M Grandveneur-
I must respectfully defend the arguement in my post- I agree there were a good number of published papers and books at that time but availablity was nowhere near as widespread as today. Likewise, although its easy to assume people in the past were less educated, it was actually a lack of widespread knowledge. I refer to numerous papers and sketch books I own and have observed in my studies (MA- African Studies), even in many of the engravings of the day-the African animals are well executed but out of proportion due to the artists never observing the actual animal and drawing conclusions based off of, in many cases, domestic animals (house cats for lion, milk cows for buffalo, etc).
When the Euros divided up Africa in 1898, exploration was still ongoing. When we look at how rifles developed in different areas (US, UK, FR, GE, BN) during this period, and then their use in Africa, we find that a lot of the development occured due to general thoughts of the time/ place/culture. Fewer big bores coming out of France for example due to smaller and fewer elephant and buffalo in West Africa. Magazine rifles in GE East Africa and GE SW Africa due to game quantity and more importantly the reputation (and pride) of the mighty Mauser (and Mannlicher?). Bigger and bigger bore double rifles based off of the familiar and trusted British SxS shotgun in East Africa with tales of its massive beasts. I would venture that after WWI and Germany's loss of its piece of the African pie, that information going back to the German gunmakers suffered. Thus, we read of the lack of quality bullets from the German ammo makers (no problem with the cartridge designs as we now know!) during that time.
Although, I don't know that the Mauser Brothers had the thoughts written in my prior post, I think they may not be far off! But, I gotta say, I too would love to know for sure what Old Pete and Paul were thinking when they designed the African Model!!!
A10ACN