In those days Kenya was a hunter’s paradise and everything was available to make a hunting trip a successful and memorable one. I arrived in Nairobi several days before my hunt was to begin and was fitted out with appropriate clothing and sent down to Tsavo National Park to get the lay of the land and become familiar with the game we were to be hunting. Rhinos were plentiful in Tsavo and I saw any number of them.

A prerequisite for a rhino license was a five week safari, and I had booked one for that very purpose. By the time we started concentrating on rhino, I already had one elephant and a number of plains animals under my belt from the area not far from Tsavo and we went farther north to look for rhino and really large elephant.

The area we chose to hunt was located right on the equator, but on the slopes of Mount Kenya, where the altitude was around 8000 feet, which meant that the air was thin and the nights were cold. There was a super-abundance of rhino, to the point that a constant worry was that we would blunder into a cow with a calf and have to shoot to defend ourselves.

After several days of fruitless hunting for a shootable bull, we had word that a big bull was making a nuisance of himself on private property, just outside the Aberdares National Park.
The rhino had been crossing the game ditch around the park by day and chasing the cattle and herders on an adjacent ranch. The owner had already reported him to the Game Department, and he was scheduled to be eliminated, should we be unsucessful.

When we reached the ranch, we were turned over to one of the cattle herders, who could show us where the rhino was crossing the game ditch to exit the park. We left the vehicle and marched with him up the slope to the ditch, where a portion of the ditch wall had been leveled down. The trackers examined the spoor and announced that the rhino had already crossed over that day.

Our party consisted of myself, Dave Williams, professional hunter from Ker, Downey and Selby, Ltd in Nairobi, Keribai, his gunbearer, Kaoli, my gunbearer, Sabuni, the tracker, and the cattle herder. Ker, Downey and Selby were famous at the time, and provided support for many motion picture crews shooting in Kenya. For those who saw the film “The Macomber Affair”, it was interesting to note that the hunting car used in the film was marked “Robert Wilson, Box 1822, Nairobi. Box 1822, Nairobi was actually Ker, Downey’s address.

Dave was born in Kenya, of British parents, who by then had moved to South Africa with the end of colonial status for Kenya. He was an experienced white hunter, who was married to another Kenya native of British extraction, and the father of two young children. At least two of the African staff, Keribai and Sabuni, were reformed poachers. Keribai belonged to the Waliangulu tribe, which hunted elephant with bow and arrow.

Dave and I made ourselves comfortable at the game ditch, while the others set out following the spoor down hill. When they returned, the staff were most upset with the cattle herder. They had actually found the rhino, but instead of silently stealing away to fetch us, he had yelled at the rhino, who promptly took off down hill.

Nonetheless, we set out again and after about a half hour’s walk, with the gun bearers in front, suddenly a huge, white colored form rose up out of the underbrush and crashed away down hill. I had a perfect view of him broadside, but could not shoot, because the gun bearers were in the way.

We followed the trail down hill, hearing our quarry crashing through the heavy brush and thorn in front, until we finally reached a relatively clear area, where the trail disappeared. The gunbearers, tracker and white hunter spread out in front of me, looking for tracks, Kaoli on the left, Dave Williams on the right, and the other two in between. I was more or less behind Dave.

Suddenly, Dave straightened up and snapped his fingers to attract attention. Immediately there was a noise like a steam engine releasing steam behind me, and I turned to see our quarry charging downhill straight toward the noise.

I was carrying my wildcat .505, and as the rhino drew abreast of me I fired, aiming for the shoulder. The rhino immediately swapped ends and headed back in the direction from whence he had come. I fired two more shots, again aiming at the shoulder. This emptied the magazine, and I reached into my pocket for more ammunition. About that time, a black arm snaked around my waist, with a hand full of cartridges. Kaoli, instead of looking for the nearest tree, had immediately moved up behind me with the ammunition.

I loaded another round and got off a final shot, just as the rhino disappeared into the bushes. For an instant, all of us stood looking at each other. Then came the welcome moan, like the low note of a bugle, announcing the rhino’s demise.

We walked carefully uphill to another clearing, where we found him stretched out with his back to us, apparently dead. Two shots from my Krieghoff .458 double rifle established his condition without a doubt.

The horn measured 28 1/4", putting him well up in the Rowland Ward’s Records of Big Game and making me one happy hunter.

A post mortem revealed that my first shot had hit my target in the neck, visible in the photograph, because the rhino had evidently checked his charge when he spied me off to his side. The bullet had exited, without hitting the spine. The other two rounds from the first magazine had gone in precisely where aimed, on the point of the shoulder. The last shot had gone into his right ham, but had not penetrated into the body cavity.

Dave had shot twice with his .470 NE William Evans double rifle as the rhino was fleeing. One shot had keyholed into the left ham, and the other had glanced off the horn.

The rhino, despite his general reputation for stupidity and for charging anything that moves, including cars and locomotives, had circled around behind us and allowed us to pass, giving him a perfect downhill opportunity for a charge. Rhinos famously cannot charge uphill.

All in all, a very exciting flurry of activity and a wonderful trophy.

In the photo, from left to right, me, Keribai, Kaoli, the herder, with Sabuni in front.