Great posts. I love hearing about WDM Bell and his exploits. I should get around to reading his book or books one day soon.
Bell sparks my imagination not for all the elephants he killed but for the no-nonsense approach he had to hunting in particular. He hunted for money, and to support his money-making safari, feeding the dozens of helpers that went with him. This approach provided for actual minimums, rather than political ones. If a 275 brought down elephants, then it was used.
People claim that he had vastly different shooting compared to today's hunting, and I agree with this, but I've read scores of modern elephant guides who prefer the brain shot and big-bores, so they get really close. Bell could have done this too, but chose other means, which worked equally well, given his economic approach.
Thus the real minimum for various hunting ends up being far different from the political minimum, or the ever-shifting ethical minimum. I've seen this far and wide with western big game hunting as well. There are endless cartridge discussions that take place because of the political and ethical minimums, rather than the actual minimums.
