W.D.M. Bell and His Elephants

[Timnorris]

http://www.chuckhawks.com/bell_elephants.htm

By James Passmore

Walter D.M. Bell has become a legend among elephant hunters due to his great success in the ivory trade during the golden age of hunting in East Africa. He is known as “Karamojo” Bell because of his safaris through this remote wilderness area in North Eastern Uganda. He is famous for perfecting the brain shot on elephants, dissecting their skulls and making a careful study of the anatomy of the skull so he could predict paths of bullet travel from a shot at any angle in order to reach the brain. Using mostly 6.5mm and 7mm caliber rifles, he was an advocate of shot placement over big bore power for killing efficiently.

Modern writers on the internet and in magazine articles have tended to refer to him and his tally of elephants in this vein, “He shot most of his 1000 elephants with a 7x57mm rifle” or words to that effect. In fact, Walter Bell killed 1011 elephants with a 7x57 in the course of his career. Since most people refer to him for his small caliber prowess and his elephant tally I thought I would try and break it down, because there are a great number of people quoting what “Karamojo Bell” did or didn’t do and I have noted a common tendency in the last few years to play down what he did with small caliber rifles. Perhaps this is in direct relation to the resurgence in popularity of magnums and the larger safari rifles. Craig Boddington is quite apt to mention the "few hundred elephants" that Bell took. (Mr. Boddington, I believe, is an erstwhile heavy rifle enthusiast.)

Bell recorded all of his kills and shots fired. It was a business to him, not pleasure, and he needed to record expenditures.

He shot exactly 1,011 elephants with a series of six Rigby-made 7x57mm (.275 Rigby) rifles with 173 grain military ammo.
He shot 300 elephants with a Mannlicher-Schoenauer 6.5x54mm carbine using the long 159 grain FMJ bullets.
He shot 200 odd with the .303 and the 215 grain army bullet.
He went to a .318 Westley Richards for a while, which is a cartridge firing a 250 grain bullet at about 2400 fps, but found the ammunition unreliable and returned to the 7mm.
He also recorded that one of the reasons why he favored the 7x57 was that the ammunition was more reliable and he could not recall ever having a fault with it. Whereas British sporting ammunition, apart from the .303 military ammo, gave him endless trouble with splitting cases.
The balance of his elephants were shot with this .318 and his .450/400 Jeffrey double rifle.
He wrote about being able to drop an elephant with a light caliber rifle if he shot it in the same place that he would have shot it with a heavy rifle.
It was unmentioned, but understood, that 7x57 ammunition cost a tenth the price of large caliber .450/400 Jeffrey cartridges and money is always a factor in business.
Just out of interest, I will mention that to judge ammunition expenditure and his own shooting, he calculated an average. He discovered that with the .275 (7x57mm) he fired an average of 1.5 shots per kill. This means that half the time he only needed one shot. That is a fair performance for such a large number of elephants killed and considering that it is common today to fire an insurance shot, anyway.

It is also interesting to note that, although Bell is the most famous proponent of using small caliber "nitro" rifles for large game, he did not discover the technique, nor was he its earliest advocate. Well known hunter Arthur Neumann, for example, had been shooting elephants with a .303 Lee Metford rifle for years before Walter Bell got into the business.

WDM Bell is forever associated with the John Rigby & Sons Mauser rifle and the .275 Rigby cartridge. ".275 Rigby" was the British designation for the German 7x57mm Mauser cartridge. This cartridge propelled a .284 caliber, 173 grain bullet at around 2300 fps and the bullets he used for elephant brain shots were full metal jacketed solids. He declared once that a soft point bullet had never sullied the bore of his rifle. It is interesting to compare these ballistics with what is commonly regarded as essential performance today.

As a further example of marksmanship (if brain shooting a great many elephants isn’t enough), Bell used up the remainder of his unwanted .318 ammunition by shooting flying birds over an African lake. Spectators believed that he was using a shotgun and were amazed to find that he was actually using a rifle.

[Vikram]

Thanks for posting this excellent article. Please also post the link of to the source in your posts so that we will not be in copyright violation.

He was an amazing character.I read that a few who tried to repeat him with a small calibre rifle on elephants and other dangerous game lost lives.

Check the following pictures.

His famous .275 (7X57 Mauser) Rigby





Gail Selby,daughter of another great PH Harry Selby, with the same rifle and an elephant shot with it.


His .303 Lee Speed


His .318 Westley Richards' Accelerated Express double rifle made by Thomas Bland






A photograph taken by Bell himself


(All pictures taken from http://www.accuratereloading.com)

Enjoy.

Best-
Vikram

[Timnorris]

Vikram below is the link

http://www.chuckhawks.com/bell_elephants.htm

great pictures............I think B

-- Thu Sep 03, 2009 7:46 --

Vikram below is the link

www.chuckhawks.com/bell_elephants.htm

great pictures............shot placement is vital and if a hunter has the skill he would just need a single rifle for hunting........... from a deer to an elephant ...............those days most cartridges used black powder or cordite as propellent these produced less velocity and energy and that too in a small caliber like .303..................thats called real hunting skill

[eljefe]

A lesser known fact is; Bell used up a considerable amount of shoes running through the bush on his elephant shooting business.Some anecdotal records attribute him doing over 4000km a year on foot!

[sudhaiob]

Hello there
just a prelude. Do read Elephant Gold by P.D.Stracey and the frustrations he had to find the perfect head shot. a must read book.
Regs
sudhaiob

[Timnorris]

I think the problem in getting the right head shot is that the elephant is constantly moving its head...................so the shot placement and the timing of the shot has to be right................I have heard that even .22lr cart have killed elephants but have not found a single article saying so.............I dont think the .22lr would carry enough power after penetrating the thick skin of an elephant anyway thats another topic.............

[lazybones]

To get an idea of Bell's shot placement skills, with elephants; someone once likened it to shooting at a Volkswagon Beetle and hitting the carburetor. ( It might have been Jeff Cooper who said that).

Ashok

[sudhaiob]

Hello everybody,
while still on the subject of elephant hunting of yore, do read Eight years wandering in Ceylon by James White Baker. Makes interesting reading. Available as free download in books.google.com
Regs
Sudhaiob

[coltpython]

Hi,
If you guys want to read about real interesting elephant hunt, do read Wilbur Smith, especially the Courtney series of books.
Regards