quality British double rifle was of paramount importance. That second shot on more than one occasion saved his life, the animal literally expiring at his feet. When we are talking about a wild animal the size of a Toyota, you can see that Pondoro's concern with reliability and knock down power is no laughing matter.
The other type of rifle used for big game was the magazine rifle, or Mauser. Taylor has little good to say about the typical bolt action rifle most are familiar with today. This seems to be because the Germans after WWI seem to have dumped quite a few Mausers in Africa. They were cheap but in caliber and configuration unsuited to the pursuit of dangerous game. Some of the best British firms did make Mauser-actioned sporters with appropriate calibers and features for big game hunting, but the typical Mauser found in Africa was a poor weapon for the work, in Taylor’s view.
So what caliber is appropriate for African hunting? Most recommended calibers are 375 (9.3mm) or above. These are calibers that can knock down an animal that can hit back, according to Taylor. He lists his “knock down values” for the various cartridges available for the job. The 375 H&H Magnum and the 450/400 Nitro Express (40 caliber) are his picks as the most adaptable calibers for all around use. The 375 Magnum is still with us today, a testament to its utility.
Taylor discusses all the calibers used in African hunting from .600 Nitro Express down to 6.5mm Mannlicher-Schoenauer (.256), with very helpful descriptions and anecdotes about each. A great feature of the book is the life-sized line drawings of each type of ammunition discussed, done in period style and often offering cutaway views and varying bullet types. There are also a few dozen photographs interspersed amid the text.
If you’ve ever dreamed of Africa and hunting of big game with panatela-sized cartridges, African Rifles and Cartridges is the book for you. Its 425 pages, chock full of information and anecotes, will keep you interested and you will revisit it again and again, as I often have.
Also highly recommended is Cartridges of the World, by Frank C. Barnes.
Thanks for reading!
Recommended:
Yes
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