Omnivorous_Bob
(.333 member)
02/05/08 01:56 PM
Re: 4-Bore Elephant

The rifle is a single shot Thomas Bland from the 1890s. A bunch of details on the gun are in an old post: 4-bore

The hunt was in the Matetsi River area of Zim south of Victoria Falls with Gary Hopkins (ghopkins@mweb.co.zw). I shot the bull about 10pm in the moon light. It was much farther than I'd planned to shoot, but we were in position when some locals spooked them and they were leaving in a hurry. It was dark enough that I couldn't see the sights against him, but lined them up below and raised the gun and shot. Fortunately it fits very well and has a large flat rib filed on the barrel and I did most of my practicing at either 50 or 60 yds. We hit him again in the hip as they departed, then tracked him the next day. I carried two pure lead bullets in case I saw a must have zebra or kudu while carrying the 4, but didn't use them. A VERY fun hunt!

I didn't have any trouble with transporting the rifle or ammo, but was very worried about losing the ammo in the states after hearing some horror stories. I carried copies of every airline and government regulation I could think of and referenced them on the ammo boxes, along with a conspicuous note to the TSA asking them to PLEASE page me if they had any questions. I put offical looking labels on my ammo boxes and shrink wrapped them also, but they still cut each of them open. I don't know if that helped, but it made it there.

I'm still smiling

Bob



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