John 'Pondoro' Taylor used his 455 Webley service revolver to take out a lion and hyena or two that were sneaking around camp at night. There is a chapter in his book 'African Rifles and Cartridges' on the use of handguns in Africa. He wrote that the Americans would often have a handgun on the hip when hunting whereas the English thought that was being too much of a cowboy and not the thing to be seen doing. Subsequently a few paid with their lives where a handgun would have saved them.

Taylor proposed a small semi-auto with suitable FMJ bullets as being the most suitable to carry and have to hand if a cat got you down so you could blow it's brain out while it chewed the other arm. The big heavy Webley was too heavy to tote around normally, but Taylor said any handgun was better than trying to hold off a cat by hand.